Coroflo raises additional €2.8m to bring breastfeeding monitor to market

Irish medtech company Coroflo has raised €2.8 million in equity funding as it private investors as it prepares for production of its breastfeeding monitor this year.

The investment will allow the company, which recently appointed former TD and health minister Mary Harney to its board, to double their staff numbers and move to larger offices in the DCU Alpha campus. It plans to have the monitor in store in the second half of 2024.

The company has developed what it says is the world’s first accurate breastfeeding monitor, named Coro. It uses a standard silicone nipple shield with an embedded patented micro-flow metre, alongside an app that that helps mothers monitor the milk flow to their baby in real time. With concerns over low supply often cited as a reason to stop breastfeeding, the monitor may be helpful in increasing rates.

The latest investment, which sees investors such as Brian Caulfield of Scale Ireland and Shemas Eivers of the Boole Syndicate, come on board, brings to €4.2 million the total amount of equity funding raised by the company to develop its technology. Coroflo said a number of private investors who previously invested in Coroflo’s seed round, had also backed the company.

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“Coro is groundbreaking, in terms of its core technology and how it will help mothers achieve their own breastfeeding goals. Any positive increase in breastfeeding rates has a hugely significant knock on effect on the wider health population outcomes for society as a whole,” said chief executive Rosanne Longmore. “As we move out of the R&D phase and into manufacturing, launch and commercialisation, we are excited to have the backing of new investors and existing long standing investors. This latest funding round evidences our investors’ confidence in both the technical and management team and will allow Coro to be made available to mothers for the first time.”

The start-up was also awarded a €2.1 million accelerator grant from the European Commission under its Horizon 2020 programme, which helped to fund independent clinical research in a Dublin maternity hospital. It has also been supported by Enterprise Ireland through its High Potential Start Up programme.

It now has commercial contracts in place with McCabe and McCauley’s pharmacy chains, and has begun to expand its staff, hiring senior biomedical and mechanical engineers.

“The last couple of years have been challenging for businesses, particularly for companies like us with clinical studies being disrupted during the Covid19 pandemic,” said Ms Longmore. “Without the support of the European Commission, Enterprise Ireland and our investors, our progress to date could not have been achieved.”

Also on its roadmap are plans to enter the US, UK and European markets in the next two years.

Led by Ms Longmore, Dublin-headquartered Coroflo was founded in 2017 by CTO, Jamie Travers, and chief research officer Dr Helen Barry.