Galway’s Atlantic Therapeutics raises €2m from WDC

16 Feb 2021

Anthony Cheung, VP of finance at Atlantic Therapeutics, and Gillian Buckley, investment manager at WDC. Image: Andrew Downes/Xposure

The funding for the Galway medtech firm will be used to further its commercial operations in the UK and US.

Atlantic Therapeutics, the Galway-based medtech company, has secured €2m in funding from the Western Development Commission (WDC) as it expands into more markets.

This is the single largest investment that the WDC, which invests in start-ups and SMEs in the west of the country, has made to date. The funding is complemented by an undisclosed investment from returning investors Seroba Life Sciences, Earlybird, LSP, Andera Partners and Atlantic Bridge.

Atlantic Therapeutics develops a wearable neuromuscular electrical stimulation device, called Innovo, to treat urinary incontinence. The condition, it said, affects one in three women.

The funding will support the company’s route to commercialising the treatment in the US and UK markets. Last year it received approval in the US from the Food and Drug Administration for its device.

Atlantic Therapeutics chief executive Susan Trent said that with the WDC’s investment it is committed building its business from the west of Ireland.

“We are extremely proud to be bringing the first-in-world Innovo technology to several key global markets from our base in Galway, one of the leading medical device hubs in the world,” she said.

“We firmly believe that Innovo represents a paradigm shift in the $13bn urinary incontinence market when compared to the current sub-optimal choices.”

Atlantic Therapeutics has previously raised more than €40m from investors including Seroba Life Sciences, Earlybird and Atlantic Bridge.

WDC’s investment comes from its €75m evergreen fund that usually invests in seed rounds or provides loans to SMEs and micro-enterprises. It has invested in more than 200 enterprises to date.

“Atlantic Therapeutics is our 35th life science investment, making the WDC Investment Fund one of the largest medtech/life science investors in the country,” Gillian Buckley, investment manager at WDC, said. “The WDC is an impact investor so we seek not only a financial return on investment but also seek a socio-economic impact.”

Tomás Ó Síocháin, chief executive of the WDC, added that the investment “continues to underline the strength of Galway as a global medtech hub”.

Jonathan Keane is a freelance business and technology journalist based in Dublin

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