Changing world presents major opportunities for Irish tech sector

The eyes of the world are fixed on this island as Northern Ireland’s burgeoning tech sectors experience a renaissance, replicating the growth the Republic began to enjoy over five years ago.

As we adjust to a new way of living and working with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic it’s clear many things will never be the same, but the tech industry, or at least parts of it, is emerging from the crisis stronger than ever. Financial Services and Fintech, Cybersecurity, Health Innovation and Film & Media are among those industries that are growing strongly.

Investing in health tech
As a health tech software company based in Belfast, we know the MedTech and Consumer IoT sector hot places for investors globally. Early-stage businesses in Northern Ireland are attracting larger equity funding rounds than in previous years. For example, B-Secur raised almost £8million in the first half of this year, including $6million from a US-based fund. And this is just the beginning.

When the virus struck there was a realisation that some health systems weren’t up to scratch or rather traditional means of patients being ‘served’ in hospitals and healthcare settings needed to change. The pandemic has deepened reliance on services from technology companies while accelerating trends that were already benefiting them. Now investors are prepared to put money behind new ways of thinking. As people become increasingly focused on their health and visiting hospitals or doctors becomes more challenging, our suite of algorithms delivers the potential for all global technology manufacturers to enable medical-grade wellness and health data from any device and within the home.

Earlier this year B-Secur received FDA Clearance for our HeartKey® software library, paving the way for us to work with some of the world’s biggest tech companies to accelerate the time to market for manufacturers of next-generation consumer wearables. These wearable devices take medical grade heart health monitoring out of the hospital and put it into the hands of the consumer, enabling a more proactive, preventative approach to healthcare.

The future of Northern Irish tech
It’s an exciting time for Northern Ireland – the calibre of people graduating from our world class universities and colleges is exceptional and when you combine this with lower cost bases, this place is an attractive location for tech companies to grow and for graduates to satisfy their ambitions.

We’re also close enough to be able to work with the Republic of Ireland’s leading research institutes and to collaborate with the HSE on our model of continuous heart health monitoring. B-Secur now employs over 45 people, mostly in Belfast and with staff in the UK and in China as well as an office in San Francisco.

This year our focus is on the US market, but as our customer base includes everyone on the planet, we are targeting sustained international growth.