Brendan O'Driscoll, founder of Soundwave, with Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock, TD, (back left) and Ben Hurley, CEO, NDRC. Image by John Ohle
Soundwave, the new Irish start-up that has come up with a music data analytics service to track in real-time what songs people are listening to, has won the NDRC Lift Off competition today. The company has gleaned access to a €50,000 investment fund.
In all, 15 start-ups from the NDRC made their investment pitches to a group of mentors, investors and a judging panel today.
The investor panel that picked Soundwave as the winner today included NDRC CEO Ben Hurley; Bill Liao of SOSventures; Debbie Rennick of ACT Venture Capital; and Shay Garvey.
Dublin start-up Soundwave will now have access to an investment fund of €50,000 from SOSventures, as well as awards and prizes provided by Grant Thornton, Mason Hayes + Curran and the Irish Internet Association (IIA). We first featured Soundwave a few weeks ago when it demoed at Dublin Beta.
Meanwhile, start-up Building Eye won access to a €20,000 investment offer, while Jumpzter was offered €10,000.
Brendan O’Driscoll is the brain behind Soundwave. The idea of the music data analytics service is that it can allow users to discover and track what songs are being listened to, and where, in real-time. The technology combines geo-location and ID3 music-tagging technology.
According to O’Driscoll, Soundwave has come up with actionable analytics to allow the music industry to understand and react to what their market is doing in real-time. As well as this, he said musicians can track their global distribution in real-time.
Tech for planning applications
As for Building Eye, which won access to a €20,000 investment, the start-up came up with a technology that enables users to monitor and research planning applications and other developments in their local area.
Jumpzter won access to an investment offer of €10,000. It has come up with a travel application and children’s forum to explore the world and recount their holiday experiences.
Teaching 3D drawing to kids
Plus, Sneaky Vegetables won access to an IIA diploma in digital marketing and e-commerce course. The start-up has devised an online educational games system. Its first product teaches freehand 3D drawing to children using mobile devices.
Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock, TD, was also at today’s event and he congratulated Soundwave for having wooed the panel.
