Eleven Irish start-up companies will compete for first-round funding at a Dragons’ Den-style investment event, taking place on Wednesday, 30 March, which marks the end of Enterprise Ireland’s nationwide business development programme, Propel II.
Propel II supports start-up companies in the IT and life science sectors that demonstrate major export potential.
The companies have completed 10 months of intensive training on how to manage a business during the setting-up phase.
The companies received financial support of up to €15,000 from Enterprise Ireland, as well as office space, advice and networking support.
On Wednesday, the companies will be given their first opportunity to pitch their businesses for first-round funding from some of Ireland’s leading angel investors in Dublin and progress their business plans for international growth.
Commenting on the initiative, Conor Fahy, regional director of Enterprise Ireland, said, “The investors have volunteered to take part in the event and will be offering real investment opportunities. This is the culmination of 10 months of intensive work by these entrepreneurs to get their business plans developed. They have incredible growth potential and represent a strong pipeline of highly innovative, technology–led businesses which will be the future feedstock of the Innovation Ireland.
The entrepreneurs will be pitching to Chris Horn of IONA, Brian Caulfield of Esprit, Eoghan Jennings of Park Lane Capital, Ronan Farren of Business Partner, John Phelan of Dublin BIC and Andre Fernon of Solarprint.
The programme is delivered by management consultants PA Consulting.
The 11 companies participating in the programme include:
Boxever: Web personalisation services and product for E-Commerce platforms.
NascTechnologies: An innovative mobile application for the telecommunications industry to organise their remote field engineers mainly in developing countries.
SiTYAnalytics: SiTy intends to identify and exploit subsets of trustworthy information buried within the vast and noisy collection of web-based sources.
Scrazzl: Product delivers free and freemium social e-sourcing, product management and market analytics tools to scientists and scientific suppliers, respectively.
Verios: Monitor mobile networks in real time. Aimed at telecom operators.
Fixational: Gaze-tracking software to monitor where on screen a person looks.
Identicare: Medicinal packaging for care homes and pharmacies.
Seniors at Home: The product aims to enhance the communication between carers and cared-for, particularly in the aged and infirm community.
Faxsoft t/aDiaryplan: Provide online calendar services – compatible with MS outlook.
Big DoggTechnologies:BigDogg Technologies has a prototype Web 2.0 version of e-procurement that strips out all the unnecessary complexity and features, resulting in a product that has a familiar ‘social media’ feel for users.
Cloud 9v: Cloud computing service provider.
