Clients in the news

Huge Congratulations to our friend and longtime supporter John Mullins, Founder & Executive Chairman Amarenco who won Large Cork Company of the Year 2023.

Amarenco is one of the leading independent renewable energy producers in Europe. With more than 800 projects, they have been working for a decade with farmers, local communities, industries and commercial enterprises to develop, build and operate large and medium-scale solar projects.

John has participated in many CorkBIC events like the CorkBIC Celebration of High Growth Companies, The Venture Academy™ and most recently at the EBAN Congress in Cork, May 2022.

LegitFit, led by Ryan O’Neill, Gearoid Collins and Ian O’ Sullivan won Emerging Cork Company of the Year 2023.

Based in Cork, LegitFit has developed a platform that provides scheduling and management software for fitness businesses. It aims to cut down on administrative work in gyms and studios, and includes tools for bookings, scheduling, communications, billing and payments. 

CorkBIC has worked with LegitFit over the years on their business planning, raising investment. LegitFit pitched at the 2020 CorkBIC Venture Academy™ where they were offered investment on the spot based on their pitch!!

CorkBIC are delighted for recent Entrepreneur Experience Alum Clare Meskill, founder of Teleatherapy, who has raised €700,000 in investment.

Founded in 2020, Cork based Teleatherapy aims to better connect speech therapists with Parkinson’s disease patients to reduce waiting lists.

Clare participated in the 2021 Entrepreneur Experience™ and has worked with CorkBIC on business planning and investor pitching.

The funding came from private investors and Enterprise Ireland, which will be used to help expand the company’s team and its product.

Clare-based HR software company HRLocker has raised €2 million in funding that will fuel growth in the coming months and allow it to move into new markets.

Founded in 2014 by Adam Coleman, CorkBIC has worked with Adam on his business plan and investor pitch and Adam participated in the 2019 Entrepreneur Experience™.

The investment was led by MACX3 Investments, Hugh O’Donnell’s investment firm, along with entrepreneurs, family offices and private investors. 

This is the first time the company has taken on external funding, with its founder Adam Coleman bootstrapping previous development. It currently employs about 50 people, a goal it announced two years ago.

Great News for Cork based medical device company AventaMed, who have been acquired by the family-owned medical technology company KARL STORZ. AventaMed developed the Solo+ TTD, a breakthrough single-use medical device that addresses the pain points of the current treatment of the ENT surgical tympanostomy procedure to enable an entirely new method of treatment. 

Since the early days, CorkBIC has worked extensively with AventaMed founders, Olive O'Driscoll & John Vaughan on business plans, HPSU Application and raising several rounds of investment with Cork based syndicate Boole and Limerick based Irrus Investments. AventaMed have participated in CorkBIC initiatives like The Entrepreneur Experience™ and CorkBIC's Celebration of High Growth Businesses. 

CorkBIC are delighted for Olive, John, Keith and all the team at Aventamed as well as our Angel Investors who backed Aventamed from the start and stayed with them over the years.

Tech start-up Byowave has been named the overall winner of the prestigious InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition, pocketing a cash prize of €100,000.

ByoWave makes modular, accessible and customisable video game controllers for people with disabilities. The company has developed a new solution allowing users to build their own controllers based on their own physical needs, and have unrestricted access to the world of video-gaming.

ByoWave, based in Galway was founded by Brandon Blacoe and Eibhlin O'Riordan, CEO Brandon Blacoe (pictured above) & Senior Engineer, Ronan Murphy participated in the 2021 Entrepreneur Experience. 

Huge Congrats to Stephen Nolan (pictured above) managing director of food tech company Nutritics, who has won the inaugural sustainability prize at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (EoY) awards.

The new award was presented to the “finalist who is making the biggest contribution towards environmental sustainability through their business”, EY said in a statement, “recognising the critical importance of innovation leadership in meeting our collective sustainability challenges”.

Founded in 2012, Nutritics has developed a fully automated, easy-to-use carbon footprint scoring called Footprint to help food services businesses and their customers manage their carbon impact.

Stephen participated in the CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience in 2021 and CorkBIC has worked with Stephen over the years.

Cork based Treemetrics has signed a €1.2 million contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) that will see the company use satellite imaging, data analytics and its advanced forest measurement technology to provide more accurate forest carbon credit estimates.

Founders Enda Keane & Garrett Mulloly participated in the 2015 Entrepreneur Experience. Enda & Garrett worked with CorkBIC in the early days of business planning and we are delighted to congratulate Enda & Garrett on this substantial contract with the European Space Agency.

Founded in 2005 by Enda Keane and Garrett Mulloly, Treemetrics has worked in more than 40 countries, developing a forest monitoring platform that replace traditional methods of managing forests. It captures and analyses forestry data to help enable forest owners and managers to maximise sustainable production and profitability.

Read the full announcement in the Irish Times

“The way I see it is you set out on the road on a very foggy night and as long as you keep between the ditches the fog will lift."

Tom Lyons, CEO & co-founder of The Currency spoke to Frank Madden CEO, Founder Crest Solutions at the recent CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience.

Frank participated in the very first Entrepreneur Experience in 2011 as an emerging entrepreneur and since has returned for the last number of years as one of our key Seasoned Entrepreneurs. Tom participated in the 2019 Entrepreneur Experience alongside his co-founder Ian Kehoe having just founded The Currency.

CorkBIC has worked with and supported Frank since the very start of Crest Solutions. Frank gave a very honest presentation during the Entrepreneur Experience, on his journey from Bootstrap to Global. “A lot of times when you are setting up in business the first idea might be the stupidest idea, but it doesn’t matter"

For Frank the importance of his customers cannot be understated "For years I only had one sort of simple story to tell. It is the story of being a customer-funded business for 24 years,” "A customer funded business means that the only place I get money from is my customers."

Frank also spoke about the recent investment deal that is "one of the biggest corporate finance deals of the year, yet it barely makes a ripple in the Irish media when it is announced on October 12."

This is an incredibly honest interview and well worth a read.

Click HERE to read the full article

Cork based software provider LegitFit has closed a €1m seed funding round to help accelerate its expansion into the UK. Ryan O'Neill (pictured above) CEO and co-founder pitched at the CorkBIC 2020 Venture Academy which took place online due to the Covid Pandemic and attracted 167 people from 17 countries Countries.

LegitFit has developed a platform that provides scheduling and management software for fitness businesses. It aims to cut down on administrative work in gyms and studios, and includes tools for bookings, scheduling, communications, billing and payments

The latest funding round was led by Irish early-stage VC firm Delta Partners, among other investors. LegitFit has been previously backed by accelerators such as Ignite and TechStars.

“This is a really exciting milestone for our company and for our customers – some of whom are investors,” said LegitFit CEO Ryan O’Neill.

Click here to Read the full article in the Silicon Republic

CorkBIC is delighted to congratulate, Entrepreneur Experience Alumna, Clare Meskill, founder of Teleatherapy on winning the Start Up of the Year award at the annual UCC Research Awards! Clare participated in the 2021 Entrepreneur Experience in Ballymaloe.

The UCC Research Awards event celebrates excellence in Research and Innovation took place in June at the Glucksman Gallery. 

Teleatherapy is a MedTech company that provides voice therapy to individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Early intervention and a holistic approach are essential for this cohort of patients, which are difficult to access in strained healthcare systems. Teleatherapy aims to bridge this gap by providing remote early intervention for patients’ Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy.

Read the full Article here

CorkBIC is delighted for our friends & Entrepreneur Experience Alumni Rónán Ó Dálaigh & Timur Negru, co-founders of Thriftify, who recently raised €1.6 million investment and hopes to create 20 jobs over the next year. Rónán & Timur participated in the CorkBIC 2021 Entrepreneur Experience and contributed so much to the discussions within the groups and sessions.

"Never have I been in a room with so many talented, experienced & passionate entrepreneurs. It was a whirlwind of deep domain knowledge, quick win tips and long-term inspiration", commented Rónán Ó Dálaigh after the 2021 Entrepreneur Experience.

Thriftify is is an online charity marketplace, which allows charity shops to sell online and encourages ethical buying. The investment was led by the HBAN Impact Syndicate.

Read the full article as it appeared in the Irish Times

Founded in 2021 by Martin Fitzgerald and Mike McGrath, Kwayga’s platform solves a range of challenges that B2B buyers and suppliers face on a daily basis when finding, verifying, connecting with and communicating in any language with new perfectly matched buyers or suppliers. It also fills the gap in in-house resources and skill sets that buyers and suppliers in the food and beverage industry lack when researching new business opportunities. (Top Photo: Martin Fitzgerald and Mike McGrath)

Based on a subscription model, the platform operates now in 37 countries across the UK and EU and helps suppliers and buyers build relationships with the right people. Right Buyer, Right Supplier, Right Time. 

Read the full article as it appeared in EU-Startups

Oleh Derevianko, co-founder and chairman of Cork-based GuardYoo, received special permission from the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ukrainian Department of Defence to travel from Kyiv to Cork for the EBAN Cork Congress in May 2022.

In 2018, Oleh participated in the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator. The cybersecurity company is an Enterprise Ireland client, with some of its technology team currently locked down in Ukraine. (Top: Oleh Derevianko photographed with Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence).

Oleh spoke to Rosanna Cooney from The Currency at the EBAN Annual Cork Congress in Cork on May 18 & 19 2022...

Oleh Derevianko has been at the frontier of Russia's cyber warfare against Ukraine for years. His company's defences are holding off Russia's hackers for now, but the major concern is what malware could already have been planted and is waiting to strike in this hybrid war. 

As airstrikes raged in Ukraine signalling the arrival of the Russian invasion on 24 February, Oleh Derevianko was dismantling a top floor office in Kyiv. There were no movers to call or couriers, so while the “real fight” was happening at the outskirts of Kyiv, and shelling and explosions were audible, Derevianko continued unscrewing and packing up hardware equipment which was being moved to relative safety in Western Ukraine.  

The founder of Information Systems Security Partners (ISSP), a cyber security firm based in Ukraine but with seven offices across Europe and North America, Derevianko is an expert in cyber warfare and ISSP is the go-to cybersecurity company in Ukraine.

Click HERE to READ MORE

Huge Congrats to Vincent Forde CEO & Founder Gasgon Medical who was named the overall winner of the 2021 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition, receiving a €100,000 cash prize.

Vincent has worked with CorkBIC over the years preparing his investment proposition pitching at the CorkBIC Venture Academy and participating at the 2018 Entrepreneur Experience™.

Gasgon Medical is a Cork-based start-up that has designed AirVault, a device for removing air bubbles from fluids primarily in medical IV infusions. The product aims to remove the need for nurse intervention by automatically capturing air bubbles before they become a problem, and to deliver a more accurate infusion dose so patients are treated and recover faster.

More wins for Munster start-ups

Another start-up honoured at the awards ceremony was Waterford-based Styl.Wrap, who won in the New Start category, earning a cash prize of €50,000. Shana Chu, founder & CEO ofStyl.Wrap recently participated in the 2021 Entrepreneur Experience™.

Click here to read the full article in Silicon Republic

Symbl.ai Raises $17 Million in Series A to Scale its Conversation Intelligence Platform for Developers

Symbl.ai, a developer-first platform providing the best in class conversation intelligence (CI), today announced a $17 million series A funding round led by Great Point Ventures, with additional participation from Gutbrain Ventures, PBJ Capital, Crosscut Ventures and Flying Fish Ventures.

Surbhi Rathore and Toshish Jawale co-founders of Symbl.ai particiated in the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator in 2018/2019

This new funding is just in a year from the company’s product launch and seed financing of $4.7M, will be used to accelerate product development of its end to end CI platform, expand the Symbl.ai team and meet the growing demand for the tech. Ray Lane, partner at Great Point Ventures, will join the board of directors.

