Planning a new venture? Ireland is the best location in the world for startups. Fact.
The World Bank, recently ranked Ireland as the top country in Europe for starting a company.
As well as hosting some of Europe’s top accelerator programs, Ireland has a high rate of seed and venture capital availability.
Ireland’s population is young, highly innovative, well-educated and multi-lingual.
Strategically located with easy access to the important markets in Europe, US and the middle east. Ireland is the only English speaking country in the Euro-zone.
Ireland is a great place to live and work.
This St. Patricks Day, We want you to spread the message;
Enterprise Ireland is the Irish government organisation responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets with a dedicated startup support team. Every year we assist hundreds of companies across technology, medical, biotech, games and other sectors as they take on the world from Ireland. We provide equity investment, expert mentors, incubation programs and a unique global network of 30 offices to accelerate your growth.To find out more, go to www.StartInIreland.com
Healthbox, the accelerator program for health care startups that was founded by Chicago-based Sandbox Industries, have selected 10 companies to participate in its three-month program beginning 9th January. The line-up includes PaJR (Patient Journey Record), an Irish company using Trinity College developed technology to build a cloud-based hospital re-admissions prevention platform. The software identifies at-risk patients based on health status information reported by patients and caregivers.
The HealthBox program offers each company office space and $50,000 in seed capital, in addition to access to a network of about 70 mentors that includes hospital executives, health care entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The 10 companies will also work with the five-member Healthbox team. Healthbox received about 200 applications
Patient Journey Record is a company we’re really excited about, they’re thinking about the problem that hospitals have with high 30-day readmission rates, and trying to use data in new ways to address that challenge and manage basic populations in a much more proactive way.
said Ms Nashif, Healthbox’s founder and a managing director of Sandbox Industries.
Ireland has long been destination of choice for the biggest and the most ambitious companies in Information Technology and Software to set up major subsidiaries. Ireland has quietly made significant improvements in the startup environment and supports for its own growing number of locally originating high tech start ups. It now has some of the best soft supports along with probably the greatest amount of early stage funding, per capita, in Europe and one of the best in the world.
We in Ireland are now working to attract entrepreneurs with software and other innovative start ups to relocate here to benefit from the start up supports that have been put in place- the same advantages that have attracted the big companies. This new visa scheme is yet another building block in making Irealnd Europe’s go to location of choice for innovative start ups.
I am delighted that the Department of Justice has introduced this new visa programme. It shows the full commitment there is right across the different parts of government to making Ireland a destination of choice for innovative entrepreneurs.
The main criteria are:
Have access to funding of €75k through business angels, venture capital providers or a financial institution regulated by the Financial Regulator. Personal funding transferred to the State or a grant from a relevant State agency would also be acceptable.
The business must have a strong innovation component. Projects will be evaluated by an Evaluation Committee based on those who demonstrate a good idea or the potential to be a winner.
This is a guest post from Teresa Dillon of the Science Gallery, Dublin. Teresa is looking for good Irish Software and Service Companies to take part in ‘Hack the City’ – an exhibition running from June to September. It could be a great showcase for your new App, Service, Mashup or Startup, with potential funding available to help you realise the concept for the event.
Currently more than half of the world’s population lives in towns and cities. This trend is expected to continue. Between 2025-2030 of the approximate 8 billion people who will live in the world 5 billion will live in cities. Yet the majority of our city infrastructures are based on inherited historical layouts and systems.
Science Gallery’s 2012 flagship exhibition and festival Hack the City will rethink our cities from the ground up through the spirit and philosophy of the hacker ethos – to bend, mash-up, tweak and cannibalise our city systems, to create possibilities, illustrate visionary thinking and demonstrate real-world examples for sustainable urban futures. It will capitalize on Dublin city’s history, legacy, population and infrastructure, transforming the city itself into a nimble “playground” and live urban hack lab.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7375989@N06/
We’re looking for proposals for experiments, exhibits, events, apps, mashups and visualisations which go beyond Science Gallery in to the city of Dublin and even connect multiple cities globally. Potential venue partnerships include The Ark, Temple Bar, Dublin and international partnerships with ZER01 in San Jose, California. We are especially interested in (more…)
Want an event where you take part instead of just listen? Do yourselves a favour by heading out west to Bizcamp 2011, which takes place on Saturday September 10, in the NUI Galway. This is the latest in the series of Bizcamp events which have been held around Ireland.
