Cork-headquartered Atlantia Clinical Trials is to expand operations into the medical device market after obtaining an investment of up to €1.5 million from the Redesdale Food and Beverage Fund.
Atlantia Clinical Trials, which was founded in 2011, specialises in human clinical trials for nutrition. It is chiefly based in Ireland, but expanded operations into the United States in 2019 with the opening of a clinic in Chicago.
The company works with leading global food, beverage and ingredient companies such as Danone, Kerry Group, PepsiCo, Givaudan, Unilever and Tate & Lyle. It is led by chief executive Andrea Doolan and chief commercial officer Barry Skillington.
“We’re a clinical trials company and we test a product to see if it’s got a health benefit,” Doolan said on Monday. “So, when you think of a probiotic that’s going to improve your digestive comfort, we test that in human clinical trials.
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“We recruit people to partake in the study. They might have symptoms. They might experience constipation or bloating and then we test the product on them. We use a lot of tools then to test the product is actually having that benefit.
“It’s not around curing disease or anything like that. It’s about improving someone’s health and wellbeing.”
Doolan said the investment, of between €1 million and €1.5 million, would allow the company to “proactively” expand into the medical device market.
“We’re expanding in medical devices,” she said. “We’re looking at non-invasive devices. We’ve done a little bit of this in the past where it grew organically, but with this investment we are going proactively out into the market to bring new customers and clients.
“We also see big growth in the whole digital healthcare market where people can test their health in their own homes as opposed to having to go to hospitals or doctors.”
The Redesdale Food Fund, which aims to raise €75 million, was launched by John Conroy in December 2021 after its first €27 million round closed. It targets early-stage companies in the food, drinks, nutrition and food technology sectors.
The fund is backed by Enterprise Ireland, Coca-Cola, Monaghan Mushrooms, Tate & Lyle and US investment management company Lord Abbett.
Conroy cofounded Merrion Capital and led the firm through a major expansion period. As a corporate financier, he has been involved in landmark deals in the Irish market and has chaired two multibillion euro investment funds.
Redesdale’s investment committee is chaired by Stan McCarthy, the former chief executive of Kerry Group. Its marketing manager is former world champion athlete Eamonn Coghlan.
Its advisory board includes Mary Ann O’Brien, founder of Lily O’Brien’s Chocolates, and Michael Carey, former chairman of Bord Bia.
A Redesdale spokesman said it was “confident” the group could establish “a leading position” for the company in the medical device market.
