NUI Galway-linked businesses to have secured backing last year include kidney reflux test spinout Kite Medical and medical implant developer Loci Orthopaedics.

Businesses associated with National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway managed to generate a total of €35m ($40m) of equity and grant funding during 2018, Engineers Journal has reported. Spinouts that secured equity funding last year included paediatric kidney reflux test developer Kite Medical, which obtained $1.9m of seed capital in April 2018 from enterprise support agency Enterprise Ireland and unnamed additional investors. Based on a partnership between NUI Galway and KU Leuven, thumb joint implant manufacturer Loci Orthopaedics received $3.2m of seed funding in July 2018 from KU Leuven’s seed capital vehicle Gemma Frisius Fund and regional economic development board Western Development Commission, as well as Enterprise Ireland and assorted angel investors. NUI Galway’s announcement came as five of its affiliated business secured $18.3m through its involvement in the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF), a $572m Irish government initiative aimed at supporting local industries including manufacturing health, food and ICT. Rhinitis treatment spinout Neurent Medical, which raised $10.9m of series A capital in June 2018, was selected for DTIF support together with medical device spinout AuriGen Medical, oncological therapy developer Onkimmune, arrhythmia treatment company Atrian Medical and colorectal implant maker Signum Surgical. NUI Galway established more than 60 project agreements with industry in 2018, working with SMEs and multinational corporates in fields such as advanced healthcare diagnostics and devices, additive manufacturing, food nutrition, energy efficiency and internet-of-things technologies. The university currently has 36 businesses based at its Business Innovation Centre incubator which together provide 173 jobs, a year-on-year increase of approximately 20%. NUI Galway also doubled down on its innovation support programs during 2018, engaging more than 2,200 staff and students through its experiential entrepreneurship learning and mentoring schemes. Support programs available through the university include Explore, which fostered 15 innovation collaborations between NUI Galway staff and students last year. Elsewhere, NUI Galway administered the first edition of the BioExel MedTech Accelerator, an Ireland-wide startup scheme funded by the Galway University Foundation, Enterprise Ireland, Western Development Commission and banking firm Bank of Ireland’s Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund.

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