Small Business

MoPowered develops mobile commerce platform for SMEs A recent study on mobile commerce and SME retailers, carried out by OnePoll on behalf of MoPowered, has found that some 76pc of SME retailers do not have a mobile commerce site, but 89pc thought mCommerce was necessary for growth in the retail industry. The retailers surveyed believed that mobile commerce sales would increase by a third in the next five years but 79pc said they had found shopping via mobile on non mobile optimised sites slow and difficult to navigate. In fact 27pc had abandoned mobile transactions. MoPowered says that while these statistics comes as no surprise, it has developed a Pay…

The AIB Seed Capital Fund has completed a €500,000 equity investment in SurgaColl Technologies, a Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) spin-out focused on tissue regeneration. Total investment in the company, which is based in the Rubicon Centre in the Cork Institute of Technology, now tops €2m from a funding syndicate that includes AIB Seed Capital Fund, Harmac Medical Products, Enterprise Ireland and a number of private investors in the UK, France and Singapore. The investment will allow the company, which was set up in 2010, to commercialise a portfolio of implantable orthopeadic products developed by the tissue engineering research group at RCSI. The products use naturally derived materials…

Steady demand from Irish micro-businesses and sole traders exists for a .ie domain name, according to latest figures from the IE Domain Registry (IEDR). It reports that new .ie domain registrations for the first three months of the year totaled 9,398, a 12.2pc increase on the previous quarter. Registrations grew each month steadily at 3,053, 3,184 and 3,161 for January, February, and March, respectively. “The New Year can be a tough time for small business owners, in particular, so it’s really encouraging to see that many of the new registrations came from sole traders, some of them just starting out,” said David Curtin, chief executive of the IEDR. The total…

A new Dublin-based business, The Mole Screening Clinic is the first monthly winner as part of eircom’s Start-Up initiative, which involves start-ups being videoed and showcased online. Fifty companies have already been filmed for the initiative, and over 120 companies are currently registered to take part. The Mole Screening Clinic was established by Mike Malone last year after a family member had a melanoma scare and he discovered at that time that Ireland lacked this type of service. The clinic uses the newest technology to deliver the highest level of care by using the latest photo capture and digital skin analysis software. Malone registered his interest in the Eircom Start…

The organizers of the Entrepreneurial Business Awards (EBA) have reported substantial interest in this year’s competition, with more than 1,300 applications from around the country, with 26pc of these being in the emerging new business category, which was open to businesses in operation for two years or less. The EBA website , meanwhile, received almost 100,000 hits in the three months leading up to the application closing date on 18 February. “The huge interest that has been shown demonstrates the need for these awards,” said John Kelly, chairman of the EBAs. “It is encouraging to see such high numbers for the Emerging New Business Award and illustrates the entrepreneurial spirit and willingness…