The 22 shortlisted companies for next year’s AIB Start-up Academy have been identified. After over 450 applications were initially received, the judges have been working over the past few weeks to whittle down their longlist of 76 companies to 22 who have made it through to the shortlist.
The longlisted companies were invited to submit a pitch-deck presentation of their start-up idea and these were evaluated by the judging panel. This is one step closer for these start-up companies to winning the Academy’s coveted top prize, which is worth €200,000.
The shortlisted companies are:
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IQ4MKRPYPGELQLP7J5VWVQT3LU.jpg)
Hemisphere Innovation - Brenda Woods
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VNBVLIVNRM6Y5PI76ABYFXD73E.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/PPKJI5CFPZY65YYHE2AXV7YNUY.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YDBR4NFTNUMVNKQYLTQD5674XA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/HYYGCI62RUGZO3JVGGNPFDTSLM.jpg)
Engager - Aisling OReilly
Frankman Grooming - Michael Swift
Fresh from ... the pier - Ken Mc Hugh
The Bashco - Claire McCarthy
Primaryschools.ie - Sadhbh Kurzawska
Feed - Shane Ryan
Tipperary Boutique Distillery Limited - Jennifer Nickerson
Bakers & Cakers - Mary Toner
Izzy Wheels - Ailbhe Keane
Origin Bars - Niall Harty
PhysioLinked - Sonia Neary
WorkJuggle - Ciara Garvan
Kirwan Dynomed
Atturos - Stephen Pennington
Ostoform - Kevin Kelleher
SocialFeedia - Mel Clohosey
The Little Pharma Ltd - Amanda Swan
Hydrasure - Emer Cooney
Kiki Moon - Keelin O'Keeffe
JobFace - Fearghal Mulvihill
Oathello Network Limited - Jennifer Hourihane
Each of the shortlisted companies will pitch at the shortlist pitch day in The Irish Times on January 10th, 2017. This will require each company to deliver an elevator style pitch followed by a Q&A with the judging panel. This year’s judging panel are Fiona Mahon from AIB, Bridget O’Donoghue from AIB, Eimear Moran from The Irish Times, Elaine O’Hora from Munchies, Jamie Macken from Livewire and David Murphy from The Irish Times.
10 finalists will be chosen from the shortlist and the remaining 12 shortlisted companies will be invited to pitch at one of the four AIB Start-up Academy Summits taking place in January and February 2017 across the country, where a judging panel will select a further four finalists to participate in the Start-up Academy programme.
The eight-week academy will begin in February 2017 and the finalists will make a final pitch to win at the final in April.