Astia CEO Sharon Vosmek and managing director Victoria Pettibone. Image via Conor McCabe Photography
Four women-led start-ups presented to an investor audience at the Astia Venture Showcase in Dublin, which took place as part of Inspirefest 2016.
Among the kaleidoscope of talks, panels and Fringe events that took place at Inspirefest 2016, the Astia Venture Showcase saw investor-ready start-ups who passed an exacting screening process in terms of women leadership, equity and influence present their companies.
Normally held in Silicon Valley, New York and London, this is the second time that Astia has held a Venture Showcase in Ireland.
Held in the nearby offices of Accenture at Silicon Docks, the Inspirefest Astia Showcase saw four investor-ready start-ups pitch in front of an audience of seasoned local and international investors.
Astia is a community of experts committed to propelling women’s full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic growth.
The presenting companies were:
Unravel Analytics (Ireland)
Headed by Santina Doherty, former head of online revenue at Ryanair, and UCD computer science graduate Dónal Troddyn, Unravel Analytics is a QA tool for tagging. Its flagship tool, the Unravel Audit Engine, has been architected to detect hidden problems with conversions, advertising and analytics on complex websites.
Ozo Innovations (England)
Led by CEO Rowan Gardner, Oxford-based Ozo Innovations is developing and engineering cost-effective and safe oxidative solutions that deliver infection control, improved hygiene and better productivity in food processing. The company’s ethos is minimising the inputs in terms of water, energy and chemicals and maximising the commercial returns for quality of life.
Clear Returns (Scotland)
Glasgow-based Clear Returns has delivered a predictive-returns intelligence platform that helps retailers retain revenue and profits from refunds and helps retailers adhere to the maxim “it’s not really a sale until your customer decides to keep it”. Headed by Vicky Brock, the company makes use of big data and smart algorithms to predict and intervene to prevent returns.
WizeNoze (Netherlands)
Amsterdam-based WizeNoze offers technology that gives children access to child-friendly content in a child-appropriate way. Headed by Diane Janknegt, at the heart of WizeNoze’s platform is a set of powerful classification algorithms. The technology is the result of years of academic research into information-retrieval algorithms aimed at young people from six-to-18-years-old.
Inspirefest is Silicon Republic’s international event connecting sci-tech professionals passionate about the future of STEM.
