100 Hot Start-Ups

SEPTEMBER 2019 businesspost.ie

100 HOT START-UPS The companies driving Ireland’s entrepreneurial edge

When it comes to Brexit, the only certainty is your ability to act now.

Brexit means uncertainty for many Irish businesses. From currency fluctuations to new customs procedures, there are several challenges that you should be ready for. Enterprise Ireland has a wide range of initiatives, all designed to enable Irish businesses to plan and take critical action to respond to the risks and opportunities that Brexit presents. Don’t wait. Take action now.

Plan

Innovate

Compete

Diversify

• New Finance in Focus • Currency Impact Calculator • Online Customs Training • Act On Consultancy Supports • Brexit Scorecard • Be Prepared Grant

• Agile Innovation Fund • Business Innovation Funding • R&D Funding

• New Clear Customs • Operational

• Market Discovery Fund • Market Research Centre • Trade Events

Excellence O‚er

• Lean Business Funding • Capital Investment Initiative

For Brexit support from Enterprise Ireland, visit: prepareforbrexit.ie

GETTING IRELAND BREXIT READY

100 HOT START-UPS

Ireland’s start-upscene points toavibrant future

work with their investors. With VCs, it’s not about taking themoneyand running, norisitaboutjumpingtoeverywhim.Any investment requires collaboration. Many of the businesses featured here have either raised funds or are in thepro- cess of doing so, and the number is only the beginning of the story. It buys time and little more. Companies must use this room to breathe and flip the immense pressure that comeswith using someone else’s money into an opportunity to get more focused on the end goal. InuncertaintimeswhenBrexitloomsas a threat togrowth, support andadviceare keytoo. Irishstart-upsnowhaveplentyof examples to followwhen scaling up, and sharing of insights has become a key part of the country’s business scene. Support is also available from state agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and the network of local enterprise offices throughout the country. Informationandreadilyavailabledatais key too, which is why The Sunday Business Post wants toplay itspart bycontinuing to producethe100HotStart-Upsmagazine,a publicationthat seeks todemonstrate the energy, ingenuity and drive of the coun-

try’s fledging companies and the people behind them. Inthesepages,wepresent aselectionof the businesses that merit interest. These are companies that have plenty more to deliver,buteachhasalreadydemonstrated a talent for invention, either throughsim- plicityorleftfieldthinking.Theirexistence inspires confidence in Irish business and points to a vibrant future.

Richie Oakley Editor, The Sunday Business Post

S uccess takes many forms and predictingwinnersisrarelyeasy. Manna, a business that wants to become a $10 billion giant by delivering takeaways with drones, offers a completely dif- ferent proposition toApplaud, a platform for freelance musicians to get work. Rashr has a fantastic name and is de- velopingrashvestsforuseunderwetsuits, while Buymie is enabling easier home deliveryof groceries.Thespacesoccupied by the firms within these pages all bring their own challenges. Thechallengeswithin,however,arefun- damental.Eachmustfindamarket,ensure theirproduct or service is theright one for it, put together the right teamtodeliver it, and do enough business to survive. To thrive, they must show the agility necessary tomovewith theirmarket and

100 Hot Start-Ups

Compiled and written by: Deanna O’Connor Project manager: Elaine Prendeville Chief sub-editor: Maeve McLoughlin Designer: Louise Spotten Picture editor: Bryan Walshe email: bryan@sbpost.ie

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The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 3

100 HOT START-UPS

Advisable

Founders: Peter O’Malley, Galen Lowney Year founded: 2017

Lowney says: “We’re working hard to con- tinue improving the platform and scale acquisition to empow- er more marketing experts to succeed as freelancers while giving businesses a more effective way to overcome marketing challenges.”With freelancers operating from 115 countries across the world, Ad- visable is servicing both corporate clients including SAP and Avery Dennison and fast-growing start-ups such as TravelPerk and Babbel. advisable.com

Location: Dublin Sector: Marketing

Advisable gives com- panies access to a carefully curated network of marketing freelancers. Founders Peter O’Malley and Galen Lowney have gath- ered initial funding of €1 million from some heavy-hitting investors, including Frontline Ventures, Paddy Cosgrave, Breon Corcoran, Anne Heraty and Oisin Hanrahan.

Peter O’Malley and Galen Lowney, founders, Advisable

Allsorter

Addihive

Founder: Patrick Byrnes

Founder: Declan Murphy

play a pivotal role in developing disrup- tive AI technologies. The seed funding was matchedbyEnterprise Ireland. Allsorter has launched in both the Australian and US marketsand theDub- lin office has grown with six new hires, bringingtheteamto16. Founder Declan Mur- phy says: “We are also planning to launch an advanced, disruptive talent management software solution ad- dressing key corpo- rate HR organisation needs.” Allsorter.com was awarded the Seal of Excellence by the Eu- ropean Commission Horizon 2020. allsorter.com

Year founded: 2017 Location: Limerick Sector: Manufacturing A ddiHive en- ables serial metallic ad- ditive man- ufacturing in highly regulated aerospace and medi- cal industries through proprietary technolo- gy, validationandmar- ket-leading innovative solutions. In layman’s terms, this means using 3D printing in metal to make complex devices and parts. The compa- nyoperatescloselywith customers in the prod- uctdevelopment cycle, with many original equipment manufac- turer (OEM) customers

Year founded: 2014 Location: NovaUCD, Dublin Sector: Data Science/ HR/SaaS A l l s o r t e r. com, a data s c i e n c e company, transforms HRbusinessprocesses through digital inno- vationwithanAI-en- gineeredSaaSsolution allowing recruiters and HR profession- als to save significant timeand resources on candidate-to-market processing. In the past year, the companyhas received EuropeanCommission funding to hire an in- novation associate to

