Innovative High Growth Startups from Prep4Seed Programme pitch for 10 million euro in investment

• 11 High Growth start-ups completed the second Prep4Seed Programme of 2023 delivered by the Irish BICs in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, preparing them for seed investment
• Investors and VCs gathered in Enterprise Ireland for the Final Investor Pitch Day
• Hibra Design awarded the ‘One to Watch’
• Skippio receives ‘Best Pitch’ Award

The second 12-week Prep4Seed Programme of 2023 culminated today at the Investor Pitch Day when 11 start-ups pitched to an audience of Angel Investors & VCs at Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters. The programme, delivered by the four Irish Business Innovation Centres (BICs), in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, prepares start-up clients for seed investment bringing participants through the investor readiness process quickly and effectively.

The 11 Irish based early-stage companies pitching for over €10 million in investment were from a variety of industry sectors including: FinTech, DeepTech, Renewables, MedTEch, ICT, Food and EdTech.

The companies participating include: Customs Window, Emere Procurement, Everywhere English, Hibra Design, Konree Innovation, Maya Data Privacy, REClosure, RetroKit, Skippio, Voice Tune and Femtech Healthcare.

Mike Keane, CEO of Hibra Design - a Cork based company - was awarded the One to Watch Award. Hibra Design, an automotive engineering development company, develops sustainable and bespoke vehicle solutions that allow fossil-fuel powered vehicles to be re-engineered with battery, electric or hydrogen fuel cell systems.  

Daniel Coen, Skippio took home the Best Pitch Award. Skippio is a new innovative pre-ordering and payment solution for large-scale venues and events that significantly reduces food and beverage queueing times.

Leo McAdams, Divisional Manager, Enterprise Ireland said: “The Prep4Seed programme, in collaboration with the four BICs has shown to be an effective building platform to nurture entrepreneurs and the enterprise leaders of the future. The start-ups represented here today will continue to be the driving force behind the development in innovation across all regions as well as export growth. I would like to congratulate Skippio and Hibra Design on their awards today and all the participants on the programme and to commend the hard work it took to get them to this point. Enterprise Ireland looks forward to supporting these high-growth start-ups on their investment journey.”

Commenting on her participation in the 2023 Prep4Seed Programme, Margaret Rae, Managing Director & Co-Founder of Konree Innovation said that, “The Prep4Seed programme does what it says - it firstly focuses you to consider all of the aspects of your company from an investor perspective. Each company is then provided with tailored direction in preparing their investor pitch and company documentation in a streamlined and highly supportive process.”

Participants attended five Masterclasses run by the Irish BICS and tailored one-to-one meetings with experienced BIC consultants which covered a broad range of areas including Sales & Marketing, Financial Modelling, Market Validation, Pitching & Investment and Company Foundation. Participants were also brought through intensive investor pitch preparation sessions and trial pitches preparing them for today’s Investor Day.

To date 42 start-ups have participated in Prep4Seed 12-week investor-ready programme delivered nationally by the Irish BICs: Furthr, South East BIC, CorkBIC and WestBIC in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland.

ENDS

Irish Business Innovation Centres (BICs)

CorkBIC
Fionnual Wall
fwall@corkbic.com
www.corkbic.com

Furthr
Julian Seymour
julianseymour@furthr.ie
www.furthr.ie

South East BIC
Rosemary Ward
rward@southeastbic.ie
www.southeastbic.ie

West BIC
Mary Ryan
mryan@westbic.ie
www.westbic.ie

For more information, please contact:
Nicola Corboy, Press & Media Relations, Enterprise Ireland