IRISH START-UP i360medical has formed a strategic alliance with the Cleveland Clinic.

The alliance will see the Dublin company, recently spun out of the Royal College of Surgeons, act as the European arm of Cleveland Clinic’s Innovation Alliance programme.

The hospital, consistently ranked one of the best in the US established a venture commercialisation business 12 years ago to commercialise medical innovations emerging from its staff.

It has since broadened its reach providing outsourced commercialisation of innovation at North Shore Long Island, the largest health provider in New York state; Medstar which is the biggest provider in the mid-Atlantic region, Jewish Health and Notre Dame. The initiative was announced by Taoiseach Enda Kenny during his visit to Cleveland over the weekend. It is the first direct financial investment outside the US by Cleveland Clinic.

i360medical, which recently completed a €2 million fundraising, was initially established under the guidance of the RCSI where it operated for four years as the Centre for Innovation in Surgical Technology.

It sees itself as a “one stop” supplier of outsourced RD, clinical investigation and commercialisation for global and national medical technology companies.

The partnership will give Irish medtech start-ups access to a broad US network for their innovations and also establish Dublin as a European base for development, clinical trials, EU approval and early commercialisation for start-ups within the Cleveland Clinic alliance.

Cleveland Clinic Innovations has been behind 52 spin-off companies to date which, between them, have secured more than $620 million in venture funds.

Investors in i360 alongside Cleveland Clinic include Enterprise Ireland, the Bank of Ireland MedTech Accelerator Fund managed by Kernel Capital, and serial entrepreneur, Dominic Considine.