Click HERE to read the full press release

Cork based cybersecurity company, Vaultree, has secured $3.3 million (€2.85m) in investment.

Valutree participated in the CorkBIC 2021 Venture Academy where they pitched to an audience of international investors. HBAN investors were part of the final investment. HBAN develops business angel activity and angel syndicates in Ireland and CorkBIC manages HBAN in the South and South-West region of Ireland.

The funding round for the encryption-as-a-service provider was led by Ten Eleven Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based VC, led by Alex Doll, who previously co-founded PGP. Other investors include Enterprise Ireland, US VC, Unpopular Ventures, HBAN and John Stewart, a former chief security and trust officer at Cisco.

Vaultree has been co-founded by a number of software engineers who together have developed end-to-end encryption technology that uses enhanced searchable symmetric encryption (ESSE) and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) to make it possible to work with fully encrypted cloud-based data without the need for organisations to decrypt the information or surrender security keys.

Read the full article as it appeared in the Irish Times

We are delighted for our Entrepreneur Experience™ Alum Jack Murray, who recently published his book - The Magic Slice.

Driven by real-life stories and case studies, The Magic Slice is a clarion call for anyone who needs to find their own Magic Slice—that unique place where what you want to say is exactly what your audience wants to hear.

Discover the science behind storytelling that will make you a magnetic communicator. Walk step by step through the process of coming up with a story idea, applying key story elements, and structuring your story to give it impact.

The Magic Slice is available on Amazon and selected bookshops.

Jack Murray, founder and CEO of MediaHQ participated in the 2019 Entrepreneur Experience™ and will be participating in our upcoming Entrepreneur Experience Alumni event on November 18th This event is open to all!

Jack is a media innovator with over 20 years’ experience at the most senior level in the Irish communications industry. He has worked in marketing, journalism, and media relations. He is a former political spokesperson and government advisor, as well as an award-winning corporate PR practitioner.

In 2006, Murray purchased the Irish Media Contacts Directory and founded MediaHQ, now the leading publisher of media intelligence in Ireland and the biggest organiser of media training events. In 2016, Jack created All Good Tales, after realizing that communications was entering a golden age of storytelling, and that those with the best stories succeed. Jack had his eureka moment and made a discovery about how the most successful storytelling organizations operate, and he documented it – The Magic Slice.

Keeper Solutions is the partner of choice for fast-scaling FinTech and MedTech firms. Since 2011, Keeper Solutions has been providing scalable, expert outsourcing solutions for international customers, through their network of secure, remote software delivery centres. 

CEO and founder Stephen Walsh participated in the 2016 Entrepreneur Experience.

Keeper’s European team recently gathered in Croatia to celebrate the opening of an additional software delivery centre in the nation’s capital of Zagreb. This is Keeper’s second Croatian office alongside their Irish headquarters in Limerick and offices in Romania and the US.

Read more about Keeper's expansion on their website - Click here

Altada, a Cork-based company that has developed an artificial intelligence-based platform to help create operational efficiencies, is to create more than 100 new jobs after securing $11.5 million (€9.85 million) in investment.

Founded by Allan Beechinor and Niamh Parker in 2018, Altada provides AI-based solutions to companies in financial services, travel and security that use data to improve decision-making and business processes. Both Allan and Niamh participated in the 2019 Entrepreneur Experience as well as participating in the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator in 2018.

The new investment, which comes on top of a €1.5 million funding round earlier this year, is led by Rocktop Partners, a Texas-based alternative investment manager that was originally one of the Cork company’s clients. It moved to back Altada after using its solutions to reduce the cost of processing loan files from $400 to $25, and to cut the time it takes to process a portfolio from six to eight weeks to just 48 hours.

Read the full article as it appeared in the Irish Times

Entrepreneur Experience Alumni Oisin Kim co-founder of Webdoctor.ie announced today that they had secured a €3 million investment from VentureWave Capital’s Impact Ireland fund, which is backed by the likes of Hollywood actor Liam Neeson and members of U2.

The investment, which values the company at €48 million, will be used to accelerate international expansion.

The telehealth platform was established in 2013 by co-founders Oisín and Howard Kim and Martin Commins.

Oisin participated in the 2016 Entrepreneur Experience and is an active member of our Alumni Group returning to the event on numerous occasions.

Click HERE to read the Full Article in the Irish Times

Huggnote, the start-up founded by Limerick sisters Jacqui and Perry Meskell, has won the top prize of €50,000 on US TV show 2 Minute Drill.

The Huggnote app allows users to send songs to friends, family and loved ones as ‘virtual hugs’.

Huggnote pitched at the CorkBIC Venture Academy a number of years ago.

Jacqui Meskell said she was inspired to create the app after she wanted to comfort a friend who was going through a tragedy, but was unable to physically be with her due to working abroad. The idea predates the pandemic, but the co-founders said it has particularly resonated with people over the last 18 months.

Read the full article on Silicon Republic

Headquartered in Dublin, Lintil’s mission is to simplify the home-buyer’s journey and facilitate timely introductions to the best professional service providers relevant to each point in the buying process. The new funding will support the creation of six new jobs in technical and product development and enables Lintil to focus on a range of growth opportunities including expansion into the UK. 

This is the first deal for the Kerry Angel Network, which invested alongside fellow HBAN angel investors including the Boole Investment Syndicate based in Cork,  contributing a total of €270,000 to the to the €1 million in seed funding already raised by the company. 

Lintil's Founder Emmet Creighton pitched at the CorkBIC Venture Academy in October 2020.

Click here to read the full story on the HBAN website

July 2021

San Francisco firm Luminate Capital has reportedly taken ownership of Compliance & Risks following a strategic investment.

21-year-old Cork business Compliance & Risks has announced a strategic investment from Luminate Capital that will drive rapid expansion of the business internationally.

Headquartered in Cork and with offices in London, Brussels and the US states of New York and California, Compliance & Risks provides a SaaS platform for product-makers to manage compliance.

The C2P knowledge management platform stems from Compliance & Risks founder Damien McGovern’s experience with legal, regulatory and compliance issues. It has been built up to provide a comprehensive database of product regulations, standards and requirements. With information and insights linked to product workflows, the SaaS platform assists product-makers in monitoring and managing end-to-end compliance for their chosen markets.

Read the full story on Silicon Republic

July 2021

Trustap, a Cork-based escrow-style online payments company, plans to double its headcount to 40 people and raise up to €12 million by the end of the year after attracting new business.

The company, founded in 2016, uses Stripe technology to keep a buyer’s money in a hold account during an online sale. The money is then released to the seller when certain transaction milestones are completed. Disputes are handled through an arbitration partner.

Full Story on The Times

May 2021

We are delighted to congratulate Cork Companies Altada and Granite Digital on their awards at the recent Cork Chamber Cork Company of the Year awards. This year due to Covid the Awards were held online with all Award winners attending virtually.

Altada was part of the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator and both Allan Beechinor, CEO and founder Altada and Granite Digital, CEO Conor Buckley participated in the CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience™. 

Altada deliver AI solutions that empowers data driven decision making, increases automation in a company and freeing up employees so that they can focus on higher value, rewarding tasks. Altada participated in the CorkBIC run International Security Accelerator and has raised several rounds of Investment both in Ireland and Internationally.

Granite Digital, headquartered in Cork is one of Ireland's leading Digital Marketing Agencies. Granite plan, execute and measure a company's digital strategy to help create a successful online presence for businesses or organisations.

June 2021

We are delighted to congratulate Ryan O'Neill, Founder & CEO, LegitFit who has been selected to participate in the TechStars Sports Accelerator. This program is designed for sports tech companies focused on the future of sport, ranging from new technologies to new business models.

LegitFit was founded on the basis of one key ambition: To create a greater experience for both businesses and enthusiasts of the fitness & wellness industry.

Recently Ryan O'Neill, Founder & CEO, LegitFit participated in the CorkBIC 2020 Venture Academy™ which took place in October 2020.

For more information go to www.legitfit.com

June 2021

Gasgon Medical recently announced that their project, Swirl SAFE-infusion, has been awarded €3 million in funding from the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) through the Fast Track to Innovation framework.

This two-year project will see a consortium of 5 European partners including 2 Irish based companies Gasgon Medical and Remote Signals alongside Tada Medical AB, develop their respective medical devices, and a collaborative study to trial the technologies in two European hospitals, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC) in Portugal and Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu in Spain, ahead of a planned European market launch next year.

The expected results of the project will determine if its technology can be used to improve delivery of IV drugs in hospital and homecare settings. Tada Medical and Gasgon Medical are developing devices to reduce the issues of IV dislodgement and Air-in-Line respectively,
while Remote Signals will create a cloud-connected sensor device to remotely inform clinicians of performance of the infusion. 

Vincent Forde, Founder and CEO of Gasgon Medical and Joe Perrott, Co-founder and CEO of Remote Signals have both participated in the CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience and both businesses are based in Cork. Wishing both companies the best of luck with the project and the subsequent trials and study.

May 2021

Congratulations to Fiona Edwards Murphy, CEO & Co-Founder of ApisProtect, who was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list. Forbes expert judges placed her in the world’s most impactful community of young entrepreneurs and game-changers.

ApisProtect's honey bee monitoring technology is proven to increase hive productivity and prevent devastating colony losses. ApisProtect uses sensors and Internet of things technology to enable beekeepers to remotely track data from their hives. This enables their customers to better manage their bees and product yields. The company now monitors the health of over twenty million bees in Europe and North America.

Fiona has participated in a number of CorkBIC events including our Showcase event as well as pitching at our Venture Academy.

March 2021

We are delighted to congratulate Poppulo, led by CEO and founder Andrew O'Shaughnessy (above at the 2019 Entrepreneur Experience®) on the very exciting news that Poppulo is to merge with Four Winds Interactive, creating a valuation for the combined companies at around $1bn (€0.84bn) with combined annual revenue of $100m (€84m).

Poppulo, formerly called Newsweaver, creates software to help companies manage internal staff communications and email and employs 216 staff at the Cork Airport Business Park and a further 54 in Boston. Its clients include Unilever, Nestlé, Aon, Telefonica, Johnson Controls and Rolls-Royce. Poppulo is majority-owned by its founders including Andrew O’Shaughnessy and two years ago they raised €30m in funding from US venture capital firm Susquehanna Growth Equity.

Andrew participated in the first CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience® in 2011 as one of the Scaling Companies and has since returned in recent years as one of our Seasoned Entrepreneurs and has contributed hugely to the event.

More recently Andrew discussed some key insights for Entrepreneurs & Startups with CorkBIC CEO Michael O'Connor at our 2020 Entrepreneur Experience® which was held online in November 2020 due to Covid19. Here Andrew discussed Building a business and growing that business, some of the insights he shared were:

In the early days, although you will use a financial advisor/accountant, NEVER hand over the responsibility for the financial position of the company to them, you need to understand the numbers and eat, sleep and breathe cash-flow

After you make your first sales, get really close to those customers. The value they are getting may not be what you intended. You need to intimately understand the value that they get and be able to quantify it because that is what your business is about

Get really clear with yourself, what am I in this for? What do I want to achieve? You will be pulled in many directions so use this as a guide when making decisions. Does this get me closer to my goal or move me away from it?

Read the full article about Poppulo's merger with FWI as reported in the Irish Examiner

November 2020

Cork-based PMD Solutions, in partnership with Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, have won a European Space Agency contract for a space-enabled wearable device to monitor respiratory compromised patients in the community. Since 2011, founder & CEO Myles Murray has been developing the PMD Solutions’ RespiraSense device and has worked extensively with CorkBIC on his business planning and participated in the CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience & Venture Academy.