Patrick Byrnes, founder, Addihive

within the high-value aerospace andmedical supply chain. Found- er Patrick Byrnes says: “With facilities in both IrelandandtheUK,Ad- diHive isalsostriving to expand into Pennsyl- vania, North America,

in 2020 to better serve customers with ‘boots on the ground’.” It is going through a privately funded seed round from private in- vestors and Enterprise Ireland. addihive.com

4 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post

Aphex

Founder: Kevin Walsh Year founded: 2017 Location: Waterford

Sector: SaaS for Pharma

Aphex is the creator of Chem- ishield, a mobile SaaS solution for laboratories which prevents incompatible mixing of chemical waste, providing real-time analyt- ics on chemical usage, thus ensur- ing complete safety and efficiency. Over the past eight months, the teamhas grown fromfive employees to 12 to cater for new projects for a host of global phar- ma companies based in Ireland, Europe and the US. The firmhas also launched an online version of the Chemishield software enabling smaller-scale companies to easily purchase it. Aphex was a finalist in the Phar- ma Industry Awards 2018 in three categories: Start-Up of the Year, Innovation of the Year, and Health & Safety Initiative of the Year. aphex.ie

Stephen McNulty, co-founder, Ambisense

Ambisense

structure projects across industrial, oil and gas, and waste verticals. After initial funding of €500,000, Ambisense secured a €1.1 million in- vestment from Suir Valley inMay of this year. Staff numbers have grown already fromnine to 16 over the last year, and two new offices are planned for 2020 in Benelux and

North America. Its game-changing in- telligent software uses IoT andmachine learning to automate, analyse and model complexmulti- source data, identifying patterns and hidden risks and allowing companies to rapidly and with even greater accuracy, assess environmental risk. ambisense.net

Founders: Stephen McNulty, Fiachra Collins, Dermot Diamond Year founded: 2014 Location: Dublin (HQ) and Chester, England Sector: Environment Ambisense’s technology platformbrings innova- tion to environmental risk assessment on large infra-

Applaud.live

Founder: Luke Rynne Cullen Year founded: incorporated in 2019 Location: Dublin Sector: Music industry

Applaud.live is an online booking platform for musicians, providing a directory of live acts and a secure payments system. The platformwas launched at the end of July and secured over €3,500-worth of bookings for artists in the first three weeks. Founder Luke Rynne Cullen — last year’s presi- dent of Trinity Orchestra and live music officer at Trinity Ents — completed the New Frontiers pro- gramme in TUDublin Hothouse and the Startup Boost Dublin Pre-Accelerator. Applaud’s mission is to empower musicians globally tomake a liv- ing fromperforming, and it has partnered with Sound Training Productions to provide profes- sional recorded content tomusicians listed on the platform, building a polished and professional showcase for independent artists. applaud.live

Jerico Alcaras and Luke Rynne Cullen of Applaud.live

The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 5

100 HOT START-UPS

Founder: Barry McCarthy Year founded: 2016 Location: Dogpatch Labs, Dublin Sector: Finance A ssureHedgeprovidescurrency hedgingsolutionstoSMEs,bro- kersandbanks.InJuly2019,the companycloseda€1.65million funding round with a mix of current and newprivate investors, and it has just opened a newoffice in Coimbra, Portugal. Over the past 12 months, the team has grown from six to 18 staff and a brand new product is in development. McCarthy says: “A new platform is in theworksthatwillbebuiltforallbrokers, accountants and other financial inter- mediaries, particularlytradingdesksand product specialists in banks. Our brand newproduct(yettobenamed)helpsthese intermediaries automate the creation of termsheets to tradingcustomers andof- fers a white-label trading desk to banks and brokers of all sizes so they are not required to obtain MiFID2 regulation.” assurehedge.com Assure Hedge According to Dempsey, investment from NDRC, New Frontiers and LEO Wicklow “has allowed Aqualicense to begindevelopment of our techandgrow ourteamtofive”.Shesays:“Thenextyear is exciting. Aqualicense is engaged with tech build and we anticipate delivery of our beta version early 2020 for testing with customers.” aqualicense.com Aqualicense Founder: Kate Dempsey Year founded: 2018 Location: Rathnew, Co Wicklow Sector: Aquaculture A qualicenseintegratesdeeptech with industry expertise to de- liverSmartaquaculturelicence applications.Founderandchief executive Kate Dempsey piv- oted froma legal background into aqua- culture inthepast tenyearsandhasbeen involvedineverystageoftheaquaculture licensing process, from concept, design, project management, stakeholder en- gagementandconsultantbriefingtoenvi- ronmentalimpactmitigation,technology development and advocacy.

Conor O’Sullivan and Ronan Carey, co-founders, ARQ Asset Solutions

ARQ Asset Solutions

Founders: Conor O’Sullivan, Ronan Carey Year founded: 2016 Location: MaREI Centre (Marine and Re- newable Energy Ireland), UCC, Ringaskiddy, Co Cork Sector: Marine Conor O’Sullivan and Ronan Carey, both former Irish Naval Service of- ficers with a combined 47 years of service, have developed cutting-edge

technology for advancedmachinery conditionmonitoring utilising edge processing, cloud computing and data harvesting — an Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) product. Over the last 12 months, it has gathered €120,000 in awards and funding and is one of only ten European start-ups to be chosen by Interreg’s ProtoAtlantic programme to test its technology at world-renowned test facilities free of charge. arq.ie

Stephen Pennington, founder, Atturos

Founder: Professor Stephen Pennington Year founded: 2016 Location: UCD Conway Atturos

blood-based protein di- agnostic tests to support clinical decision-making and improved patient outcomes for precision medicine. Founder Pro- fessor Stephen Penning- ton is president of the global Human Proteome Organisation and in 2018 received the NovaUCD Innovation Award. Over the coming year, his plans include “to

grow through additional pharmaceutical com- pany clinical trials and companion diagnostic projects, to continue to develop a pipeline of diagnostic tests and to seek investment to support development of key Atturos products in- cluding a test for prostate cancer to bring it tomar- ket-readiness”. atturos.com

