Tailr
“The momentum is really starting to build”
As a garment technologist who worked in the personal protective equipment (PPE) industry, Shana Chu designed and developed firesuits. “I experienced firsthand the disconnect between the brand and the factory and met people from other brands who had the same issue,” she explains.
Hence the idea for her company, Tailr, which is using artificial intelligence to accurately predict how fabric handles during production. “This means that we can ensure that brands get consistent sizing coming out of production and we also ensure consistency on garments between thread, trims and fabric. This means that when it reaches the production stages, brands can be assured that everything will go smoothly in the production process and this also helps reduce the amount of production waste.”
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As the founder and CEO of Tailr, Chu availed of many of Enterprise Ireland’s supports when starting out. One of these was what was formerly known as the Competitive Start Fund (CSF). This offer has now been updated to the Pre-Seed Start Fund (PSSF), an initiative specifically designed to help early stage companies become investment ready to attract future seed funding and includes investment of up to €100,000 and 10 mentoring sessions.
“This investment helped me to build an MVP - a minimum viable product - and meant I could test it with different brands,” explains Chu. “As a sole female founder, I had no team with me, so to get the CSF was amazing because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to build the platform. The mentorships were also so helpful when it came to preparing myself for the pre-seed funding stage and what investors were looking for.” A feasibility grant from Enterprise Ireland then allowed Chu to introduce extra features to the product and additional commercial goals.
With the data from that round of testing, they were then able to raise pre seed funding last year of €700,000 - one of the investors was Enterprise Ireland. “That allowed me to scale up my team so I was able to bring on a chief technology officer and make some key hires.”
Chu says her ongoing relationship with Enterprise Ireland has proved invaluable as momentum behind Tailr continues to grow. “I have availed of supports from different Enterprise Ireland offices around the world, primarily the London and New York offices. They have been an amazing support for me in terms of making introductions and allowing me to use office space when I am in London.”
Tailr has now partnered with some of the biggest fabric mills in the world and Chu is already working with huge international brands. “The momentum is really starting to build as we get our name out there about what we are doing.”
Scurri
“Being involved with Enterprise Ireland just gives you bigger ambitions”
Scurri is a delivery management software for e-commerce, helping merchants such as Gymshark or O’Neill’s make deliveries as efficient as possible.
“What that means is that we look after all the technology, from creating barcode labels to logistics and tracking information,” explains founder and CEO Rory O’Connor. “Consumers don’t know what we do but we are in the background powering their delivery”.
Having started Scurri in 2010, O’Connor admits he knew from very early on that it had the potential to be an international company. “We knew there was a huge opportunity in the UK so we were focusing on that and I knew that we could scale up to a reasonable size, and that’s where Enterprise Ireland came in.”
O’Connor first took part in the New Frontiers programme, which offers expert advice, mentoring and financial support to people with innovative business ideas. He then worked with the county Enterprise Board before becoming a recipient of the CSF (now the PSSF).
“This made a huge difference. Being involved with Enterprise Ireland just gives you bigger ambitions,” he affirms, adding that being linked in with similar companies by Enterprise Ireland was of great benefit. “They connected us to start-ups of a similar age and also you learn from people who are a bit further along than you.” Once Scurri reached the UK market, the Enterprise Ireland office there was a huge help. “They were introducing us to suppliers, new customers and industry experts, it was fantastic.”
Scurri then received a high potential start up (HPSU) feasibility grant, which also offered significant access to the global Enterprise Ireland network. Once they reached the seed funding stage, Enterprise Ireland came on board along with other venture capitalists. “This really helps with foreign investors, who see that the Irish agency is not just supporting us on a voluntary basis, they are willing to invest in us.”
Positive Carbon
“Enterprise Ireland has been with us for every moment on our journey…”
Having worked in the “very glamorous world of food waste” for over a decade with her partner Mark, Aisling Kirwan, the co-founder of Positive Carbon, spied a gap.
“With food waste in retailers, it is very easy to track it because of barcodes,” she explains. “But we realised in a commercial kitchen it is much more difficult as you have food coming in, it’s transformed into meals and you have plate waste going back - food waste occurs at different stages across multiple teams, which makes it a much more complex problem.”
And although that industry wastes significantly more food than food retailers, they didn’t really seem to have a solution for it. This is where Positive Carbon came in. “Businesses knew they were wasting a certain amount every month but they didn’t have the granular detail of how and where that waste was occurring,” Kirwan says. “Chefs needed the data but it needed to be a fully automated system as they don’t have the time. You can’t manage what you can’t measure and we now help them do that so they can make changes to purchasing, preparation or production and thus reduce the food waste at the source.”
Kirwan says they went to Enterprise Ireland at the very beginning, taking part in the New Frontiers programme as she quickly learned the skills needed to get their business off the ground. “Having a dedicated programme that touched on all the key parts of starting and running a business was really helpful. It was such a learning curve so I took advantage of all the mentoring supports. They match you up with a specific mentor, so I was able to learn from someone working in the food industry and learn about making relationships, which was going to be my role in the business.”
Positive Carbon then availed of the CSF (now the PSSF), receiving €50,000 in funding. “Enterprise Ireland then came in with us on our subsequent seed rounds, so they’ve been with us for every moment on our journey . They are a full equity partner.” Having received seed funding in November of last year, they are beginning to scale and will expand into the UK later this year. “Any Irish business that is setting up should reach out to Enterprise Ireland. It’s not just the financial side of it, it is all the other supports that are there. It is unique in terms of all the supports they provide.”