The RespiraSense sensor is an innovative, discrete wearable device ideally designed for COVID-19 patients who are at risk of adverse events. RespiraSense can monitor symptoms of COVID-19 such as shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. The remote monitoring of patients respiratory rate allows medical professionals to develop more accurate early warning scores all the while protecting hospital staff, allowing minimal contact, saving on PPE.

PMD Solutions’ RespiraSense device is now being adopted in three Dublin hospitals including Beaumont Hospital and is being gradually rolled out into other HSE hospitals. It has also been adopted by the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and is expected to be installed on beds of at least 30 hospitals by the end of 2021. Hospitals in Canada, Belgium and Saudi Arabia are also taking it.

Read the article as it appeared in the Irish Times

December 2020

Guardyoo, a Cork Based Cybersecurity company and a participant in the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator in 2018/2019, has recently closed their €400k seed round with investment by US Venture Capital firm, Metropolis VC and investment through Enterprise Irelands High Potential Startup Fund. Guardyoo is led by Corkman and CEO of Guardyoo, Darren Sexton. Guardyoo was recently named the 'One to Watch' at the it@Cork Leaders Awards 2020.

Commenting on the recent investment Darren Sexton said that "2020 was a difficult year to convince investors to place their trust in a small start-up, but thanks to the hard work done by the wider GuardYoo team, we were able to build a credible product and back it up with a well-considered go to market strategy. Thankfully we found the right partners who understood our vision and felt comfortable enough to invest. Once we had Metropolis Ventures on board, the team at the Cork BIC helped us navigate the EI HPSU application process to get our matched funding in place."

Guardyoo delivers remote Compromise Assessment and Forensic Analysis via a membership based Platform that has been designed specifically for Cyber Consultants. The GuardYoo solution reduces the time, resources & costs associated with a Compromise Assessment by up to 70%. 

For more information go to www.guardyoo.com

September 2020

Cork software firm Everseen has secured a major new contract with US supermarket giant Kroger to supply artificial intelligence technology to 2,500 stores.

Headquartered in Blackpool, Cork city, Everseen holds a dominant position in the rapidly growing industry, providing unmanned checkout systems for supermarkets and other retailers.

Its technology began rolling out at Kroger stores in March and will continue to be installed in the coming months, with plans to deploy the technology at 2,500 outlets across the US.

CorkBIC worked with Everseen to develop the original business plan which led to the first round of seed investment & scaling funding. Everseen's founder Alan O'Herlihy attended the CorkBIC 2014 Entrepreneur Experience and commented afterwards that the event was a "Reinforcement of a determination to succeed - key to which was meeting seasoned entrepreneurs who had to go through the same challenges"

Earlier this year US tech investment veteran Neil Garfinkel personally injected €500,000 into Everseen as part of a recent €3.6m fundraising.

Click here to read the full article from the Irish Examiner

August 2020

Webdoctor, based in Dublin, provides high-definition video conferencing software for medical professionals and health businesses and has been working with the HSE to support doctors and other clinicians who could not see patients in person during the pandemic. 

Co-founder Oisin Kim participated in the 2016 Entrepreneur Experience and has been a regular Alumni participant since. Commenting on his participation Oisin said "This weekend is all about meeting people, sharing problems and finding solutions and after the event its all about keeping in touch and continuing the process".

Speaking at the announcement co-founder Oisin Kim said “We built a very simple version to allow video consultations between doctors and patients within Ireland, working with the HSE’s digital transformation team. We added 350 clinicians in the first week and now there are over 1,200! Telemedicine was very new and there was a massive lack of awareness around it and now that has kind of flipped."

Its platform is now used by over a million patients, and turnover is well into the seven-figure range. 

Click here to read the full article in the Business Post

August 2020

Solo Energy, based in Cork, is a disruptive Energy Storage business driven by the vision of a 100% renewable future.

Solo Energy's goal is to lower energy bills for customers and facilitate the transition to renewable energy by setting up a ‘virtual power plant’. This is achieved through a cloud-based aggregation platform that controls distributed energy assets to balance renewable generation and create smart local energy systems.

Killian O'Connor and Mark Hamiliton who founded Solo Energy in 2015, participated in the 2017 CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience. They also engaged extensively with CorkBIC on their Business plan, investment model and growth plans. (Pic: Killian O'Conor & Mark Hamilton pitching at the Entrepreneur Experience.

Speaking to Silicon Republic, Killian O'Connor, COO and co-founder said that the acquisition will allow his team to scale the business in “a sustainable manner while embracing new and exciting opportunities across the energy ecosystem”.

“The 20 jobs created following our acquisition by SMS will also contribute to the fast-expanding renewable energy cluster in Cork and the south-west region, and we are thrilled to play our part in growing such an important, innovative sector.”

Click here to read the article in full as it appeared in Silicon Republic

June 2020

Neurobell, a medical device for the early detection and monitoring of brain injuries in newborns has scooped the top prize at Enterprise Ireland’s Student Entrepreneur Awards 2020. Neurobell, developed by University College Cork (UCC) student, Mark O’Sullivan, past participant of the UCC Sprint Programme, aims to help clinicians diagnose abnormal brain activity faster and with greater accuracy.

Mark was one of ten finalists who participated in the virtual final of the third level Student Entrepreneur Awards and received the €10,000 cash prize fund. CorkBIC has been working with Sprint over the last few years and then recently with Mark on his business plan.

The Local Enterprise Office ICT award went to Limerick brothers, Nick and Jack Cotter, for their Cotter Agritech innovation. Their product the Cotter Crate is a patent-pending, lamb handling system that makes dosing and weighing lambs easier, faster, and prevents back injury.

Click here to read the full announcement

May 2020

Workvivo, based in Cork which was launched two years ago, is an internal communications platform for companies. This investment round of $16 million was led by Tiger Global, who have invested in companies such as LinkedIn, Airbnb, Stripe, Uber and Square. The funding will allow the company to expand, offering Workvivo to many more companies globally and will accelerate its product development plans.

CorkBIC has worked with John Goulding, CEO, WorkVivo on business planning and initial round of seed investment, which was a combination of private and matched funding from Enterprise Ireland. Earlier this year Workvivo announced that it has secured investment from US tech entrepreneur and Zoom founder, Eric Yuan and since then has opened an office in California to drive expansion in the US. This brings the total funding to just over $17.5 million.

Read the full article as it appeared in RTE 

May 2020

Kilkenny-based software company Veri has announced plans to expand its workforce to meet increased demand on the back of Covid-19 response programmes.

Veri, which was founded by Ann Marie McSorley, specialises in training compliance and analytics software, remotely verifying face-to-face training and quality assurance. It has signed two new contracts to bring its digitisation tool to new Covid-19 SME response programmes, allowing for real-time quality assurance through cloud-based software.

Ann Marie McSorley participated in the 2017 Entrepreneur Experience and more recently was one of the panelists during the Changing Worlds Webinar on June 11th, discussing disruption across sectors.

Read the full article as it appeared in Silicon Republic

June 2020

Keelvar, a Cork-based company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to transform how suppliers engage with large enterprises, has raised $18 million (€16m) in funding to support its expansion plans. The University College Cork spin-out currently manages over $90 billion in spend annually for blue-chip clients, including Siemens, Coca-Cola, Novartis, BMW and Samsung.

Founded by chief executive Alan Holland in 2012, the company has developed automation and optimisation software for use in enterprise procurement. It uses AI-enabled sourcing bots to automate buying processes.

CorkBIC worked with Alan Holland in the early stage of developing his company and business plan.

Click here to read the full article as it was reported in the Irish Times

May 2021

Based in Kerry, Salaso Health Solutions is an innovative health technology company providing software solutions for physical rehabilitation and wellbeing that deliver quantifiable cost savings and better clinical outcomes.

Talking to RTE News, founder & CEO, Aoife Ní Mhuirí said "We've put together a new set of protocols for Covid rehabilitation which can greatly assist both the clinician and the patient. The real value of our software is that these protocols can be completely customised, depending on the clinical picture displayed by each patient."

Aoife Ní Mhuirí, participated in CorkBIC event ‘Celebrating High Growth Startups’ in 2016 and said that “CorkBIC was helpful in assisting us with roadtesting our business plan and financial modelling, and in networking with like-minded companies.”

Click here to view the video and read the article as it appeared in the RTE

Cork-based AI company Altada Technology Solutions is applying artificial intelligence in the Irish and US healthcare and financial services sectors to help battle the Covid-19 outbreak.

Altada was founded in 2017 by Allan Beechinor. Allan has worked extensively with CorkBIC on business planning and raising investment and they participated in the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator and the 2018 Entrepreneur Experience.

Altada's models will be used to calculate when the number of new positive cases will plateau therefore indicating more accurately the number of ventilators needed and when an ICU bed becomes available.

Click HERE to read the full story

Workvivo, which was launched two years ago, is an internal communications platform for companies. It has provided its platform to employees in more than 40 countries, across companies of all sizes. CorkBIC has worked with John Goulding, CEO, WorkVivo on business planning and initial round of seed investment, which was a combination of private and matched funding from Enterprise Ireland. Earlier this year Workvivo announced that it has secured a major investment from US tech entrepreneur and Zoom founder, Eric Yuan and since then has opened an office in California to drive expansion in the US.

Trustap, based in Cork is a secure transaction platform that completely protects you from being scammed when you want to buy or sell with someone you don't know. Founded by Conor Lyden in 2017, Trustap participated in the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator in 2019 where he was awarded the Most Investible Company. CorkBIC has worked with Conor since the beginning of Trustap boith on his business plan, raising investment and scaling up his business. Recently Trustap has seen an increase in users as more people trade online.

Click to read both articles as featured in the CorkBIC Newsletter

January 2020

Delighted for our clients and friends at Crest Solutions, WorkVivo, Glavloc and AnaBio who have all been short listed for the Cork Chamber of Commerce Cork Company of the Year awards 2020. CorkBIC have been working with Frank Madden CEO Crest Solutions since the start and have enjoyed watching the company grow, expand and internationalise over the past 20 years. Crest is nominated in the Large Cork Company category. WorkVivo and Glavloc have both been selected in the final 3 of the Emerging Cork Company of the Year Category while AnaBio has been included in the shortlist for SME Cork Company of the Year. Best of luck to them all!

January 2020

LiveCosts, formerly PaidAde, was set up to address a gap in the construction software market. Ciaran Brennan, one of the Founders attended the Entrepreneur Experience in 2018.

LiveCosts which recently featured in Dermot Bannan's Room to Improve, has created a platform that enables construction teams to track their project costs. From incoming invoices to employee hour tracking, its scanning software aims to help teams on construction sites to automate these processes.

Ciaran also pitched at one of our Venture Academy's in Cork where he secured funding.

Read the article as it appeared in Silicon Republic which recently singled them out as one of the top 8 startups transforming the Construction Industry. 

December 2019

Silicon Republic's Startup of the week was Unitek.AI. Co-founded by Martin Brown, pictured above, Martin participated in the 2019 Entrepreneur Experience. Unitek.AI is an Irish start-up that provides intelligent automation data analytics solutions to financial services companies. Some of the services offered by the company are document data extraction, intelligent data entry and process automation. 

Brown is targeting businesses operating in insurance, retail banking and financial services. Unitek.AI aims to accelerate digital transformation for businesses in that space and, since it was founded in 2018, the company has already begun doing that for insurance and banking organisations in the UK and Ireland and by 2020, the business plans to expand into Germany.

Commenting on the article from Silicon Republic Martin Brown, CEO, Unitek.AI said "The Entrepreneur Experience helped re-shape our thinking and focus which has led to multiple successes since that weekend #EntExp24 #changeOrDie"

Read the article as it appeared in the Silicon Republic

December 2019

CorkBIC are thrilled to see Entrepreneur Experience Alumni working together. Recently NVP Energy announced that in collaboration with Ashleigh Environmental & the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) they have been awarded €1.8 million ($2.0m) funding under the Irish government's Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF), for the development of their sustainable bio-renewable energy from wastewater project for the global food and drinks market.

