County’s Young Entrepreneurs to compete at Regional Final on January 27th

Press Release Monday, January 16th 2017

County’s Young Entrepreneurs to compete at

Regional Final on January 27th

180 young entrepreneurs across every county in Ireland awarded a total of €1.5 million in investment funding through IBYE competition

Three young entrepreneurs from Roscommon are going head-to-head with entrepreneurs from Galway and Mayo at the Regional Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition, which takes place on Friday, January 27th at the Abbey Hotel in Roscommon.

Local Enterprise Office Roscommon will be represented at this year’s Regional Final by:

Desmond Dolan of MistCalls, Cortober, Carrick-on-Shannon (Best Business Idea Category).
Kyle McLoughlin, of Posude T/A Sub Teacher.ie, Boyle (Best Start-Up Business Category).
Eoghan Kenny, Project 5 Creations T/A BeltLock.ie, Ballinasloe (Best Established Business Category).

Des Dolan - Business Idea;

Eoghan Kenny - Established Business;

Kyle McLoughlin, Start-Up

On January 27th, three finalists will be selected by the judging panel to compete at the IBYE National Final in March, one from each competition category.

So far, 180 talented entrepreneurs across every county in Ireland, aged between 18 and 35, have been awarded a total of €1.5 million in investment funding through the Local Enterprise Offices, after winning or becoming runners-up in IBYE County Finals.

This initiative for young entrepreneurs is run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) nationwide, and supported by the Department of Jobs, 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 or to help develop new products for international markets.

As part of the supports on offer through the competition, more than 400 young entrepreneurs around the country benefited from boot-camp training sessions in which they were put through their paces in every aspect of how to start and develop a business.

Announcing details for the Regional Finals, The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Ms. Mary Mitchell O’Connor T.D, said:

“This competition highlights that Ireland’s entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. Our young entrepreneurs are the employers of the future, and are the backbone of the Irish economy. This investment will help all their businesses to grow and flourish and in turn will create and support more jobs throughout every region. I look forward to meeting more of our incredible entrepreneurial talent from around the country at the next stage of the competition.”

The competition attracted a record number of entries, with 1,842 applying in total and 226 applying from the region. Louise Ward, Head of Enterprise, Local Enterprise Office Roscommon, wished local category winners the best of luck at the Regional Final, saying:

“We see the IBYE initiative as an important springboard for our young entrepreneurs who want to start or expand a business. The 180 entrepreneurs across every county in Ireland who share €1.5 million in investment funding, which include our County Winners and Runners-up, can now make their business ideas and expansion plans a reality in 2017. It’s also about nurturing entrepreneurs through bootcamps, training, networking and mentoring, with job creation benefits throughout the region.”

In Roscommon on January 27th, the young entrepreneurs are hoping to follow in the footsteps of the three 2015 National Finalists from the region: Chris Murphy of Bluedrop Medical in Galway in the Best Business Idea category, Daniel Loftus of UrbanFox in Mayo in the Best Start-Up Business category, and Oz Ibrahmi of Hex CNC in Roscommon in the Best Established Business Category.

More details about the competition and the supports available to young entrepreneurs are available through www.localenterprise.ie and from the IBYE website at www.ibye.ie.