Seeds of a fresh start

INTERTRADE IRELAND:IntertradeIreland's Seedcorn competition gives fledgling companies the chance to be recognised and promoted in a competitive sphere

NOW IN ITS eighth year, InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn competition has become the biggest business competition in Ireland. Winners of the prestigious competition are tipped as “ones to watch” in the business and investment community and previous finalists have, to date, succeeded in raising more than €130 million in subsequent equity funding.

The competition aims to recognise and promote the best early-stage companies across the island. After an intense contest, winners get to share in a prize fund of €280,000.

Designed to mirror a real-life investment process, Seedcorn brings companies through a series of workshops, seminars and presentations. Business plans are initially assessed by a panel of experts, after which companies are subjected to rigorous interviews by respected judges, including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and business leaders, at regional and then national level.

Businesses compete for the Best Emerging and Best High Growth company titles on a regional basis in Connacht and Leinster, Munster, Dublin and Northern Ireland, with the winners in each region securing an initial €20,000 share of the prize fund.

The all-island winners are then selected following presentations and investor-level pitches in Belfast before an expert panel of judges. In 2010 these included Sean Gallagher, chairman of InterTradeIreland’s Equity Network and a well-known “dragon” from RTÉ television’s Dragons’ Den, plus leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

Participating companies benefit from feedback on their plans and access to professional advice from financiers and venture capital companies.

Dublin-based Barracuda FX took the Best High Growth Company award and the overall prize of €100,000 in the 2010 competition. Epona Biotech Ltd emerged triumphant in the Best Emerging Company category, winning a cash prize of €50,000. Lenis Aer of Belfast won a €10,000 prize as best venture stemming from a university spin-out or platform programme, while overall Munster winner Radisens Diagnostics was named as Best High Growth Company in the region, winning €20,000.

“Entrepreneurship is alive and well across the island, as evidenced by the calibre and quality of entrants to InterTradeIreland’s recent Seedcorn competition,” says Sean Gallagher. “Companies like these have the potential to lead future growth in our economy and, now more than ever, we need to get behind and support innovative start-ups in their early stages as they have the potential to generate jobs and growth for our economy.”

Barracuda FX provides foreign- exchange and risk-management software solutions to leading global banks. “The InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition is very highly regarded and well recognised,” says Barracuda FX chief executive Kieran Fitzpatrick. “The interview process involves an excellent panel of entrepreneurs and we found this very useful. It is a real vindication of all the hard work put in by all our team over the last two years.

“Winning the award has been very useful in terms of giving us added profile and credibility. We have a very strong product and core team. We have been profitable since inception, signed a seven-figure deal with one of the largest banks in the world, and our product is used in more than 30 countries.”

The company now employs 20 staff at offices in the National College of Ireland’s Business and Research Centre in Dublin’s IFSC district. It derives 100 per cent of its turnover from overseas customers.

“People on the outside might wonder at starting a ‘fin-tech’ business in the middle of a banking crisis,” says Fitzpatrick. “For us it was actually an opportunity, as foreign exchange trading volumes have exploded over the last few years, with up to four trillion dollars being traded daily. This drives demand for our product, as we can help banks confidently deal with the additional volumes. There is also extra regulatory pressure, and we help in that way by reducing operational risk and pre-screening orders before they are accepted.”

Innovation is at the heart of Epona Biotech, as founder Dr Heinrich Anhold explains. “Traditionally, start-ups begin with the technology and then look for the market and customers. We started by identifying the market and developing a deep understanding of its needs and how we could meet them.”

A former junior international show-jumper, Anhold established Epona Biotech in March 2008 to develop the world’s first portable equine blood analysers. The company is based at the Business Innovation Centre in the Institute of Technology, Sligo, and expects to have its first product on the market by 2012 as a result of a partnership with electronics giant Philips.

“Currently, equine blood samples must be sent to a clinic or a reference laboratory for analysis,” says Anhold. “Our hand-held diagnostic tool takes an equine blood sample and delivers instant accurate results at the horse’s side. It enables instant intervention whereby vets can provide immediate diagnosis and treatment in a single visit. Our product will deliver laboratory-standard accuracy at the stable door.”

The equine market offers Epona a unique opportunity to enter the animal healthcare market, Anhold points out. “It is a niche, highly specialised and high- value industry. Most importantly, it is also a competitive industry, as horses are widely used in sport. If we can give people working with horses a competitive advantage in improving equine health and performance, we can gain rapid market penetration.”

Lenis Aer is a spin-out company from the University of Ulster, which is now based in the Northern Ireland Science Park in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. The company has developed a highly innovative and patent-protected process for the manufacture of aircraft engine “lip skins”. A lip skin is the leading edge of an aero engine surround structure, and by producing a unit that is considerably deeper than traditional skins Lenis Aer’s product achieves reduced turbulence and drag, an innovation which can deliver considerable fuel-cost savings for aircraft companies.

The advanced process methodology involved in the Lenis Aer product is bringing it into a marketplace estimated to be worth some €4 billion over the next 20 years.

“InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn competition is widely acknowledged for its impact on emerging and high-growth companies”, says Lenis Aer director Edel O’Neill. “Having just been established as a company within the last few months we are delighted to have joined the elite group of Seedcorn winners at such an early stage in our development.

“It will help the company advance on a number of fronts. Research and development is an expensive business and we are now at the stage where we need to engage with our customers in relation to this – and the award will definitely assist us with that.”

Based in Bishopstown, Cork, Radisens Diagnostics employs seven people in the design and development of portable platforms for testing blood for various cancers, cardiac markers, viruses and infectious diseases in GP clinics and other point-of-care settings, within 15 minutes of taking a finger-prick of patients’ blood.

The Radisens technology holds out the prospect of early diagnosis of diseases such as cancers (including ovarian and prostate), as well as various viruses, infectious diseases, heart problems, MRSA, swine flu and so on, by GPs using one portable instrument. This would enable GPs to diagnose conditions early, to manage the treatment of patients better and to funnel patients more efficiently through the healthcare system, thus significantly increasing survival rates and saving millions in costs.

In a way similar to Epona, Radisens Diagnostics is very much a market-led company.

“We operate in the intersection of the two fields of consumer electronics and medical diagnostics,” explains chief executive Jerry O’Brien. “Our team here is made up of experts in both areas. We went out and talked to GPs about what they wanted, and set about developing it. It might take a bit longer to develop a product this way, but it is better than developing a product and then looking for a market for it.

“We are delighted to have been selected as the overall regional winner in our category for Munster. The InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition gave us invaluable pitching experience and feedback, which we have very much taken on board. With eight of the top 10 diagnostics multinationals engaged, Radisens is entering a very exciting phase of growth.”

The 2011 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition will be launched in April and companies interested should visit intertradeireland.com/seedcorn for information and to register