By Business & Finance 
Connor Sweeney, Seedcorn programme manager, InterTradeIreland at the launch of the Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition 2015.
Irish entrepreneurs could receive a significant cash boost for their business, thanks to a total prize fund of €280,000 being offered by InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition 2015 which was launched today.
Now in its 13th year, InterTradeIreland is calling on young, innovative companies from all business sectors to enter the competition. Speaking about the competition, Connor Sweeney, Seedcorn programme manager, InterTradeIreland, said: “With a cash prize fund of €280,000 up for grabs, Seedcorn provides a great opportunity for early stage and new start companies in Ireland. But Seedcorn is more than just a competition – entrants can get invaluable hints, tips and advice from our experts, as well as investors and other entrepreneurs, on how to improve their business plan and investment pitch and demonstrate to investors that their business is worth investing in.”
Yvonne Brady, managing director, EVB Sports from Co. Louth, one of last year’s regional Seedcorn winners said about the competition: “Overall the Seedcorn competition was extremely beneficial to us, in particular it gave the investors we were in talks with the confidence to continue to work with us. Through the competition we were given support and advice to create an investor ready business plan that we are implementing in the company – a document that we are using as an operational tool as opposed to a document to remain in the drawer. We used the €20,000 cash prize fund for stock and it gave us the confidence to hire an extra member of staff. In addition the tools and support we received in preparing for, Seedcorn played no small part in our application for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, where we were one of the three finalists for Europe.”
Over the 12 years of the competition, InterTradeIreland has supported over 2,150 enterprising companies through the Seedcorn process with previous finalists going on to secure more than €187m worth of new equity. Past winners include; Stable Lab from Sligo, ALR Innovations from Limerick, Wattics based in Dublin, Westway Heath in Galway, and last year’s winner, AventaMed from Cork.
Drew O’Sullivan, InterTradeIreland’s lead equity advisor adds: “There has never been a better time for an investor ready company to seek funding in Ireland. The essence of the Seedcorn competition is to improve the best start-ups on the island so they become truly investor ready. The purpose of a business plans and slide deck is to make the investment case for a prospective investor – how might their investment today multiply in value in the next three to five years? The Seedcorn process is designed to help great start-ups develop those compelling investment cases.”