Michael Murray, NVP Energy participated in the 2015 Entrepreneur Experience while Ken McGrath participated in the 2016 Entrepreneur Experience.

https://www.nvpenergy.com/

https://www.ashleighenv.com/

September 2019

Entrepreneur Experience Alumni Liam Hanley, CEO & founder of Yeloblade Turbines has developed a new turbine that’s both compact and silent, and can sit on a flat roof.

Liam participated in the 2017 Entrepreneur Experience and was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award at the end of the event.

Speaking recently to the Irish Examiner Liam said that "Traditional wind technologies can’t be used in urban locations due to their size, generated noise and also because of planning stipulations.’’ What’s unique about Yeloblade’s turbine is that it has no external blades, because all the moving parts are internal. This gives it a completely different look to traditional turbines.

Liam continued to explain “The system uses a novel approach of manipulating air pressures to drive an internal turbine and generator. Although it is 1. 6 metres tall, it can generate the same output as a 10-metre tall traditional wind turbine.”

Read the full article in the Irish Examiner

September 2019

€4 million in additional financing has been secured by CroíValve, a high potential start-up (HPSU) supported by Enterprise Ireland developing a treatment for tricuspid regurgitation (TR). Limerick based Syndicate IRRUS Investments (supported by CorkBIC) invested again following their investment earlier this year. 

Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a severe heart condition that occurs when the tricuspid valve fails to seal properly, allowing blood to flow retrograde from the right ventricle into the right atrium, with progressive symptoms including fatigue, fluid retention leading to abdominal and leg swelling, liver and kidney failure and death.  This is an issue affecting over half-a-million people every year in the US and EU alone, for which there is currently no suitable solution.

The financing includes €2.5 million from the European Union under their Horizon 2020 SME Instrument grant and €1.5 million from Broadview Ventures and current investors (HBAN MedTech and Irrus Syndicates, Atlantic Bridge University Fund and SOSV Ventures). The funding will accelerate the development of the company’s novel technology into First in Human studies.

Click Here for more information on CroiValve

July 2019

Entrepreneur Experience Alumni Karl Murray, Founder of Kotanical recently raised investment from Entrepreneur Ciarán Mulligan who has invested some of his €70m fortune in Kotanical, Ireland’s only organic producer of essential oils. Ciaran Mulligan, who sold Blue Insurance to Australia’s Cover-More last year, has acquired a near-50% stake for a six-figure sum.

Ciaran Mulligan was paired with Karl for the 2018 Entrepreneur Experience, but liked the concept so much he decided to invest!  Sales of €250,000 are expected this year, rising to €2m in 2021, when Kotanical plans to break into export markets.

Speaking after the 2018 Entrepreneur Experience Karl Murray said "The atmosphere from the start was excellent and the One-to-Ones were A1!"

KOTANICAL is the first company in Ireland to distill oil from natural native sources. While others import oils and re-bottle, founder Karl Murray saw the potential in the abundance of flora available if one was to look closer to home. Spending over five years practicing and researching essential oil distillation techniques and experimenting with wild crafted ingredients, the vision became a reality through growing herbs himself, local sourcing methods and his relationships with farmers and growers. The production of Ireland's first and only essential oils began.

Read the artcie as it appeared in the Times

March 2019

CroíValve, a medtech start-up providing a safe and effective treatment for tricuspid regurgitation, recently announced that it has secured €3.2 million in an oversubscribed seed financing round.

The round was led by the HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network) MedTech and Irrus Syndicates, alongside Atlantic Bridge University Fund, Enterprise Ireland, SOSV and a group of cardiologists who see the treatment’s transformative potential. The funding will support the continued development of CroíValve’s innovative technology.

CorkBIC runs & manages the HBAN Network in the South West & Mid-West of Ireland and via Aidan O'Driscoll manages the Irrus Syndicate.

Read the full article as it appeared in the Silicon Republic

CorkBIC International Security Accelerator participant Kruzr has raised $1.3 million for its seed round led by Saama Capital with participation from Better Capital. The funds will be deployed to expand its technology team, scale up its products and for business expansion in Europe & UK.

For the last 12 weeks Insurtech startup Kruzr has been participating in the CorkBIC International Security Accelerator in Cork City Centre and has established its European headquarters in Cork.

Click here to read the full article

February 2019

Hexafly has raised €1.1m in funding in what is the largest agritech investment made by Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) angels to date. Hexafly was established in 2016 by Alvan Hunt and John Lynam in response to the growing issue of the global food shortage.

Alvan Hunt, Hexafly participated in the CorkBIC Global Investor Challenge and Venture Academy

Read the recent article in the irish Times

Class Medical secures €550,000 Investment

Class Medical – a University of Limerick spinout company have secured seed funding of €550,000 from investors including HPSU match funding from Enterprise Ireland. Class Medical was founded in 2016 by Dr. Rory Mooney (CEO), Prof. Michael Walsh, Dr Niall Davis and Dr Eoghan Cunnane. Class Medical’s initial product offering is a patent protected device that eliminates the risk and complications associated with the treatment of painful urinary problems.

Dr. Rory Mooney has worked extensively with CorKBIC over the years and attended the Entrepreneur Experience in 2013 and recently Class Medical won the Munster Final in the Seedcorn competition to cap off what has been a wonderful year from Rory and his team.

ApisProtect raises €1.5million in Funding

We are delighted that ApisProtect, a Cork-based agricultural technology company, has raised €1.5m in funding.

The company develops and produces applications for beekeepers based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Specifically, it uses in-hive sensors to monitor honey bee colonies, and then provides the beekeeper with in-depth information about the health and condition of their colonies, using machine learning and big data technologies.

The company will use the funding to increase its international expansion, opening its first US office at the Western Growers Association’s centre for innovation and technology in California. In addition, ApisProtect aims to expand its workforce to 25 over the next three years.

Click here to read the full article on the BIC Newsletter

Over-C - Delivering tech Services on a World Stage

Cork based Over-C was recently interviewed by John Daly for the Irish Examiner. This was on foot of an announcement by Over-C & O2 of a five year technology partnership with their first UK client, Scotland Rail, Scotland's national rail service provider.

Michael Elliot, founder & CEO of Over-C has been working with CorkBIC since he participated in the 2012 Entrepreneur Experience and CorkBIC continues to support and work with Michael and the team as he grows the business in Ireland and internationally. 

ViClarity to Open Office in Boston, US

CorkBIC client ViClarity are to open their first US office in Boston this summer. Founder & CEO John 'Ogie' Sheehy is moving with his family to open and set up the new office. ViClarity, a Tralee based company provide Risk & Regulatory Compliance software in the healthcare and financial services sectors.

Ogie Sheehy founded ViClarity in 2008 and has worked with CorkBIC over the years on business planing, raising investment and has participated in the Entrepreneur Experience, Venture Academy and CorkBIC's Celebration of High growth Startups in the Port of Cork.  

Click here to read full article on BIC Newsletter

Metabolomic Diagnostics Wins €2million Horizon 2020 Funding

Metabolomic Diagnostics has secured €2 million in funding to develop a product to identify whether women could develop preeclampsia. They were awarded the funding from the European Union under its Horizon 2020 project, which received a total of 1280 applications.

CEO of Metabolomic Diagnostics, Charles Garvey, who recently participated as a Seasoned Entrepreneur in the 2018 Entrepreneur Experience said that, “We plan to market the product next year, and now with this support from EU, we believe that PrePsia has the potential to become part of pregnancy screening programs worldwide. The award is recognition by the European Union of the huge progress we have made to date and the enormous societal benefit that our innovative test will bring to expectant mothers and their babies all over the world.” 

The €2 million will be used to commercialise the company’s flagship product, PrePsia, a blood test taken in early pregnancy that can establish whether a woman could develop preterm preeclampsia.

Click here to read the full article in the BIC Newsletter

OrthoXel Announce World’s First Patient Surgical Implantation of Apex Tibial Nailing System

OrthoXel a Cork based innovative orthopaedic trauma company, pioneering the use of enhanced fracture fixation to stimulate callus formation with the goal to reduce healing time, is delighted to announce that following United States FDA 510k clearance and European CE mark approval, the first patient in Cork University Hospital Trauma Centre has had the Apex Tibial Nail implanted. 

Pat O'Connor, co-founder, OrthoXel participated in the CorkBIC Celebration of High Growth Startups in June 2017 and participated in the 2018 Entrepreneur Experience. CorkBIC have worked with OrthoXel on refining their business plan and getting investor ready.

Anabio Opens Centre of Excellence for Encapsulation Technologies

In March AnaBio Technologies LTD celebrated the inauguration of its Centre of Excellence for Encapsulation Technologies in Carrigtwohill. The event included a guided tour of the facility for more than 80 guests, which demonstrated AnaBio’s current portfolio of products and further showed how the new site and its high-tech laboratory facilities are being used to develop AnaBio’s cutting edge encapsulation technology. The tour was followed by speeches from AnaBio’s Chairman Dan MacSweeney, Dr. André Brodkorb, AnaBio CEO Dr. Sinéad Bleiel and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Mr. Michael Creed TD.

CorkBIC have supported AnaBio through the Business Planning process, defining the company’s strategy and facilitating engagement with funding sources. This support accelerated their path through the HPSU (High Potential Start Up) process with Enterprise Ireland.

Click here to read the full articles in the BIC Newsletter

AventaMed seeks FDA approval after raising €1.8m

AventaMed, a Cork-based medtech firm focused on simplifying surgical procedures, has secured a €1.8 million investment to enable the company to attain FDA approval and go to market in the United States with its flagship device. Co-Founders Olive O'Driscoll and John Vaughan both attended the CorkBIC 2017 Entrepreneur Experience®.

CorkBIC has worked with Aventamed for a number of years with particular emphasis on raising investment; “CorkBIC reviewed our business plan, offering advice and guidance, and were subsequently fantastic help with our HPSU application to Enterprise Ireland. Their knowledge of the investment landscape in Ireland is second to none, matching us with appropriate investors and making introductions especially with the HBAN investment syndicates, were invaluable when we were seeking investment.” Olive O’Driscoll, AventaMed.

Veri Wins Google’s Adopt A Startup Programme

Entrepreneur Experience® participant Ann-Marie McSorley, founder of Veri has beaten off strong competition to win Google’s Adopt A Startup Programme. 30 start-ups competed for a place in the final, and in the end, eight were chosen to present a seven minute pitch focusing on the results they had achieved through taking part in the Adopt A Startup Programme. 

Click Here to read the full articles in the BIC Newsletter

TippyTalk develops new channels of communication

TippyTalk was created by Rob Laffan a father to a 5 year old girl with non-verbal autism. Rob understood the way in which his daughter viewed the world around her visually. Rob’s touchscreen device ‘Tippy Talk’ has brought new joy to his wife Emily and their four-year-old daughter Sadie — and in the process won him an Engineers Ireland innovation award.  

TippyTalk allows a person with a verbal disability to communicate by translating pictures into text messages, which are then sent to a family member or care givers phone or tablet. This allows the person who is non-verbal to communicate and express a desire, want, need or feeling.

CorkBIC has worked with Rob on his business plan and helping him to raise investment.

TippyTalk featured in an article in the Irish Examiner - read the full article here

Mamukko are plain sailing in the Sunday Times

Great article in the Sunday Times on our friends Mamukko. Cork based brothers Atilla & Levente Magyar (pictured above).  Mamukko is the award winner eco–conscious venture of Hungarian brothers, Levente & Attila Magyar.  Mamukko is all about upcycling, creativity & passion! Mamukko is uniqueness, originality & consciousness! They have built on their family’s heritage as 4th generation creators & designers. One of their passions is the collection of unique & original sails, life rafts, leather, textiles & upcycling them into boutique manufactured one offs & limited edition eco – friendly sailing, fashion & lifestyle bags in their workshop in Kinsale.