Institute, Dublin Sector: Medicine

A spin-out from the UCD School of Medicine, At- turos develops advanced

6 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post

ATXATherapeutics

Founder: Professor Therese Kinsella Year founded: 2015 Location: UCD Conway Institute, Dublin Sector: Pharma

ATXATherapeutics is an emerging pharma- ceutical company developing innovative ther- apies for treatment of pulmonary arterial hy- pertension, and with potential to treat various other cardiac and pulmonary diseases as well as cancers. FounderTherese Kinsella is Profes- sor of Biochemistry at University College Dub- lin. In 2018, ATXAwas awarded €2.5 million through the EUHorizon 2020 SME Instrument programme, ranking in the top 1 per cent of all applications, and over the past months has made significant progress towards completing a major funding round. ATXATherapeutics has been awarded a total of seven US patents and two patents granted by the European Patent Office. atxatherapeutics.com

Ivan Coulter and Therese Kinsella of ATXA Therapeutics

BleeperBike

Bamboo Founders: Luke Mackey,

Founder: Hugh Cooney Year founded: 2016

and Alan Haverty Year founded: 2017 Location: Dublin Sector: Hospitality

rienced in China. While the model has excellent price options and convenience for users, there were challenges in the initial period, not least fishing the bikes out of the canals and the Liffey in Dublin. The company is expanding slowly out of Dublin city centre with pilot schemes for south Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rath- down as well as campus schemes in City- west Business Park, University College Dublin and Dublin City University. bleeperbike.com

Location: Dublin Sector: Transport

The Bamboo app allows users to order ahead, skip the wait and earn loyalty rewards in coffee shops and restau- rants. After initial funding of €500,000 in 2018, it has already built up a clientele of more than 200 restaurant and cafés in Dublin, Cork and Galway (including Freshii, Tolteca, Bear Market, Wow- burger, Chopped and Pablo Picante). Co-founder Luke Mackey says the company expects to expand interna- tionally within the next six months: “We’re in the middle of preparing for our first in- ternational city launch and all that comes with that for a business like ours. Alongside this, we’re always working hard to improve the product and the end user experience for our users.” bamboo.app

BleeperBike offers stationless bike-sharing, removing the need for docking stations. The bikes are operated through a mobile phone app and a Bluetooth connection to the bike lock. Founder Hugh Cooney was inspired by the stationless bike-sharing he expe-

BlockAngel Founder: Andrew Farrell Year founded: 2016 Location: IFSC, Dublin Sector: Property B lock Angel is an end-to-end soft- waresolutionfor apartment block managementthatintegratesfinan- cial accounts, repairsandmainte- nance, as well as next-generation stakeholderengagement, intoasingleplat- form. Founder Andrew Farrell says: “We

currently have ten customers in Ireland and our end-user mobile app is used in 40 apartment blocks in Dublin.” Expansion into theBritishmarket isnext on the horizon and a new product release in November is set to deliver several new efficiencies for management companies’ financial accounts andwill assistmanage- ment agents in deliveringmore responsive customer service. block-angel.com

The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 7

100 HOT START-UPS

BlueBull Machinery Founder: Darragh Egan

Egan completed the New Frontiers programme and received support fromEn- treprise Ireland’s CSF last year to support product development and compa- ny expansion. Egan says the products are being sold all over Ireland and “with Brexit inmind, we are gauging the potential of markets in mainland Europe”. “We have one mar- ket-changing new prod- uct in the pipeline which will be launched inmid

Year founded: 2017 Location: Tullamore, Co Offaly Sector: Agricultural machinery

Blue Bull Machineryman- ufactures high-quality, durable and safety-fo- cused farmmachinery for silage handling and feeding. After winning Best Business Idea and Ire- land’s Best Young En- trepreneur in Offaly in 2016, founder Darragh

Darragh Egan, founder, Blue Bull Machinery

2020,” says Egan. bluebullmachinery.ie

Bubblbook

Bounce

Founders: Charlie Butler, Rónán Dowling-Cullen, Josh Stafford and Brian O’Mahony Year founded: 2018 Location: TCD Tangent, Dublin Sector: Marketing

Founder: Morgan Thunder Year founded: 2018 Location: Guinness Enterprise Centre, Dublin Sector: Leisure Bubblbookmakes getting together eas- ier with the world’s first flexible group booking systemwhichmakes it simple for groups to settle on times and dates to meet or do an activity. Over the past year, the company has been awarded Enter- prise Ireland’s Competitive Start Fund

and become a high-potential start-up client. Bubblbook has also begun trials with three tech companies in Dublin. Founder MorganThunder says: “In the coming year we plan to launch our new Community Hubs product providing organisations with an online space pro- moting group activities. We will expand our development andmarketing teams and look tomake inroads into the UK market.” bubblbook.com

Bounce is a consumer in- sights platform that makes it incredibly easy for companies to get accurate

and accessible consumer feed- back. It is a mobile-first solution connecting brands with their ex- act target market, making it easy for them to talk to their users and customers. Bounce is enrolled in Trinity College’s Tangent Launch- box Accelerator Programme until September 2019 and is finalising a beta test alongside some part- nered clients. Once the solution has been successfully tested with trial clients, Bounce founders plan tomove to larger brands in a soft launch, before a full product launch in January-March 2020. bounceinsights.com

Buymie Founders: Devan Hughes and Artavazd Sokhikyan Year founded: 2015

have themdelivered from store to door in as little as one hour. With investment fromUnilever and Ea- monn Quinn fromDrag- ons’ Den, Buymie became the first independent platform to take a discount grocer online and on-de- mand in Europe through its industry-leading part- nership with Lidl Ireland

in 2018.  After initial funding of €2.5 million, it has raised €1.645 million so far in 2019, growing 1,300 per cent in the last 12 months alone. Its second Irish city launchwill happen in Q4 this year, with an interna- tional launch scheduled for Q2 2020. buymie.eu

