DecaWave wins Europe’s top angel investment award

21 May 2014

Ciaran Connell, CEO, Decawave

Irish start-up DecaWave has been selected as Europe’s most successful business financed by early stage investors at a gathering of more than 350 high net worth individuals from across Europe and the US in Dublin this week.

The company has been recognised at the ninth annual EBAN awards, which ran alongside the 14th annual European Business Angel Congress.

The conference brought more than 350 elite business angels and investors from across Europe and the US to Dublin Castle.

As well as winning an award for most successful business financed by early stage investors, Ciaran Connell, CEO, DecaWave, delivered one of the highlight presentations, ‘On the Wings of Angels’.

Connell’s presentation detailed how he managed to secure investment of €20m from more than 171 angel investors from Ireland, UK, the US and France.

In November, Dublin-based DecaWave unveiled the first integrated circuit on the market to electronically identify the specific distance to any object, person or thing with plus or minus 10cm precision.

Global ambitions

Other winners included Jari Ovaskainen of Finland, who has been selected as European early stage investor of the year, and Baybars Altuntas, who has been selected as best individual/organisation in globally engaging the early stage investment within the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Other renowned speakers included David S Rose, known as ‘New York’s Archangel’, and Loretta McCarthy and David Beatty from Golden Seeds, the most active angel investment organisation in the US whose network of 300 investors invest in female-led organisations.

“We were delighted to see a local winner of a major European award,” said Michael Culligan, national director, HBAN.

“DecaWave is an inspirational Irish success and a unique example of how it is possible to build a well-financed business with serious global ambitions, backed by such a large number of angel investors.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com