Irish technology company Effective Software is planning to expand following a successful funding round in which it raised €1 million.

The company, which specialises in health and safety, and compliance software-as-service, plans to increase its staff count from 16 to 35 in the next two years. Recruitment is already under way for eight positions.

Enterprise Ireland

The funding was raised from AIB’s Start Up Accelerator Fund through ACT Venture Capital, with some participation from the Boole and Bloom investment syndicates and existing investors. The company has also received support from Enterprise Ireland.

It represents a 30 per cent stake in the software company, giving it an overall valuation of €3 million. Effective has €1 million in recurring revenue.

Chief executive Darragh Geoghegan said the company will use the funding to build up its sales team initially. “We’re a sales-orientated company and the intention is to grow that aggressively. There’ll be investment in building the sales team in Dublin,” he said. “On the back of that, we’ll be looking at heavy investment in the tech side of things.”

Already operating in the UK, Effective is looking to the US, with plans to build its operations there in the next two years. “There are competitors in that marketplace, there has been for the last 10 or 15 years,” he said. “Our tack on it is coming at it with a modern twist, looking at the full paperless solutions . . .”

Safety systems

Effective Software was formed in 2007 by brothers Darragh and Colm Geoghegan with business partner Billy O’Brien. With a background in construction, the founders had experienced the safety management systems on the market and saw the need for smarter, more flexible and affordable ones.

It has since signed up a number of large corporations interested in using enterprise cloud solutions, including MSD, Boston Scientific and engineering company Kentz.