Irish 3D printing startup Love & Robots has won the ESB Spark of Genius Award 2014, beating off stiff competition from fellow finalists Restored Hearing and TenderScout.
The co-founders, sisters Emer, Kate, and Aoibheann O’Daly, were awarded a cash prize of €25,000 and a package of startup services to help them grow and develop their company.
The Dublin-based 3D printing company, formerly known as FabAllThings, was started in 2012 as FabAllThings before being recently rebranded as Love & Robots. To date, it has raised US$1 million in funding and is currently number four in the custom 3D printing market, said CEO Emer O’Daly.
The company uses cutting edge high precision printers to create custom objects in four categories: smartphone cases, jewellery, coasters and clocks. “Most people think of 3D printing as plastic only. We print in silver, gold and other metals,” she explained.
The three finalists beat a shortlist of thirty other companies. Startup TenderScout pitched its Software as a Service platform that helps businesses win public sector tenders while UCD spinout Restored Hearing sold their vision of ridding the world of tinnitus with its patented sound therapy technology. O’Daly said of TenderScout and Restored Hearing: ‘The competition was stiff, two thumbs up to the other finalists.”
Former ESB Spark of Genius winners include cloud-based ad creation service Viddyad who took the prize last year and 2012 victors SmartThings who were acquired by Samsung in August for US$155 million.