Location: Dublin Sector: Grocery

Buymie is Ireland’s first and only on-demand gro- cery delivery platform, allowing consumers to order grocery items and

8 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post

Cerebreon Technologies Founders: Dr Gillian Doyle and Dr Ken Doherty Year founded: 2016 Location: Ardara, Co Donegal Sector: Finance C erebreon Technologies is developing an intelligent software platform, called Cortx Insolvency, that au- tomatically processes and analyses insolvency documents to administer and predict the outcome of debt recovery. To date, the company has raised justunder€1.1millionininvestment, closing a €835,000 seed round in- vestmentinDecember2018.Itestab- lishedaBritishsubsidiaryinFebruary 2019 and Cortx Insolvency is being usedbythesecondlargestInsolvency Practitioner firm in Britain. Co-founderandchiefoperatingof- ficerKenDohertysays:“Wehavealso begun exploring the debt-recovery sector in several other EU countries withagoal of providingour technol- ogy to these territories.” cerebreon.com

William Conaghan and Lizzy Hayashida of Change Donations

ChangeDonations

New Frontiers, FutureScope Ones2Watch, Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur and LEO. Change Donations is working with the Enterprise Ireland HPSU team and is in the midst of raising a seed fund of €1 millionwith 50 per cent already com- mitted. Co-founder Lizzy Hayashida says: “We are looking to launch our mobile app in the US in early 2020. We have 18 schools interested in using our platform in theWashington DC area and have two schools which have committed to testing a pilot programme in Q1.” changedonations.com

Founders: Lizzy Hayashida and William Conaghan Year founded: 2018 Location: Dogpatch Labs, Dublin Sector: Philanthropy

Change Donations is a social enterprise which gives users the option to round up their purchases and donate their spare change to the causes they care about most. Since its founding, it has garnered awards and funding fromBlackstone Launchbox, Tangent, Responsible Innovation Summit,

ChatSpace Founder: John Clancy Year founded: 2017

Location: Galway Sector: AI chatbots

ChatSpace works on the application of con- versational artificial intelligence (AI) in enter- prises, offering users the tools to help deliver a consistent and relevant conversational expe- rience at scale. The company got off to a flying start, generating revenues of €200,000 within sixmonths of its launch inMarch 2017 and pre- dicted revenues of €2.5 million in 2019. Founder John Clancy puts its success in the market down to a partnership strategy, pre- viously telling this newspaper: “Very quickly we realised that the large enterprise customers we are targeting don’t do business with small start-ups on the west coast of Ireland, so we found a service partner already doing business with these global companies.” chatspace.io

John Clancy and Naoise Dunne of ChatSpace

The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 9

100 HOT START-UPS

CitySwift

Founders: Brian O’Rourke and Alan Farrelly Year founded: 2016 Location: Galway Sector: Public transport C itySwift (formerly known as CitySwifter) is a da- ta-driven bus-scheduling platform. It usesAI andbig data to accurately predict busjourneytimesandpassengerde- mand.This enables transport oper- atorsandplanners toautomatically

createthemostoptimisedschedules forbusnetworks,ensuringimproved on-timeperformanceandincreased passengersatisfaction.Thecompany completed a venture capital round in December 2018, led by Declan Ryan’s investment firm Irelandia Aviation, ACT Venture Capital and former Cartrawler chief executive Mike McGearty. Three of Britains’s largest public transport companies arealreadyclients, aswell aspublic authorities throughout Europe. cityswift.com

Brian O’Rourke and Alan Farrelly, co-founders, CitySwift

Founders: Karina Kelly and Joleen Looney Year founded: 2019 Content Llama

Founders: Dr Aisling Snow and Fiona Snow Year founded: 2018 Location: Dublin Sector: Medical device Founded by sisters Aisling and Fiona Snow, CombiMark’s flagship product SideSafe R/L, launching this year, is a single-use X-ray side marker that is made from a patented range of sustainable materials. Current side markers, which are designed to be reused, must be stringently decontaminated and are often under-used for fear of spreading infection. Dr Aisling Snow, a senior clinical lecturer in paediatrics at Trinity College and a consultant paediatric radiologist at Our La- dy’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, designed the sustainably dispos- able single-use markers with her sister Fiona, an industrial designer. combimark.com CombiMark

Location: Donegal Sector: Online retail

Joleen Looney and Karina Kelly of Content Llama

Content Llama connects brands, distributors and retailers by using its tech- nology to gather, scrub and standardise brand content for retail clients, reducing the time to site for new products and saving up to 50 per cent of their content team’s time. The company has secured Founders: Kieran Gleeson and Steven Merrick Year founded: 2017 Location: Cork Sector: Freight C ustran (formerly known as Freight Station) digitises all customs and trans- portationoperations onasinglecloud-basedplat- Custran

a place on the NDRC@ Portershed Programme in Galway with investment of €50,000. Co-founder Joleen Looney left a senior role at Elavon to come on board with serial entre-

preneur Karina Kelly, who previously founded 360 Crew and My Pic Drop be- fore pivoting towards this latest venture after spotting a gap in the market. contentllama.com

form. Users process customs declarations and transport documentation throughsin- gle data entry and a secure connection with Revenue’s Online System. HavingreceivedEnterprise IrelandCompetitiveStart-up funding, thecompany isnow looking to raise €500,000 over the next 12 months to fundexpansion intheBritish

market, having already be- gun working with HMRC’s CustomsDeclarationService with an eye to this. Co-founder and chief ex- ecutive Kieran Gleeson says: “We aim to help Irish busi- nesses take back control of their customs and transport processes, thus reducing ex- posure to Brexit.” custran.com

10 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post

CX Academy

force, and has already ac- cumulated a client roster across the US, Australia and Europe. Co-founder Julian Doug- las says: “We are currently expanding the Professional Certificate in Customer Experience to B2B clients in the UK and the US.

