The latest updates from New Frontiers participants – past and present – as well as important news from the New Frontiers programme and Enterprise Ireland!
Karen Kearney is the founder of Soak, which brings the benefits of sea therapy in products such as sea sprays, body oils, bath soaks, body scrubs and essential oils candles. Read Karen’s story on irishtimes.com.
Congratulations to all the New Frontiers participants and alumni who made it through to the Regional Shortlist of the National Startup Awards. Now in its 13th year, the awards has introduced a special category for New Frontiers startups. Shortlisted in this category are Anyscor, Career Navigator, Evogen, Prepsheets, Ravallon, Spear, BiomiCare, Everywhere English, ParenTalk, Project Pal AI, SoloBoook, and StylAI. Congrats to them and those shortlisted in other categories.
Co-founded by Pierre Yimbog, SoloBook is an AI-powered and community driven travel platform that aims to help solo travellers with planning and booking trips safely. Read more about the startup on siliconrepublic.com.
Congratulations to alumna Aisling Kelly Hunter and the team at Sligo Oyster Experience, winner of the Seafood Innovation Award at this year’s Blas na hÉireann awards. Read more about Aisling’s startup at independent.ie.
Score Beo, founded by alumnus Fergus Grimes, has been acquired by The Irish Times Group – a particularly notable achievement given that the group has only acquired five companies in its history. Score Beo provides GAA fans with live scores and match lineups and has been downloaded 190,000 times since the startup was founded in May 2021.
Michaela Esperjesiova came to the north west to try out surfing but loved it so much that she stayed and founded her own startup, The Ocean Apothecary. Read more about her story on independent.ie.
Congratulations to Emma Meehan, founder of Galway-based sports tech and digital health firm Precision Sports Technology. The startup has won the KPMG Global Tech Innovator (GTI) Ireland final and will now represent Ireland at the global competition in Lisbon this November.
Gclinics, an Irish start-up founded by scientist and genetic engineer Auindrila Das, wants to streamline the genetic-testing process. By working with healthcare professionals and medical labs, Gclinics aims to make it easier to diagnose genetic diseases. Read the profile on siliconrepublic.com.
My Moves Matter has developed an app to help people with Parkinson’s disease track their care. Having become an Enterprise Ireland client company earlier this years, co-founder Richelle Flanagan is scoping out pilots for a digital medical nutritional therapy trial with Tallaght University Hospital and a nutrition programme for people with Parkinson’s in the UK.
Congratulations to New Frontiers alumnus Daniel Coen on raising €540,000 in seed funding to bring his fan experience platform overseas. The Dublin-based startup, Skippio, aims to improve fans’ experiences at large events by reducing long queues at food and drink stands.
ByoWave’s Proteus Controller is like ‘Lego for video-game controllers’. The company has just raised €1.5 million to bring its product to market, with a second tranche to come later. Read the story on irishtimes.com.
Irish start-up Slick+ bridges the gap in tacit learning associated with remote working. Read the interview with co-founders Linda Hegarty and Paul Conneally on irishtimes.com.
Slick+ is a user-friendly video creation tool that taps into the knowledge already in people’s heads and lets them share skills, organisational insights, job know-how and in-house ways of doing things with their colleagues. Read the profile on irishtimes.com.
Sorting out an estate when someone dies can be a sad and confusing experience for an executor and a time-consuming one for solicitors and their legal staff. Simple Probate is a legal tech company focused on improving the experience of being an executor while freeing up time for legal professionals. Read more on irishtimes.com.
12 High Growth Startups completed the fourth Prep4Seed Programme delivered by the Irish BICs in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, preparing them for seed investment. On the Final Investor Pitch Day, New Frontiers alumnus Frank Clare of Ommu Petfood won the ‘Best Pitch’ Award. Congratulations to all who took part.
New Frontiers alumna, Lauren O’Reilly of Promotion Rewards, appeared on the Guaranteed Irish podcast recently. Promotion Rewards is a viral shopping rewards app, and amongst the topics discussed was the power of micro-Influencers for Lauren’s business and how any business can use them to grow.
