Five of Northern Ireland’s most inspiring entrepreneurial teams have been awarded proof of concept grants of £10,000 each.
The funding comes through Techstart Ventures’ Invest Northern Ireland fund Techstart, following the company’s successful participation in Catalyst’s entrepreneurship development programme Co-Founders.
Co-Founders is a program that brings together people with passion, drive and ambition to create potentially world-changing startups in a risk-free environment. The program brings people together to form a founding team, validate their idea, test it in the real world, develop business know-how and ultimately determine if they have the potential to be a viable business.
The grant money received must be used to validate each business and develop the commercial potential of their innovative concept. This year, 19 teams graduated from the programme, with five receiving PoC grants of £10,000 each.
Wear Matter is a clothing brand for people with disabilities who have difficulty accessing fashionable, functional and comfortable clothing.
Staffley is a digital platform that enables hospital trusts to find and employ temporary doctors, eliminating the use of costly agencies.
more It aims to help you create and sell AI caricatures for your marketing videos.
Beacon Entrance is a platform that streamlines the admissions process for both universities and international students, creating a central hub for students to upload required documents, track the progress of their application, and automate the review, approval, or rejection of documents.
Funki Drinks Co., Ltd. Providing high fiber solutions.
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“We’ve been really impressed with the breadth of proposals we’ve seen through this year’s co-founder program and the number of great teams we’ve met,” said Kathleen Garrett, head of proof-of-concept grants at TechStart Ventures.
“Competition was extremely fierce and we are pleased to have been able to support many teams with grant funding and take their solutions to the next level. We wish all the founders continued success as they continue to move forward.”
Since its launch in 2017, Co-Founders has welcomed over 850 people into its program and formed over 230 startup teams, with one-third of the teams continuing to develop their startups.
It is supported by the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy.
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