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Seedcorn Winners Announced
 
Overall Seedcorn winner, Valitacell
Overall Seedcorn winner, Valitacell

Dublin company Valitacell was crowned the Overall Winner of the 14th annual InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition, winning a cash prize of €100,000 at the grand final held at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. The other main winner on the night was Gecko Governance, based in Dundalk, who won the Best Early Stage Company Category award and a cash prize of €50,000.

This year’s competition generated a lot of interest and attracted over 300 applications from new start and early stage companies from across the island from sectors such as Pharma, ICT, Energy, Software/Apps, Biometrics and even waste management.


Valitacell - Dublin

Valitacell based in Pembroke Street and with its lab in the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Blackrock provides analytical support for the biopharmaceutical sector. It helps companies to improve the efficiency and performance of a cell development process that is crucial in the manufacture of monoclonal antibody drugs. These products are accelerating the delivery of high-tech, expensive modern drugs to patients who need them but currently do not have access to them.

Dr Terry McWade, CEO of Valitacell said; “I am absolutely delighted to win the overall award at the IntertradeIreland Seedcorn 2016 national final. This competition has taught the whole team a lot and allowed us to refine many aspects of our business. We developed an improved business plan that helped us to refine our message and strategy for investors. The emphasis that we have put on communications and messaging means we can make our offering more understood to businesses and customers that do not have a technical or scientific background. The €100,000 cash prize will allow us to develop a targeted sales and marketing strategy which will focus on market engagement and securing new customers.”

Gecko Governance - Dundalk

Dundalk based Gecko Governance makes regulation technology for the global finance industry that allows fund managers to monitor and manage their regulation and compliance requirements. Gecko Governance allows for greater strategy potential and corporate planning by providing fund managers with a live oversight of all the funds regulation and compliance requirements – which funds are on schedule and which are behind, which compliance tasks are outstanding and which have been completed.

Shane Brett, Founder and CEO of Gecko Governance, said; “We are delighted to win best Early Stage company category and the €50,000 cash prize. We will use the prize money to accelerate our expansion plans – specifically in rolling out our London office later this year. The Seedcorn process helped us build our business plan which was a lot of work but very rewarding in terms of ending with an investor ready business plan in great shape. The level of detailed business plan feedback really helped us bring the plan to the next level. We have learned the importance of providing investors with a properly structured and articulated business plan with clear credible goals and realistic assumptions of our future business strategy. We will use the prize money to accelerate our expansion plans – specifically in rolling out our London office later this year.”


InterTradeIreland's Role

Speaking at the final, Martin Cronin Chairman, InterTradeIreland said: “The Seedcorn competition is all about supporting and promoting the growth of new start companies on the island of Ireland. These companies are vital for stimulating growth in the economy, not only by creating jobs but also for developing new and innovative solutions to everyday problems and improving people’s lives across the world. These companies need nurturing from an early stage and need access to the support that will allow them to build on their success. InterTradeIreland is proud of our work with these companies and we will continue to support them through our Funding for Growth initiatives. ”  

“I wish the heartiest of congratulations to both Valitacell and Gecko Governance for having come through this challenging process. On behalf of myself and the team at InterTradeIreland I wish them the very best in the years ahead. I am sure they will continue to grow and become great successes.”

About the Competition

The Seedcorn competition is the island's biggest business competition for new start and early stage companies and is aimed at companies with a new equity funding requirement.  It has an overall cash prize fund of €280,000, and does not involve taking any equity stake. Since it started in 2003, the 2,151 companies that have gone through the competition have raised in excess of €220m - last year alone, in excess of €10m was raised.

Deputies, if any of your constituents are interested in applying for Seedcorn next year, further details are available on www.intertradeireland.com/seedcorn.

