Milky Paws and Plio Surgical are Dublin’s regional winners of this year’s InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition. Milky Paws won ‘Best New Start’ while Plio Surgical won ‘Best Early Stage. Each company received €20,000 and will advance to the All-Island final in Belfast on November 7th.
The InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition is the largest business competition of its kind on the island of Ireland, offering a total prize fund of €300,000 to promising start-ups and early-stage businesses.
Milky Paws, who operate under the name Chicmac, are based in Tallaght and were named the ‘Best New Start’ for Dublin. Milky Paws was born out of another business Sofie owns with her partner Garret, Chimac restaurant in Dublin 2. The menu is inspired by Korea. From that, Milky Paws developed three Korean flavoured sauces "Chimac Korean Hot Sauce", "Chimac Korean BBQ Sauce" and "Chimac Sriracha Caramel". They have recently launched smaller versions of the product in sachets in Aldi & Lidl.
We are thrilled to advance to the next stages of InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn Competition. I had heard brilliant things about Seedcorn from past participants. It’s an amazing opportunity for any start-up looking to gain exposure, validation and funding support.
The Seedcorn Competition gives us a unique opportunity to reach potential investors, strategic partners, and customers that goes unmatched in Ireland. We have built our business without any major investment yet, so a cash injection like this is genuinely life changing. It enables us to invest in machinery and systems that will benefit our business massively.
Sofie Rooney, CMO of Milky Paws
Meanwhile, Plio Surgical, took home the title of ‘Best Early Stage’ for Dublin. Plio Surgical is a spin-out from Trinity College Dublin developing an innovative magnetic anastomosis device for gastrointestinal surgery. The company is at pre-clinical stage and plans to undertake the clinical and regulatory activities required to enter the USA market first followed by European markets.
Participating in the Seedcorn programme is very important to us as it will provide us with additional visibility and access to investors. This will allow us to close this critical funding round and keep the momentum of our development to date.
Being recognised as regional winners is a huge achievement for us and we are delighted to advance to the final stage.
Cristina Purtill, CEO of Plio Surgical
Both companies emerged victorious from a group of six innovative start-up and early-stage businesses representing Dublin. They included Field of Vision, IntegrityIQ, Gigi Supplements and Talio.
The regional final, held on October 22nd saw the finalists pitch their investment proposals to a panel of judges, including active investors. The Dublin regional winners will now compete for the overall prize of €100,000 at the final in Belfast next month.
Congratulations to all the finalists who participated in our Dublin regional finals. The competition is always intense, and the innovation we see continues to impress year after year. A big congratulations to Milky Paws and Plio Surgical for securing their spots in the Belfast finals next month. We expect the competition to be equally impressive.
Shane O’Hanlon, Funding for Growth Manager at InterTradeIreland
For start-ups and early-stage businesses, the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor-Readiness Competition provides a platform to demonstrate why these companies believe they are ‘investor ready’ and open to a funding injection. As part of the regional finals, companies pitched their business plan to a panel of industry judges that included Stephen Scullion (Invest NI), Josh Corry (Techstart VC), Claudine Owens (Clarendon FM) and Isabelle O’Keefe (Independent).
The process mirrored a real-life investment process, and each finalist has received expert feedback on its business plan and pitch, as well as increased exposure to investors.
For the fourth consecutive year, an additional €20,000 prize will be awarded for best investment proposal from a company operating in the low carbon/green sector.
