Irish start-up raises €3m to tackle pelvic health conditions

An Irish digital therapeutics company has secured €3m in funding to advance its bladder health app and accelerate growth.

Amara Therapeutics, the company behind the BladderBoss app, aims to empower patients to “take control” of their pelvic health using medicine and behavioural interventions.

The platform, which includes bladder retraining, cognitive behavioural therapy and and pelvic health pilates classes, is based on an eight-week programme designed to help women improve their bladder health and reduce the impact of overactive bladder.

It has been estimated that up to 40 per cent of women in the UK are struggling with overactive bladder symptoms. However, the exact number is unknown, due to the fact that many people do not seek help or treatment.

“One in three women will suffer from a pelvic and bladder health condition in their lifetime and it is our mission to ensure every woman has access to affordable and effective first-line treatments,” Professor Geoffrey Cundiff, co-founder and chief medical officer at Amara Therapeutics, told the Irish Times.

“Overactive bladder is just our initial target condition. We plan to have a series of other products targeting a range of pelvic and bladder health conditions for women available in the near term.”

The company says it will use the financing to widen the market for its technology and develop new products for similar conditions, some of which will require FDA approval.

The €3m funding is split, with €1.5m coming from Enterprise Ireland, the Western Development Commission and a group of private investors, and €1.5m from the State’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, a previously announced non-dilutive investment.

Brendan Staunton, Amara Therapeutics co-founder and CEO, said: “Digital health is a pretty expensive space to innovate in and to commercialise.

“It was really a good time for it, first that we were able to get the grant, as it was a competitive process, and secondly [that] it aligned with what our strategy was for the next 24 months in terms of getting more clinical data and for developing our product.”

The start-up is planning a €5m seed round later this year.