PixAlert, a Dublin-based company that has developed software which protects employees from inappropriate images, is one of a clutch of young Irish technology firms currently seeking funding.
PixAlert, a Dublin-based company that has developed software which protects employees from inappropriate images, is one of a clutch of young Irish technology firms currently seeking funding.
It is seeking €2 million to help it build a sales operation to market its core software product to large companies in the Republic, Britain and the US.
Over the past few months, it has made presentations to nine Irish venture capital and corporate finance firms.
It has also made presentations to a couple of British venture capital firms.
"Most venture capital firms are interested in good ideas and we are still talking to a number of them, which are going through due diligence," says Mr John Nolan, PixAlert's chief executive.
"The process will probably take about six months and the big challenge is to get the money in and move when the opportunity is still there. I'm sure firms in the US are moving into this area."
The whole process is likely to take a minimum of six months.
It is often a very useful process because even venture capital firms that are not going to invest in the firm can offer advice to build a business, says Mr Nolan.
PixAlert has received advice on how to introduce certain online marketing techniques that will help it attract customers.
Venture capital companies also have links to more established firms and potential partners that can help a fledgling business get started.
They can also provide introductions to customers and a range of other helpful sources.
But the venture capital community is often not the first port of call for small companies seeking seed funding to get them started.
PixAlert, which was founded in 1999 by two university lecturers, Dr Donal O'Shea and Dr Daragh Fitzgerald, has already raised a couple of hundred thousand euros in seed funding from Enterprise Ireland and the Bank of Ireland's E2000 fund. Enterprise Ireland is a traditional source of financing for young Irish technology companies and has pioneered a model of taking equity stakes in firms.
But Bank of Ireland's E2000 fund proved a useful source of early funding for PixAlert as it took very little time to arrange.
This money has financed the development of the firm's technology, which protects employees, directors, corporations from inappropriate content in workplace networks.
Dr O'Shea and Dr Fitzgerald developed the first version of their scanning software to help the Garda in their investigations of child pornography.
The two founders quickly recognised that their was a commercial opportunity to develop the software to protect corporate networks.
Increasingly, firms are being sued by staff who have been exposed to inappropriate and often illegal material in the workplace, says: "One recent survey found that the majority of sexual harassment cases among Fortune 500 firms now involve exposure to inappropriate images in the workplace," he says.
The firm already has 23 clients, which include large public sector organisations and US multinationals. It hopes this success will help it to raise €2 million in funds.
