Two Fingal entrepreneurs reach National Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Competition (IBYE)

Two Fingal entrepreneurs reach National Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Competition (IBYE)

Local Enterprise Office Fingal has confirmed that Kevin Kelleher from Ostoform in Malahide and Alan Hickey from WeBringg in Castleknock have both clinched places in the national final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition in Dublin this March.

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The two entrepreneurs are competing in the “Best Business Idea” and “Best Start-Up Business” categories respectively, and are two of the three young entrepreneurs who will represent the Dublin region on March 4th. The local entrepreneurs now have the opportunity, along with 22 other national finalists, to become Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur and share in a €100,000 winners’ investment fund.

Attending the awards ceremony, Mayor of Fingal Cllr. Mary McCamley spoke of her delight with the Fingal success: “Having seen at close hand during the Fingal finals, the high calibre of businesses that our Fingal winners had to overcome to take their place at the regional finals, I am delighted to see that their hard work and dedication has been rewarded tonight. I would like to wish the three winners the very best of luck as they go forward to represent Dublin at the national finals in March. I have no doubt that their entrepreneurial capabilities will shine bright on a national stage”.

The category winners who will go forward to the National Final were announced by the Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Mr Pat Breen T.D. at the IBYE Regional Final in the Royal College of Physicians on Kildare Street yesterday evening (24th January). The other national finalist who was selected by the judging panel is Conor O’Loughlin from Glofox of Sandyford in the Best Established category.

Oisin Geoghegan, the Head of Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Fingal, congratulated the local entrepreneurs, saying: “Our search to find and support Ireland’s best young entrepreneurs, which started last September, has turned up some incredible business talent. Our local entrepreneurs are the business leaders of the future and the entrants in the competition have all shown innovation and drive. After a very successful Bootcamp, County Final and now Regional Final, the county will be proudly represented in the ultimate stage of the competition by two local entrepreneurs – the IBYE National Final in March.”

The Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid, welcomed the success of the two Fingal entrepreneurs "I would like to congratulate the two Fingal entrepreneurs on their success at the IBYE Dublin regional finals. Fingal County Council is very keen to ensure that we have a strong enterprise culture that offers the perfect environment where Start-Ups can thrive and provide a sustainable stream of new employment opportunities in the county. In addition, I am delighted that in Fingal we have a very entrepreneurial young population that is continually looking for ways to develop business ideas. Our Local Enterprise Office in Fingal County Council is well equipped to provide a range of supports that can help turn these ideas into reality and the IBYE competition is just one of many ways where we assist young entrepreneurs".

Judging takes place in early March and each finalist will have the opportunity to pitch their business plan to the judging panel. They will be assessed on criteria such as the level of innovation in their business, the potential for future job creation and their leadership skills.

The Best Idea winner, Kevin Kelleher of "Ostoform", has developed a novel medical device that manages and effectively reduces skin complications caused by Colostomy bags. He has conducted two patient trials to date which saw a 45% improvement in patients’ skin conditions. Best StartUp Entrepreneur Alan Hickey of "WeBringg" has developed a crowd-sourced on-demand delivery platform that can deliver online purchases in minutes by sourcing drivers in the same way as Mytaxi sources taxis.

Aimed at 18 to 35-year-olds, the IBYE initiative is run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) nationwide, and supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. The investment awards will be used by the young entrepreneurs to help fund business start-ups, create new jobs locally and help develop new products for international markets.

Competition details and results are available from www.ibye.ie and information around the supports available to young entrepreneurs through the Local Enterprise Offices is available from www.localenterprise.ie