From left: Jennifer McMahon of Seroba Life Sciences with Shane O’Hanlon of InterTradeIreland. Image: InterTradeIreland
Since its inception in 2003, the total awarded to innovative companies through the Seedcorn competition stands at €4.5m.
Start-up and early-stage companies are being encouraged to vie for a share of the latest InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness competition, with a total prize fund worth €280,000.
€100,000 of this is earmarked for the overall winner.
‘The Seedcorn programme is an excellent all-island initiative which helps more emerging entrepreneurs and exciting new innovators to succeed’
– JENNIFER MCMAHON
As well as the chance to win a substantial cash prize, entrants will benefit from guidance, advice and feedback from business experts, investors and other entrepreneurs through a series of business planning workshops and mentorship support throughout the competition.
An all-island story
“For 20 years, InterTradeIreland has supported businesses across the island and many of our biggest success stories have sprung from the Seedcorn competition,” said Shane O’Hanlon, funding for growth manager at InterTradeIreland.
“The support Seedcorn has given to new-start and early-stage businesses goes beyond the €4.5m cash funding. It includes the invaluable advice from industry experts and the wider investment community designed to help these young companies refine their business plans and improve their pitches to potential investors.”
Previous Seedcorn winners include Barracuda FX (Dublin), Loci Orthopaedics (Galway), Valitacell (Dublin), ALR Innovations (Limerick) and Epona Biotech/Stablelab (Sligo).
InterTradeIreland will host a number of free workshops in April and May, aimed at helping those who are considering applying for this year’s Seedcorn competition to prepare their entries.
Companies interested in taking part have to apply here before the closing date for entries at 1pm on Friday 31 May.
“The Seedcorn programme is an excellent all-island initiative which helps more emerging entrepreneurs and exciting new innovators to succeed,” said Jennifer McMahon, principal with Seroba Life Sciences and a member of the 2018 judging panel.
“While prize money is always of benefit to start-up and early-stage companies when striving to reach the next value inflection point, access to the wider InterTradeIreland guidance and investor network is probably the biggest benefit to all finalists.”