We have our second pro- gramme, the Professional Diploma in Customer Experience (CX), starting this September and a con- tinuous professional devel- opment module will start inMarch 2020 based on a recurring revenue model.” thecxacademy.org

CX Academy offers online customer experience quali- fications. After initial fund- raising of circa €400,000, it brought its offering to cli- ents including Oracle, Bank of Ireland, AIB and Sales-

Founders: Michael Killeen and Julian Douglas Year founded: 2019

Location: Dublin Sector: Education

DigiTally

Founders: Patrick McDermott and Artur Leonowicz Year founded: 2016 Location: Tuam, Co Galway Sector: Food business DigiTally (formerly known as EasyCount) is an intuitive reporting and accountability dashboard for food premis- es. It assists in the counting, reporting and analysing of data, bypassing time-con- suming manual processes and enabling management tomake faster decisions and increase gross margins. The company has received

support fromGalway LEO, New Frontiers and NDRC, and is now in the process of raising seed capital of €600,000. In Ireland it is working with local brands including Spar, Abrakebabra, Freshly Chopped, Corrib Oil, Daybreak and H2 Group. Co-founder and chief ex- ecutive PatrickMcDermott says: “The initial focus is on Ireland and Britainwhere we are targeting multi-site food businesses. We have se- cured our first international customers in August 2019 in Britain and Australia.” easycount.io

Stephen Burke, founder, Cyber Risk Aware

Founder: Stephen Burke Year founded: 2016 Location: Dublin Sector: Cybersecurity C yber Risk Aware was founded by Stephen Burke, a former chief in- formation security officer andcyber insurance underwriting advisor with over 20-plus years’ experi- ence, after he realised that cybercriminals were no longer targeting systems directly but were targeting people.The companyoffers a comprehensive security awareness and phishing simulation platform that focusesonrealthreatsinor- dertoeducateandempower employeestobethefirstline of defence against phish- ing, ransomware, business email compromiseanddata breach. Clients already in- clude the State of Oregon, Applegreen, Invesco and Smyths Toys. cyberriskaware.com CyberRiskAware

Patrick McDermott and Artur Leonowicz, co-founders, DigiTally

The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 11

100 HOT START-UPS

Diluteze Founder: Simon Ruddy Year founded: 2018 Location: Athlone, Co Westmeath Sector: Packaging

Eiravato Founders: Marcin Kulik

and Steve Cassidy Year founded: 2015 Location: Ireland and Luxembourg Sector: Waste Eiravato is a platform andmarket- place that digitises waste. By ap- plying its certifiedmaterials DNA model, Eiravato assists brands to better understand their waste and make it into a valuable resource, turning cost into profits, reducing carbon tax, assuring compliance and superseding today’s and fu- ture legislation. Up to 80 per cent of outstanding plastic waste can be transformed into valuable re- sources — car mirrors, furniture, clothing andmore. Chief exeuctive Marcin Kulik says: “We are plan- ning to expand further into Ben- elux, Britain and eastern Europe, with Poland  being our next strate- gic target.”The company has been awarded a government grant via Poland’s HugeThing programme and is starting a pilot with Procter & Gamble Polska. eiravato.com

Diluteze produces innovative products which aid and protect people whenwork- ing with hazardous chemicals in the workplace, home and

garden. However, what founder Simon Ruddy really wants to shout about is a new programme developed to fight the scourge of plastic packaging. Ruddy says: “We have developed the cease using single-use plastic (Cusp) programme whichwe market to large multinationals, governments and local authorities to help employees and citi- zens measure and reduce the single-use impact in their homes, communities and workplaces.” While manufacturers everywhere are under pressure to reduce plastic use, dangerous chemicals require robust packaging. Diluteze products tackle both issues with safe, accurate diluting solu- tions. diluteze.com EirScope Founders: Shankar Ganesh Jayagopi Year founded: 2013 Location: Galway Sector: Oil E irscope is a software development company that has developed an in- telligent machine-learning system which can monitor usage patterns and weather conditions to predict customers’ routineoldneeds.This smart plat- formindicateswhentoorderanddeliveroil. It enables oil distribution companies to sync oil procurement, delivery schedules and routes toachievemoreefficient operations.Withthe Eirscope smart oil monitor, customers know howmuch oil they are using and howmuch theyhave left, eliminating last-minuteorders andneeding tobleedboilersafter runningout. eirscope.com

Marcin Kulik, co-founder, Eiravato

Founders: Pierce Dargan and Simon Hillary Year founded: 2017 Location: The Curragh, Kildare Sector: Equine Equine MediRecord sim- plifies equine regulatory compliance with the only regulator-approved digital medical recording system, essential for logging vaccines andmedications for horses travelling abroad to race. The self-financed company has garnered endorsement fromwell- known trainer Gordon Elliott and made it to the finals of the national Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Since launching in March 2018, Equine MediRecord Equine MediRecord

has expanded into Britain and France. Finlay Dargan, chief oper- ating officer/chief financial officer, says: “We plan to be in at least two more geographies in the next 12 months.” equinemedirecord.com

12 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post

FarmHedge

Founders: Laura Brennan and Lara Páirceir Year founded: 2019 Location: Dublin Sector: Environment EthiCart makes sustain- ability simple by provid- ing a user-friendly app, with quick, easy-to-un- derstand information around products’ sus- tainability and ethical standards. If you want to shopmore sustainably, but lack time to research and a place to get the information needed, EthiCart enables and empowers you to buy products that alignwith your values. Founded by Laura Brennan, a computer science and business undergradu- ate, and Lara Páirceir, a sociology and social studies undergraduate, both in Trinity, the start- up received €10,000 in funding with Launch- box, Trinity’s student accelerator programme. EthiCart

