Irish startup Micron Agritech raises €2.7M to reduce unnecessary anti-parasite use on farms

Dublin-based Micron Agritech, an agritech startup that is using rapid AI-powered testing to reduce the overuse of anti-parasite treatment in animals, has raised €2.7 million in a new funding round.

With the primary focus of eliminating unnecessary worming treatments in animals, which leads to increased resistance to anti-parasiticides, the company is a spin-out of TU Dublin. It was founded by Daniel Izquierdo, Tara McElligott and Sean Smith in 2019 and its testing kit, Micron Kit, gives vets the opportunity to test animals onsite, for the presence of parasites and recommend dosing according to results. This type of sample testing can take up to five days in laboratories.

Traditionally, worming doses have been administered to animals routinely as more of a preventative, precautionary measure but this high use of wormer (you might have heard of womers such as Ivermectin) is leading to a build-up of resistance to such treatments. Testing will also reduce overall costs.

The funding round was co-led by ACT VC, Atlantic Bridge and Yield Lab Europe and brings the total of funding the company has raised, since inception, to €5 million.

“We've been working with the Micron team since 2020, and are happy to make a further investment in the company. We look forward to working with ACT and ABV and further supporting the Micron Agritech team in the next phase of their journey and mission to decrease the misuse of medication in animals,” says Daan Wilms van Kersbergen, Investment Director at Yield Lab Europe.

“We are thrilled to have the support of ACT, Atlantic Bridge, Yield Lab Europe and our other investors as we continue to grow and expand our cutting-edge platform which we aim to revolutionise how animal health is managed globally. Our goal is to make our platform accessible to vets across the globe, starting with penetration across the Irish and UK markets, which will combat the build-up of medication resistance, while giving farmers and vets tools to monitor animal health, improve the lives of their animals while increasing productivity,” says Izquierdo. 

Lead image: via Micron Agritech. Photo: Uncredited.