Kilkenny entrepreneur nets €200k in EU funding

10 Dec 2015

Clare Hughes CF Pharma, via SmartAgriFood

Irish start-up CF Pharma recently secured €200,000 from the EU’s SmartAgriFood accelerator programme, with entrepreneur Clare Hughes’ pitch coming out on top of a pool of 200 applicants across the continent.

A Kilkenny woman, and serial entrepreneur at this stage, Clare Hughes’ company aims to assess the parasitic load of cattle herds via its product Telenostics, which was enough to see her through two phases of funding tests, ranking top of the pile and netting €200,000 in the process.

“The market is global and estimated to be worth $4.5bn in 2018,” said Hughes, who had to develop smart applications and services for agriculture in order to gain the funding.

“With further intensification of farms with the drop of quotas and the restriction of antibiotics going into the food chain, there is a need for targeted treatment and accurate diagnosis.

“Currently, there is nothing available that compares with best practice as the solution is complex,” she added.

Hughes’ work has also been supported by the South East BIC.

The whole SmartAgri funding programme that’s underway in the EU at the moment is actually backed to the tune of €4m.

CF Pharma’s funding is already coming through, with Hughes using some of it to focus on commercialisation activities for now.

The bulk of it is going on clinical trials and testing because, while Telenostics is not a medical device, it needs significant laboratory and in-field testing.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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