Pictured is winner, Iseult Ward, Founder of Foodcloud
Social enterprise FoodCloud has been deemed victorious at the 2015 Google Adopt a Start-up Programme after competing against a high standard of rivals for the top prize.
At an intense dragon-style final held at the Foundry at Google in Dublin, eight finalists presented seven-minute pitches on digital marketing strategies they developed.
“This year’s Adopt a Start-up programme was a resounding success and it was amazing to see the talent and entrepreneurship shown by all 20 participants, in particular our eight finalists,” said Paddy Flynn, head of Google Ireland’s start-up programme. “There was such a high standard that it made for some very tough judging.”
After coming first, FoodCloud, which brings food businesses and charities together, won the top prize of €10,000 in Adwords credit.
Restored Hearing, which provides a clinically-proven solution for chronic tinnitus and hearing problems, won second place and a €5,000 in Adwords credit, while third-placed Bizimply, a start-up that focuses on the management of hourly staff in the service industry, picked up a cheque for €3,000 in Adwords credit.
Designing and executing digital-marketing strategies
All start-ups will also receive a free credit for their first year on Google Apps for Work, which includes Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar and Hangouts, thus enabling them to share, collaborate and communicate from any device with ease.
This year’s competition was the second year of the Adopt a Start-up Programme, which saw 20 of Ireland’s leading start-ups chosen to participate in a 90-day programme of mentoring sessions with Google Ireland’s Start-up Support Teams. Over the course of the programme, each start-up was assigned a Start-up Support Team that worked with them to to develop and execute digital-marketing strategies.
These 20 start-ups were then shortlisted to eight finalists, who were then invited to pitch their developed digital-marketing strategies to Google’s senior management.
“The Adopt a Start-up Programme is about working with young, entrepreneurial Irish companies to help them hone their digital skills so they are strongly positioned to succeed in the digital economy,” Flynn said.
“We want these companies, not only our winners, to take the skills developed during the mentoring programme back into their companies and execute digital strategies to develop their businesses,” Flynn added.
