Key Investor Signals
CEO led Medtronic’s coronary vascular operations for 11 years
Tom Fitzmaurice held global P&L responsibility for Medtronic’s coronary vascular operations from 2003–2014, as the business moved from fourth place to market leadership and cut product costs by 70%.
€6M seed round co-led by Elkstone and Atlantic Bridge
LaNua announced the round in December 2024, with Enterprise Ireland and Furthr VC also participating. The financing followed earlier Enterprise Ireland commercialisation support.
Co-founder helped spin out two earlier UCD medtech companies
Eoin O’Cearbhaill is an academic co-founder of Latch Medical and Lia EyeCare. He also founded UCD’s Medical Device Design Group and has filed 14 medical-device patents.
Other Positive Signals
- ECORE secured €6M in DTIF project funding with UCD and Integer Holdings.
- Named 2025 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year at University College Dublin.
- Won UPMC’s Best Spin-out Award at the 2024 AIMS Summit in Dublin
Team
Tom Fitzmaurice
CEO and Co-founder
- Spent 20 years at Medtronic in vascular devices, including 11 years leading operations for its coronary vascular business.
- Led BuaMed Technologies from 2019 to 2023, backing and advising medtech startups through Enterprise Ireland’s Business Partners Programme.
- Spent 12 years at CR Bard in medical-device manufacturing and R&D, including two years as R&D manager.
Cormac Farrelly
Chief Medical Officer and Co-founder
- Consultant interventional radiologist at Mater Hospital since 2013, where he established its liver radioembolization service.
- Spent three years as assistant professor of interventional radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
- Won the 2019 Irish Clinical Innovation Award for an endovascular re-entry occlusion device, supported by Enterprise Ireland.
Eoin O'Cearbhaill
Co-founder
- Academic co-founder of two earlier UCD spin-outs: microneedle-patch company Latch Medical and dry-eye wearable company Lia EyeCare.
- Founded the UCD Medical Device Design Group in 2013 and directs the UCD Centre for Biomedical Engineering.
- Completed postdoctoral research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in advanced biomaterials and stem-cell therapeutics.
Product
ECORE is an umbrella-shaped device delivered through a catheter and deployed inside a blood vessel. It creates a mechanical barrier to block flow while keeping a central channel open for guidewires and catheters, preserving access beyond the occlusion.
Blocks flow while preserving access
ECORE combines vessel occlusion with a central channel. After flow is blocked, clinicians can still pass guidewires or catheters through the device to reach and treat downstream vessels.
Immediate mechanical occlusion
ECORE is designed to block the vessel mechanically when deployed, rather than relying on clot formation around a coil or plug. The channel remains available for imaging or further treatment.
Designed for multiple procedures
LaNua identifies 11 potential procedures for ECORE across urology, oncology and trauma, including prostate artery embolization and selective internal radiation therapy.
Market Overview
Embolization is an established interventional-radiology procedure used in cancer, enlarged prostate, trauma and vascular malformations. Coils and plugs can rely on clot formation to complete occlusion, while injected particles may travel into healthy branches. These approaches can also limit access beyond the treated vessel.
Commercial demand is already established: Penumbra generated $455.7M from embolization and access products in 2025. Grand View Research estimates the global transcatheter embolization and occlusion-device market will grow from $6.3B in 2026 to $8.5B by 2030. Boston Scientific, Terumo and Medtronic already sell into the category.
Liver cancer caused 760,000 deaths worldwide in 2022, according to WHO.
An estimated 94M men aged 40+ had benign prostatic hyperplasia in 2019.
Penumbra generated $455.7M from embolization and access products in 2025, up 20.2% year on year.
Grand View Research projects the global market to reach $8.5B in 2030 from $6.3B in 2026.
Comparable Outcomes
Baylis Medical Company
Baylis Medical built radiofrequency transseptal-access systems with guidewires, sheaths and dilators. Its products had been used in more than one million procedures by the time of acquisition. Boston Scientific acquired Baylis Medical in February 2022 for $1.75B upfront.
Cardiva Medical
Cardiva Medical developed VASCADE and VASCADE MVP, single-use catheter-delivered devices that seal femoral vessel access sites after interventional procedures. Haemonetics acquired Cardiva Medical in March 2021 for $475M upfront in cash.
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Sources
This profile was built from public company materials, ecosystem sources, market references, and professional profiles.