MacRebur Plastic Roads and Bio-Bean have been named winners of the Virgin Media Business ‘VOOM 2016’ entrepreneur competition.
The finalists had just two minutes to pitch their business and the winners were selected after intense deliberations by the judging panel made up of Sir Richard Branson, Tyra Banks, Sara Blakely Marcus Butler and Virgin Media Business Managing Director, Peter Kelly.
The winning pitches stood out for their potential to disrupt the market, profitability and innovative spark.
Each of the winners – one from each category – will take home a slice of the €1.2 million prize fund, which includes a cash prize, mentoring and marketing support to accelerate and grow their businesses.
Now in its fifth year, ‘VOOM 2016’ is the UK and Ireland’s biggest and most valuable pitching competition.
Irish based finalist Iseult Ward made the final six with FoodCloud, a not-for-profit social enterprise that has developed a unique solution to this problem through connecting businesses with surplus food with charities in their local communities that need it through a technology platform.
Co -Founders Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien launched FoodCloud in October 2013 with one Tesco store in Dublin and the business grew from that moment, redistributing 2.9 million meals equivalent to charities across Ireland and the UK to date.
Virgin Founder, Richard Branson said, " All the finalists of the Virgin Media Business VOOM competition showed they have the dedication and intense desire to take their business to incredible heights and I believe they will all do so."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
