START-UPS

9 Irish start-ups using AI in interesting ways

12 Mar 2020

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We have gathered a range of Irish start-ups using AI in different industries, including music, VR, HR, fintech and customer service.

After Enterprise Ireland’s Start-up Showcase for 2020, we decided to take a closer look at the agency’s high potential start-ups (HPSUs). Last week we focused on emerging firms working on sustainability, and this week we’re taking a look at the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

We have rounded up the start-ups to watch over the next few months. The list includes some businesses on the cutting-edge of AI, using this tech for a variety of purposes in the music industry, virtual reality, HR and customer service.

Allsorter

Based at NovaUCD, Allsorter is an Irish technology company that has developed a SaaS solution for HR professionals. Allsorter is an AI-engineered platform that enables recruiters and HR staff to save time and resources on CV formatting.

Users upload files and Allsorter’s AI algorithms break the CV and accompanying documents into individual parts and extract the relevant information, so that recruiters can quickly see the key details.

Founded by Declan Murphy, the company launched in 2014 with the aim of digitising some of the more mundane aspects of work in recruitment and HR and optimising candidate selection. In 2017, the company received €50,000 in funding from the EU as part of Horizon 2020.

Andrson

Andrson is a solution developed for talent scouts in the music industry. The platform uses audio-enabled search to help the A&R departments of record labels find exactly what they are looking for.

One example the company gives is that record label execs can use the app to search for specific criteria, such as female musicians aged 26 to 35, based within 50 miles of New York who sound 65pc like Jorja Smith. The start-up links unsigned, unmonetised artists with labels by using audio fingerprinting.

The start-up was founded in Dublin in 2017 by Zach Miller-Frankel and Neil Dunne, a pair of musicians who were also working as managers. After experiencing the frustration of trawling the internet trying to find the right acts as managers, and feeling as though it was harder to be discovered as musicians, they decided to try and solve both of these issues.

AudioSourceRE

Cork-based AudioSourceRE was founded by Dr Derry Fitzgerald, who spent years researching the manipulation of audio at Cork Institute of Technology, before the Beach Boys got in touch to ask if they could use the technology he developed.

Fitzgerald’s software enables artists and sound engineers to separate sounds by reverse engineering music and audio back into individual instruments, vocals and layers without the need for multitrack recording. After he was credited on four Beach Boys reissues that he helped to convert from mono recordings into stereo, Fitzgerald realised the commercialisation opportunity his research had created.

He started working with John O’Connell, who is now CEO of AudioSourceRE. The company launched officially in 2018 and last year it was finalising a €1.1m seed funding round.

As well as music production, the company has targeted the karaoke market in Asia as one of its key verticals. The company is currently focusing on R&D and ways to complement Fitzgerald’s work with AI.

EdgeTier

Founded in 2015, EdgeTier is a Dublin start-up that was founded by Bart Lehane, Ciaran Tobin and Shane Lynn. The founding team wanted to build AI applications that could improve efficiency and performance in customer call centres.

In 2019, the company went on to win the Google Adopt a Startup programme, after impressing judges with its AI customer support agent, Arthur. Arthur uses AI, analytics and machine learning to quickly generate personalised responses to a variety of customer queries. The technology is designed to support customer care staff when they are dealing with complex queries.

Shortly before completing the Google Adopt a Startup programme, the company raised €1.5m in seed funding.

PlanDomino

A former Siliconrepublic.com Start-up of the Week, PlanDomino has developed a resource and workflow management tool specifically for pharmaceutical laboratories. The start-up uses this technology, alongside an AI-based automated scheduler, to align laboratories with manufacturing and supply chain through smart integrations and user interfaces.

The company estimates that its service can reduce implementation time by 95pc compared to paper-based solutions, while reducing the time spent tracking samples by 80pc.

Founded by Dr Greg Heaslip in 2017, the Galway-based business wants to help its clients maximise capacity and efficiency and track activity in their labs.  To date, the business has raised €80,000 in funding.

PremindAI

PremindAI is a start-up that is still in stealth mode, according to co-founder and CTO Andrew Mullaney.

The start-up was founded in 2019 and aims to use technology to understand the inherent behaviours of how financial markets react to information, with the aim of making predictions that exceed current capabilities limited to price and volatility movements.

In September 2019, the company participated in the Nvidia Inception Program. In January 2020, the company was selected as a HPSU by Enterprise Ireland.

SoluxR

SoluxR augments and automates risk, governance and strategy management methodologies using natural language processing, text mining and AI. The start-up’s goal is to enhance strategy execution by connecting decision makers with critical information in real time.

SoluxR’s technology can be used to tackle strategic issues such as expansion planning, Brexit planning, continuity operations, crisis response, cyber resilience and GDPR. The firm was founded by Peadar Duffy in 2016 and is based in Dún Laoghaire. According to Tech Ireland, the start-up raised an undisclosed sum in December 2019.

Unitek.AI

Another former Start-up of the Week, Unitek.AI was founded by Martin Brown in 2018.

Unitek.AI’s team has now developed an AI platform that uses deep learning, natural language processing and machine learning to deliver solutions in handwriting recognition, facial recognition, fraud detection and virtual agents across industries such as banking, insurance and finance.

Now based between two offices in London and Dublin, Unitek.AI has worked with companies such as Flender and Open Grid Europe.

VRAI

VRAI is a Dublin start-up that has developed an AI-powered VR simulation platform, entitled Hazardous Environment Awareness Training (HEAT), which has been used by companies such as Samsung, Pfizer and IAG, as well as the UN and the Irish Defence Forces.

HEAT enables employers to prepare for hazardous working environments in a safer setting, while giving them an idea of what to expect out on the field. VRAI says that it is “more than a virtual reality company”, and describes itself as “a content creation company specialising in virtual reality production”.

The company was founded by Pat O’Connor and Niall Campion in 2017. In September 2019, the company raised €575,000 from Enterprise Ireland to further develop HEAT, and earlier this week it was named as this year’s winner of the Dublin City Enterprise award, taking home the top prize of €5,000.

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Kelly Earley was a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com