Founders: John Garvey and Bernardino Frola Year founded: 2016 Location: DogPatch Labs, Dublin Sector: Agriculture

“Agribusiness is built on personal relationships,” says FarmHedge co-founder John Garvey. “Our tech- nologymakes it easier for cooperatives and other suppliers to create a pri- vate network of customers (farmers) and coordinate their activities.” The FarmHedge app of- fers a real-time messaging and trading platform that streamlines agribusiness transactions. Over the last

John Garvey and Bernardino Frola,

co-founders, FarmHedge

year, the company has at- tracted €400,000 in fund- ing. “Currently, most of our activity is outside Ireland with trials in Hungary and Britain,” says Garvey. Major

new clients include RWA RaiffeisenWare, the largest agricultural company in Austria, and 15 farmer co- operatives also in Austria.  farmhedge.io

Fiid

meal to a child in the devel- oping world and has already donated 100,000meals through its charity partner Mary’s Meals. Founded in December 2018, Fiid is al- ready exporting to Britain after securing a listing with Ocado, the world’s largest online supermarket, in month four. It is also listed

with Amazon in Britain and Tesco and SuperValu in Ire- land. Founder Shane Ryan says: “We are closing a fund- ing round to back our rapid growth. In November, we’ll launch three new products and our most innovative range of meal solutions yet will follow inMarch 2020.” eatfiid.com

Founder: Shane Ryan Year founded: 2018 Location: Dublin Sector: Food Fiid offers a range of healthy, plant-based convenience foods. For every pack of Fiid sold, the company donates a

FincaSkinOrganics

Finola Fegan, founder, Finca Skin Organics

Founder: Finola Fegan Year founded: 2018 Location: Dundalk, Co Louth Sector: Cosmetics F inca skin organics manufactures and sells clean, plant- based skincare to helprosacea-prone skin. Within the last 12 months, the company has received an Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund (CSF) grant, which is helping thecompanygrow its online customer base in

BritainandNorthAmerica. Online sales aregrowing fast, at a rate of 20 per cent month onmonth. Founder FinolaFegan, herself a suf- ferer of the skin condition, says: “Further angel in- vestment and crowdfund- ing will be sought towards theendof 2019 tobuildout theinternalmarketingteam and further scale interna- tionally, as well as expan- sion into the mainstream organic/sensitive skincare

market.” rosacea.ie

The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 13

100 HOT START-UPS

Founder: Anthony Cronin Year Founded: 2016 Location: Dungarvan, Waterford Sector: Payroll FlexiWage

Donal Kerr, Domenico Chirabino and Stefan Uygur, 4Securitas

Flexiwage is an employee financial well- ness app which empowers employees to determine their own pay schedule al- lowing them to be paid weekly or fort- nightly without affecting a company’s monthly processing schedule. Founder Anthony Cronin says: “We have signedmultinational clients Vox- pro in Cork, with over 3,000 staff, and also Eurofins inWaterford, in the last 12 months. We have also been piloting clients in Britain and were accepted and have been participating in the presti- gious PwC Scale accelerator programme there. We view to fully go tomarket there in Q1 2020.” Lindsay Melvin, former chief exec- utive of the Charted Institute of Payroll Professionals, will be spearheading the team in Britain. flexiwage.com Founders: Mark Cotter and Liam Holton Year founded: 2014 Location: Tullamore, Co. Offaly Sector: Events Future Ticketing is a global provider of cloud-based digital ticketing solutions for the sports, attractions, show and events market. Initially self-financed, in 2016 it secured investment fromEn- terprise Ireland and TDL Media. Over 50 per cent of its income is now coming fromBritain, with clients including Dundee United FC, St Johnstone FC, Spike Island, Hockey Ireland, Nation- al Ploughing Association, Federation of Irish Sports. In total, the firmhas amassed over 100 new clients in the past year. “We plan to double the business once againwithmore Britain-focused expansion to achieve €100million in ticket sales in 2020,” says co-founder LiamHolton. futureticketing.ie Future Ticketing

4Securitas

company’s solution is growing and they have already engaged an Italian sales consultant to develop the market, with eight sales made tomid-market firms over the last year. Co-founder Donal Kerr says: “We are in talks with a major EU cybersecurity firm whichwants tomake a strategic investment in our firm.” 4securitas.com

Founders: Donal Kerr and Stefan Uygur Year founded: 2017 Location: Dublin Sector: Cyber security 4Securitas has devel- oped deep technology and uses proprietary pattern algorithms, artificial intelligence andmachine learning

to enable enterprises to identify and deal with security threats effi- ciently, helping them tomanage risk and reduce costs. Its Auto- mated Cybersecurity Interactive Application (ACSIA) simplifies threat detection and is cost-effective, even for SMEs. Interest in the

Noel Dykes and Cian Collins, co-founders, Frankli

Frankli

management solutions for global SMEs with local and distributed teams, and is designed to enable employees to be more engaged andmore productive. Following 16months’ R&D, the company launched its first prod- uct into the market in September 2018. “At a time of full employment, we are attracting a lot of

interest from companies internationally for solu- tions to improve engage- ment and performance of their top people,” says co-founder Noel Dykes. The company is one of the third cohort of NDRC at PorterShed compa- nies awarded €75,000 in funding and intensive business development

Founders: Noel Dykes and Cian Collins Year founded: 2017 Location: Sligo Sector: Employee engagement Frankli is a tool that de- livers employee engage- ment and performance

training. frankli.io

14 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post

HarbingerTechnologies

N eil Bellamy r e l o c a t e d to Kerry in 2018 to start the busi- ness, working remote- ly with his Romanian co-founderFjellMaxim. “We created TradePath.

