MERMAID CARE AS

Their core work

Mermaid Care is a Danish medical technology SME developing bedside clinical decision-support systems for intensive care units. Their flagship product family, the BEACON Caresystem, uses mathematical models and real-time patient data to guide clinicians on mechanical ventilation, ECMO therapy, and biomarker-based diagnosis in acute care settings. The company sits at the intersection of ICT, biomedical engineering, and clinical practice, turning physiological models into practical tools that help ICU staff make faster, better-informed treatment decisions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two H2020 projects back-to-back, the trajectory is tight but clear. In 2018 they launched ICU-CARE to commercialise the BEACON Caresystem for general ICU ventilation decisions; a year later they extended the same platform philosophy into ECMO-BIOMARKER, tackling a narrower, higher-acuity sub-segment. The shift is from broad ICU decision-support to specialised extracorporeal life-support diagnostics — going deeper into acute care rather than branching into new domains.

They are moving upstream into the most critical, high-stakes ICU sub-specialties, making them a natural partner for anyone commercialising ICT solutions for extracorporeal life support or acute-care biomarkers.

How they like to work

Mermaid Care coordinated both of its H2020 projects, so they clearly drive their own agenda rather than joining others' consortia. The consortia were small (four unique partners across both projects) and oriented around commercialisation rather than basic research. Expect a focused, product-led working style with tight teams — attractive for partners who want a company in the driver's seat, less so for those wanting a purely academic collaborator.

Small, tightly scoped network of four unique partners spread across four countries, built around SME-led innovation projects rather than broad European consortia.

What sets them apart

Most Danish health-tech H2020 participants are universities or hospitals; Mermaid Care is one of the rare private SMEs that coordinates its own Innovation Actions and is already commercialising a CE-relevant ICU product. Their dual focus on ventilation and ECMO decision-support is unusual — few companies at this size own both a general-ICU advisory platform and a dedicated ECMO biomarker system. Partner with them when you need a clinically grounded SME that can take modelling or diagnostic IP through to a bedside product.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ICU-CARE
  Their largest grant (EUR 2.31M) and the project that funded market rollout of the BEACON Caresystem, their core platform.
• ECMO-BIOMARKER
  Extends the BEACON platform into ECMO-specific biomarker diagnostics, showing clear vertical-specialisation strategy.