Feistim and PixQuanta are both €20,000 richer following their regional win at InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn Competition.
Clare based Feistim and Cork based PixQuanta, have been have been crowned ‘Best New Start’ company and ‘Best Early Stage’ company respectively at the Munster regional final of InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition.
Both companies fought off tough competition having delivered an investment pitch via video conference in front of an expert judging panel.
Seedcorn is the island’s biggest business competition for innovative new start and early stage businesses in any sector. The winners from each of the four regions will go onto compete in the all-island final later in the month where the overall ‘Best New Start’ and ‘Best Early Stage’ companies will be announced winning €50,000 each, and ultimately the ‘Overall Winner’ will pocket €100,000 to inject into their business.
Feistim has developed a sports and wellness app to allow individuals and teams record, track, analyse performance. Inputs (efforts) and outputs (performance metrics) are tracked and correlated to see what efforts have the greatest effect on performance. Feistim also tracks Covid -19 symptoms and test results and has a chat feature to allow teams to share chat, video clips and training schedules.
Commenting on their win, Lorcan Hassett, CEO of Feistim said: “We’re delighted to win the ‘Best New Start’ company in the Munster final and progress to the next round. Feistim comes from the Irish, ‘to improve, get better and get organised’. Our overall goal is to provide an easy-to-use, low cost, customizable app that will help individuals and teams to maximise their performance. The most rewarding part of the competition has been the way it forces you to consider all aspects of business viability and helps you develop a clear plan and marketing strategy.”
PixQuanta has developed light sensor technology that offers superior sensors for LiDAR and 3D imaging without compromising cost. This technology will significantly improve the performance of 3D image sensors in the consumer sector and enables ultra-low-dose X-Ray imaging in the medical sector.
Kevin O’Neill, CEO at PixQuanta said: “We’re so grateful to get to the next round and be named ‘Best Early Stage’ company in Munster. We entered the competition to reach investors and get feedback our business plan, in advance of a funding round. Writing the business plan was challenging but made us define explicitly how we plan to break into the market. Our goal is to enable the highest performing and safest 3D imaging solutions, with the lowest power, highest reliability and at the lowest possible cost.”
Since InterTradeIreland started the competition in 2003, more than 3,100 companies have been through the programme and finalists have raised in excess of €256m in equity funding, emphasising Seedcorn’s position as the premier competition for high growth start-up companies on the island.
Congratulating both companies, Connor Sweeney, Seedcorn Programme Manager at InterTradeIreland said: “It’s a great achievement to win the regional final, the standard of entries from Munster this year has been particularly high. Congratulations to Feistim and PixQuanta, both companies demonstrated vision, innovation and passion, all of which the judges look for when assessing the potential and longevity of a business. I wish them luck as they go on to compete against other jurisdictions in the competition’s overall final next month.”
