AventaMed crowned best early stage company

A pioneering Cork-based medical device company that hopes to revolutionise paediatric ENT (ear,nose and throat) surgery has been named as InterTradeIreland’s best Overall Early Stage company this year.

AventaMed beat three other regional winners in InterTradeIreland’s all-island 2014 Seedcorn Competition to clinch a €100,000 prize in Belfast.

A Dublin-based start up which has designed and developed software that blends engineering knowledge with data analytics to allow engineers to store and search for specific designs on a cloud platform also won €50,000 in the Seedcorn Competition. TruePivot triumphed over three regional finalists to secure the title of Overall New Start company.

AventaMed and TruePivot were among eight new businesses selected form across North and South to pitch for a total cash prize fund of €280,000 on the final day of the competition.

Six regional winners including; EVB Sports Shorts, Jenarron Therapeutics, Nearfield Communications, PT Dock, SonarSim and Stayhold also each received €20,000 in the InterTradeIreland’s all-island 2014 Seedcorn Competition which was supported by the Irish Times.

Margaret Hearty, acting chief executive of InterTradeIreland said: "The environment for start-ups is exceptionally buoyant in Ireland and we are seeing the results of this with the emergence of a new wave of young companies in Ireland with strong potential for future growth.

“Figures released by the Irish Venture Capital Association last week highlighted that seed funding for start ups has risen in the first nine months of this year. The Seedcorn competition helps to foster an entrepreneurial mindset and provides winners with funding and support at a crucial stage in their development.”

According to Ms Hearty to date more than €195 million in new equity funding has been leveraged by the 2,150 companies that have reached the regional finals of the competition.

Olive O’Driscoll, the chief executive of AventaMed, said her team were delighted to have won one of the top prizes.

“Because AventaMed is a lean start-up the Seedcorn prize of €100,000 will go a long way to build further value in the company,” she said.