CorkBIC have worked with Mamukko from the beginning on their business plan and CSF application. Mamukko designed and produced a conference bag for the CorkBIC Going International Conference.

ViClarity & Carefolk Win at IMSTA MedTech Awards

ViClarity have won the award of “Most Cost Effective Product/Service” at the IMSTA MEDTECH AWARDS 2017. The annual awards, now in their sixth year were held in Croke Park last week and brought together developers, providers and suppliers of effective healthcare solutions for the health system in Ireland.  There were eight awards up for grabs on the night ranging from “Best Improvement In Patient Safety” to ViClarity’s category “Most Cost Effective Product/Service. Ogie Sheehy, CEO, ViClarity participated in the 2011 Entrepreneur Experience®.

Helixworks taking the fiction out of science

Poised to become Ireland’s first gene foundry, Helixworks has patented a process which allows it to synthesize longer sequences of DNA that have previously been impossible and which can be used by researchers in cancer treatment and in creating genetically modified organisms. The creation of synthetic DNA and the use of DNA as a storage medium are no longer the stuff of science fiction novels — Cork biotech start up Helixworks is making both of these things real.
CorkBIC has worked extensively with Nimesh & his team on establishing his business plan and route to market. Nimesh Pinnamaneni, Helixworks, received the award for Most Investible Entrepreneur at the 2017 Entrepreneur Experience®.

Click HERE to read the articles in full on the BIC Newsletter

DiaNia Technology raises €2m

DiaNia Technologies has secured €2 million in seed funding. DiaNia is an innovative materials science company focused on the development of advanced technologies to enhance the performance and functionality of medical devices. Specifically the company will bring it's catheter-based medical technology to market within two years creating 20 jobs. The seed funding was led by private investors while HBAN's Medtech Angel Syndicate and Enterprise Ireland were also involved.

Sinead Kenny, CEO of DiaNia Technology participated in a CorkBIC Venture Academy®.

Click here to read the full story as it appeared in the Sunday Business Post

€50K CorkBIC Global Investor Challenge won by Skellig Surgical

The CorkBIC Global Investor Challenge provided both national and international startups with the opportunity to compete over a number of months for a massive €50K prize equipping them with the tools and money to enable them to grow and expand their business.  

CorkBIC received 200+ applications including over 30 international applications. Following on from Regional Heats, 12 finalists had the opportunity to pitch at the CorkBIC Venture Academy® to an audience of selected Angel Investors, and members of Ireland's very successful Investment Syndicate, the Cork Boole Syndicate. They received useful advice and guidance on how to improve their investor proposition from seasoned Entrepreneurs before battling it out on Startup Island.

These 12 shortlisted Irish and international startups started the battle for the €50K prize on Startup Island, on Spike Island, on Friday and the final three finalists pitched at the Startup Nations Summit Gala Dinner in front of 450 of the most influential people in the global startup community. Skellig Surgical was named overall winner, beating off strong competition from ComfyLight and FruitCubed. 

At the Startup Nations Dinner were Sponsors David Merriman, Bank of Ireland; Sean O'Reilly, RDJ; Conor O'Shea, Skellig Surgical (WINNER); Joanna Murphy, Connect Ireland & Startup Ireland; Michael O'Connor, CorkBIC and Eoin O'Regan, KPMG

Commenting after the award ceremony, David Merriman, Head of Enterprise Development at Bank of Ireland said: “With a strong track record in supporting enterprise activity, Bank of Ireland is delighted to be involved in this year’s GSG2016. The CorkBIC Global Investor Challenge has been a fantastic opportunity for startups across Ireland, not only to compete with their international counterparts for an invaluable prize, but to gain experience in honing and shaping their startup propositions.  On behalf of Bank of Ireland, I’d like to congratulate the overall winners Skellig Surgical on their very impressive pitch and I have no doubt we will all be hearing much more from them over the coming months as they work towards growing their business.”

Michael O’Connor, from CorkBIC said “We are delighted that Skellig Surgical has been awarded the €50k prizefund. They have fought off some incredible entrepreneurs to get to this stage and we look forward to working with them as they internationalise and scale. CorkBIC is committed to building the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

The winning company, Skellig Surgical is an emerging medical device company focused on the design and commercialisation of user-centred, minimally-invasive technology and Conor O’Shea founder said after winning: “I am delighted to have won the CorkBIC Global Investor Challenge, which was powered by Bank of Ireland. This means everything to me because as a startup company now we have a runway to succeed.”

The €50,000 prize fund is broken down as follows; €10,000 cash investment from Bank of Ireland, Financial Services from KPMG, Business Planning Services from CorkBIC, two offices desks for one year from Startup Ireland and legal services from Ronan Daly Jermyn.

Everseen sees global sales rise after raising over €8m

Alan O'Herlihy, Everseen pictured with John Stapleton, Little Dish at the 2014 Entrepreneur Experience®

Cork based Alan O'Herlihy of Everseen recently raised €3.5m from backers including Total Produce chairman Carl McCann, former Tayto crisp owner Ray Coyle, and technology entrepreneur Cyril McGuire.

London-based Marcol Capital has also added €1m to the latest funding, making it a first-time investor in the Irish business. Marcol's involvement is a huge coup for Everseen. The UK firm, headed by Terence Cole and Mark Steinberg, have invested hundreds of millions of euro across Europe in property, healthcare, retail and technology sectors.

Everseen's technology helps to prevent fraud, theft and irregularities at the point of sale in stores. It aims to help retailers combat the $40bn in annual losses that are racked up globally by them due to non-scanning and other irregularities at points of sale.

This latest round of investment brings the total raised by the firm, founded by chief executive Alan O'Herlihy, to about €8.5m since it was founded in 2008. 

In 2011 CorkBIC worked extensively with Alan O'Herlihy on his business plan and in 2014 Alan participated in the Entrepreneur Experience® where he commented that "having talked to so many Seasoned Entrepreneurs who had to go through the same sh**! The Entrepreneur Experience gave me a reinforcement of determination to succeed". 

Alan also participated on a panel discussion at the CorkBIC Celebration of High Growth Startups in 2014 at the Port of Cork.

Platform Avenue, Subwoofr & Fruitcubed feature in Sunday Business Post

The Sunday Business recently carried a feature on Cork in their Monthly Technology in Business supplement, Connected. Among those featured in the piece were Cork Entrepreneurs Patrick Dineen, Platform Avenue; Joe Lennon, Subwoofr and Breffney O'Dowling Keane, Fruitcubed.

Patrick Dineen (pictured below) who participated in the 2015 Entrepreneur Experience® grew Platform Avenue out of managing timekeeping on building sites! Today Platform Avenue enables organisations build a database of applicants quickly, search and filter applicants effortlessly and communicate directly with applicants without having to search through old emails using their seamless talent management suite.

Their software is now used for some of the biggest competitions in Ireland and abroad like the Voice of Ireland, Dragon's Den, our very own Global Investor Challenge and the Entrepreneur Experience®. CorkBIC has worked extensively with Patrick on refining his business plan.

Also based in Cork is entrepreneur Joe Lennon, founder Subwoofr who is working with music artists, labels, managers and agencies create beautiful websites, turning fans into followers. CorkBIC has worked with Joe on his business plan.

One of Cork's newest and exciting entrepreneurs is Breffney O'Dowling-Keane, founder of FruitCubed (pictured above). FruitCubed is a blend of nutritious, delicious fruit which is pre-portioned into handy cubes. FruitCubed takes a blend of fresh fruit and veg adds some vegan gums and makes it into a gel cube. Their processing is so light that they don't interfere with any of the good stuff (vitamins and minerals), just stops all the bad stuff from growing (what causes the fruit to go off).

StoryStock to seek external investment of €250,000 to fund growth

Recent Entrepreneur Experience® Alumni StoryStock.com appeared in the Irish Times. Francis Fitzgibbon, founder StoryStock.com, based in Kerry participated in the 2017 Entrepreneur Experience®. 

StoryStock.com, an exciting new technology platform that is building a global online community of storytellers (journalists, bloggers and activists) and is currently seeking external funding to enable rapid growth of the company. StoryStock license stories about people, primarily in video, connecting this community with media and brands.

Run Angel creating big noise about runner safety

Recently featured in Silicon Republic's 'Startup of the Week' was RunAngel, an exciting Cork based company who have developed an innovative connected audible personal safety wrist wearable. Ellen Caren, co-founder, Run Angel, recently participated in a panel discussion at CorkBIC's Celebration of High Growth Startups in June. 

Click here to read the articles in our BIC Newsletter

Metabolomic Diagnostics secures additional $2 million in venture funding

Metabolomic Diagnostics, has secured an additional €1.6 million in from investors to help complete PrePsia™, its new screening test for pre-eclampsia in first time pregnant mothers. This latest funding round is supported by existing investors, SOSventures, Enterprise Equity andEnterprise Ireland as well as a number of private investors.

Affecting almost 7.5 million pregnancies per year, preeclampsia is the single greatest cause of premature births and is still responsible for the deaths of more than 75,000 mothers and half a million babies each year.  The PrePsia™ blood test will be able to detect the risk of pre-eclampsia early in the pregnancy when it matters and will ultimately save the lives of women and their babies through personalised medical interventions.

The investment is being used by Metabolomic Diagnostics to commercialise the technology which is based on research by Prof. Louise Kenny, Director at the INFANT Research Centre in UCC, into metabolomic biomarkers during pregnancy.

Charles Garvey, CEO, Metabolomic Daignostics chairing a session at the Entrepreneur Experience®

“Securing this new funding will allow Metabolomic Diagnostics to complete the development of PrePsia™ with a view to bringing the product to market in 2017”, said Charles Garvey, CEO Metabolomic Diagnostics.

Dee's Wholefoods secures deal with Dutch retailer

Pictured at the 2014 Entrepreneur Experience® were Veronica Kenneally, Veronica's Snacks; Colum O'Sullivan, Cully & Sully and Deirdre Collins, Dee's Wholefoods

Vegan producer Dee's Wholefoods has secured a major deal with Dutch retailer Jumbo. Commanding close to a quarter of the Dutch grocery market the Jumbo deal put Dee's Wholefoods on the shelves of 600 stores in the Netherlands. On foot of the deal Dee said that she expected the company's turnover to top €1 million in the next few months.

"We will have sales of over €1 million by the end of this year with new export markets such as they Netherlands and the UK. The sales are going well; vegan food is very popular in the Netherlands and the Dutch government has made recommendations for meat reduction" said founder Deirdre Collins.

Deirdre participated in the 2014 Entrepreneur Experience®.

Radisens wins Red Herring Europe Award

The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies from a pool of hundreds from across Europe. The nominees were evaluated on 20 main quantitative and qualitative criterion: they include disruptive impact, market footprint, proof of concept, financial performance, technology innovation, social value, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.Radisens recently won the Red Herring Top 100 Europe award, a prestigious award honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the European business region.

This unique assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the actual track record and standing of a company, which allows Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry. The nominees pitched their businesses at the Red Herring Europe Forum in Amsterdam on April 13 with the winners announced at the Gala Dinner that evening.

"This year was rewarding, beyond all expectations" said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. "There are many great companies producing really innovative and amazing products in Europe. We had a very difficult time narrowing the pool, shortlisting the finalists and selecting the winners. Radisens shows great promise and therefore deserves to win this award. We know that the 2016 crop will grow into some amazing companies that are sure to make an impact."

Finalists for the 2016 edition of the Red Herring 100 Europe award were selected based upon their technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition, and financial health. During the months leading up to the announcement, Red Herring reviewed over 1200 companies in the telecommunications, security, cloud, software, hardware, biotech, healthcare, mobile and other industries completed their submissions to qualify for the award.