Interview on irishtimes.com with alumnus James Kelly of Agilepitch. Their AI platform will automate repetitive tasks that slow down the process of closing a deal.
Congratulations to Paul Byrnes and the team at Mavarick as they raise €1.3 million to drive international expansion. This is the first fundraise for the company which has been largely bootstrapped until now. It also was awarded €100,000 funding as part of the InterTrade Seedcorn competition late last year.
Eóin Tuohy, CEO and Founder of Sports Impact Technologies, was interviewed for siliconrepublic.com‘s Start-up of the Week column. “Concussion is an ongoing issue in sports and unfortunately five in 10 concussions go unreported or undetected. Our mission is to make these undetected concussions a thing of the past.”
Business Post published its list of the young leading lights of the next generation of tech in Ireland, featuring New Frontiers alumnus Joel Olympio, co-founder and CEO of Chapter, a product design company developing hardware technologies that aim to address issues faced by neurodivergent people.
BovinePlus allows for early detection of health issues, the optimisation of feeding strategies and more informed breeding decisions. Founder Kieran Supple is a New Frontiers alumus. Read the interview on irishtimes.com.
Hollianne Phelan is the founder of Cotone Collection, which makes luxury handmade sleepwear that is stocked in top stores such as Brown Thomas. Read the profile on laois-nationalist.ie.
SavvySpender lets users create a shopping list, calculate the cost and then compare prices across supermarkets. Founder Stephen Harvey was interviewed by irishtimes.com.
Advertising platform Buymedia is expanding its workforce in Galway with plans to create 100 highly skilled new roles. The startup was founded in 2015 by Fergal O’Connor. See more on siliconrepublic.com.
Elaine Kennedy’s skincare brand, Hawthorn Handmade Skincare, began after she became interested in crafts when her sister bought her a book on craft-making in her teens. Read the interview with westernpeople.ie.
Scurri opened its new state-of-the-art headquarters, which will serve as an operational base for over 100 workers with plans to recruit for 40 new roles across sales, marketing, support and engineering over the next 24 months. Read more on independent.ie.
Anyscor is aimed at all types of amateur sports and designed to empower coaches by giving them accurate information about the game while providing fans with the kind of up to date information they want. Read the interview with founder Colin Deering on irishtimes.com.
Skippio won the Best Pitch award after pitching to a panel of angel and VC investors at Enterprise Ireland, while autotech start-up Hibra Design was awarded the One to Watch prize at the Investor Pitch Day. Read more about them on siliconrepublic.com.
Mavarick AI, co-founded by Dr Paul Byrnes, has been announced as the overall winner of the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition, walking away with a cash prize of €100,000 to invest in their business
Online brand protection startup, GreyScout, has secured €3.5 million in seed funding. Led by Act VC and Tribal, the seed round will help the Dublin-based start-up expand its product, engineering and platform teams to meet growing demand. Congratulations to founders John Killian and Chris McCauley. Read more on siliconrepublic.com.
Fembition aims to stem the flow of women leaving the workforce for pregnancy and fertility reasons. Founded by New Frontiers alumna Alison Clarke, the company is currently piloting trials with a number of fertility clinics. Read the interview on irishtimes.com.
Daniel Coen is featured in Silicon Republic’s Start-up of the Week column. He founded Dublin-based Skippio last year to increase efficiency at venues. The app can reduce queueing times by 92% compared to the global industry average.
Positive Carbon, the Irish start-up tackling the issue of food waste, has secured €2.3m in seed funding to bring its innovative technology to the EU and UK markets. Read more on siliconrepublic.com.
ProMotion Rewards has landed a key deal with prestige skincare brand Clarins. Co-founded by New Frontiers alumna Lauren O’Reilly, ProMotion Rewards aims to redefine the shopping experience by bridging the gap between consumer goods brands and their customers.
