Pat Phelan, co-founder of Trustev, which scooped the top award in the Start Tel Aviv (TLV) Ireland contest. Credit: Jason Clarke Photography
Trustev, the Irish start-up that has come up with a social fingerprinting solution, is continuing to catch the eye of the investment and start-up community alike. Last night, Trustev added another string to its bow, as it was named top start-up in the Irish leg of the international Start Tel Aviv (TLV) competition.
In June, Trustev also came onto the radar of the European digital community when it was named Europe’s ‘top start-up’ by the European Commission’s Tech All Star Initiative.
As for Start TLV, the aim of the contest is to select what the judges deem to be the most innovative start-ups from 13 countries
Last night’s contest was held in the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) in Dublin.
In all, the chosen Irish start-ups had to pitch their wares to a judging panel that included Brian Caulfield from the venture capital firm DFJ Esprit), Lisa Vaughan from Enterprise Ireland, Paul Hayes from Games Ireland and Darren Daly from Byrne Wallace.
Nightscape in Tel Aviv, Israel. Image via Start Tel Aviv Ireland Facebook page
Learning from Israel’s start-up ecosystem
While the Blackrock, Cork-based Trustev came out as the overall winner, the classroom social-learning platform Gotacha Ninjas took home the best video award.
The awards were presented by the Israeli ambassador Boaz Modai and deputy ambassador Nurit Tinari-Modai.
The Ireland Israel Business Network initiated the Irish leg of the competition.
Fionnuala Healy from Gotacha Ninjas. The cloud-based interactive education start-up home the best video award. Credit: Jason Clarke Photography
As well as Trustev and Gotacha Ninjas, the other Irish finalists were the digital marketing analytics service 3Funnel; the cloud-based music service Buzzoo, and Fair & Square, the online legal service to help people resolve divorces and wills.
Other Irish finalists included the mobile advertising start-up FoneSense, plus FuzzieLabs, a geo-social network for independent travellers, the e-commerce platform Scurri and the music-discovery app Seevl.
Now Trustev will get to head to Tel Aviv, Israel, for a five-day workshop. While there, its co-founders will get to mingle and meet with investors and multinationals.
Trustev will be joined by teams from Denmark, France, the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, India, China, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico and Colombia.