About Radisens Diagnostics

Radisens, a private venture-backed diagnostics company, is breaking new ground in the decentralisation of routine blood testing from central reference laboratories into physician offices, outpatient clinics, pharmacies and other near-patient test settings. With a finger-prick of blood, this multi-mode diagnostic device will return laboratory-grade results instantly within a patient’s physician visit.

Cork-based Zeto secures investment of €1.7m

The investment was made through the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital venture fund, with commitments from Business Venture Partners (BVP) andEnterprise Ireland. The company has also landed a major commercial contract with Lidl Ireland. Established by father and son Michael and Stephen Slattery, Zeto develops and sells cloud-based software for the management of commercial refrigeration systems.Cork-based technology startup Zeto has secured an investment of €1.7 million, in a funding round led by Kernel Capital.

Zeto’s software has been deployed across Lidl’s 182 Irish stores, where it monitors 8,000 pieces of equipment and provides 2.25 million real time data points for the retailer each day.

Aoife Clarke of Lidl Ireland said the platform provides the most up to date technology to monitor temperatures and guarantee quality in the supply chain. “It will enable us to safeguard stock in the event of issues with the refrigeration equipment and highlights inefficiencies that may become problematic in the future.”

Zeto chief executive Stephen Slattery said Lidl now have of the most comprehensive refrigeration management systems to be found in any supermarket chain globally. “We remain on track to create in the region of 35 high value job in Cork over the next three years,” he added.

Founded in 2012, Zeto uses wireless sensor networks and cloud technologies to ensure refrigeration equipment is operating and maintained to the highest of standards.

Treemetrics in €1.2m ‘internet of trees’ deal with European Space Agency

Cork tech firm Treemetrics has signed a €1.2m deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) to roll out a tree growth analytics system, including a unique tree sensor device.

The tree sensor has been designed to monitor minute increases in the plant’s growth. The solution creates a kind of mesh network that maps out a digital forest. The resulting data is transmitted via satellite to provide real-time analytics for forest managers.
 

Co-founders Enda Keane (pictured above) & Garrett Mullooly participated in the 2015 CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience.

Click here to read the full story as it was reported in Silicon Republic

Cork based PMD, Orthoxel & Aventamed among Top Irish Medtech Companies

Silcon Republic recently reviewed some of medtech marvels being developed across the whole island of Ireland, stemming from scientists and entrepreneurs, to early-stage start-ups and academic research projects.

Out of the top 15 as reported by Silicon Republic, 3 Cork based companies have been working with CorkBIC over the past few years.

PMD Solutions

Cork-based PMD Solutions has become one of the region’s most influential medical device manufacturers, particularly for its premier device, RespiraSense, which discreetly measures a patient’s chest and gut movement when breathing. Using RespiraSense, medical staff can better diagnose the earliest signs of possible patient deterioration, such as increasing severity of sepsis, worsening pneumonia or oncoming heart attacks. 

The device was developed by medical engineering graduate Myles Murray during his final year at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) in 2011. Since then, the Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start-up secured €4.2m in Horizon 2020 funding in November 2015, just as RespiraSense was about to enter use at University Hospital Galway and Cork University Hospital. The device has also been embraced by the NHS in the UK and the company is now eyeing hospitals in the US, Australia and Denmark.

Myles participated in the 2013 CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience and at the CorkBIC Venture Academy (pictured above with Aidan O'Driscoll CorkBIC/HBAN). 

Aventamed

AventaMed has developed a simple-to-use, handheld device for inserting grommets into the ear. AventaMed’s device aims to be simpler, safer and quicker, enabling clinicians to insert grommets in the doctor’s office in under one second and without anaesthetic. The company raised €1.3m for clinical trials and, since then, the device has been approved in Europe and is set for launch later this year. Readying for expansion, the company recently opened up recruitment for 15 jobs.

CorkBIC have worked with Co-founders Olive O'Driscoll & John Vaughan and were featured in the CorkBIC 2015 Annual review where they commented, "CorkBIC reviewed our business plan, offering advice and guidance, and were subsequently fantastic help with our HPSU application to Enterprise Ireland. Their knowledge of the investment landscape in Ireland is second to none; matching us with appropriate investors and making introductions especially with the HBAN investment syndicates, were invaluable when we were seeking investment."

Most recently Olive & John participated in the 2017 Entrepreneur Experience (pictured above with their coach for the Experience Johnny Walker, Health Founders)

OrthoXel

OrthoXel is focused on the development and commercialisation of orthopaedic trauma technologies to treat fractures of the tibia (shin bone), femur (thigh bone) and hip – which represents a $1.6bn global market. OrthoXel’s devices and surgical instruments are designed to accelerate fracture healing time. Its first product, the Apex Tibial Nailing System, is said to reduce tibia fracture healing time by 20pc and is expected to be launched this year. The basic R&D and proof of principle of the flagship product was completed in CIT’s MEDIC centre over five years.

Co-founder Pat O'Connor recently participated in CorkBIC's Celebration of High Growth Startups at the Port of Cork earlier in June (pictured above participating in the panel discussion).

For more information on these and the other companies listed click here for the full article on Silicon Republic 

Anabio shortlisted for 2016 US-Ireland Research Innovation Awards

AnaBio Technologies shortlisted for the 2016 US-Ireland Research Innovation Awards

The Royal Irish Academy and the American Chamber of Commerce, Ireland announced the shortlisted organisations for the 2016 US-Ireland Research Innovation Awards. The Royal Irish Academy  is Ireland's leading body of experts in the sciences and humanities

The shortlist was announced at the American Chamber President’s lunch in March. Each shortlisted organisation will be profiled in The Irish Times over the coming months. The winners will be announced at the American Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner on 20 May.

Based in Cork, AnaBio Technologies Ltd. is an innovative Irish company providing encapsulation expertise and commercial contract manufacture for the stabilisation of food, pharmaceutical and animal health products.

OncoMark Secures €2.1 Million in funding - new test for Breast Cancer

OncoMark, a University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out company announced that is had secured €2.1 million in funding. The funding round included; Kernel Capital, through the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Venture Funds, the Irrus & MedTech Syndicates, private investors and Enterprise Ireland. CorkBIC Business Angel Advisor Aidan O'Driscoll manages the Irrus Investment Syndicate.

OncoMark is focused on the development of novel panels of cancer biomarkers, to aid treatment decisions and allow more tailored patient management, ultimately improving the quality of life for cancer patients. This investment round will fund the commercialisation of OncoMark's lead product, OncoMasTR, which it plans to launch in 2018. OncoMasTR is a novel prognostic test for early-stage breast cancer that will reduce the number of breast cancer patients receiving unnecessary chemotherapy. 

OncoMark was previously awarded €2.7 million, through the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2, to clinically validate the OncoMasTR test. This new funding round will allow the translation of the test from clinical validation to regulatory approval and full commercialisation. OncoMark, which was co-founded by Professor William Gallagher and Steve Penney as a spin-out from UCD’s School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, is headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs.

Des O’Leary, Chief Executive Officer, OncoMark said, "In the absence of accurate tests, the majority of early-stage breast cancer patients are treated with chemotherapy despite many not benefiting from the treatment. This exposes individuals to severe side effects and results in significant costs to healthcare systems worldwide. He concluded, “OncoMark currently has 14 employees, a significant increase prior to the OncoMasTR project, and I expect our staff numbers to increase further in the years ahead.” 

Orla Rimmington, Partner, Kernel Capital, said, "OncoMark aims to prevent early stage breast cancer patients’ exposure to ineffective treatment and needless toxicity. Kernel Capital are delighted to have led this investment in OncoMark, with its genomic assessment test, based on pioneering research led by Professor William Gallagher.” 

Dr Tom Kelly, Head of Division, Industrial, Lifesciences and Consumer, Enterprise Ireland said, “The thriving Irish medtech sector continues its story of success and the development of innovative products such as OncoMasTR contributes significantly to Ireland’s reputation as a leading global cluster for medical technologies. Companies like OncoMark are the future of the Irish economy. They have used Ireland’s extensive innovation ecosystem and worked with the Enterprise Ireland commercialisation team to bring the fruits of academic enquiry to market and profitably. We will continue to support companies like OncoMark in delivering medical solutions that impact positively on the lives of cancer patients worldwide.” The OncoMasTR test is based on a panel of genetic 'drivers' of breast cancer.  The original research that resulted in the identification of the panel was led by Professor Adrian Bracken, Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin and researchers at the UCD Conway Institute, led by Professor William Gallagher. The OncoMasTR technology was subsequently exclusively licenced by both universities to OncoMark. 

See more at: http://www.hban.org/

Helixworks named among the 50 finalists for the ninth annual SXSW Accelerator Pitch even

Helixworks, Cork-based DNA data storage start-up, led by Nimesh Pinnamaneni - Chief Executive Officer and Sachin Chalapati is the only Irish startup named among the 50 finalists for the ninth annual SXSW Accelerator Pitch event taking place in March. Helixworks was part of the IndieBio EU Accelerator Program, 2016 (now RebelBio) and was funded with early stage capital from SOSV. 

CorkIC are delighted to announce that Helixworks will be participating in the 2017 Entrepreneur Experience®.

Helixworks have developed a set of tools to solve one aspect of experimenting in biotech; chemically synthesise DNA for various applications. They design and engineer protocols, software and apparatus for hands-free, automated DNA synthesis. Their goal is to democratise access to cutting edge tools in biotech like the personal computer did for everyone.

Back in July, the company made headlines after it announced that it was the first company in the world to offer DNA data storage to anyone, straight from Amazon. By purchasing DNA Drive, a person can store 512KB of data onto genetic information that is stored in a golden pill, which could potentially last for thousands of years.

Read the full article as it was reported in Silicon Republic

Modern Botany takes skincare back to its natural source

CorkBIC client Modern Botany is a natural product cosmetic company, established in 2015, founded by John Murray and supported by Dr Simon Jackson (Chief Scientific Officer and Director). Their aim is to produce unisex 100% natural luxury skincare preparations utilising the best ingredients from the natural World.

CorkBIC are delighted to announce that Modern Botany will be participating in the 2017 Entrepreneur Experience®.


In a recent article in the Irish Times John explained what Modern Botany was all about “With Modern Botany we wanted to create a single skincare product for men and women using evidence-based science,” he continues. “For women we wanted to formulate a natural moisturiser with anti-aging properties that dries matt so make-up can be applied on top. 

For men we wanted to offer a straightforward product that was good for the beard, effective in tackling shaving rash and great for the face as part of a daily moisturising routine. The product is also suitable for those with eczema or psoriasis as it takes down irritation. It’s a great bathroom staple and an ideal one-stop-shop for the washbag when travelling.”

Read the full article on the Irish Times website

Over 20 CorkBIC Clients feature in Ireland's Top 100 Startup

The Sunday Business Post recently published a supplement in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland, highlighting Ireland's top 100 startups and over 20% of the list were CorkBIC clients. 12 of this year's Entrepreneur Experience participants were featured including Aventamed, Lowflo, Mirai Medical, Solo Energy and Evolusion Innovation.

Click here to view the supplement

Ocean Survivor crowned Overall Winner InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition

CorkBIC has worked extensively with Kieran over the past few years, developing a business plan and an investor ready proposition. Kieran participated in the 2015 Entrepreneur Experience® as well as more recently pitching at the CorkBIC Venture Academy® Conference in October.We are delighted to congratulate Kieran Normoyle, founder of Ocean Survivor (formerly Deviate Aspire) who won the Overall Award at the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition, winning a cash prize of €100,000. The InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition is the island’s biggest business competition for new start and early stage companies and is aimed at companies with a new funding requirement. 

