FoodMarble targets profitability as demand grows for gut health tech in US market
Founded by Aonghus Shortt and Peter Harte in 2016, the business is based in the Guinness Enterprise Centre, has 35 staff and has raised €8 million in funding to date. It has developed a device aimed at monitoring gut health using breath testing, to help patients and clinicians work out where foods cause problems.
'We help people understand how they digest different types of food. It's like a digestive companion to work out how well you digest one food or another, to allow you to make changes in your diet to adjust,' Shortt told the Business Post. 'It can also be used by doctors. They can use it to help with diagnosing certain conditions.'
The idea came about because of an issue that Shortt's then girlfriend, now wife, had and his engineering-minded approach to helping her.
'She was having a tough time with digestion. She had no idea what was driving it and had gone to a string of doctors, got lots of tests, with no help. It was curtailing her social life and work. I had access to research literature and thought about what could help,' he said.
'That's how I came across breath testing. I went and built a prototype and started using it with her. Even though it was basic, she was able to see when she was and wasn't digesting well. She would take one type of food, eat it, measure the breath, and see how she responded.'
This led Shortt to pair up with Harte, who he had met through his research in UCD. The duo set about developing FoodMarble into a business and made some interesting discoveries along the way.
'The expectations of what the patient might think is an issue so often isn't the cause. The classic one is that so many people believe dairy is a trigger for digestive issues when it actually comes up the least in testing,' he said.
'There's such a mismatch between what we often think is the issue and what the issue actually is. Digestion is complicated.'
The business is supported by Enterprise Ireland and has previously been part of the high potential start-up unit (HPSU).
'We did HPSU and that was a great way to meet other co-founders at similar stages. We also took part in the Founders Forum. Another big help for us has been the EI team in the US,' Shortt said.
'Their health team in particular has been excellent in helping us meet potential customers. Having access to their offices in different parts of the world is a big help.'
The US is the big focus for FoodMarble and Shortt is confident the company can make increasingly large inroads into that market.
'A big focus for us is US healthcare. We've seen a large uptake from gastro-specialists and from healthcare systems there, and we've gathered quite a lot of data in the process and we're using that to help doctors understand specific issues in more detail,' he said.
'The big process is on making it a longer-term usage model so both the doctor and patient can get more insights over time.'
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