Irish Startups impress at inaugural Newry tech event Innovation Nation 2018
by Startacus Admin
Irish startups both North and South came to pitch at Innovation Nation 2018, the inaugural, two-day -min.png "Ascend startup pitch comp at Innovation Nation 2018")
Newry tech event, with Cork startup SmartRoutes claiming the £50k valued prize fund.
Irish startups both North and South came to pitch at Innovation Nation 2018, the inaugural, two-day Newry tech event, an event that championed the Newry, Mourne and Down district area of Northern Ireland as a national hub for digital innovation.
Led and hosted by Startacus co-founder Alastair Cameron, the Ascend startup pitch competition was an integral part of the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council organised two-day tech event, with the winning Irish startup, SmartRoutes announced as the overall winner that evening at the event dinner at the Newry City Hall.
SmartRoutes is a Cork based startup who have designed and built a delivery route planning solution. Their Cloud-based platform helps businesses to seamlessly plan their routes, giving them the ability to run an efficient delivery fleet in-house 24/7.
Coming a close second was Clare based startup Get the Shifts, a tech-centric staffing solution which is disrupting the Irish hospitality sector by supporting bars, restaurants, cafes, festivals, and other hospitality and events businesses to source experienced, temporary staff in their area on demand.
The Judges namely Kevin McGivern of Kx, Ashleen Feeney of KPMG in Northern Ireland, Garrett O’Hare of Flexi Work Space and Drew O’Sullivan of InterTradeIreland, who were impressed with the early stage Irish startups that pitched, also awarded Northern Irish startup Cropsafe with a ‘One to Watch’ title.
Cropsafe, with a team of three co-founders aged 17, impressed beyond their years, and their pitch for their AgriTech platform that utilizing satellite imagery to accurately detect and predict impending diseases within farmers crops, left a mark on the audience and the Ascend Judges.
Alastair Cameron, co-founder of Startacus who hosted the startup pitch competion said:
“It is no exaggeration to say that we were totally delighted with the standard of the early-stage Irish startups on show. Whilst all credit must go to Smartroutes, Get the Shifts and Cropsafe for bring awarded with the 1st, 2nd and ‘One to Watch’ titles, it is fair to say that a good number of startups also scored heavily by the Judges and scoring was very close on the day.”
Alastair continued: “I would not be surprised if quite a few of these startups go on to raise angel and VC investment over the coming 12 months.”
RISCalert, Unitek.AI, Motoklik, Afterbook, Journey Protector, Jadeblok, Elastic Energy, Compensave, MiBudi, Machine Eye, made up the list of early-stage Irish startups on show.
Innovation Nation 2018 took place over two days and attendees heard from Brian Conlon, Founder and Chief Executive of First Derivatives plc; Norbrook Laboratories Chief Executive Liam Nagle and STATSports Chief Commercial Officer Sean O’Connor, as well as inspiring entrepreneurs and tech leaders from elsewhere.
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.
Bwalya Kasase, Business Process Consultant at Rebel Energy shares insights on how the renewable energy supplier uses digital workers to improve the customer experience
Peppy secures major investment to help scale its existing menopause, fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood support, and support the introduction of a range of new services.
One Year No Beer, the alcohol-free support service fundraises to scale its business following reports indicating huge surge in alcohol-related deaths since Covid.
The lowdown on Junk Kouture, the Irish-based global platform that's on a mission to unleash the creative brilliance of young people
Considering selling your startup's tech innovation to the healthcare industry? These tips from Evelyne Priestman, Health Economist, Health Enterprise East should help...
Wilton London exceeds crowdfunding target to support its aim of becoming the UK’s number one eco household cleaning brand
TestGorilla is a startup that's on a mission to help you identify the best candidates and make your hiring decisions faster, easier, and bias-free
Major investment for her1, the digital health impact company that's dedicated entirely to female wellbeing...
Major boost for the NI economy as nanotechnology consortium, Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m by the Strength in Places Fund to support development of new technology for medical devices, communication and data storage.
As the pandemic may still have an impact on your business in the long term - here are a few things to consider...
Published on: 30th September 2018
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Peppy Raises £6.6M for its digital health platform 27th Jul 2021 Peppy secures major investment to help scale its existing menopause, fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood support, and support the introduction of a range of new services.
- One Year No Beer launches new £500K crowdfunding campaign 26th Jul 2021 One Year No Beer, the alcohol-free support service fundraises to scale its business following reports indicating huge surge in alcohol-related deaths since Covid.
- Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m funding from UKRI 22nd Jul 2021 Major boost for the NI economy as nanotechnology consortium, Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m by the Strength in Places Fund to support development of new technology for medical devices, communication and data storage.
- Ntropy Raises $3.2M for its innovative data platform 20th Jul 2021 Ntropy secures major investment to help with expansion of its team, support market growth and future product development.
