Attention: Aspiring Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Investors

ESB & Web Summit are teaming up again to find Ireland’s most high potential start-up. The ESB Spark of Genius Award, which will be announced during this November’s Web Summit in Lisbon, will see one Irish company win €25,000. Entries are open from today, Monday August 29th.

The ESB Spark of Genius Award provides a platform for high potential technology start-ups who have been in operation for less than three years and have received under €1 million in funding. Entrants will be judged on the uniqueness of their idea, their level of development thus far, and their potential for future growth.

Twelve semi-finalists will be shortlisted from the entrants and will be profiled on RTÉ 2FM’s The Eoghan McDermott Show during the week commencing October 3rd. Thanks to ESB, three finalists will be provided with Web Summit’s Alpha StartUp package, placing them in front of a global investor audience at the event in Lisbon. The highlight of this competition is the opportunity to pitch in front of a panel of reputable judges in Lisbon in a bid to become the 2016 ESB Spark of Genius winner.

Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of Web Summit said; "It’s fantastic to be involved with ESB Spark of Genius again this year. The standard of applicants over the last number of years has been extremely high so competition will be tough. It’s a great opportunity for start-ups and it just goes to show how thriving the Irish tech scene is."

Marguerite Sayers, Managing Director of ESB Networks, said; "ESB is delighted to be involved with the ESB Spark of Genius Award for a sixth year. The award underpins our commitment to innovation, technology and Ireland’s dynamic start-up community. Great start-ups are born from great ideas and solutions and at ESB, we always seek to bring ground-breaking energy solutions to our customers. Our new X_Site Innovation hub in Dogpatch Labs, Dublin exemplifies this commitment and we are hosting a hackathon in October to allow us to work with creators and innovators to advance our vision for a low carbon future."

More than 50,000 people from over 130 countries are attending Web Summit this year in Lisbon. Keynote speakers include John Chambers, Executive President, Cisco; Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO and Founder, VaynerMedia and Linda Boff, CMO, General Electric. Leading Irish speakers include Andreea Wade, Founder, Opening.io, Dermot Williams, CEO, Threatscape and Eamon Leonard, Founder, Cohort.

Start-ups can register their interest in ESB Spark of Genius here: https://websummit.net/spark-of-genius

Editors Notes

Previous winners of ESB Spark of Genius have included:

Datahug (2010): a data science company founded by Corkman Connor Murphy who went on to raise €4.87m ($5.5m) in funding and who now have offices in Dublin and San Francisco.

Smart Things (2012): Internet of Things start-up founded by Alex Hawkinson, Jeff Hagins, Scott Vlaminck, James Stolp, Andrew Brooks, Ben Edwards and Jesse O'Neill-Oine and went on to be purchased by Samsung for approximately €177m ($200m)

BizSimply (2015): an employee management start-up co-founded by Norman Hewson, John Forde and Mikey Cannon, who have secured over €1.95m ($2.2m) in funding.

Employing more than 7,000 people in Ireland and the UK, ESB has always endeavored to bring light and energy to our customers. We do this by providing world-class, critical energy infrastructure, making an annual €2bn contribution to the Irish economy. In 2015 alone, we invested €873 million, paid dividends to the Irish Government of €273 million and provided community funding of €2million. Read more at https://www.esb.ie/who-we-are/