Galway-headquartered medtech Luminate Medical has raised $15m to bring its cancer care to more patients in the comfort of their own homes.
The company’s Series A round was led by Artis Ventures, with participation from Metaplanet, Lachy Groom, 8VC and healthcare executives from companies such as Dexcom. The round was also supported by existing investors such as SciFounders and Faber.
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The start-up plans to use this funding to continue developing its products and conduct large-scale clinical trials, with plans to get FDA approval and a market launch in the near future. Luminate aims to get first revenues for one of its products in 2025.
Luminate also said it is creating 30 jobs at its Galway base as it prepares its products in the US. One role is currently listed on the start-up’s Careers page. The company expanded its team in 2022 after a $5m funding round.
Founded in 2018, Luminate sets out to develop medical devices that address the side effects of cancer treatment. The company’s first product, Lily, is a portable head-worn device that aims to prevent hair loss during the delivery of chemotherapy drugs by protesting the hair follicles.
Its second product – Lilac – is a set of gloves and boots, which are designed to prevent peripheral nerve damage in the hands and feet of cancer patients – a debilitating condition that requires frequent in-person monitoring of patients.
Aaron Hannon, CEO and co-founder of the former Start-up of the Week, said the company aims to “deliver every cancer treatment in the patient’s home”.
“In order to make home delivery possible, we need to build tools to prevent side effects that require in-person monitoring, monitor urgent adverse events during treatment and enable patients to complete infusion procedures alone,” Hannon said. “This funding allows us to take the first step of this vision: showing we can prevent important adverse events like neuropathy in large-scale trials and on the market.
“Alongside achieving these key milestones, we continue to expand our world class team in the US and Ireland, with a number of open roles in product development, operations and clinical. We’re excited to partner with a strong investor base to make our vision of at-home cancer care a reality.”
Last week, University of Limerick graduate Olivia Humphreys won the 2024 James Dyson Award for Ireland for an innovative design to help cancer patients suffering hair loss. As the national winner, she receives €5,800 and will go on to compete in the international competition in November with a prize of €35,000 on offer.
Humphreys has been offered an internship with Luminate Medical where she will work on researching and developing her product further.
