Cork & Waterford Regional Winners to compete for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur National title
The Regional (Cork and Waterford) “Best Young Entrepreneurs’ were announced at an awards ceremony hosted by the Local Enterprise Office Cork North & West on Wednesday 12th June at Cork Marts, Corrin Event Centre, Fermoy. The winners were chosen from 12 finalists, shortlisted from almost 200 applicants in the competition which was launched earlier this year by the LEO’s as part of a nationwide search to find “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE).
Pictured above are LEO Cork City, County finalists Paul O'Shea of Peckish Ltd., Stephen Wilson Downey of A.I.P, and Andrew O'Riordan of Ocean Escapes with the Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr. Sean Martin and Head of Enterprise Paul McGuirk. While we had no winners on the night from the LEO Cork City we are immensely proud of our clients who worked hard to reach this stage of the competition.
Now in its fifth year, IBYE is a nationwide competition to celebrate Ireland’s young entrepreneurs and is open to individuals aged 18 to 35 who have an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business.
24 regional winners (three from each region nationally – one in each category) will be selected to compete for the national title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur on Sunday 15th of September 2019. An additional investment fund of €100,000 will be available for the winners of the three categories at the national final, one of which will also be named as “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur”.
Eight regional finals are taking place across the country over the next few weeks in the search for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur 2019.
The Mayor of Cork County Cllr Christopher O’Sullivan and the Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork City Cllr Sean Martin were also in attendance at the ceremony.
The LEO Regional (Cork and Waterford) ‘Best Business Idea’ category was won by Darragh Lucey, Yooni, from Ovens. Yooni uses Artificial Intelligence to generate tailor made lists of best-fit courses for students to progress to Higher Education Institutes.
Each list is tailor made and unique to each student, based on their personal information and psychometrics.
The winner of the ‘Best Start-Up Business’ category was Wendy Oke founder of Teachcloud from Douglas. Teachcloud is a cloud based management system that saves teachers time on paperwork and increases compliance with regulations
The title of ‘Best Established Business’ went to Conor Walsh founder of Encon from Waterford.. Encon’s USP is to retrofit homes, making them energy efficient and affordable to run.
About IBYE:
Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur is an enterprise initiative run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) around the country and funded by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. A €2million investment fund is available through IBYE which supports young entrepreneurs through training, mentoring and direct financial investments.
Now in its fifth year, IBYE was open to people between the ages of 18 and 35 (at the date of application) with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business, including: individuals, venture teams, partnerships, existing businesses with a new idea, or people overseas(including Irish emigrants) who will headquarter in Ireland.
Each LEO has a total fund of up to €50,000 to invest in six businesses (three category winners and three runners-up) according to criteria including businesses’ investment needs.
The three categories are as follows:
- Best Business Idea(pre-trading) – up to €10,000 investment fund through every LEO (€7,000 for category winner and €3,000 for runner-up, through every LEO)
- Best Start-Up Business (In business 18 months or less), with up to €20,000 investment fund through every LEO (€15,000 for category winner and €5,000 for runner-up, through every LEO)
- Best Established Business (trading for more than 18 months) with up to €20,000 investment fund through every LEO (€15,000 for category winner and €5,000 for runner-up, through every LEO)
There will be eight regional finals held from which 24 contenders (three from each region – one in each category) will be selected to compete for the national title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur.
A further €100,000 investment fund will be available to invest in the winners of the three categories at the national finals, one of which will also be named as “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur.
