FLUIRSE:A big year beckons in 2008 for Fluirse, the Tralee-based education software company which designs and develops interactive media and software that is specifically aligned to the subject curricula in primary schools.
The company is in the final stages of raising finance through the Business Expansion Scheme, which will see it ramp up operations, moving to a new premises, more than double the number of staff and start developing a new online product.
"The money is provisionally raised," says Flurise director Kristian O'Donovan (pictured above right with co-founder Tomas Finneran). "The money has to come in before the end of December for the people to get their tax breaks."
Around five investors are committing funds to the firm which will match similar investment from Enterprise Ireland.
The financing will be used for product development.
The company is designing an online education portal that will be divided into three sections - one for teachers, one for children and one for parents to cover all subjects for infants up to sixth class.
"It is a frontloaded business, so all of the development has to happen up front before the actual sales start to come," explains O'Donovan.
"We are looking, from January, to take on another eight people. There will be educational content developers, software developers, a sales and marketing person and an administration person."
The company is currently based in an incubation centre and will have to move early next year to accommodate its expansion plans.
OPENPLAIN
Dublin-based start-up Openplain recently launched an online monitoring software service, JournalLive, which records information about a user's computer activity.
The collected information is used to generate secure online reports which describe various aspects of a user's computer activity over time. Inappropriate computer usage such as playing games, continuous web surfing for personal use or watching movies online can be quickly spotted.
The company is now at a crucial time in its development as it seeks funding to hire new staff and begin marketing at home and abroad.
"We have two primary needs for the money, staff being the main one," says managing director Jonathan Mulligan.
The company is looking to recruit up to 10 employees and funding will be needed to pay them, until it reaches profitability.
"Our marketing budget is going to be a big percentage of our expenditure," says Mulligan. "For a good sales person you really could be talking €200,000. We wouldn't be able to afford that. What a lot of our peers are doing is hiring through Fás or online websites and they are getting a lot of young graduates and foreign workers.
"If you do it right, you can get enthusiastic, energetic, hungry people."
He says the company is aiming to raise €750,000. Enterprise Ireland is willing to commit €375,000 if the company can get matching funding. Mulligan says the plan is to try to raise €175,000 from the AIB Seed Capital Fund.
Openplain has already raised €100,000 in private investment and hopes to raise the remainder through the Halo Business Angel Partnership.
Mulligan realises that this will involve hammering out a shareholder agreement that meets every investor's satisfaction, but remains confident.
We continue our series on companies seeking to raise cash through the Business Angel Partnership. This month, we visit new companies, Openplain and Fluirse who are starting out on the drive for funding.
