The Dublin-based agricultural technology start up, Micron Agritech, has raised €2.7 million to position itself for “further expansion” in the Irish and UK markets.
Its latest funding round – co-led by Act Venture Capital, Atlantic Bridge and Yield Lab Europe – will bring its total funding to date to €5 million.
The TU Dublin spin out has developed a rapid animal health test – Micron Kit – which enables vets to carry out on-site, rapid parasite testing on animals using their mobile phones and get results in minutes. The kit can be used to test for parasites in cattle, sheep and horses.
According to Micron Agritech it can currently take up to five days to receive lab results which it said “just isn’t fast enough” and in the meantime, farmers may start to use treatments or give a “blanket dose” to the herd.
The founders of the Dublin spin out Daniel Izquierdo, Tara McElligott and Sean Smith, who established in 2019, said its core mission is to “combat the increased resistance to anti-parasiticides and reduce the unnecessary reliance on worm treatments by the agriculture sector”.
They believe that the innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its Micron Kit could help to “drastically reduce the time, cost and resources expended on dosing methodologies”.
Micron Agritech
Commenting on the start-up’s latest funding boost, Daniel Izquierdo, chief executive and co-founder of Micron Agritech, said: “We are thrilled to have the support of Act, Atlantic Bridge, Yield Lab Europe and our other investors as we continue to grow and expand our cutting-edge platform which we aim to revolutionise how animal health is managed globally.
“Our goal is to make our platform accessible to vets across the globe, starting with penetration across the Irish and UK markets, which will combat the build up of medication resistance, while giving farmers and vets tools to monitor animal health, improve the lives of their animals while increasing productivity.”
Andrew O’Neill, principal, at Act Venture Capital, believes the Dublin-headquartered team has “big ambitions to transform animal health through AI, drive efficiencies for vets and ultimately deliver better yields for farmers”.