The Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Image: StockPhoto/Shutterstock
Competition to attend Start TLV in Israel is seen as ‘must win’ rite of passage for Irish start-ups, and women are getting equal representation.
Eight start-ups have been shortlisted for the Irish leg of Start TLV and half of them are led by women entrepreneurs.
The development comes on the heels of a speech by Carol Gibbons, director of ICT programmes at Enterprise Ireland at Inspirefest 2017 earlier this month, where she said that half of Enterprise Ireland-supported start-ups are now women-led. “And we’re going to keep going,” she told the audience.
‘Ireland and Israel are two small countries on the opposite edges of Europe with many similarities in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology focus’
– CLYDE HUTCHISON
The DLD tech conference in Tel Aviv is a major tech event in Israel and, every year, Irish start-ups compete in the Start TLV competition.
Previous winners – Trustev, Bizimply, LogoGrab and GirlCrew – have used the event as a stepping stone for wins in national and international competitions, and to increase their reputation in their markets.
Last year, GirlCrew represented Ireland in Tel Aviv.
A leading light for female entrepreneurship
This year, eight companies are competing at an event at Amazon Web Services in Dublin on 1 August to have the honour of representing Ireland.
These include: TickerFit (Avril Copeland), Store My Script (Nina Byrnes), VideoDoc (Mary O’Brien), Think Biosolution (Shourjya Sanyal), Brainey App (Niamh Malone), TOR (Robert Harte), MyMoodandMe (Richard Murphy) and MediMee (Bernard Nolan).
The judging panel will include Jennifer McMahon (Seroba Lifesciences), Georgina Murphy (Atlantic Bridge), Brian Marrinan (Journey Partners) and Colette Sexton (Sunday Business Post).
“Ireland and Israel are two small countries on the opposite edges of Europe with many similarities in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology focus,” said Start TLV Ireland organiser Clyde Hutchison.
“We are delighted that Ireland has been selected again as one of countries for Start TLV 2017, validating Ireland’s place amongst the leading hubs for innovation and start-ups as [a] leading light for female-led entrepreneurship.”
