Galway med-tech firm Signum raises €2.6m

Start-up, Signum Surgical, is developing an implant to encourage healing in a colorectal condition called perianal fistula. Stock image

John Mulligan

Galway medical device firm Signum Surgical has raised €2.6m from high-profile investors, including Chip Hance, a former Abbott president who was until this year the chief executive of Creganna Medical.

A start-up, Signum Surgical was founded by Eoin Bambury. It is developing an implant to encourage healing in a colorectal condition called perianal fistula. The implant is designed to be easy to deliver, to prevent reinfection and to promote healing.

Mr Hance has invested €100,000 in Signum. The single biggest investment in the inaugural funding round was €1.1m from a firm called Medtech Syndicate Nominee, which is connected to Michael Culligan, national director of the Halo Business Angel Network (Ireland).

Switzerland-based Glanzmann Enterprises has invested €150,000. Thomas Glanzmann is a former senior vice president of Baxter Healthcare. He also previously served as an adviser and managing director to the World Economic Forum. He is currently a board member of Spanish multinational plasma pharmaceuticals firm Grifols.

Rising Tide Europe 1, an angel investment firm backed to the tune of €1m by a group of 93 successful businesswomen from 25 countries, has invested €70,000 in the Galway start-up.

The Western Development Commission has invested €400,000 in Signum Surgical, while a Seattle-based anaesthesiologist invested €25,000. Enterprise Ireland has stumped up €250,000.