Founded by New Frontiers alumnus Conor Motyer, Brace was recently awarded the Best New Start Dublin regional trophy. Brace has developed a social rehabilitation app that uses exercise tracking, gamification and community support to improve physical and mental health outcomes for those undergoing rehabilitation.
New Frontiers alumna and founder of Soothing Solutions, Sinéad Crowther, was announced as the Enterprise Ireland High-Potential Start-Up (HPSU) Founder of the Year for 2023 at their awards event. Founded in 2017, Louth-based healthcare firm Soothing Solutions manufactures a range of honey jelly pops called Tonstix aimed at providing a children’s alternative to lozenges.
An interview on irishtimes.com with New Frontiers alumna Megan White, founder of Runsafe. Last year, Megan won one of Three Ireland’s Grants for Small Businesses and put the cash and connectivity solutions to work developing her second prototype. The Runsafe vest helps solo runners be seen and bridges innovative tech with women’s safety.
Eóin Tuohy, founder of Sports Impact Technologies, was recently interviewed by irishtimes.com after successfully raising €100,000 from Enterprise Ireland’s Pre-Seed Startup Fund (PSSF). His company has created a wearable monitor that detects hazardous sporting impacts to make high-impact sports safer.
Cork-headquartered EudaOrg has built a platform for businesses that want to make real organisational change in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion. Read more on thinkbusiness.ie.
Irish software company Tailr has raised €700,000 in investment to help fund its plans to drive sustainable fashion in the garment industry. The company is being backed by Delta Partners and Haatch. Read more in the Irish Times.
An interview with Aisling Cullen, CEO of Thanks Plants, which produces a range of meatless meat products available across Ireland in Supervalu, Tesco and independent stores. Read on checkout.ie.
The ag tech company’s remote weighing equipment is designed to improve farmers’ access to data on their animals and use it to optimise their farm management. Read the interview with co-founder and alumnus, Michéal McInerney on farmersjournal.ie.
Martin Phelan shares the success his company has experienced after embarking on three phases of the New Frontiers programme. Martin’s idea was to remove grease from kitchen canopies/hoods in hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets etc by means of an automated cleaning system which he called The Grease Shark. Read more on kilkennypeople.ie.
Congratulations to two New Frontiers alumnae named in the Business Post’s 30 Under 30! Anna Carmody, founder of Little Red Edu and Lauren O’Reilly, co-founder of Promotion Rewards.
Aisling Kirwan, co-founder and COO of Positive Carbon: ‘Our device, which sits above the bin, tracks and logs every single new piece of food that’s added to the bin.’ Read more on BusinessPost.
Founder and CEO Maebh Reynolds has a grant-only funding target of €100,000 for the venture. Her idea is to allow EV owners to avail of privately owned charging stations in their area. Read more on BusinessPlus.
In a deal that values the company at €7.56 million, shift work marketplace Gigable is aiming to raise €800,000 through an equity crowdfunding campaign as it plans growth overseas. More on irishtimes.com.
Parkinson’s speech therapy startup Teleatherapy recently raised €700,000 in pre-seed funding from Enterprise Ireland and private investors to grow its business. Read more about their trials with the HSE on siliconrepublic.com.
John Curry from Smart X Assistant joins South East Radio’s Karl Fitzpatrick to discuss the concept behind his company, why he is targeting mortgage brokers as clients and his international expansion plans. Listen to the recording.
Overall exports by client companies of Enterprise Ireland grew by 19% last year, with significant growth in both Eurozone and UK exports. Read more on siliconrepublic.com.
Byowave, a company that makes computer games controllers for people with disabilities, has raised €2.4 million from a number of seasoned investors, including Halo Business Angel Network, Enterprise Ireland and Irrus Investments. Read more on businesspost.ie.
Congratulations to Gráinne Mullins, founder of Grá Chocolates, and Aisling Byrne, founder of re-commerce app Nuw, on being named in the Forbes 30 under 30 recently! More on independent.ie.