Kieran Normoyle, founder Ocean Survivor pitching at the CorkBIC Venture Academy® Conference 

Kieran's Blog from the 2015 Entrepreneur Experience "I find it incredibly humbling that such successful business leaders, would take time out of their busy schedules to spend a few hours, helping bewildered lambs find their way on the beaten path and even offering follow ups for the future.

One of the best parts of attending the Entrepreneurs Experience has to be the quality fellow participants. Its a breath of fresh air to see people hard at work, advocating for change - each promoter doing his/her best to bring their vision to life or scale to be international businesses ."

Speaking about his coach Peter Crowley, he continued "Peter laughs, chuckles, smiles and frowns. When he's quiet, he's thinking. When he speaks people listen. Pencils touch paper and the trail that's left are Peter's words."

PMD Solutions announces 11 jobs for Cork following EU funding

Cork healthcare company PMD Solutions has been one of the few selected across Europe to receive €4.2m as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 funding programme to develop its device for respiratory illnesses.

Myles Murray, founder PMD solutions has worked with CorkBIC extensively over the past few years, participating in the 2013 Entrepreneur Experinece® and more recently on a panel discussion at the CorkBIC Venure Academy® Conference in October 2015.

Myles Murray, PMD Solutions (Centre) with Aidan O'Driscoll, CorkBIC and Gráinne Barry, Salaso at the CorkBIC Venure Academy® Conference 

Aventamed raises €1.3m in private equity Investment

Olive O'Driscoll, co-founder Aventamed pictured with Ger O'Mahony, ActionPoint & VoxPro and Michael O'Connor, CorkBIC who all participated in a CorkBIC event celebrating High Growth Companies like Aventamed

AventaMed, a Cork-based medical device company, has raised €1.3 million in funding to commence clinical trials and secure regulatory approval for their innovative device aimed at transforming the $5billion grommet surgery industry.  

Their breakthrough ear device will give parents and surgeons the choice to undergo grommet surgery without the need for a full general anaesthetic.

CorkBIC worked with Aventamed on their initial business planning and obtaining Enterprise Ireland HPSU approval. CorkBIC subsequently worked with Aventamed on their investor readiness and through HBAN arranged pitches and introductions for Aventamed to Private Investors and Investment Syndicates.

In September 2015 Aventamed secured equity investment of €1.3m from a range of investors including Enterprise Ireland, HBAN Investment syndicates Irrus, Boole and Medtec. 

Aysytec create 50 jobs & new office in Cork Post Entrepreneur Experience

A total of 50 posts are to be created at data management services company Asystec in their new Cork office.

The company, which has offices in Limerick, Dublin and Belfast, is also opening a new Cork office in Ballincollig. Co-founder Brendan McPhillips recently participated in the CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience® in Ballymaloe.

Asystec designs solutions to assist companies to manage, secure and identify their key data assets within their organisation. They provide Independent solutions from a number of market leading vendors, choosing the most appropriate technologies for our customers’ needs. Asystec act as a single source for their customers providing them with end-to-end solutions. 

Salaso Health Solutions partners with Perform at St. George’s Park

Perform, part of Spire Healthcare, has established a partnership with Salaso Health Solutions. This partnership will bring the latest in exercise prescription software to clients of its flagship rehabilitation facility located at the FA’s National Football centre, St. George’s Park. Perform’s skilled inter-disciplinary rehabilitation teams will now be able to design and deliver specialist exercise programmes through a dedicated online injury rehabilitation platform and a mobile app.

Salaso Health Solutions provides an e-health platform supporting better engagement with injury rehabilitation programmes. Users can access prescribed exercises on their phone or tablet using the dedicated app, or directly via the web.

Aoife Ní Mhuirí, CEO of Salaso Health Solutions, commented “The partnership with Perform enables Salaso to integrate its technology with the demands of professional sports men and women. We expect the expert insights available from the Perform team will help us enhance our platform for the benefit of all athletes using Salaso”.

Perform chose Salaso as their exercise software partner as the platform includes a large library of high quality exercise videos, an interactive app, which gathers information from users on rehabilitation outcomes, and the ability to customise the platform to the specialised needs of Perform’s elite sports medicine and performance training centre.

CorkBIC has worked extensively with Salaso on their business plan and obtaining Enterprise Ireland HPSU approval. CorkBIC also worked with Salaso on their investor readiness and through HBAN arranged pitches and introductions for Salaso to Private Investors and Investment Syndicates.

Veronica's Snacks Case Study

Veronica’s Snacks Ltd manufactures and sells tasty, low-fat, gluten-free snacks in the Irish and UK retail market.

CorkBIC worked with Veronica's Snacks on their initial business planning right through to Investor Introductions and Enterprise Ireland HPSU approval. 

In February 2015 Veronica’s Snacks secured equity investment of €465,000 from a range of investors including AIB Seed Capital, Enterprise Ireland and the Boole Investment Syndicate, supported by HBAN and CorkBIC.

Click HERE to READ the full Case Study

Radisens Diagnostics receives €4.5m in funding from the European Commission

CorkBIC client, Radisens Diagnostics, the blood diagnostics company, has scored €4.5m in funding from the European Commission to develop a device that takes blood tests out of the lab and puts them into doctors’ hands.

Radisens Diagnostics is at the forefront of a new segment of the healthcare industry known as near patient diagnostics. Its blood-testing device Gemini has been referred to as a “clinic in a box” and can provide laboratory-grade diagnostics from a pinprick of blood in minutes.

Different cartridges are loaded into the device and test for specific diseases. The funding will go towards developing cartridges that can test for diabetes and cardiovascular and kidney functions.

“We are delighted with this significant endorsement from the EC, in support of our vision of instant testing of any high-burden chronic disease anywhere”, commented Radisens’ CEO, Jerry O’Brien. “Integrating diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney function panels onto Gemini™ will impact people’s daily lives”. 

Go to Radisens Diagnostics Website for more information

Sean O'Sullivan, SOS Ventures & Frank Madden, Crest Solutions 2015 EOY Finalists

We would like to wish Good Luck to both Frank Madden, Crest Solutions and Sean O'Sullivan who were both shortlisted for the 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the Year™ Awards which take place in October.

Both Frank Madden, founder and CEO of Crest Solutions and Sean O'Sullivan, founder SOS Ventures were shortlisted in the International Category.  

Announcing the shortlist, EY’s Kevin McLoughlin, Partner Lead for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme, said: “The programme continues to unearth companies that are excelling on a remarkable scale and this year’s programme has attracted an exceptionally high calibre of entrepreneur. It is particularly heartening to see the diversity within this year’s shortlist, including a number of strong female candidates and entrepreneurs under the age of 30. We look forward to welcoming our new finalists to the EOY network and continuing our work to support entrepreneurship across the island of Ireland.”

For more information go to EY Entrepreneur of the Year™

Thermo Tent kickstarts with €51k in pre-orders

The Thermo Tent Kickstarter campaign has just ended. With over 175 followers they blew through their goal to achieve nearly €51k in pre-orders. With final funding at 127% of the original goal over a 39 day project. Thermo Tent presented their Business proposition at the most recent CorkBIC Venture Academy.

Thermo Tent is the world’s very first properly (thermally & acoustically) insulated tent. Thermo Tent have helped to reduce or even to eradicate the spikes in temperature that occur in normal tents. Their ground breaking insulation technology helps to muffle the noise transfer in & out of the tent. No more freezing nights and unbearably hot mornings. Reduced noise levels from busy campsites. Their tents are scheduled to be used everywhere from Base Camp on Everest to the depths of the African jungle in 2015 so one can be sure that the experts have literally given them their stamp of approval.

Over the last month Thermo Tent have appeared in a number of online magazines and blogs such as 50 Campfires, Gear Junkie and an article in the Mail Online which was shared over thirty three thousand times!

Cloud computing company NearForm to create 100 jobs

CorkBIC client, NearForm, specialising in bringing cloud computing to large enterprises, building faster, more stable, more versatile business platforms,  is to create 100 jobs over the next year. The new jobs are described as high end and will primarily be in development, with other roles in sales, marketing, finance and project management.

The company was founded in 2011 by chief executive Cian Ó Maidín and chief technology officer Richard Rodger. NearForm already employs 35 people and recently opened its headquarters at Waterford County Council’s former site in Tramore, an 8,000 sq ft state of the art building.

Mr Ó Maidín said the announcement of the jobs was a proud day for NearForm. “We were strongly urged by many parties to relocate to the US,” he said.“We chose to stay here and build our company in a place where we wanted to raise our families.” He said the company could grow further over the next couple of years at the Waterford office. “You can be anywhere in the world if you have high enough quality people.”

CorkBIC has worked with NearForm on their business plan.

Read the full article go to www.nearform.com

Treemetrics lands €800,000 European Space Agency contract

Treemetrics, an innovator in forestry, data analytics and measurement solutions, has secured a significant €800,000 contract with the European Space Agency (ESA). Minister for Research and Innovation, Sean Sherlock said that Treemetric’s funding will support the global roll-out of the company’s web-based satellite mapping application for the forestry industry.
 

The Enterprise Ireland-backed company also plans to recruit a further ten software engineers over the next 12 months to expand its workforce at its Cork facility to 30. The company’s technology involves the use of 3D scanners that can measure the shape, size and straightness of standing trees. It then uses this information to predict the quantities of log products that each tree can produce their potential value which leads to a reduction in the quantity of trees cut and an improvement in forest profitability.

Treemetrics founders Enda Keane and Garret Mullooly recently attended the 2015 Entrepreneur Experience. 

Teamwork - One of Ireland's best kept Technology Secrets!

Teamwork. the fast-growing project management company is one of Ireland's best-kept secrets, 1.9million people and over 300,000 companies use Teamwork including clients such as Disney, Pixar, Spotify, Harrods, Cisco and Santander. 

Based in Cork, Teamwork.com is a suite of business applications, including Teamwork Projects, an online project management software application that helps teams work together more productively online. Designed to help users manage their day to day projects either in a company or personal setting. 

CorkBIC worked with Teamwork founders in the early stages of their development; “We found CorkBIC to be very friendly and approachable over the years. Their straight forward advice in our early days was much appreciated” said Peter Coppinger.

AventaMed to hit high note in 2015

CorkBIC client AventaMed is an emerging medical device company focused on simplifying surgical procedures to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient safety. AventaMed's first product is a device for the placement of grommets into ears.  This device will place a grommet in under 1 second and will allow the procedure to be carried out in a doctors office without the need for traditional general anaesthetic.

AventaMed co-founder John Vaughan and AventaMed CEO Olive O’Driscoll at the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Munster final with their grommet-placement device. AventaMed, based in Cork was founded by Olive O’Driscoll and John Vaughan will start clinical trials of the grommet-placement device in the UK in 2015. 

Speaking recently to Silicon Republic, CEO, Olive O'Driscoll said, “The surgeons are eagerly anticipating treating their patients with the device, and it will be hopefully on the market at the end of 2015 or early 2016,”. She went on to say “We get lots of phone calls and emails from parents whose children are on waiting lists and suffering from hearing loss and not being able to participate as much as they could in school or playschool. They can’t hear properly, their speech isn’t starting as much as it might otherwise and these parents are really quite worried and eagerly waiting to have another option.” AventaMed  was recently named Best Overall Early Stage company at InterTradeIreland’s 2014 all-island Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition.

MPSTOR Partner with IBM in €3.2m Horizon 2020 project

MPSTOR, recently confirmed it will partner with IBM, Eurocom and other industry leaders to develop IOStack, an SDS toolkit for Big Data. This project has received €3.2m funding from the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, €620k of which is allocated to MPSTOR. The objective of the IOStack project is to enable efficient execution of virtualized analytics. 

