Starting a business can be both a thrilling and frightening experience in equal measures. It takes courage, ingenuity, self-belief, determination, resilience, and optimism, tempered with hard-nosed commercial pragmatism and no small amount of luck.
Even with that compelling combination of characteristics, entrepreneurs and business founders still face considerable challenges when it comes to developing their ideas, fundraising and bringing a viable product or service to market.
That’s where Enterprise Ireland comes in. The organisation supports entrepreneurs and their businesses every step of the way from the very earliest stages of ideation, right through commercialisation, funding, exporting and beyond. And the support is tailored to meet the individual needs of the client.
Every Enterprise Ireland client is assigned its own development adviser to help them navigate the twists and turns and inevitable bumps on the road they will face on their start-up and growth journey. The development adviser acts as the key relationship manager guiding the start-ups on how to access the supports they need.
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Building relationships and support
Those supports vary depending on the nature of the start-up. For example, potential spin-outs from the third-level system can avail of a commercialisation fund which helps them turn ideas and intellectual property into market ready products and services. The pre-seed start-up fund helps entrepreneurs to reach the key technical and commercial milestones required for their businesses to attract future seed funding. Many of them then go on to receive high potential start-up (HPSU) funding which helps them to accelerate the execution of their business plans through a powerful mix of funding, networking and expertise.
“We provide mentoring, we help clients prepare to pitch for investment, challenge their assumptions to help validate their market opportunity in addition to taking part in funding rounds,” says Anna-Marie Turley, head of Enterprise Ireland’s entrepreneurship and HPSU operations. “We also provide follow on funding supports, typically for research and development to support further growth and expansion. In addition, start-ups have access to our network of more than 40 overseas offices which can put them in touch with potential customers overseas. We are there every step of the way helping businesses to start-up, to grow and scale and succeed in international markets.”
Intelligent strategies and plugged-in networks
“I’ve been on the journey for eight years and Enterprise Ireland is still supporting me,” says Anita Finnegan, founder and chief executive of Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) spin-out Nova Leah, a world leader in cybersecurity solutions for medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers.
The DKIT spin-out began life as part of Finnegan’s PhD. “I licenced my own PhD and developed a framework to help medical device manufacturers to have confidence in the security of their connected devices. Enterprise Ireland has been involved since before the company existed. They got on board through the commercialisation fund, which helped me to develop the product, decide what the business would look like, develop a business plan and assess the market potential. The company spun out in 2016 and Nova Leah was born at that point. They have been involved ever since and have supported our funding rounds. We also get great support from our development adviser and work closely with the Boston office which is very focused on the healthcare sector.”
The company’s flagship product, SelectEvidence, is built on advanced AI and machine learning technology and identifies cybersecurity vulnerabilities, threats and required mitigation measures for medical devices. The company’s second product, SelectEvaluate, developed with support from the Enterprise Ireland disruptive technologies investment fund, enables medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers to work together to jointly manage and monitor all aspects of cybersecurity risk associated with connected medical devices in use in a healthcare environment.
Business is growing strongly. “We now have 20 people working for us in our offices in Dundalk and Boston and we have plans to target the European market for our second product. We are raising capital again this year and will use the proceeds to build our presence in the North American market. We will probably look at establishing a west coast presence there as well. We will also establish a sales and marketing team here to service the European and UK markets.”
Robot cleaning and disinfection teams
Anyone who remembers the Irish-designed and built social robot Stevie making the cover of Time magazine will be aware of Akara Robotics. The company has since developed a disinfection robot for hospitals and healthcare settings.
Hospital cleaning hadn’t really changed since the Spanish Flu, more than a century ago, explains Niamh Donnelly, chief robotics officer and a member of the founding team. “It’s laborious and time consuming and not very efficient. We started looking at UV light and how it is a lot more effective at killing viruses and bacteria than traditional cleaning methods. It’s also faster and more efficient. If a patient has an infection, it takes three hours to clean and disinfect the room they occupied. We built a robot that can do it in 15 minutes. We have won a contract with a NHS Trust in Britain and are in the procurement process with an Irish hospital. We plan to have the robots deployed in the next couple of months.”
Enterprise Ireland has been involved with the TCD spin-out since the very early days. “We are a deep tech company in the robotics area where its notoriously difficult to raise funding. Enterprise Ireland has been hugely supportive. They became our first investor through the Commercialisation Fund. That enabled us to build the first prototype. They believed in us and trusted us. It’s not just funding, they give great advice and we have been able to avail of their expertise and support in lots of areas like fundraising boot camps.”
The US market is the key target for the company. “Enterprise Ireland helped us to make it to the US. We have been able to connect with the Enterprise Ireland offices there. The team in the San Francisco office helped us with a pitch event, for example.”
Mapping international expansion one ranch at a time
Herdwatch chief executive and co-founder Fabien Peyaud describes his company’s farm management software solution as a painkiller and vitamin in one dose. “Compliance is a challenge for Irish farmers,” he explains. “Record keeping around medicines, sprays, animal movements and so on involves lots of paperwork. Herdwatch alleviates the pain of the paperwork. Beyond that it’s a tool to improve efficiency. It’s like (customer relationship management) CRM for cows. It’s very powerful. You can see what has happened to every animal at every point in its lifetime.”
The company’s origins go back to 2011 when Peyaud was working for farmer owned co-op FRS (Farm Relief Services). “We were still in the financial crisis and our CEO challenged all of us to come up with new business ideas. Research showed that 93 per cent of farmers didn’t use any kind of software or computer system to manage their farms and I decided to develop something to address that.”
The Herdwatch solution was launched in Ireland in 2014. “Fast forward 10 years and we are now the number one livestock management software in the UK and Ireland. We have 20,000 beef and sheep herds on the platform.”
Enterprise Ireland has supported the company in its international expansion. “We entered the UK market in 2016. Enterprise Ireland was able to put us in touch with the right people at the right time and helped us to attend the right trade shows and so on. They have been supporting us ever since, primarily in R&D projects. We are working with them on another R&D project at the moment. They were also a great support during Covid, that was a tough time for everybody.”
The company now has 80 employees and continues to grow. “There is huge potential internationally for our product. We are also active in the North American market. That’s very hard work. You have to go at it one ranch at a time, not one farm, but the early signs are positive.”
Marking every enterprise moment
It’s all about the steps along the journey, according to Anna-Marie Turley. “It depends on what’s appropriate at a particular point in time for individual entrepreneurs and start-ups. Enterprise Ireland’s support offerings are extensive and designed to support businesses at every stage of development. By taking advantage of the right supports at the right time, businesses can accelerate their growth, develop new products and services, and increase their international competitiveness. Enterprise Ireland is there for start-ups at every moment in their journey.”
This week, Enterprise Ireland will play host to Start-Up Day 2024 at Dublin Castle. This annual invite only Start-Up Showcase is an investor and networking event and celebrates the key moments for start-up businesses supported by Enterprise Ireland in 2023. The event will also serve to showcase the innovative companies with the potential to spin-out from research through Enterprise Ireland’s commercialisation programme