 

InterTradeIreland business survey finds growth hitting three-year low
 

The latest quarterly Business Monitor report (July-September 2016) released this week by InterTradeIreland paints a mixed economic picture that reflects a widespread nervousness and sense of uncertainty among the business community in Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

While 31% of businesses still say they are experiencing growth, this figure is at its lowest level for 36 months.  On the other hand there has been a small increase in the numbers reporting that growth is declining, which points to more of a slowing of overall growth rather than any signs of contraction at this point.  Sales figures also show a positive though declining balance.


Headline figures

  • 31% of Irish businesses reporting growth
  • 45% of businesses across the island report exchange rates as a key issue
  • 98% of Irish businesses have no plans in place to deal with Brexit
  • 80% of Irish businesses say TV news

 
InterTradeIreland BREXIT supports on offer to help SMEs
 

The UK's decision to leave the EU caught a large majority of businesses offside.  InterTradeIreland is supporting businesses to navigate the uncertain landscape and realise their growth ambitions as the terms and conditions of the UK's new relationship with Europe  - and more specifically that between Ireland and Northern Ireland - emerges. 

InterTradeIreland is offering the following supports:

  • Brexit Briefing Events
  • Brexit Factsheet
  • Brexit Readiness Voucher
  • Simple Guide to Cross-Border Business
  • Export Supports
  • Cross-Border Statistics

Brexit Briefing events

We are holding a FREE breakfast briefing for SMEs in Cookstown on 2nd December and Monaghan on 14th December sharing advice and information to help businesses prepare for new trading relationships that emerge from Brexit negotiations, focusing on questions SMEs may have on business planning, currency hedging, innovation, diversification and building cross-border relationships.

Brexit Factsheet

Factsheet for Businesses outlining InterTradeIreland's 5 key Brexit supports and includes some practical advice.

Brexit Readiness Voucher

Financial support worth up to £1000 (euro equivalent) plus VAT towards professional advice in relation to Brexit matters.

Simple Guide to Cross-Border Business

Practical guide on everything SMEs need to know about expanding their business into a new cross-border territory.

Export Supports

Build an export business without ever leaving the island - cross-border funding and supports available up to £15,000 (euro equivalent)

Cross-Border Statistics

Comprehensive view of cross-border flows on the island of Ireland, through a combination of interactive graphs and tables.  Users can click on the various tabs to see total and sector cross-border trade statistics for Northern Ireland and Ireland, as well as data for key areas such as cross-border tourism, cross-border shopping, cross-border student flows and a selection of economic indicators.

Brexit Blog - Focus on things you can control

In this blog, Aidan Gough, our Strategy and Policy Director, gives SMEs a number of pointers to focus on to help them through current uncertainty around Brexit.

Deputies, companies in your area can find out more about our Brexit supports by visiting www.intertradeireland.com/brexit

Missed our Meet the Buyer event in Cork?
 
Delegates at Meet the Buyer event
Delegates at Meet the Buyer event

InterTradeIreland's latest Meet the Buyer event took place on the 19th October in Cork and attracted over 250 delegates and 90 Buyers from across the island. The event showcased sessions from key organisations including Office of Government Procurement (OGP), Central Procurement Directorate (CPD), and Health Service Executive (HSE).

Deputies, if any of the companies in your area were unable to attend this event, we have uploaded the presentations from the event to our website which contains useful information about tendering in terms of lots, frameworks and the reformed procurement model in Ireland amongst other subjects.


Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 Rural Renaissance Event- presentations now available!
 

InterTradeIreland, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Northern Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine Ireland recently partnered to hold a networking and information event on the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 thematic call area on Rural Renaissance.  This event took place on 20th October 2016 in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dundalk.

The aim of the event was to promote the new 2016/17 Rural Renaissance calls in Horizon 2020 given the strategic importance of the rural economy to both Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

These calls provide rural economy stakeholders (e.g. farmers, foresters, rural based organisations, rural towns and villages and their community groups, businesses and their representative groups) with an opportunity to participate in research and innovation activities that could enhance capacity, skills and innovation potential, lead to the design of new processes and business models and could provide an evidence base for policy and practice and limit the negative impacts on the environment, climate and health.