As storage mountains continue to grow, efficiently moving data into a virtualized analytics framework will be increasingly important. The goal of this project is to deploy data analytic frameworks around data mountains with minimal movement of source data and so maximise the benefits of virtualization. William Oppermann, CEO, MPSTOR

William Oppermann, CEO, MPSTOR participated in the very first CorkBIC Entrepreneur Experience in Garryvoe in 2011 and earlier this year Kernel Capital confirmed its participation in a US$1.5m investment in MPSTOR, with total investment in the firm now in excess of US$10m. 

Ones to watch in 2015 - Silicon Republic recently put together a list of the top 20 tech start-ups to watch in 2015. A number of CorkBIC clients appeared in the list, they were:

Entrepreneur Experience Alumni

Pubble

Pubble, Co-founder John Dineen participated in the 2012 Entrepreneur Experience® in Kinsale with Learnpipe and was awarded for his outstanding contribution to the Investor Ready group. It was later that same year that Pubble was born. Based in Cork, Pubble interacts with customers live online to build an active community on a company website. Pubble is a platform that enables website owners to offer live community experiences (such as live Q&As, live messaging, and Twitter Q&As) right on top of the pages of their website.
 

Thank Frank - Sean Ahern

ThankFrank.com is a platform of human search for savvy social shoppers that is also building an economy based on gratitude. “In a nutshell, ThankFrank.com provides a cool way to say thanks for frank and honest advice,” says founder Sean Ahern. Each month, ThankFrank auctions off several limited sponsorship opportunities and the active community helps these sponsor companies in return. Sean Ahern participated in the 2014 Entrepreneur Experience®.
 

Sedicci
Sedicci is the creator of a new way of securing and validating people’s identities in such a way that their personal information is not put at risk. Co-founder Robert Leslie, participated in the 2012 Entrepreneur Experience® and when commenting on the event he said "this is a room full of believers; passion is oozing out of everybody." Sedicci uses a protocol called zero knowledge proof, which can prove a person knows something without the need for them to share or disclose it.

Participants in the most recent Venture Academy at the Business without Boundaries conference in November 2014

CareZapp

CareZapp’s technology allows caregivers to create networks of care to support people who require their help with a cloud-based platform for personalising plans. The company was recently one of the 14 finalist in the Start-up Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2014 in London. The CareZapp solution is designed to provide a range of communication and collaboration tools to enable the creation of care networks, to connect those needing care with caregivers, be they family, friends, neighbours, community-based supports, home-care providers, or social and healthcare professionals. Andrew McFarlane, recently pitched at the CorkBIC Venture Academy® during the Business without Boundaries Conference in Ballymaloe in November 2014.

Pundit Arena

Pundit Arena is a sports media website powered by articulate fans, and aspiring and experienced sports journalists. Based in Cork, Pundit Arena was founded by Ross O'Dwyer and Richard Barrett, and Richard pitched at the CorkBIC Venture Academy® during the Business without Boundaries Conference in Ballymaloe in November 2014. “We empower fans and aspiring journalists to become paid journalists by monetising their content on our interactive platform,” explained co-founder of Pundit Arena Richard Barrett. “The fans write about the sports and topics that they are passionate about and we amplify their opinion by publishing their content on our website. 

WorkCompass raises €650k

WorkCompass, based in Cork, has raised €650k from angel investors and Enterprise Ireland.  The funding will be used to grow the business on the international market.  Their innovative solution allows organisations improve staff performance by on average 11% making staff more engaged and companies more competitive. Denis Coleman, CEO, WorkCompass participated in the CorkBIC 2014 Entrepreneur Experience® earlier this year.

Denis Coleman, founder and CEO, WorkCompass stated: “Over the past 16 months we have gained significant traction in the Irish market, we are now looking to foreign markets to continue our growth. This investment allows us achieve that. Our initial focus will be the United Kingdom.”

WorkCompass.com is an online Staff Performance Management and performance review solution.  We have distilled the people management practices that the behavioural scientists agree improve staff performance into a single, intuitive, cloud software system that drive business success. WorkCompass is the product of over 22,000 hours of research and testing. The development team includes leading organisational development experts from industry and academia in Europe and the US.

Compliance & Risks named ICT Exporter 2014

Recently at the Irish Exporters Association 2014 Export Industry Awards, Compliance & Risks was named ICT Exporter of the year. The Awards, in their 14th year, attracted over 500 guests including Minister Alex White TD, Ambassadors and Dignitaries from 24 Embassies in Ireland to the Convention Centre Dublin. Compliance & Risks provide innovative online tools and consulting services that deliver timely and accurate global regulatory intelligence to empower business compliance, mitigate risk and identify opportunities.

Damien McGovern, founder of Compliance and Risks who participated in the Business without Boundaries conference in Ballymaloe on November 27th, commented that "Without CorkBIC Compliance & Risks wouldn’t exist. It’s that simple. It’s important to have at your side people who have ‘been there done that’ and who can recognise patterns so as to direct and challenge you, especially at the beginning. You’re walking a tightrope and you need encouragement, structure and support which I was fortunate enough to benefit from, and which I am still very grateful for.”

WhatSalon wows Eva Longoria at the Web Summit

CorkBIC client WhatSalon recently looked after the hair and make-up back stage at the Web Summit. Look who Kieran (CEO, of WhatSalon) bumped into....the one and only Eva Longoria!

Irish Atlantic Sea Salt wins 'Golden Fork' award

Huge Congratulations to Michael O'Neil and all the team at Irish Atlantic Sea Salt who scooped a 'Golden Fork' award at the 2014 Great Taste Awards. 

The awards organised by the Guild of Fine Food  is the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink. It has been described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize’. Quite simply the Great Taste logo is the sign you can trust when buying food and drink in your local, quality retailer. 

By winning a 'Golden Fork', Irish Atlantic Sea Salt is acknowledged as one of the top 10 Best Irish Speciality foods out of 10,000 products.

Michael O'Neil, founder of Irish Atlantic Sea Salt, participated in the most recent Entrepreneur Experience® earlier this year and continues to work with the team in CorkBIC on his business plans.

For more on Irish Atlantic Sea Salt visit their website

RadioShack to deploy Trustev across all stores and online

Starting in October, Trustev will deploy its new integrated sales solution at RadioShack locations to enhance the customer experience when buying a mobile phone. Trustev’s “data fingerprinting” technology will ensure these transactions are convenient for customers, and validated and protected for RadioShack.

Trustev worked closely with CorkBIC during their start-up phase. Commenting at the recent 25 year celebration for CorkBIC, Pat Phelan, co-founder Trustev said "The team at CorkBIC were a great help to us at Trustev during the early days when people and resources were extremely tight. They helped us cut through the bureaucracy and focus on the information and decisions that were relevant and a priority at the time."

“Trustev’s sales solution is an ideal complement to the customer experience RadioShack provides its mobility customers,” said Pat Phelan, co-founder and chief executive officer of Trustev. “We developed our platform to give retailers and customers more confidence in verified transactions, and we’re looking forward to continuing our expansion into the U.S. with leading retail partners like RadioShack.”

For more information on Trustev go to their website

Curious Wines secures €30k funding via Linked Finance

Rather than going back to the banks, Cork-based wine company Curious Wines has secured a loan of €30,000 from its customers’ pockets.

Curious Wines turned to crowd-funding company Linked Finance to secure the funds, in what is the most successful loan bid ever hosted on the site.

Curious Wines managing director, Michael Kane attributed the success of the loan application to their engagement of both existing and potential customers. CorkBIC worked with Michael on his early business plans and Michael also participated in the 2013 Entrepreneur Experience®.

Michael Kane, Curious Wines pictured at the 2013 Entrepreneur Experience®

“By some distance it’s the most successful loan process [Linked Finance] have put up and the reason is that we managed to engage both our existing customers and also non-customers that bought into what we’re trying to do,” he said.

The crowd-funding platform works by giving individuals an opportunity to bid ‘micro loans’ at rates that suit them.

For more information go to their website

Poly-Pico joins forces with NUI Galway with spectacular results

Poly-Pico and NUI Galway have developed a method to 'print' replacement tissues using stem cells. They aim to use the process to grow tissues for transplants. By using tiny cartridges dispensing one stem cell at a time, Galway-based researchers may soon be able to literally “print” the scaffold of a healthy human tissue, and let it grow to become a therapeutic transplant.

Gabriel Leen, founder Poly-Pico participating at the 2012 Entrepreneur Experience®

Poly-Pico, a University of Limerick spin-out, now based in Galway has been a client of CorkBIC for many years. CorkBIC and the Business Angel Partnershiphave worked extensively with Poly-Pico and founder Dr Gabriel Leen on business plans and investor readiness. Gabriel participated in the 2012 Entrepreneur Experience® and featured in a video about the event where he comment that The Entrepreneur Experience®"is a fantastic opportunity. I couldn't possibly sell it strongly enough. It's been really exciting and there's a whole lot more to come." Click here to have a look at the video.

For more information go to their website

Radisens secures second €1M European Space Agency Contract

Radisens Diagnostics has been awarded a second €1m contract by the European Space Agency to develop an innovative blood testing device for use by astronauts on board the International Space Station and on various human spaceflight missions. 

The European Space Agency has contracted Radisens to extend the blood testing menu on their point-of-care device which is currently in development at their facility in Cork. This forerunner device could be used on board the International Space Station and on various human spaceflight missions where it is essential to get high-performance, laboratory grade results for myriad health conditions, without fear of biological contamination.

Read the full article here

Entrepreneur found out the hard way that food, rather than music is the spice of life

Arun Kapil, founder of Green Saffron, recently spoke to Sandra O'Connell of the Sunday Times about how he came to Cork and founded Green Saffron. Arun left a successful music business in London in order to 'find himself'. He started in a caravan in rural Co. Cork, cooking up his next business venture, spice company Green Saffron.

Read the full article here

PR Slides raises €500k in seed funding

Irish model & fashion columnist Emma-Jane Power and social media entrepreneur Niall Harbison have joined forcesto work together on Ireland's first media hub, PRSlides.com. Founder Emma-Jane connected with CorkBIC to get assitance with her business plan and investor proposition. 

CorkBIC client PR Slides recently raised €500k in seed funding with Enterprise Ireland and Kernel Capital joining forces with Harbison, Eamon Leonard, Johnny Walker and Julian Kulkarni to invest in the venture. 

PR slides, based in Waterford, is a valuable but inexpensive PR tool, ensuring the maximum exposure with minimum costs as well as maiking it easier for journalists to view the latest products and press releases.

For more information on PR Slides go to their WEBSITE

Veronica's Snacks getting a bite of the Market

Sunday Times' reporter Sandra O'Connell recently spoke to Veronica Kenneally founder of Veronica's Snacks. Getting noticed with virtually no marketing budget was a challenge that Veronica Keneally faced head on with some innovative ideas. 

Veronica's Snacks now employs 4 people and supplies supermarkets and health food shops across Ireland and is exporting into selected outlets the UK as well as available on amazon. 

Veronica's Snacks crisps are baked rather than fried, low in fat and gluten free. CorkBIC has worked extensively with Veronica's Snacks building a business plan and preparing for investment.

Read the Full Article HERE

HealthClinicPlus - using software to help mend injuries

HealthClinicPlus, based in Tralee, Kerry, founded by Aoife Ní Mhuirí, has developed a web and mobile therapy platform to help people recover from muscular injuries. 

Recently Elaine O'Regan, of the Sunday Business Post spoke to Aoife Ní Mhuirí and asked her why it works. "We have a library of thousands of high-quality videos that teach patients how to do their exercises. The software has a mechanism for setting goals for the patients that are specific to their individual injuries or pain condition" answered Aoife Ní Mhuirí. 

CorkBIC have worked with Aoife, refining her business plan and progressing HealthClinicPlus along the High Potential Start-up (HPSU) route. 

Read the full Article here