Trinity students launch crowdfunding platform

Fancy helping a company bring food businesses and charities together to reduce food waste? Or how about helping parents and children to communicate about the tough stuff? Well, now you can, through a new crowfunding platform which has been launched to support student entrepreneurs at Trinity College Dublin.

The website features three teams that developed new businesses as part of Trinity's LaunchBox business accelerator for students, who are now seeking donations over a six week period for campaigns to support specific activities to grow their businesses/non-profit organisations that have already received public and media recognition.

Foodcloud, a recent winner of the Green Entrepreneur Award, brings food businesses and charities together to reduce both food waste and food poverty. They do this by connecting food businesses that have surplus food to nearby charities that need it, through a smart phone app and website. Their campaign goals are to launch a new service in inner city Dublin to collect donated food from local bakeries, cafes, and restaurants, and supply soup runs and night services. They aim to then expand FoodCloud to five new locations outside of Dublin. So far it has raised almost €400 through the platform, and a €20 donation will help donate the equivalent of 160 meals.

Writing for Tiny makes helpful, personalised and unique eBooks that are designed to help parents and children to communicate about the tough stuff. Four titles are available now and a €20 contribution will give you a book of your choice, plus a thank you card. The company has raised more than €3,000 so far.

The third company is Artomatix, which offers a new breed of art tool for movies, games, and digital artists with proprietary technology that automates digital media creation and can cut project costs by up to 80 per cent. It is looking for funds to build the beta version of their software which is still under development. It has raised over €500 so far.