How it works

The initial application form involves you telling us about your business by answering 19 questions covering the relevant sections. Text boxes are limited in size to 300 characters. You cannot use more than 300 characters to answer any one question.

After the closing date of 26 April 2024, all applications will be grouped into the regions that they have entered from:

• Dublin (City & County)
• Munster
• Connacht & Leinster (including counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan)
• Northern Ireland

An initial selection panel will shortlist applications and invite successful companies to Step 2.

Short listed companies from Phase 1 will be invited to upload a narrated short-form slide deck to outline their investment proposal. This should be uploaded using Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote or similar, or else hosted on a recognised platform such as YouTube, Vimeo or Loom and the link uploaded to the InterTradeIreland website. The narration should not exceed three minutes in length.

After the closing date of 17 May 2024, shortlisted applications will be grouped into the regions that they have entered from:

• Dublin (City & County)
• Munster
• Connacht & Leinster (including counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan)
• Northern Ireland

A selection panel will shortlist applications and invite successful companies to prepare an extended slide deck or full business plan for Step 3.

Shortlisted companies should prepare either an extended slide deck or a full business plan.

The extended deck should be provided in the form of PowerPoint, Keynote or PDF and should be provided along with a separate set of financials. Two uploads are expected if using this format; the deck and the financials.

The business plan should be limited to 25 pages of A4 paper plus appendices and should be provided in the form of a single PDF.

To help prepare and develop the investment proposal, shortlisted companies can download the free business planning guide and other useful information and advice from our downloads section – to help you with your preparation. Plans should be submitted in the format above by 16 August 2024.

Companies will be asked what the new equity requirement in the extended slide deck or business plan is and this will determine the category that the business plan will be entered into.

New start company category - For companies under five years old at 26 April 2024 and who are seeking to raise new equity of between €50,000 and €499,999.

Early stage company category - For companies under five years old at 26 April 2024 and who are seeking to raise in excess of €500,000.

Following submission of the extended slide deck or full business plans, a selection panel will assess and score the submissions. The companies with the top three plans in each region will be invited to pitch at their respective regional final. After their pitch, regional winners are selected for each of the two categories in each of the four regions.

Regional finals will take place on the following dates:

• Munster - 15th October 2024
• Connacht & Leinster - 16th October 2024
  
• Dublin - 22nd October 2024
  
• Northern Ireland - 23rd October 2024
  

Prior to attending the regional final, each company shortlisted will have to opportunity to attend an investment pitch master class to assist them in the preparation of their pitch.

Following the regional finals, the judging panel will select the winning companies in each category. There will be eight winning companies, four New Start companies and four Early Stage companies who will be invited to pitch to a separate panel of judges at the all-island final which will take place on Thursday 7th November 2024.

The judging panel will select the two overall winners in each category and these will be announced at the award ceremony the same evening. Overall winners will receive their prize (either €50,000 or €100,000) payable by instalments based on achieving the key performance indicators in the business plan to finance the early stages of the venture.