Trinity spinout project, Oghma, has been named recipient of a €500,000 investment prize from German venture capital fund Caesar at the Stage Two pan-European spinout competition.
Founded by Trinity Physics Professor, Stefano Sanvito, along with Trinity graduates Dr Luke Gilligan and Dr Matteo Cobelli, Oghma uses Artificial Intelligence for Scientific R&D. Created to address the issues that data-driven companies face, Oghma provides access to the scientific knowledge contained in scattered, unstructured data sources, offering the opportunity to accelerate R&D for businesses. The benefits include; model improvement, reduced costs, and increased innovation as data drives development.
Many major global companies have already validated Oghama, such as chemical giant BASF and pharmaceutical development company APC. Its services have shown 99.7 per cent accuracy against a control data set, as well as a 330-fold productivity gain, as reported by BASF. This means that a task that would usually take 100 hours now takes around 18 minutes. Nearing the end of a Commercialisation Fund award from Enterprise Ireland, Oghma welcomes the new investment.
Professor Sanvito stated that the team at Oghma was “delighted” by their success in the competition and for the “recognition and support of Caesar”. He continued, saying that the project hopes to “help drive the next generation of data-driven industrial innovation across the materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductor sectors, where AI and machine learning can transform how companies research, develop, and bring new technologies to market.”
The Stage Two final saw eight teams, chosen from over 50 European spinouts, all presenting their ideas at this pan-university competition, focused on showcasing these emerging start-ups. Dr Carolin Gabor, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Caesar, stated that Oghma is exactly the kind of company they look for in early stages, with Caesar’s work focused on providing cheques to pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
The Venture Capital fund, Caesar, specialises in a range of technology from Greentech to Fintech.
