Business and Leadership Ltd.

14 Start-ups NDRC’s LaunchPad VII

Fourteen start-ups are participating in the latest round of the NDRC’s accelerator programme, LaunchPad VII, which begins this week.

According to the NDRC, the participants beat off stiff competition and were chosen from a field of 100 applicants.

Each of the start-ups will undergo an intensive 12-week programme in NDRC where they will receive hands-on mentoring and support from some of the most seasoned practitioners across the board. At the end of the three months, they will then compete in the ‘Lift Off’ competition for follow-on investment, sourced from venture capitalists and private investors.

LaunchPad provides up to €20,000 per start-up in pre-seed investment during the programme, and over 100 start-ups have already been supported by NDRC. Enterprises that have taken part in the programme have gone on to secure €10m in commercial investment.

NDRC said LaunchPad graduates have moved from ‘ideas to income,’ creating jobs and market value. Among the big wins from LaunchPad include LogEntries, a company providing log management services in the cloud, which raised US$1.1m in investment from Polaris Ventures in July 2012 and Boxever, a customer data analytic provider that raised over €800,000 in October of last year.

For this cycle, participating startups are directed at a range of sectors, including financial markets analysis for traders and investors and a video production platform for home movie makers.

“LaunchPad is the ideal platform for anyone with a clever idea and the ambition to bring it forward,” said NDRC LaunchPad director, Gary Leyden. “NDRC provides the structured approach and support that these entrepreneurs will benefit from long after the programme has concluded. In particular, we help them refine their product offering, research and identify their target markets, check their commercial and business projections and answer the requirements of the investment community which they will ultimately pitch to for funding.”

LaunchPad VII participants

Propertygateis, an online collaboration tool for stakeholders in the property industry. Its tools are built into a web-based platform that combines management and accounting data with ownership, financials, budgets, and forecasts.

Onn.ie is an online fashion channel and e-commerce site. It connects the visitor with what is happening with fashion in their area and aims to be used to build an international network of fashion geo-mapping.

GigStarter is a way of connecting artists and audiences. It is a crowd sourcing tool for artists that can be set up to gauge interest direct from their potential fan base.

ParkYa provides solutions that empower virtual signposting of parking availability with intuitive payment methods provided via a mobile applications.

StockStream provides information for the financial and investment community. It filters streams of data to allow traders and investors focus on what matters.

Gotcha Ninjas is a cloud-based social gaming platform that teachers use in the classroom to encourage positive behavior, motivate students and engage with parents.

3Funnel is an analytics application that offers a way of showing user progress through a website in an easy to understand and non-technical manner. It is aimed at people involved in marketing or in analyzing consumer behavior.

Civiq helps organizations negotiate conflict and supports problem-solving. In any conflict resolution process within an organization, it claims to maximize the potential for a positive outcome.

Eventmama is an online marketplace for party planners to search, compare, book, pay and review entertainers for children’s events.

Cityhook is a TripAdvisor for airport transfers that acts as a starting point for finding and booking a transfer between airport and city. Like many travel services, there are two versions to suit customers: mobile for on-the-spot lookups and website for advance research and booking.

Fair and Square is a web-based program that divides goods between people so that everyone is as happy as possible. It is known as a spreadsheet for breakup‘.

Shotclip is cloud-based video production software that enables users to build a story on video to share on social networks.

Notes.ie provides an immersive educational website for students, focusing on three key areas: content, platform, and experience. It is described as a one-stop shop for all a student’s educational needs.

SchoolPay takes the paper money out of schools by enabling collect monies via SMS and web and smartphone interfaces.