Innovative Electrical Clip hangs on to win INVENT Awards 2018

by Startacus Admin

The annual Northern Irish INVENT Awards from Connect at Catalyst Inc, took place last Thursday in Belfast’s Waterfront, during which Gray’s Clip was announced as the overall competition winner.
Sponsored by Bank of Ireland UK, INVENT is an annual competition that showcases and rewards local innovations that promise the greatest potential. It’s an opportunity to gain high-profile exposure and to market-validate ideas.
The overall winner, Gray’s Clip walked away with a prize package of £13,000 (from the overall prize total £33,000), as well as a bespoke business trip to the United States in 2019.
Gray’s Clip based in Bangor has revolutionised the process of clipping electrical cables. The product works with a battery powered stapler to secure cables to wooden joists and structures. With this product no more hammering is needed, the user simply loads the strip of 20 clips into a stapler and presses the button. It’s quick, easy and safe.
Company owners, husband and wife team Julie and David Gray, created the idea in 2016 after electrician David couldn’t find an insulated staple to secure the cables and had to hammer each clip individually. Although searching for years, he was disappointed not to find anything suitable and teamed up with wife Julie to develop their product.
INVENT sponsor, Gavin Kennedy, Bank of Ireland UK’s Head of Business Banking NI said, “Julie and David demonstrated outstanding commitment, passion and belief towards realising their ambition in bringing their idea, Gray’s Clip to market. Witnessing such determination and vision from them and all of the participants highlight what an inspiration our local Entrepreneurs are for Northern Ireland in business and the wider community.”
The INVENT competition offers an opportunity for the innovators of Northern Ireland to come forward and be recognised as the next ‘big thing’ – and this year attracted a record breaking 131 entries across the six categories.
INVENT Programme Manager, Kerry McGarvey said, “The INVENT competition is continuing to grow each year, proving that Northern Ireland is bursting with innovation. Tonight, we see a culmination of several months of hard work and as always we are overwhelmed with the energy and enthusiasm from everyone involved.”
There were also five other category winners of the INVENT 2018 competition who each receive £3,000 each.
Crafted Equestrian: An agritech Injury prevention solution for horses.
Machine Eye: Intelligent safety device. (Pitched at Startacus hosted Innovation Nation 2018)
SonoTarg: Ultrasound targeted cancer drug delivery.
Go-Fyt: Revolutionary way to find and book health & wellbeing providers. (Pitched at Startacus hosted upSTART at Digital DNA 2018)
Importwise: Goods importation processing system. (Our recent feature on Importwise)
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
The impact of standards, ethics and conduct on business success and profits - Work.Life has some interesting insights...

The lowdown on Space32 - the startup that wants to help hybrid-working businesses find the working space and solution that's right for them.

Global Tech for Good initiative seeks innovative startups and scaleups that are creating positive social impact and enhancing people's lives through tech.

The lowdown on Bidnamic, the startup that's combining advance machine learning with human expertise to help retailers to maximise revenue and profitability from Google Shopping.

Innovative Czech fintech startup 4Trans raises investment to expand first of its type AI driven factoring services across Europe.

Edinburgh-based life science company Cytomos secures funding to support further development of its innovative cell analysis tech.

Ethical Equity and Streets Consulting join forces to deliver Founder Workshop to help close the inequality gap in startup to scaleup funding.

Fancy being featured in this year’s SmallBiz100, which showcases the best of Britain’s vibrant small business community? There's just a couple of days left to do just that!

Screenloop secures major investment to support further development of its AI-driven recruitment platform that helps companies build the best teams and removes unconscious bias.

New research from School of Marketing reveals the impact that Covid-19 has had on key business sectors in the UK.
Published on: 12th October 2018
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.







- How the pandemic affected each industry 27th Jun 2022 New research from School of Marketing reveals the impact that Covid-19 has had on key business sectors in the UK.
- The Finalists of DBACE 2022 are revealed 21st Jun 2022 The lowdown on the innovative young visionaries that are in the running for this year's Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Entrepreneurs.
- OKAPI: Orbits raises €5.5m for Breakthrough Space Traffic Management Software 13th Jun 2022 Innovative German SaaS startup OKAPI:Orbits secures investment to support its mission of securing efficient and safe operations in space.
- Kita, the world's first carbon insurer, raises £350k in pre-seed round 9th Jun 2022 Innovative startup, Kita secures investment to support build and launch of its essential carbon insurance products.