28 start-up firms pitch for €70m in funding at NovaUCD Investor Day
28 firms were pitching to venture capitalists in the hope of raising a combined €70m in funding at NovaUCD’s 2026 Investor Day event.
The start-ups, seeking seed to scale investment, represented a diverse range of sectors, including; AI, AgTech, FinTech, Life Sciences, MedTech, and Sustainability.
The start-ups, seeking seed to scale investment, represented a diverse range of sectors, including AI, AgTech, FinTech, Life Sciences, MedTech, and Sustainability.
Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation at University College Dublin (UCD), said, “Among the objectives outlined in UCD’s Breaking Boundaries strategy to 2030 is that UCD will be a leader in university innovation and entrepreneurship, supporting Irish and European industrial competitiveness.
"As such the University is committed to its key role in Ireland’s innovation and knowledge exchange ecosystem as an enabler of economic growth and development.
"One way UCD supports this commitment is through NovaUCD, which was named by the FT in 2024 and in 2025 as one of Europe’s leading start-up hubs.
"At NovaUCD, we focus on the commercialisation of UCD’s research outputs, creating new ventures, supporting and scaling start-ups and established companies with global reach, such as Equal1, which has just announced a $60m funding round, the largest ever single investment round in a UCD spin-out company.
"During the 2026 NovaUCD Investor Day, attendees had the opportunity to meet with and to hear from the founders of early-stage ventures and more established start-ups, and maybe our next Equal1, who are collectively seeking €70 million in funding to support them to address global challenges, grow, scale, and create jobs.”
Among the start-ups and early-stage ventures pitching were Celtonn, MicroJect, Restore Blue, and SelekTx.
Celtonn designs and manufactures high-performance systems for emerging 6G and next-generation space communications.
With over 100,000 satellites expected in orbit by 2030, Celtonn’s proprietary manufacturing process unlocks broader bandwidth at higher frequencies.
Celtonn is seeking to raise €1.5m during 2026 to scale its scientific manufacturing team.
Restore Blue uses AI-driven assessment and satellite-derived Earth Observation data to help offshore energy developers include biodiversity in their project design and delivery.
Restore Blue is seeking to raise €800k in pre-seed funding to scale product development, expand the team, and accelerate commercial rollout across priority markets.
A third company seeking funding is MicroJect, an emerging UCD medtech spin-out, which is developing precision hollow polymer microneedle technology for intradermal delivery.
Its first product is focused on addressing a critical unmet need in NHS allergen skin prick testing to replace outdated, painful metal lancets with a consistent dosing, low pain, and scalable manufacturing solution.
MircoJect is seeking to raise €600k in seed funding to execute partner-backed technical, regulatory, manufacturing, and launch milestones.
SelekTx, an emerging UCD life-sciences spin-out, has developed a new class of highly selective biologics to overcome the side-effect limitations of current treatments for difficult-to-drug diseases, such as Crohn’s disease.
It is currently seeking to raise €10m in Series A financing to advance its lead Crohn’s programme towards Investigational New Drug (IND) readiness and develop preclinical data packages in other pipeline assets.
Each of the start-ups want to be the next Equal1. Picture by Fergal Phillips
Simon Factor, Head, New Ventures and Investments at NovaUCD, said, “NovaUCD is more than just an incubator, it is a vital platform for innovation, connecting our community of ambitious spin-out and spin-in companies with the investor community to create high-value start-ups.
"Representatives of our start-up community, which are currently seeking to raise €70m in funding to support them to grow and scale, pitched at this year’s Investor Day event, which is an indication of the quality and ambition of the NovaUCD start-up ecosystem.”
Comments (0)