Lightstone Ventures and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) will jointly invest in a new company launched by The Foundry, a premier medical device incubator.

The new company, which is called FIRE1 and is based in Dublin, Ireland, will focus on developing novel therapeutic devices. Series A funding will provide the company with the resources to develop and commercialize solutions to address certain unmet medical needs. Specific market plans and financing terms were not disclosed.

As part of the announcement, FIRE1 also expanded its Board of Directors to include: Ryan Drant, General Partner, NEA; Stacy Enxing Seng, President, Vascular Therapies, Covidien; and Jason Lettmann, Partner, Lightstone Ventures. They will join Hanson Gifford and Mark Deem, Managing Partners of The Foundry, on the FIRE1 Board. Deem is serving as chief executive of the new company.

'Broadening our innovation focus is a key component of Covidien's strategy, and we believe this partnership can help us to bring inspired, clinically relevant and cost-effective new treatment options to market,' said Enxing Seng. 'Partnering early with key venture firms and The Foundry gives us unique insight into some of the most innovative, early stage technologies.'

'FIRE1 will be our first company created in Ireland, a region that has evolved into one of the leading clusters for medical devices globally,' said Deem. 'We are excited to be collaborating with Covidien as well as our venture partners, Lightstone and NEA to launch this first-of-its-kind company.'