| €280,000 Seedcorn Prize Fund for Best Early Stage Companies |
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| Wednesday, 25 August 2010 13:46 |
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Through Seedcorn, companies on the island of Ireland have already leveraged around €125m of additional equity investment over the past six years. As well as offering fantastic cash incentives Seedcorn provides invaluable support and advice from some of the island’s top investment experts and the competition mimics a real Venture Capital investment process. InterTradeIreland Board member, Sean Gallagher who is also a well-known ‘Dragon’ from RTE’s hit TV show ‘the Dragon’s Den’ said: “The economic environment has never been tougher for young companies. InterTradeIreland’s seedcorn competition can help businesses get off the ground with a cash incentive as well as invaluable advice and support from leading investors across the island.” ‘’They can use the competition to help develop their business ideas, improve their business plan and learn how to present concepts to panels of investors.’’ “I would urge companies to enter Seedcorn and give their business a boost – aside from the prize fund on offer, the competition provides a unique opportunity for firms to raise their profile, make invaluable industry contacts and ultimately attract further investment.” This year, the two top categories – Best High Growth Company and Best Emerging Company – stand to win €100,000 and €50,000 respectively. There are also six regional prizes of €20,000 each and one Best Spinout prize of €10,000. Since winning the Award for Best Emerging Company at last year’s finals, Limerick based company, Cauwill Technologies has benefitted greatly. The company developed PinPoints, an application that is available through a multitude of platforms from desktop computers, laptops to mobile phones helping users get directions to a location by one click of a button. Co-Managing Director, Ronan Skehill said, "Cauwill Technologies was founded by two PhD's so we were always confident in our ability to deliver quality technology but winning Seedcorn gave us the confidence to believe that we could turn that technology into a high growth business. He added, “The feedback we received from the judges at all stages of the competition was invaluable and both validated and strengthened the business plan. We have since been able to leverage the monetary award to incorporate the advice we received during the competition and execute our plan." Following the scoring of written business plans, the top entries from each region and category are selected to make a short presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a question and answer session. Winners are selected in each category in each of the regions and will be asked to make their presentation again to a separate panel of judges at the final in Belfast on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010. The panel will then select the overall all-island winner in each category. To register for the competition, visit: www.intertradeireland.com/seedcorn . Business plans must be submitted by 1pm on Friday, 17th September, 2010. Comments (1)
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 02 September 2010 20:15 |
Irish entrepreneurs could get a huge cash boost for their business, thanks to a prize fund of €280,000 being offered by InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn All-Island Business Competition 2010. The competition is the largest on the island in terms of the prize fund available and in the past has helped give fledgling firms such as Limerick based company, Cauwill Technologies ‘lift-off’.
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Just visit www.ronanskehill.com for some inspiration from someone who's been there and got the t-shirt!
Adrienne
www.business-startup.ie