Founders: Neil Bellamy and Fjell Maxim

app, a web application used by people inter- ested in stock trading to identify stock trading opportunities,”saysBel- lamy. TradePath makes it quickandeasy to cre- ate,testandruncomplex tradingsystemsbycom-

bining indicators and patterns to help people understand when the stock market presents an opportunity. “We funded the business ourselves after working in sports betting, where we learnedhowtopres-

ent complex informa- tion to a large, mobile audience.” Harbinger Technologies isworking withanumberof clients in Ireland and the US on web and blockchain technology projects. tradepath.app

Year founded: 2018 Location: Co Kerry Sector: Finance

Founder: Freda McEnroe Year founded: 2018 Location: Wicklow Sector: Retail HubSku

Conan Cavanagh and Suzanne Moloney of HidraMed Solutions

HubSku enables retailers to sell products from their own online shop, without the need to hold the stock, manage the product details or the online transaction. “The purpose of the business model is to make e-commerce simple for smaller businesses,” says founder Freda McEnroe. HubSku is working with 25 animal rescue groups in Britain enabling them to sell pet food to their supporters, shipping directly from a large international manufacturer. “Our intention is to ex- pand within this niche there. Our objective for the next 12 months is to have 1,000 small businesses offering and selling products via HubSku-pow- ered online shops.” hubsku.com

HidraMed Solutions

Founder: Suzanne Moloney Year founded: 2016 Location: Galway Sector: Medical H idraMedSolutions has developed an adhesive free wound dressing system for people

withachronicwound-caus- ingskindiseasecalledHidra- denitisSuppurativa(HS)that will enablepatients toman- age their wounds and care routine effectively, quickly and easily.  FounderSuzanneMoloney says: “We have just closed a seed round of €1.25 million with several private inves-

tors, Elkstone Capital, the WDC and Enterprise Ire- land.” She says the compa- ny is “inplanningmode” for expansion abroad. “We will be selling online, direct to the consumer, starting with IrelandandBritain, thenex- panding throughout Europe and into North America.” hidrawearskin.com

InflectionBiosciences

to date, a major mile- stone for the company occurred in July this year, with the granting of global development and commercialisation to its first cancer development programme, to cancer biotech AUMBioscienc- es, Singapore. Cunningham says: “We will continue to seek op- portunities to grow the

company through col- laborations with industry partners and investors.” He pinpoints China as a vital market, “given the size of the population and prevalence of cancer, combined with the fact that the availability of innovative cancer thera- peutics is not yet on a par with the US and Europe”. inflectionbio.com

Founders: Darren Cunningham and Dr Michael O’Neill Year founded: 2012

Location: Dublin Sector: Pharma

Inflection Biosciences is developing ground- breaking cancer thera- peutics. With over €2.5 million in funding raised

Darren Cunningham, founder, Inflection Biosciences

The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 15

100 HOT START-UPS

Intouch Founders: Tim Arits, Sameh Abdalla and

digital-first data-driven mindset associated with online e-commerce gi- ants. Intouchwas afinal- ist intwocategoriesat the Checkout National Retail Supplier awards and has beenworkingwithCircle K Ireland. Marketing manager Greg Collins says: “Over the next year, “we will go live with new tier 1 retailers in three regions globally (Europe, Middle East and Africa). We are planning to expand the team and keep building out our core IP.” intouch.com

Doychin Doychev Year founded: 2015 Location: Dublin, Ireland (HQ), El Gouna, Egypt Sector: Retail I ntouch has developed an AI-powered plat- formfor retailers to in- telligently target shop- perswithpersonalised offerings in-store. With initialfundingof€1.3mil- lion,ithasgrownitsindex of products to over 100 millionandoffersretailers solutionsbuiltspecifically for physical retail using a

Sameh Abdalla, Doychin Doychev and Tim Arits, co-founders, Intouch

Kids SpeechLabs Founders: Shona D’Arcy, Celine DeLooze and Gordon D’Arcy Year founded: 2018 Location: Dublin Sector: Language development Kids Speech Labs is developing voice-enabled games that au- tomatically assess andmonitor children’s speech and language development, allowing parents to see if their child’s speech is on track for their age. Co-founder Shona D’Arcy likens it to “a speech version of the percentile height and weight chart that parents currently use”. The company has recently completed an Angel funding round and achieved the Seal of Excellence from the H2020 SME Instrument phase 1. “Release of our prototype is in the coming months and will give us the data we need for ad- ditional development and help our goal of raising a significant seed round by the end of this

JN Femme

Founders: Nora Irwin and Joan Phelan Year founded: 2015 Location: Tipperary Sector: Personal care JN Femme was set up by Nora Irwin and Joan Phelan to develop 100 per cent natural personal products for women. Both have experi- ence in various roles in healthcare. The

company works in collaborationwith a recognised pharmaceutical company, EPC Ltd (Europharma), in Ireland. EPC Ltd is responsible for the manufacturing, filling and packaging of the products de- veloped by JN Femme. Revitalise is JN Femme’s first product. It is a 100 per cent natural oil-based vaginal lubricant andmoisturiser that is free from chemicals, hormones and other additives, targeted at pre-meno- pausal, menopausal and post meno- pausal women.

