Fifteen of Ireland’s most promising and high-potential start-ups will pitch for the opportunity to win €25,000 at Web Summit
As excitement for the Web Summit 2015 starts to take hold, the shortlist for the ESB Spark of Genius Award has been announced. The ESB Spark of Genius Award focuses on high potential technology start-ups with a prize fund of €25,000 presented to the winner at the 2015 Web Summit in the RDS.
Fifteen start-ups* ranging from healthcare and beauty apps, marketing and gaming development services, people management solutions, job marketplace services, video platforms and data analytics services, have been selected from an exceptional 175 entries, to pitch to a judging panel on the 16th September in Web Summit HQ in Dublin.
The top three start-ups on the night will proceed to the final stage at Web Summit in November 2015 where they will pitch to the judges before the winner of the 2015 ESB Spark of Genius will be announced and presented with their prize of €25,000.
Web Summit CEO, Paddy Cosgrave said, “It’s fantastic to see the high number of applications we received for Spark for the Genius this year. The standard of applicants is extremely high so competition will be tough. This is a great opportunity for start-ups and the amount of start-ups that have applied shows just how thriving the Irish tech scene is.”
Speaking about the shortlist, Mary Collins, the ESB judge and a Partner in Greencoat Capital, said: “We are delighted with the number of entries for the ESB Spark of Genius Award this year. It was a challenge to reduce the shortlist to just 15 as the entries were of a very high standard, which highlights the great innovation and entrepreneurship happening in Ireland at the moment. ESB is honoured to support the growth of Irish entrepreneurs and very proud of the success of previous winners of this competition. We wish every competing company the best of luck in the next round.”
Open to any Irish start-up which has been in operation for less than 3 years and has received under €1 million in funding to date, the companies shortlisted for the ESB Spark of Genius Award will be judged on the uniqueness of their idea, their level of development thus far, and their potential for future growth.
Past winners of the ESB Spark of Genius Award include Love & Robots, Viddyad, Datahug and SmartThings, which was recently acquired by Samsung for a reported $200m.
More than 22,000 people from over 100 countries will attend Web Summit this year. Keynote speakers include John Collison of Stripe, Ed Catmull of Pixar and Chris Froome, Tour de France winner.
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*Company Bios
Medxnote (www.medxnote.com)
Medxnote is a secure mobile messaging app and notification platform for Healthcare. Some people describe it as Whatsapp for Healthcare.
Sportego (www.Sportego.ie)
Sportego is a marketing and gaming development company with the sole purpose of helping professional sports clubs and organisations increase engagement, interaction, conversion rates and revenue.
Bizimply (www.bizimply.com)
Bizimply is the all-in-one people and shift management solution to change the way you work.
Pucker (www.lovepucker.com)
Pucker is a marketplace which allows customers to connect with vetted, mobile beauty professionals and book beauty appointments to their home, office or hotel.
Wia (www.wia.io)
Wia is a cloud platform that enables users to build a scalable and powerful backend to launch their Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
Jobbio (Jobbio.com)
Jobbio is an online and mobile jobs marketplace that simplifies job discovery and application for both Talent and Brands
Youth Nation (www.youthnation.com)
Youth Nation is a youth-specific, global media leader with internationally regarded brands reaching over 100 million 14 – 24 year olds through social media weekly.
Videobot (www.vbot.tv)
The Videobot Enterprise Platform enables enterprises, brands, and publishers to deploy tailor-made video applications across devices.
Sedicii (www.sedicii.com)
Sedicii eliminates the need to transmit passwords and other identity data over the web.
Martini Studios (www.karlmartini.com)
Martini Studios uses spin product photography whereby the online buyer is given an almost tactile shopping experience.
SoapBox Labs (www.soapboxlabs.com)
SoapBox Labs is enabling automated software based assessment of children's reading skills by developing a new speech technology based adaptive learning platform.
Birdleaf (http://birdleaf.io)
Birdleaf turns your customers email addresses into rich, actionable insights.
Ayda (www.ayda.co)
Worn only during sleep, Ayda enables you to effortlessly identify your most fertile days. Ayda provides a clear window into your unique cycle data.
Social Honey (www.socialhoney.co)
Social Honey is a Big Data company that helps publishers by analysing audience and content performance.
EnergyElephant www.energyelephant.com)
EnergyElephant extracts the useful information contained in your energy bills, analyses it, combines it with other useful external data sources (such as weather data) and gives you back unique insights into your electricity and gas use.