The WiseSalmon algorithm uses machine learning to automatically evaluate students’ answers in practice Leaving Certificate Biology examinations. Secondary school teacher and founder, Siobhan Ryan, was interviewed for this article on irishtechnews.ie.
Claire Keane from Second Street Bakeshop was a first time entrant, finalist and winner of the Irish Food Awards with the deliciously moreish sea salt toffee brittle and also the winner of Best Start Up, supported by Bank of Ireland. Read more on their site.
Paul Jackman’s firm, Handsome Scent, specialises in travel-sized vessels of fragrances for men under 30. Read about his business on irishtimes.com.
LiveCosts is a Blanchardstown-based business with a simple goal. It tells construction companies if they are making money or not in real time. As is often the case, simple doesn’t mean easy. Read the interview with co-founder and New Frontiers alumnus, Ciaran Brennan, on businesspost.ie.
Teleatherapy, a MedTech startup in Co Cork, has raised €700,000 to improve access to speech therapy for people living with Parkinson’s disease. Read the interview with New Frontiers alumna, Clare Meskill, on independent.ie.
In.Line uses dog’s momentum to guide it back to owner’s side if it starts moving too far away. Read the profile on Eamonn Dempsey of Baumutt on irishtimes.com.
Huge congratulations to all the New Frontiers alumni who took home a National Startup Award this year: Gold (Early Stage Tech): Heidi Davis – Identify Her; Bronze (Early Stage Tech): James Power – Agri Guardian; Gold (Tech): Pierce Dargan – Equine MediRecord; Silver (Emerging Tech): Emma Meehan – Precision Sports; Bronze (Emerging Tech): Stephen O’Dwyer – Trojan Track; Gold (eCommerce/Retail): Alan Power – SizeWise; Bronze (eCommerce/Retail): Erica Hargadan – Babogue; Gold (Social/Sustainable): Aisling Kirwan – Positive Carbon; Gold (Food/Drink): Gráinne Mullins – Gra Chocolates; Silver (Food/Drink): Aisling Cullen – Thank Plants; Gold (Fintech): Alva Horgan – Valid8me.
Located in the ATU Galway iHub, New Frontiers past participant ByoWave wins €100,000 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition. Congratulations to the team!
Emma Meehan, founder of Precision Sports Technology, was interviewed by irishtimes.com. Her start-up’s real-time analysis of fitness training removes the need for personal trainers to supervise client’s form during workouts.
Tr3dent, the Galway-based tech company, is targeting $100 million in annual revenues within five years as part of a plan which involves an unusual element: a public listing on a Canadian stock market: businesspost.ie.
Matt Conlon and Conor Flannery are developing a system that would close the threat gap and streamline the workload for security teams swamped by the demands of manually reviewing thousands of weak spots in IT networks: irishtimes.com.
ByoWave, a Galway tech start-up aiming to make gaming more accessible, has bagged €100,000 as overall winner of the 2022 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition: siliconrepublic.com.
An interview with Greta Dunne, founder of Marker Content, on businesspost.ie. Greta is an alumna of the programme at TUD’s Hothouse.
New platform connects budding tech entrepreneurs with potential collaborators, employees and investors. An interview on irishtimes.com.
Going for Growth, a programme jointly run by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, assists ambitious women entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions. An interview with Sonia Neary, CEO and co-founder of Wellola on thinkbusiness.ie.
A record number of entrepreneurs are setting up businesses with export potential in the Cork and Kerry region through the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme. Read more on echolive.ie.
The healthtech company, which has developed software to streamline staff rostering and internal communication for hospitals, is looking to further expand in the US in the absence of take-up here at home. Interview with Aimée Madden on businesspost.ie.
Pharmacists used their retail experience to develop an app that rewards consumers who share details on their shopping habits with brands. Interview with alumna Lauren O’Reilly and her co-founder Bidemi Afolabi on businesspost.ie.
