Kildare Entrepreneur of Equine MediRecord to compete for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur National title
(L-R) Claire Dunleavy, Senior Enterprise Development Officer Kildare County Council’s Local Enterprise Office, Pierce Dargan CEO & Founder of Equine MediRecord and brother Finn Dargan, CFO of Equine MediRecord.
Competing for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur in the upcoming national final will be Pierce Dargan of Equine MediRecord from The Curragh, Newbridge. Backed by Kildare County Council’s Local Enterprise Office, the business focuses on automating medical record compliance in the equine industry through a subscription-based software service. This is the second year in-a-row that a client of Local Enterprise Office Kildare will be represented at National level, with Matthew McCann of Maynooth winning top prize last year with his company Access Earth.
The region’s “Best Young Entrepreneurs’ were announced at an awards ceremony hosted by Westmeath’s Local Enterprise Offices on Wednesday 12th June at the Bloomfield House Hotel, Mullingar. The winners were chosen from 12 finalists, shortlisted from almost 218 applicants from Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Kildare. The competition was launched earlier this year by the Local Enterprise Offices as part of a nationwide search to find “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE).
Now in its fifth year, IBYE is a nationwide campaign 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.
The regional winners will now proceed to compete for the national title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur on Sunday 15th of September 2019. A further €100,000 investment fund will be available to invest in the winners of the three categories at the national final - one of which will also be named as “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur”.
Jacqui McNabb Head of Enterprise, Kildare County Council said “Pierce Dargan of Equine MediRecord is a very deserving winner of this Regional title and the Local Enterprise Office Kildare are very proud of Equine MediRecord’s achievements. We are excited to see what will be in-store for our Kildare representative and we wish him every success in the upcoming national finals!” She continued “We are delighted to have had such a positive response from so many strong candidates from Kildare this year. The skills and knowledge gained by all involved in the competition we hope will stay with each participant and help grow their businesses even further. IBYE is a remarkable platform that we hope will encourage and grow further young entrepreneurship and job creation in the region.”
Further details on the competition and supports available to young entrepreneurs are available through www.localenterprise.ie and www.ibye.ie .
