Equinome

Equinome was co-founded by Professor Emmeline Hill in partnership with Jim Bolger, the renowned Irish trainer and breeder, in 2009 as a spin-out from the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science.

The company was established to commericalise groundbreaking research, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, and led by Professor Hill, which resulted in the identification of what is now referred to as the ‘Speed Gene’, in Thoroughbred horses.

The company, headquartered at NovaUCD, developed a comprehensive series of athletic performance genomic tests for the Thoroughbred market including the Equinome Speed Gene Test and the Equinome Elite Performance Test.

Equinome achieved global reach and sales and significantly changed breeding techniques in the international, multibillion euro Thoroughbred horse racing and breeding industry. In 2014 Professor Hill received the NovaUCD Innovation Award and in 2015 the company, which had become a leading global bloodstock genomic testing company, was acquired by Plusvital.

Logentries

Logentries, co-founded in 2010 by Dr Trevor Parsons and Dr Viliam Holub as a UCD spin-out company from UCD’s Performance Engineering Laboratory, in the UCD School of Computer Science, after a decade of joint research with IBM. Based on the simple premise that there was tremendous value to businesses hidden within log data entries, Logentries developed a Saas based, log management service for collecting and analysing big data and making this data easily accessible to improve IT and business operations.

By 2013, the company had secured $10 million in Series A funding, the largest single investment round in a UCD spin-out and was servicing tens of thousands of users in over 100 countries. Of all the cloud – based start-ups Logentries’ progress was particularly speedy and two years later, Rapid7, a leading US provider of security data and analytics solutions acquired Logentries for over €68 million. The acquisition of Logentries world class machine data search technology enabled Rapid7’s information security teams to solve a full range of security challenges, deeply investigate incidents and more efficiently achieve their compliance requirements. 

The company, originally based and supported at NovaUCD came through the UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator programme and Logentries credits NovaUCD as being very valuable in helping them to define and transform their ideas into a commercially feasible enterprise.

"To be able to use the NovaUCD brand carries weight when you’re talking to investors and customers alike."

- Viliam Holub, Logentries.

OxyMem

OxyMem, a cleantech company, was co-founded by Wayne Byrne, Professor Eoin Casey and Dr Eoin Syron in 2013 as a spin-out from the UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering.

The Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) technology, developed by OxyMem, is a breakthrough technology that focuses on wastewater aeration. This makes the treatment process 75% more energy efficient than conventional treatment technology. Conventional aeration systems have relied on a very energy intensive process known as bubble aeration which had remained unchanged for nearly 100 years.

From 2013 to 2019 the company grew significantly, employing over 60 people, with a manufacturing site in Athlone, Co. Westmeath and secured significant investment and major clients around the world.

In late 2019, DuPont (NYSE: DD), a global innovation leader which already owned a 31 percent of the company and exercised its option to acquire all outstanding shares of OxyMem for 100 percent ownership.

"We have evolved quite significantly since we were set-up and the facilities, supports and services provided at NovaUCD certainly made it easy to for us to concentrate on growing the company."

- Wayne Byrne, CEO, OxyMem

BiancaMed

Over 60 million people in Europe and the US alone are affected by sleep disordered breathing and the condition is a major contributor to health problems such as high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. BiancaMed, a NovaUCD spin-out company developed technology using radio frequency motion sensors that detected respiration and movement without being connected to the body making it possible to monitor those with sleep problems at home. 

BiancaMed was formed as a result of research undertaken by Professor Conor Heneghan, Dr Philip de Chazal and Dr Conor Hanley in UCD’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.  One of BiancaMed’s early investors was the US-based medical devices company, ResMed, a global leader in the development of products for the diagnosis, treatment and management of respiratory disorders, particularly sleep-disordered breathing. In 2011 it acquired the company and BiancaMed was renamed as ResMed Sensor Technologies, 

ResMed Sensor Technologies relocated to NexusUCD, and as a division of ResMed  it developed or enhanced many of ResMed’s digital innovations. In 2022 the company moved from NexusUCD to a new €30 million technology R&D facility in Sandyford, Co. Dublin and announced plans to add 70 jobs over the next four years.

"Developing a start-up can actually be quite a lonely path and the emotional support of having people around you in a similar situation was very valuable."

- Conor Hanley, Founder, BiancaMed