Innovative Northern Ireland startups progress to Seedcorn for €130,000 funding opportunity
InterTradeIreland has announced the winners of the Northern Ireland regional final of its all-island Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition, with Preservoir, Breadly and Antigensis Biologics recognised for the strength of their business propositions and growth potential.
As regional winners, the companies now progress to the all-island final in Belfast, where they will compete for a €130,000 funding opportunity, part of a total €800,000 prize fund.
The winning projects emerged from a competitive field of more than 300 early-stage ventures as part of InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn competition, an all-island initiative that supports innovative businesses at seed, start-up and early stages of development.
- Preservoir, based in Belfast, won the B2B award;
- Breadly, based in Newry, won the B2C award;
- Antigensis Biologics, based in County Down, won the Deep Tech award.
Commenting, Shane O’Hanlon, Funding for Growth Manager at InterTradeIreland said:
InterTradeIreland would like to congratulate the winners of our Northern Ireland regional Seedcorn competition, whose innovative ideas, commercial ambition and high-quality pitches impressed the judging panel. The standard in this year’s competition has been particularly high, and competitions such as Seedcorn provide much more than the opportunity to compete for funding; they give SMEs and entrepreneurs access to expert feedback, help them strengthen their investor readiness and provide valuable exposure to investors and business networks that can support future growth.
Accepting the win, Aaron Carey, Co-Founder and CEO of Preservoir, winner of the B2B award said:
Preservoir was founded with a clear ambition in mind; to help businesses with the one employee they often overlook, their cash. Rather than have cash sitting in a current account, we give it a job, a return and a maturity date without locking it away. As the most credible early-stage investment competition on the island of Ireland, Seedcorn provided the scrutiny we needed to further develop our business.
Georgia Heany, Co-Founder of Breadly, winner of the B2C award said:
We’re passionate about helping people save money without giving up the things they love, by finding savings they didn’t know were available to them and doing the admin so they can actually benefit from them. We’re absolutely thrilled to win this award and see our ambition and hard work recognised, and we’re so grateful to our wider team and support networks, with a huge thank you to InterTradeIreland for the opportunity and support throughout Seedcorn.
Dr Ciaran Doherty, Co-founder and CSO of Antigensis Biologics, winner of the Deep Tech award said:
Winning the Seedcorn final is recognition of the team’s ability to harness advances from human medicine and translate them into areas of veterinary medicine. As the team prepares for an investment round, the Seedcorn competition has proven vital in rigorously testing our business plan, financial model and investment proposition.
In addition to advancing in the competition, participants have benefitted from valuable expert feedback on their business models and investor pitches, helping to strengthen investor readiness, refine growth strategies and raise their profile among potential investors.
Seedcorn is open to independent ventures incorporated on the island of Ireland that are targeting export and international market opportunities, especially in the seed, start-up and early stages of development. The competition provides founders and management teams with practical experience of presenting to investors while helping them prepare for future fundraising opportunities.
O’Hanlon continued:
Finalists at our Northern Ireland regional competition represented a diverse range of sectors, showcasing the innovation, ambition and talent in the region. In addition, the calibre of businesses taking part clearly demonstrates the strength of entrepreneurship across the island. We look forward to seeing our regional winners in the all-island final in Belfast and we wish them every success in the next stage of the competition.
