Galway-based Mirai Medical raises €3m in funding

Mirai Medical, a Co Galway-based company pioneering an energy technology for use in the treatment of cancer, has raised €3 million in funding.

Founded in 2015 by Declan Soden as a spin-out from University College Cork, Mirai is developing an outpatient cancer treatment, which targets the tumour while preserving healthy tissue and minimising side effects.

Its ePore system uses ultra-high frequency electrical pulses to selectively treat tumours in seconds, thereby greatly reducing hospitalisation time.

The device addresses an unmet clinical need in gastrointestinal cancers for bleeding cessation and for patients where the disease is inoperable.

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“We are trying to simplify and reduce the side effects of cancer patients and to deliver treatment in an outpatient-type setting,” Mr Soden told The Irish Times.

The fundraising was led by investors aligned to the Halo Business Angel Network (Hban).

This is an initiative of Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland, which serves as a go-between to bring start-ups and investors together.

EI also separately backed the company, which is one of its high-potential start-up clients, while a number of private investors and the Western Development Commission also participated in the funding round.

“All of the work around the fundraise was done virtually, and there are pluses and minuses in doing things this way, but I think the fact that the technology we have is disruptive in terms of outpatient cancer treatment, and that there is a big backlog of patients, helped our business case,” said Mr Soden.

He said the funding would be used to support clinical studies with Mirai's technology ongoing in several EU hospitals, including a trial in patients with oesophageal cancer at Nottingham University Hospital.

“We want to get to a point in 12 month’s time where we have really strong clinical data support, because at the end of the day, adoption of the technology will be driven by evidence, so we want to build up that as much as possible,” added Mr Soden.

Based in Oranmore and currently employing 12 people, Mirai Medical expects headcount to reach 17 by the end of this year.