Fingal Enterprise Award & IBYE Winners '14 Announced

Finalists in the Fingal Enterprise Awards and the inaugural “Best Young Entrepreneur” competition have received awards for enterprise at the ‘Success Leaves Clues’ networking event which took place on Thursday 9th October as part of Fingal Enterprise Week 2014 at the Grand Hotel, Malahide. The event featured keynote speaker Sean Gallagher who shared his expert advice with SME owner/managers, the event was hosted by Ian Guider of Newstalk who presented the awards.

Congratulating the winners, Oisin Geoghegan, Head of Fingal Local Enterprise Office said: “The recognition that our winners will receive from these awards and the resulting supports and investment will be invaluable to them, helping to create a solid platform upon which they can further grow and develop their businesses. We are predicting that all these businesses, nominees and winners, will jointly create 75 new jobs for the Capital, with the potential for many more, over the next three years.”

Fingal Enterprise Awards 2014 - Winner

Motorcheck (Benchmark Automotive) 

Michael Rochford – www.motorcheck.ie based in Swords, Co. Dublin

Motorcheck (Benchmark Automotive) was founded in Dublin in Oct 2002 by Michael Rochford and Shane Teskey. It is a provider of technology driven products and services to the Fleet and Automotive Industry and Ireland’s leading supplier of automotive data services to the insurance industry, motor trade and related sectors.  It is known primarily through its online brand Motorcheck.ie.

Find out more by viewing the full profile

Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur – Fingal County Final

Best Start Up Business and ‘Best Young Entrepreneur’

WINNER: Ben Millett (25) Stayhold Ltdwww.stayhold.com based in Swords, Co. Dublin

Launched in July 2013, this Irish-designed product sticks to the carpet in the car boot and prevents loose objects from rolling around.  The company now supplies The Home Depot in the USA along with other retailers / distributors worldwide. Having introduced Stayhold Mini to the product range, the aim is to grow the business by creating sales in other territories while further expanding the product range and establishing the brand as the number one name in car storage solutions. The company has grown significantly over the last year in both sales and forward orders. www.stayhold.com

Best New Idea (Not yet established) Category

WINNER: Joseph Kuye (19) Touchtech Payments from Tyrellstown, Dublin 15

Joseph is from Tyrrellstown and at 19 years old, is a student at Trinity College.  Touch Tech is an m-commerce payment processor for mobile shopping applications, that enables consumers who are using these mobile applications to pay for merchandise by simply tapping the back of their phone with their card and entering their pin when prompted to do so.  This is beneficial to merchants and banks as a fraudulent transaction can never be made using the system saving them hundreds of millions of potential profit each year that are lost to charge-backs.  Touchtech Payments have an office in Launchbox in Trinity College  (http://www.launchbox.ie/2014-teams).

Best Established Business with new add on (over 18 months)

WINNER: Dan Davern (28) DX2Training www.dx2training.ie based in Swords, Co. Dublin

Dan has developed an add-on to his existing Health and Safety training, consultancy and supplies business, which comprises a fully 3D animated and customised online learning management system for individual customers. Available in 30 languages and fully exportable, it can be tailored for European and Worldwide markets.

Whats next for the winners?

Each company will now progress to the next stage of their respective competitions, with ‘Motorcheck’ representing Fingal in the National Enterprise Awards, while ‘Stayhold’, ‘Touchtech Payments’ and ‘DX2 Training’ will participate in the Regional Finals of the ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ competition later this month.