This interactive event took an indepth look at the Rural Renaissance calls, providing delegates with the opportunity to hear expert insights on everything from policy matters to personal experiences of participating in Horizon 2020. 

The keynote speaker was Professor Richard Wakeford, from Birmingham City University and Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 Advisory Group Chairperson, who spoke about sustainable rural development and how research can be truly useful in shaping rural futures. 

Delegates also heard from Miroslav Bozic, DG Agriculture and Rural Development, Noel Gavigan from IBEC AGRI-FOR-VALOR,  David Meredith, Teagasc, Grainne Millar, GM Innovations and Stephen Rice, Upskill Enterprises. 

Deputies, to find out more about this event and view the presentations please visit http://www.intertradeireland.com/rural_renaissance/
SME in focus - Texuna
 
Patrick Lynch, Texuna
Patrick Lynch, Texuna

Texuna was established in London in 2000 by Cork native, Patrick Lynch and has since expanded to Moscow and Cork. Texuna specialises in Data Collection, Data Warehouse, Data Registry and BI Analytics. A substantial part of their work derives from providing services to the public sector, including to large clients in the UK.  While set up in London, they have moved management, operations, product development and procurement strategy to the Cork office. 

Meet the Buyer

As tenders had previously been managed by the London office, the processes and methods necessary for applying for tenders were new to the Cork team.  In 2015, the company attended InterTradeIreland’s Meet the Buyer event. The event had been recommended to them by a new member of their R&D team who had a background in innovation and had worked with InterTradeIreland before and was aware of the positive impact of InterTradeIreland’s tendering programmes.


Go-2-Tender Workshop and Mentoring

Texuna also arranged for two members of their research team to attend one of InterTradeIreland’s Go-2-Tender workshops for a day, which helped them to change how the Cork team worked on tender submissions. Following the one-day workshop, they undertook three days of one-to-one mentoring sessions with the InterTradeIreland experts to help them on a very large seven figure public tender in the UK.

The InterTradeIreland team helped them to simplify their messages, hone their key attributes for a given tender, and match the requirements of the public sector tender – without getting bogged down in the technical and administrative detail of the tender.  InterTradeIreland’s team were able to review the tender as a fresh, independent expert, offering guidance about how to communicate Texuna ’s real value to win the business, late last year.

Texuna were successful in this tender and now provide platforms, assistance and support to archives, library systems and a number of other data management services to JISC, an organisation that provides digital solutions for UK education and research.

Long-Term Impact

The support and advice given to this new team in Cork built the team’s confidence in managing the tender process, and meant that the team’s own expertise in generating good and simple insights to drive the tender process was increased substantially.

The increased confidence and improved skillset has been important to other tenders undertaken since the JISC tender was successful in late 2015. As a result of the win, Texuna  have added to their Cork team and the Irish office has been able to take on more adventurous and creative work which gives them additional experience and options when tendering for future business.

Benefits of InterTradeIreland's Tendering Supports

Patrick Lynch, Texuna explains: “The InterTradeIreland tendering programmes,  Meet the Buyer and Go-2-Tender supports have had a really substantial and tangible impact on our business in terms of our new business wins.  It has also been extremely positive in building our team’s capabilities to win new business. The expertise, feedback and support that we received played a role in our win of the JISC tender late last year, a seven figure public tender. The InterTradeIreland team, across all our engagement with them, really helped us to understand the needs of the buyer, and to use this understanding for increased success in public procurement processes.

“Raising the in-house capability of all our staff when it comes to procurement best practice has been extremely important for us at Texuna. It was also very useful to have an external 3rd party validate our existing approaches and processes.”

Deputies, if any companies in your constituency would like to know more about our tendering supports, they can find out more by visiting www.intertradeireland.com/tendersuccessfully


Disclaimer
Note: Links to third-party websites are provided for convenience only. InterTradeIreland is not liable for the content, availability or use of such third party websites and you use such links entirely at your own risk.
14th December Brexit Briefing Event, Monaghan
Go-2-Tender Workshops - various dates and locations
2016 events confirmed to date
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