UCD med-tech firm LaNua Medical raises €6m seed round for ‘transformative device’
Irish university spin-out LaNua Medical has raised €6m in seed funding to develop a new technology that aims to make it easy, safe and cheaper for doctors to treat internal bleeding, vascular malformations and many benign and malignant tumours.
LaNua was founded earlier this year by interventional radiologist Dr Cormac Farrelly, Tom Fitzmaurice (ex-Medtronic VP) and UCD biomedical engineers Dr Eoin O’Cearbhaill and Dr Sajjad Amiri. Its new Ecore device aims to help improve patient outcomes, lower hospital costs, minimise duration of hospital stays, and reduce stress and procedure times for practitioners.
The business is a campus start-up spun-out from University College Dublin (UCD) and the funding round was co-led by Elkstone and Atlantic Bridge, with participation from Enterprise Ireland and Furthr VC.
The funding will be used to accelerate product development and market access.
The Irish medical technology firm’s Ecore device will help to modernise embolisation procedures – a technique used by surgeons and radiologists to control the flow of blood in certain areas of the body. The new product is designed to enhance safe and targeted delivery of tools used to block blood flow. The umbrella-shaped device will enter blood vessels deep within the body and form an occlusive barrier.
LaNua says a major step for embolisation procedures will be allowing doctors to restrict blood flow in a targeted segment of veins or arteries while still allowing ancillary medical tools (guidewires and catheters) to pass through it.
CEO and co-founder of LaNua Medical, Mr Fitzmaurice, said the €6m seed round also brings sophisticated and experienced medical technology investors in Ireland and the US into the business.
“It will enable our team to hire additional skilled resources, develop a range of devices to meet the growing demands of embolisation in the interventional radiology medical community and gain entry into our first market in the United States,” he said.
LaNua co-founder Dr Farrelly, a consultant interventional radiologist, said that having performed thousands of embolisation procedures, he believes the Ecore device is transformative.
“It will not just make existing procedures safer and more effective, but will also enable new clinical applications for minimally invasive embolisation procedures worldwide,” he said.
Elkstone’s head of venture Niall McEvoy said the firm was an early investor in Irish health ventures LetsGetChecked, Luminate Medical and CroíValve and believes Irish health start-ups can revolutionise patient care on a global scale.
“LaNua, led by an experienced founder team, has the potential to become another great success story, and we look forward to supporting the company on that journey,” he said.
Enterprise Ireland’s Damien McCarney said the state investor had partnered with LaNua Medical during rapid growth through research commercialisation, our flagship High Potential Start-up Programme and in international markets.
Reporting on:independent.ie