Organised by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, Bizcamp 2011 ups the ante while taking down the formality a notch or two, and while it’s going to be packed with innovators and people with creative ideas (and, of course, entrepreneurs!), the event is deliberately not about sales pitches.
Ultimately, what happens is that speakers will give a short presentation (usually no longer than 20 minutes), with 10 minutes for open discussion, on a topic of their choice. The great thing about Bizcamp is that the topics vary from adapting your business, innovative marketing, product design and pricing to sourcing finance, engaging with web and social networking and evaluating stress management.
Bizcamp co-organiser and founder of xap.ie, Michael Fitzgerald, reckons that Bizcamp is all about encouraging, mentoring and supporting innovative and ambitious business ventures.
“There’s so much going on in the areas of technology, medical devices and industry in general in the West of Ireland right now. It’s a really exciting time, and we wanted to provide a platform for entrepreneurs to meet with new people outside their main circles to share and learn from each other.”
If you’re around on the day before the event (Friday September 9) , you’ll be pleased to know that a Demobar event takes place in The Oslo, Salthill, at 9pm.This is an informal event where you can view demonstrations of web-based applications, iPhone, iPad & mobile apps, and have a beer (free!) with the people behind these local companies. Demonstrations are on laptops and mobile devices – the guys promise no Powerpoint presentations!
In early June a group of Enterprise Ireland media clients arrived in Annecy, France for MIFA, the biggest animation focused event in the world. They joined 7000 participants from 70 different countries for a series of conferences, screenings and presentations. These companies – including Kavaleer, Brown Bag Films, Cartoon Saloon and Monster Distributes – represent the best of Irish innovation, providing a broad range of animation styles for a number of different platforms.
Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Film Board hosted a reception for the Irish participants and their guests on Thursday evening. Brown Bag Films Chief Executive Cathal Gaffney delivered a keynote speech, followed by the launch of a new showreel, showcasing the best of Irish animation. The event was attended by over one hundred industry professionals, including international broadcasters, distributors and producers.
The week came to a fantastic end with the presentation of two prizes for EI clients. Enterprise Ireland client Boulder Media were awarded Best TV Production for “The Amazing World of Gumball- The Quest”, a European co production. Cartoon Saloon’s work on the animated feature “Santa’s Apprentice” also picked up a special UNICEF prize for “Animated programme which best highlights the goals of the Convention on the Rights of the Child”.
For more information on Irish companies in this space please see the Animation Ireland website. For details on how Enterprise Ireland can help, please contact Eimear O’Rourke or Eileen Bell.
These are the successful 1st set of companies that applied for the fund. We hope to announce the 2nd set (Competitive Start Fund) as soon as the successful companies finish the T&C’s and due diligence.
Congratulations to all ten companies – the hard work is just beginning. If you weren’t successful, there is some consolation in the strength of the people that did win through.
Endeavour, the fast-track programme for technology/software/innovation start-ups, has a fast-approaching closing date of 26 January for Phase 1 of its programme which can be taken in Dublin (from 1 February) or Kerry (from 3 February).
The short first phase programme (six evenings/one Saturday) is open to Founders (with ideas) and potential Co-founders including programmers, creatives, managers, etc (with or without ideas). The purpose is to provide the structure to turn ideas into business concepts and to encourage team creation with co-founders.
The intensive second phase is a full-time intensive “tough love” mentoring programme beginning in May. Phase 2 offers dedicated and international mentor teams to participants, incubation space, access to funding from Endeavour itself, and the opportunity to access funding of EUR100,000 upwards through Kernel Capital with whom Endeavour has a strategic partnership. Participants will also pitch on an Investor Week in Europe and Silicon Valley.
Let the FUND commence! We have listened to the community and now we have launched a pilot equity fund to assist Internet and Games Start-Ups to help them launch new products and services in the international marketplace. The Internet and Games Competitive Start Fund (IGCSF) provides funding to new early-stage companies to get to a ‘product market fit ‘ and interact with customers from an early stage.
Starting on a pilot basis, ten companies in the Internet and Games sector will be selected for this fund. The key to being one of the ten is being able to demonstrate an ability to develop your business internationally. The initial fund is €500,000, but further calls maybe be rolled out next year .
