Fermoy firm DeepVerge to make Covid 'early warning' kit for wastewater

DeepVerge, an Irish-based diagnostics firm, has secured funding worth €750,000 from Enterprise Ireland to help it win contracts here and around the world for kits that in real time identify Covid-19 and other pathogens in wastewater in locations such as hospitals, schools, and offices.  

The funding from the Government agency is seen as a significant vote of confidence in the company and in its goal to mass produce the "early warning" kits. The company, which is based in Fermoy, Dublin, and at York in England, is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market. 

It said the funding will help it make many types of equipment that can detect pathogens in wastewater at large treatment plants but also as an early warning device when located in small premises such as offices and schools.  In a stock market announcement, DeepVerge said it was readying to mass-produce the kits. 

DeepVerge has been working with a number of governments around the world to secure public contracts for the real time testing kits. Testing of the kits has been going at installations in Cork and York, as well as in the US, UK, China, and India, it said.                            

"This Government-supported development programme is a key part of the acceleration process to move quickly to mass producible instruments for automated monitoring of Covid-19 and other pathogens in wastewater treatment plants as well as smaller units for hospitals, schools, offices and buildings," it said   

"DeepVerge has been gearing up in Cork in 2021 to meet existing demand by retrofitting its optofluidic technology to established modern water equipment," it said. 

Fionán Murray, chief operating officer at DeepVerge, said the Enterprise Ireland funding was a significant development. 

Mr Murray founded Rinocloud, which is described as an artificial intelligence data company. It was acquired by DeepVerge over two years ago. 

Chief executive Gerard Brandon said "after extensive due diligence" the funding meant DeepVerge could "meet the demand of not just the industrial-scale Covid-19 pandemic response equipment but to reduce the size and lower the cost of early warning disease-monitoring equipment".