As US clinical trials launch in New York this week, Luminate adds further investment to the $15m raise announced earlier this year.

University of Galway spin-out, Luminate Medical, which aims to help deliver cancer treatment at home, has announced a $2.5m investment round. At the same time, it announced that former Dexcom chief operating officer and current managing director of Dexcom Ventures, Steve Pacelli, is joining the company’s Board of Directors, as chairperson.

The funding round was led by deep tech VC Atlantic Bridge, with participation from angel investors including Pacelli and Finn Murphy, who join existing investors Faber, bringing Luminate’s total private investor funding to date to more than $20m.

Luminate plans to use the funds to accelerate clinical trials of its Lily and Lilac products in the US, ahead of FDA review and market launch, with clinical trials expected to begin in the US from this week.

“Our vision is to build technologies that make home cancer care possible,” said Aaron Hannon, CEO and co-founder of Luminate. “We’re doing this by reducing the burden of side effects and treatment protocols on patients and healthcare staff. This funding is enabling us to accelerate our US clinical trials in hair loss and peripheral neuropathy prevention so that we can begin fulfilling that vision at scale.”

Luminate is developing a series of products to reduce the burden of cancer treatment by reducing side effects and by enabling home administration of anti-cancer treatments. Its first two products are Lily, a wearable cap-like device designed to be worn during chemotherapy, preventing hair loss, while Lilac is a set of wearable gloves and boots, designed to prevent peripheral nerve damage in the hands and feet of cancer patients. Luminate has also begun development of a new system, Lotus, which is designed to enable at-home administration of low-risk anti-cancer drugs by patients themselves.

On the appointment of Pacelli, Hannon said it was “a serious statement of intent: we are planning to grow a dominant, scalable company from Galway”.

Pacelli said he was excited to join the Luminate Board. “Cancer is a difficult and painful journey for patients. Luminate’s technology represents an exciting new hope for reducing the burden of side effects on patients, and could enable a future where patients can get treated at home, instead of in the clinic.”

Luminate was founded in 2018 by Aaron Hannon, Dr Barbara Oliveira and Prof Martin O’Halloran, then working as medical device researchers at the University of Galway, Ireland.

Headquartered in Ballybrit, Galway, the team has since grown to more than 35 people based in the US, Ireland, Georgia and Uzbekistan, alongside close collaboration with research collaborators such as Prof Aoife Lowery and Dr Michael McCarthy at University Hospital Galway and Prof Maeve Lowery at St James’ Hospital.

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