PRODUCT PROFILE

Latest Dublin Prices

14 bright ideas on the LaunchPad

Tuesday, February 26 10:44:14

The National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) today said that 14 startups will line up for LaunchPad VII, giving their bright ideas the opportunity to fly.

The participants beat off stiff competition and were chosen from a field of 100 applicants. Beginning this week, each startup will undergo an intensive 12 week programme in NDRC where they will receive hands-on mentoring and support from some of the most seasoned practitioners across the board. At the end of the three months, they will then compete in the 'Lift Off' competition for follow-on investment, sourced from venture capitalists and private investors.

LaunchPad provides up to E20,000 per startup in pre-seed investment during the programme and over 100 startups have already been supported by NDRC. In fact, startup enterprises from NDRC have secured E10 million in commercial investment following their time at NDRC.

LaunchPad 'graduates' have moved from 'ideas to income', creating jobs and market value. Among the big 'wins' from LaunchPad include LogEntries, a company providing log management services in the cloud, raised $1.1 million in investment from Polaris Ventures in July 2012 and Boxever, the customer data analytic provider raised over E800,000 in October of last year.

For this cycle, participating startups are directed at a range of sectors, including financial markets analysis for traders and investors and a video production platform for home movie makers.

"LaunchPad is the ideal platform for anyone with a clever idea and the ambition to bring it forward. NDRC provides the structured approach and support that these entrepreneurs will benefit from long after the programme has concluded. In particular, we help them refine their product offering, research and identify their target markets, check their commercial and business projections and answer the requirements of the investment community who they will ultimately pitch to for funding," said NDRC LaunchPad Director, Gary Leyden.