Ann Marie Phelan, Tom Flanagan and Paula Carroll. Image: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
The start-up hubs have secured €1.6m in funding from Enterprise Ireland to operate the entrepreneur programme in south Dublin.
IADT Media Cube and NovaUCD have secured €1.6m from Enterprise Ireland to operate the New Frontiers entrepreneur programme in Dublin.
New Frontiers provides support and resources, as well as funding from Enterprise Ireland, to budding entrepreneurs that are getting their businesses off the ground. The programme, which will cover the south Dublin area, will support up to 55 entrepreneurs annually over the next five years. It kicks off in October.
IADT Media Cube at Dún Laoghaire’s Institute of Art, Design and Technology has been delivering the programme since 2013 with several successful companies including Ambr Eyewear, Snapfix and CheckVentory coming through the ranks.
Ann Marie Phelan, enterprise and innovation manager at IADT Media Cube, said the new partnership will consolidate various supports for entrepreneurs under one programme.
“[It] will go a long way to supporting start-up companies in the local region while providing them with expert insight and access to innovative practice-led research in design, technology and entrepreneurship that has been integral to the Media Cube’s success,” she said.
NovaUCD, the start-up innovation hub at University College Dublin, will assist in delivering this new incarnation of New Frontiers. More than 400 start-ups spanning various tech sectors have come through NovaUCD and have gone on to raise more than €775m in funding.
“The programme aligns well [with] the VentureLaunch, 5G/IoT, advanced manufacturing and European Space Agency accelerator programmes we deliver,” Tom Flanagan, director of enterprise and commercialisation at NovaUCD, said.
“NovaUCD and IADT Media Cube complement each other with our different areas of expertise and I am confident that this will lay the foundations for a very successful series of New Frontiers programmes in the years ahead.”
“The addition of this programme with two experienced delivery partners will strengthen the reach and impact of the programme within the greater south Dublin area,” Enterprise Ireland’s Paula Carroll, national programme manager at New Frontiers, added.
New Frontiers is operated across 15 locations around Ireland.
