LEO Kildare is delighted to congratulate their Client Equine MediRecord on securing an investment of €10 million

Photo L-R: Jacqui McNabb, Pierce Dargan, Sean Power, Keith Barry

This investment came from Chicago-based private equity firm Merit Holdings, through their Inova Group Holdings platform, which also previously acquired Business Infusions, the largest equine veterinary software group in the world.

The Equine Medi Record platform digitally records the medicines and vaccinations that are administered to horses. This investment will allow the company to drive the adoption of its platform across Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Equine MediRecord CEO Pierce Dargan explained that there are a lot of regulations for horse owners and trainers around the welfare of the horse and anti-doping protocols. He said before they created Equine MediRecord, all these records were kept in paper form.

"I come from a farming background, we have a horse farm in Kildare and it was just really hard and difficult to know exactly what you needed to do - so I thought there must be a better way and essentially that is how the business started," he said.

He said the platform is designed to simplify the process, so the data is readily available at the click of a button.

"If you have a horse and you give it a medication or if it is going to compete, you know exactly what you need to record and the documentation you need to have before it goes into competition," he said.

The Equine MediRecord platform has now been approved by regulators in several countries including the UK, France, the US and most recently in Saudi Arabia.

Equine MediRecord, which was founded by Pierce Dargan, Simon Hillary and Finlay Dargan in 2016, who have been supported by the Local Enterprise Office in Kildare in growing this from an idea to a scalable cloud-based software platform with an exceptional leadership team.

“We are so proud of Pierce, Simon, and Finlay. This has not been an overnight success with huge legislative and compliance obstacles to overcome across multiple geographies, but with the support of the Local Enterprise Office Equine MediRecord is well on their way to being the leader in global markets,” Jacqui McNabb, Head of Enterprise and Economic Development, Kildare County Council.

With their idea, Equine MediRecord were successful county and regional winners in the Ireland’s Best Young Competition. At different stages of business development, they were supported by the LEO with priming, business expansion and export marketing grants. They have benefited from ongoing training and mentoring throughout their business journey, and most recently participated in the Global Ambition Programme with LEO Kildare.

For more information on what the Local Enterprise Office can do to support your business journey, contact us