New Frontiers features on thetimes.co.uk (paywall), “state-backed mentorship scheme helps budding start-up owners plot a course to success in business”.
Siblings Niamh and Ruairi Dooley have created a food supplement from the grains left over from the craft brewing industry. Their BiaSol Super Milled Grains is a zero-waste, nutritional supplement. Read more on irishtimes.com.
Irish start-up Snapfix, founded by Paul McCarthy, has received €1.75m in a funding round, backed by US investment group Sator Grove Holdings, to develop its building management platform. Paul was interviewed for siliconrepublic.com.
CitySwift has secured a one-year pilot deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to deploy its software across a handful of bus routes from February. Read more on irishtimes.com.
Alan Power decided to use his skills in engineering and mobile app development to create SizeWise, an AI-based sizing solution that allows parents to scan their child’s foot using a smartphone. Read more on irishtimes.com.
Congratulations to Contego Sports, which was among 65 companies to receive funding of over €360 million via the first European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, for which more than 2,700 applications were made.
Dublin-based marketing solutions company, GladCloud, which counts Diageo among its clients, helps brands provide targeted local advertising. Founders Keith Curley and Tony Burke plan to hire 90 new staff over the next two years. Read more on businesspost.ie.
Stylist Shauna Cashell’s new business is designed to ‘make shopping easy’ by helping its visitors to make inspired fashion choices and spend their time and money wisely. Read an interview with Shauna on traleetoday.ie.
Nicole Baker of Biologit aims to help keep patients safe by simplifying the detection of adverse events from drug development to post-market by automating the task of monitoring scientific literature. Read more on siliconrepublic.com.
Steve Fleming, founder of Voxxify, has been interviewed for businesspost.ie following a partnership deal with Dell. The startup helps large companies manage their IT spend.
New Frontiers alumnus, Dr. Barry Flannery, is the founder of Xerotech – a company that electrifies construction equipment, mining equipment, agricultural machinery, and other non-road mobile machinery. They are expanding their team to 70, with plans to build a European gigafactory in rural Galway. Read more on siliconrepublic.com.
ViClarity has announced that regulatory compliance consulting firm, PolicyWorks LLC, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, will rebrand under the ViClarity name. The rebrand will enable the organisations to drive growth globally through the combination of leading-edge technology and consulting expertise. Read more on irishbusinessfocus.ie.
Jolene Cox is the founder of One Yummy Mummy, a family cooking club promiting hassle-free, healthy food. Read the irishtimes.com interview.
Sonia Neary started the new year with a major new contract which sees her company Wellola partnering with Nutricia, the Danone-owned therapeutic food and clinical nutrition company, to provide care services remotely to nursing homes in Ireland. Read more on businesspost.ie.
Gina Oglesby was inspired to start Back To Work Connect by the number of well-qualified and experienced women she met who had either left or been forced out of the workforce. She was recently interviewed for irishtimes.com.
Founded by two first-year engineering students, Alice Shaughnessy and Jack O’Regan Kenny, Mirr is a device that lets users stream Netflix, listen to Spotify or check the weather while maintaining a reflective surface on screen space that’s not in use. Read their interview on siliconrepublic.com.
Cian O’Flaherty, CEO of the Convex Lens and founder of Safecility, has raised €110k in funding from the European Space Agency and EU Horizon 2020 to develop Safecility – a product designed to cut the cost of maintaining emergency lighting in buildings while upholding the high standards of compliance that are required. Congratulations!
Snapfix, founded by New Frontiers alumnus Paul McCarthy, has closed a €1.5 million funding round. Snapfix bills itself as “the world’s task management and teamwork platform” with clients in construction, airports, hotels, facilities and property management sectors. The company plans to raise a Series-A investment in 2021 as it seeks to become a billion-dollar business.
Crua Outdoors has staged an impressive seven successful rounds on Kickstarter. Founder Derek O’Sullivan was interviewed for kerryscitech.com about the experience of raising finance online.
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