Kinesis Health Technologies

Founders: Dr Barry Greene and Seamus Small

ogies is concerned with fall prevention and gait analysis for older adults. It aims to prevent falls, enabling people to live longer, healthier and more independent lives. The company has completed two rounds of seed funding to date from Enterprise Ireland and an angel syndicate, totalling

just under €1 million. This year it put through a major new revision of its software, and looking forward, Greene says: “Kinesis Health Tech- nologies is planning to expand its reach into the US, building on recent customer acquisitions in the mid-Atlantic region.” kinesis.ie

Year founded: 2013 Location: Nexus UCD, Dublin Sector: Health

A spin-out from the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre at UCD, Kinesis Health Technol-

year,” says D’Arcy. kidsspeechlabs.com

16 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post

Klir

Founders: Elaine Kelly and David Lynch Year founded: 2017 Location: Dublin, Las Vegas and Toronto Sector: Utilities T heKlirplatformmanagesregulatorycompli- ancedata so that utilities canbettermitigate the true risks to theenvironment andpublic health. The water software start-up raised almost €1million to fund its expansion into NorthAmerica lastyear.ColinKelleher, anIrishangel investorbasedinCanada,ledthesyndicateofinvestors backing the firm. Already profitable, the company wona significant contractwith theSouthernNevada WaterAuthority(SNWA) lastyear.TheSNWAwilluse its software technology to increase the efficiency of water management in the region, which is known for water shortages. klir.io

Elaine Kelly and David Lynch, co-founders, Klir

Lightly Founders: Matt Hanbury and Brian Charman Year founded: 2016 Location: Dublin Sector: Lighting Lightly Technologies is a hardware start-up, develop- ing ultra-thin LED lightbulbs for unique, modern light- ing designs. “We raised our Seed round in 2018,” says co-founder Matt Hanbury. “We got €550,000 through Crowdcube, a British equity crowdfunding platform, and €250,000 through Enterprise Ireland’s HPSU programme. After two-and-a-half years of R&Dwe launched our first ultra-thin LED light bulb, Hikari SQ, in September 2018.”The company had its first patent granted inMarch 2019 and has two patents pending. “We are working with lighting fixture manu- facturers across Europe and in Ireland which are devel- oping new products using our technology, and exploring partnerships in the automo- tive industry for novel inte- rior, headlight and tail light designs.” says Hanbury. lightly.tech

LadyBirdDynamics

Founder: Dale Chen Year founded: 2019 Location: Dublin Sector: Energy F or consumerswho want to savemon- eyand time, Lady- Birdprovidestech- nology-enabled smart saving services on energybills. LadyBirdDy- namic’s services include a sensor which clips into an electricity meter and pairs with a smartphone

app. The accompanying appenables theconsumer tomonitor and track their energy usage and utility spending, and even spot the big energy wasters in their household. The app will alsodeliverenergyef- ficiencytipsandreminders froma personal smart as- sistant.The start-up is one ofthisyear’scohortatTan- gent,Trinity’sIdeasWork- space, anewcutting-edge

Dale Chen and Herbert Innocent of Ladybird Dynamics

innovation facility. ladybirddynamics.com

Founder: Anthony Cahill Year founded: 2017 Location: iHubs Sector: Galway “We help our clients to optimise their manual as- sembly production lines through our innovative software, kaizen events and workshop-based training and coaching,” says found- er Anthony Cahill. KyzenTree

After initial personal investment, plus funding fromNew Frontiers and the Competitive Start Fund, the company raised €500,000 fromprivate investment and Enterprise Ireland HPSU fund in late 2018. Major new clients over the past year include Creganna Medical, Mer- it Medical, Acelity (KCI Manufacturing), Beckman

Coulter, EuroPharma Con- cepts (SteriPack). Looking forward, Cahill plans ex- pansion to newmarkets, revised software with new features based on customer feedback and the launch of the Kyzen Tree Academy with insights and training on how best to optimise manual assembly lines. kyzentree.com

The Sunday Business Post | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 17

Manna

100 HOT START-UPS

LiveCosts

Founder: Bobby Healy Year founded: 2019 Location: NovaUCD Sector: Delivery M anna is a drone deliv- ery-as-a-service compa- ny,deliveringpreparedfood directly fromrestaurants to consumers’ houses. Using own-designed and developed UAVs (drones), Manna provides a full stack “out of the box” for restaurants, chains and online food-ordering platforms to adda“deliverybydrone”optionto their checkout pages. The company’s Seed fundingroundwasthreetimesoversub- scribed, with multimillion investment fromVCsincludingFrontline,ffVentures, Atlantic Bridge and Elkstone. In partnership with restaurant tech- nology players such as Flipdish, Manna hasaccesstomorethan1,000restaurants in Ireland and Britain, and with strong demandfromglobalonlinefooddelivery platformsandrestaurantchains,expan- sion plans include Europe and the US. manna.aero

Founder: Ciaran Brennan Year founded: 2018 Location: Dublin Sector: Construction LiveCosts increases a construction company’s profits by exposing their costs in real time. Founder Ciaran Brennanwas (at the time of writing) a finalist in Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition, having won best start-up first in Fingal, then in the Dublin region. LiveCosts is nowworking with some of Ireland’s leading con- struction services companies such as Cascade Group, Dyno Rod and Darby QS. The company has completed a rebrand fromPaidAde to Live- Costs.com and hopes to take on five new staff in sales and software development over the coming months before rolling the platform into Britain in January 2020. LiveCosts.com

Bobby Healy, founder, Manna

Founders: Dr Patrick Cronin and Ray Kirwan Year founded: 2018 Location: Limerick Sector: Textiles MicaNanotech

Mica Nantoech provides fab- ric manufacturers supplying into healthcare environ- ments with finishing tech- nologies that enhance the durability and sustainability of properties such as antimi-

crobial protection, which is applied to technical fabrics for medical wear such as hospital gowns and drapes. Co-founder Ray Kirwan says: “We signed a licence agreement with the University of Lim- erick to spin out a novel technology that applies antimicrobial finishes to eliminate microbes such as MRSA and CPE from fabrics used in medical and healthcare environments. The technology was developed as part of  FP7 Euro- pean Commission research project called Bio- ElectricSurface led fromUL.”The technology is being trialled with 25 textile companies from the USA, EU and Canada, with plans to license the technology to five to eight of those. micananotech.com

Dr Patrick Cronin, Ray Kirwan, co-founders, Mica Nanotech

18 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | The Sunday Business Post