Campus biotech firm lands €650k VC investment


24 May 2004

A biotech firm based at the NovaUCD technology transfer centre has raised €650,000 in venture capital funding. Celtic Catalysts is commercialising a technology that reduces side effects from pharmaceutical drugs.

The €650,000 was invested in Celtic Catalysts by Ray Naughton’s 4th Level Ventures and Enterprise Ireland.

Celtic Catalysts, which was established by Dr Brian Kelly and Dr Declan Gilheany, is engaged in commercialising chiral technology, which has been developed over the last five years at UCD’s Department of Chemistry.

The money raised will allow the company to take further steps in bringing the technology to market and be a leading global supplier of chiral catalysts for industrial use.

4th Level Ventures, founded by former Siemens Nixdorf Ireland boss Ray Naughton, is a €20m venture capital fund managed by Dolmen Securities and is exclusively dedicated to supporting high potential start-up and early-stage companies that are born of research carried out in Irish third level institutions.

By John Kennedy