Press Release                                           Wednesday, November 25^th 2015

Judging Day for Local Young Entrepreneur from Bridgetown, Co Clare

Peter Hunt of Piggyback represents the Local Enterprise Office in €2 million competition

A local young entrepreneur from Bridgetown, Co Clare travelled to the Department of Jobs in Dublin this week, to compete against 23 other young entrepreneurs for the title of ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ for 2015.

The judging panel are individually interviewing all 24 national finalists, ahead of the National Final at The Foundry in Google on Sunday 6^th December.

1,400 young Irish entrepreneurs, aged between 18 and 30, participated in this year’s €2million IBYE competition, part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, which is being run by the Local Enterprise Offices. The 24 finalists from 17 counties have now made it to the national final at Google’s European Headquarters in Dublin, for a chance to win an investment of up to €70,000 in their business.

Welcoming the finalists to the Department of Jobs on Kildare Street, Minister Bruton said: “Two thirds of all new jobs are created by start-ups, and that is why we are putting in place a range of measures, including the IBYE competition, to support, encourage and celebrate the young people who start those businesses that we need. I’ve met with all the finalists competing in this year’s IBYE competition to hear about their job creation plans for the future and I’m hugely encouraged by the quality of their businesses and their ambitious plans.”

This year’s ‘Best Business Ideas’ include affordable diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases, a new Irish whiskey brand, mobile apps for e-Books and CAD drawings and medical devices for bowel cancer patients. In addition, technology for patients with diabetes, software for taxi drivers and an online polling tool for bloggers are also among the finalists in that category.

For start-ups that are less than two years old, the next category includes a wearable fertility tracker for women, technology to convert waste tyres into fuel, healthy convenient foods and beverages and mobile apps for marketing teams. Software for the warehousing industry, a tortilla chip manufacturer and an equestrian data analytics company are also in the final eight of the ‘Best Start-Up Business’ category.

The eight finalists in the ‘Best Established Business’ category feature a fashion milliner, a retail entertainment company, a recycling specialist, a sprayer supplier and a furniture-maker. This third category, for businesses that are at least two years old, also includes a speciality seafood retailer, a product research company and a healthy snack food maker.

Padraic McElwee, Head of Enterprise for the Local Enterprise Office highlighted the supports on offer to all those young entrepreneurs taking part from across the country, saying: “Through the course of this year’s IBYE competition, 450 young entrepreneurs nationwide have already participated in business bootcamps, 92 local winners have won ‘game changing’ investments of between €10,000 and €20,000 for their businesses and hundreds more have been offered training and mentoring opportunities through the Local Enterprise Offices.”

Two successful entrepreneurs, Brian Crowley of the TTM Group and Sarah Doyle of Kinesense Ltd, are on this year’s IBYE judging panel, along with Colin Goulding of Google Ireland, Christine Charlton of the Local Enterprise Offices and Tom Hayes of Enterprise Ireland.

Further updates about ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ competition and YouTube videos for each national finalist are available through www.ibye.ie and by searching #ibye on social media.

The official IBYE channel on YouTube is https://www.youtube.com/user/IBYEire.                                    

For all media queries around #IBYE, please contact your Local Enterprise Office

#IBYE Competition

Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition is run by the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) in the Local Authorities Network, and the winners at county level are eligible for an investment in their business of up to €20,000, while the winners at national level can receive an additional investment of up to €50,000. Winners of individual categories can also win additional investments in their businesses.

Mentoring, marketing and other supports are also available to participating businesses at various stages of the competition. The competition is open to individuals aged 30 and under and will be judged under three distinct categories:

• Best Business Idea (best idea for a new business)

• Best Start-Up Business (in business for up to 24 months or less)
• Best Established Business (in business for longer than 24 months).

The first stage was a county-based competition (run by the 31 LEOs) which led to the naming of the Best Young Entrepreneur in each county. This stage also included bootcamps and mentoring programmes. This was followed by eight regional finals to select the 24 national finalists. At the national final, one businessperson will be crowned Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur.

24 National Finalists: Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneurs 2015