Taoiseach Enda Kenny pictured with Dogpatch Europe's entrepreneur-in-residence Noel Ruane at the launch of Dogpatch Labs Europe in Dublin last September
It’s just a mere six months since US venture capital player Polaris located its Dogpatch Labs Europe start-up hub in Dublin, and already the lab has seen off six US$1m-plus investments.
Noel Ruane, Dog Patch Europe entrepreneur-in-residence, made the announcement at the launch of the Dublin Web Summit this evening at Trinity College Dublin.
For instance, just weeks after moving into the Dublin Patch, Profitero, intelligence for retailers obtained a €750,000 investment, in a financing round. Then, in February the company went on to win IBM’s Global Smart Camp finals in San Francisco.
In January Biz Stone, co-founder of microblogging site Twitter, Huddle’s Andy McLoughlin and 500 Startups put another US$1m into Irish software start-up Intercom, a CRM tool for web businesses that features Google Analytics-like integration.
Dogpatch Labs was developed by technology venture capital player Polaris Ventures to provide creative space for entrepreneurs to connect and share ideas and experiences to get their start-ups up and running.
Companies launched out of Dogpatch from its various hubs in New York, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Palo Alto in Silicon Valley include Instagram, Formspring, FancyHands, JIBE, Turntable.FM and Thing Labs.
The photo-sharing site Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook last week for about US$1bn, started out at Dog Patch in San Francisco.
Speaking at the launch of the Dublin Web Summit this evening, Ruane, said he was cautious but also optimistic about the Dublin Dogpatch hub.
“Suffice to say, thus far Dogpatch Labs Europe here in Dublin isn’t just barking, it’s biting!” he said.
“It would be easy for me to extol the virtues of Dogpatch Labs Europe but the numbers do the talking. I’m confident this is just the start.”
Prior to joining Polaris, Ruane was founder and former CEO of Brandmail Solutions.
It’s not solely start-ups that are incubating in Dog Patch. James Whelton, the 19-year-old co-founder of the Coder Dojo movement, has also based himself at the Dublin hub.
Whelton’s Coder Dojo has done workshops for coders as young as four in everywhere from Dublin, to London and Tokyo.
The Dublin Web Summit will take place in the RDS on from 16 to 18 October.
