An early-stage Medtech start-up focused on transforming obesity
care has won the 2022 University College Dublin Start-Up of the Year Award.
MetHealth received the award, and its €30,000 prize fund, after being declared the overall winner of the 2022 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme – which aims to equip its participants with the knowledge and skills required to work as part of a team leading a new commercial venture.
The annual programme, which is run by NovaUCD, aims to support the creation and launch of sustainable and profitable new start-ups emerging from University College Dublin.
As winners of 'Start-Up of the Year' MetHealth will receive a prize package worth €30,000, which includes a €10,000 cash prize sponsored by AMD, a professional service package sponsored by Deloitte and Bryan Maguire Financial Services, and incubation space at NovaUCD.
The company is developing a biomarker-based risk-stratification platform and associated digital health solution that can identify patients with complications of obesity, including liver disease.
Members of the MetHealth included Dr Fiona McGillicuddy, who took part in the VentureLaunch programme, and Professor Stephen Pennington, UCD School of Medicine and UCD Conway Institute; Associate Professor Catherine Mooney, UCD School of Computer Science and UCD Conway Institute, Dr Rachel Byrne, UCD School of Medicine, Dr Anna Antoniadi, UCD School of Computer Science and Aleksandra Dudzik, UCD School of Medicine.
“The global prevalence of obesity is increasing significantly. In the EU alone some 1.2 million people are dying annually due to obesity complications, including from liver disease,” said Dr Fiona McGillicuddy.
“Early identification of those patients with liver inflammation is key but this currently involves painful invasive tests. We are developing a novel biomarker-based platform technology which can, using a blood sample, stratify patients with obesity who are at high risk of complications of obesity including liver disease."
“This non-invasive test eliminates pain for the patient, is significantly more cost effective than an invasive test, can lead to early interventions for high-risk patients and can aid clinical trial recruitment for new drugs targeting the liver.”
She added: “On behalf of the MetHealth team I am delighted to win the 2022 UCD Start-Up of the Year Award following the completion of the VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme at NovaUCD."
“We currently plan to spin-out of UCD at the end of 2023 when we will be seeking to raise €2 million in seed funding to set up the MetHealth laboratory and develop a market ready prototype.”
The UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme consists of eight workshops delivered over a two-month period from October to November at NovaUCD.
The Business Model Canvas approach to start-up development forms the basis of the programme with each session consisting of a mix of taught content and interactive workshops delivered by external experts as well as involving talks from entrepreneurs.
Participants also gain expert mentoring on marketing, finance and funding, sales and pitching to investors.
Its 2022 evaluation panel, which selected the overall winner following pitches by this year’s finalists, was chaired by Dr Helen McBreen, Atlantic Bridge. The other members of the panel were; William Byrne, Illumina Ventures; Brendan Farley, AMD, Samira Kaissi, Lightstone Ventures and Alan O’Connell, Seroba.
"I would like to congratulate MetHealth, which is focused on transforming obesity care, on winning this year’s VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme. NovaUCD looks forward to working with the MetHealth team to support them to meet their global ambitions,” said Tom Flanagan, UCD Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation.
“This year’s VentureLaunch final took place as part of the NovaUCD Investor Day event during which some 27 UCD spin-in and spin-out companies pitched to members of the VC and private investor community. Between them these companies are currently seeking to raise over €100 million in funding to support them to grow and scale which is an indication of the quality and ambition of NovaUCD client companies.”
The other participants on this year’s programme in addition to MetHealth were Cymantic Medical, Infraprint, Kapitly and LaNua.
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation)