The winners from this year’s Catalyst Co-Founders programme. Image: Catalyst
The 10 start-ups secured proof-of-concept funding after completing the first phase of Catalyst’s Co-Founders programme.
10 start-ups from Northern Ireland are getting a funding boost following their successful completion of the Catalyst Co-Founders programme.
The 10 early-stage companies will each get £10,000 in proof-of-concept funding to further develop their ideas.
Co-Founders is an annual entrepreneurship programme that has been run by Northern Ireland tech innovation non-profit Catalyst since 2017. It allows teams to validate their ideas, test them in the real world, develop their businesses and pitch for a proof-of-concept award.
The start-ups that have received funding this year span sectors from fintech and health to education and climate-tech.
As well as receiving funding to develop their businesses, they also progress to the next stage of the Catalyst Co-Founders programme. The second phase gives start-ups access to mentors and industry specialists to accelerate their idea.
“Co-Founders provides the opportunity for anyone with an entrepreneurial spark to come together and co-found a start-up in a supportive environment,” said Hannah Cummings, Co-Founders programme manager at Catalyst.
“We believe increasing the number of individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset will have huge benefits to the Northern Ireland economy.”
Catalyst’s Co-Founders programme is supported by the Department of the Economy in Northern Ireland.
Last year’s programme funded start-ups such as Belfast Lifestyle Medicine, which is developing an app for managing chronic conditions; Stable Pro, an online platform for managing horse wellbeing; and Atlas Fitness, a fitness app that uses machine learning to create custom workouts.
This year’s awardees are:
- Pneuvo, a software platform designing better drugs to benefit humanity
- Insurin, a mobile app that aims to help newly diagnosed diabetics to manage their condition
- ProspectRx, an AI-directed precision medicine tool aimed at improving treatment options for poorly served patient populations
- Medik.AI, an AI tool making it easier to analyse symptoms and direct patients to appropriate medical services
- Stable Manager, an equestrian digital hub to quantify equine performance and simplify horse care
- Pocket Angler, a dedicated fishery management system and real-time travel partner for anglers
- Win it Together, a digital tool for fundraising raffles
- Tapa, a tool connecting students in university to local employers seeking workers
- Exapt Feedback, a tool making online learning work for everyone
- Unify, a business and brand-building platform for the creator economy
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