James Foody, Ayda
Ireland’s best young entrepreneur (IBYE) has been named, with Cork man James Foody picking up a €50,000 investment fund for his work with Ayda, a company developing an app to aid women’s fertility.
James Foody (24) co-founded Ayda after finishing a Masters in biomedical engineering research.
The company’s mobile phone app is being designed to help women track fertility levels, and a wearable fertility tracker solution is also being developed for launch mid-2016.
The award was announced at Google’s Dublin HQ, with Cork’s local enterprise office on hand to laud Foody, who also took the ‘Best Start-Up’ award.
€100,000 in total was won at the event. €20,000 went to Blaine Doyle of GlowDX, a diagnostics company which is setting out to diagnose neglected tropical diseases more cheaply in developing countries. €30,000 went to James Keogh of Rathwood, known for its year-round themed events.
The Google award for ‘Best Online Promotion of Business’ went to Isolde Johnson of The Cool Bean Company, Dublin, which develops a range of healthy meals. Each of the winners will now be offered a place at the Google ‘Adopt a Startup’ programme in 2016.
“On behalf of the Government, I’d like to congratulate James Foody from Ayda on being named as Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur for 2015,” said Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs.
“But more importantly, I’d like to congratulate the 1,400 young people who entered this competition through the local enterprise offices and those that made it through to the local, regional or national finals.
“I’ve been personally inspired by the energy, commitment and ambition of these young business-people.
“By promoting entrepreneurship as a career choice, we can ensure that we start more businesses and ultimately create more jobs.”
