Mustard gets its €30k cut after winning NDRC Lift Off

19 Dec 2014

Pictured: NDRC CEO Ben Hurley with Mustard CEO Gavin Fogarty and NDRC venture leader Gary Leyden

Short-term staffing technology player Mustard emerged as the overall winner at the NDRC Lift Off competition last night after battling 12 other start-ups to secure next stage investment of €30,000.

Founded by Gavin Fogarty, CEO, Mustard is a technology which connects businesses with short-term positions to fill, with the best available candidates. The technology enables staffing agencies to instantly find and book talent from their existing network, as well as from a trusted freelance marketplace. The application can range from temporary office staff, through to construction and event staffing.

Competing against Mustard were Aftering, AppSelekt, Chasing Returns, Go Lolly, Planet Verify, Prospr, Pushstartr, Tradeflow, Travayl, Trialview, Signatur and Yapme.

All the start-ups, including Mustard just completed the intensive 12 week NDRC LaunchPad programme with each receiving up to €20,000 in pre-seed investment.

Judges yesterday included Ben Hurley, CEO of NDRC, US angel investor John Ason, Shay Garvey from Frontline Ventures, Brian Caulfield from DFJ Esprit and Conor Stanley from Tribal VC.

During the summer it was announced that NDRC is ranked in the top 2.5pc of university business incubators worldwide in the most comprehensive global study of its kind, the Global Benchmark Report 2014 by the UBI Index. This was the highest placement for an Irish organisation.

“NDRC LaunchPad is designed to transform new tech concepts into commercially viable ventures suitable for next-stage investment-fuelled growth,” said Hurley.

“The 13 participants in the most recent NDRC LaunchPad programme have certainly come a long way and, supported by NDRC, are now investor-ready and set to scale their products and businesses.”

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

editorial@siliconrepublic.com