Wattics, a spin-out from University College Dublin (UCD) that has developed a software solution to help businesses manage their energy usage, has won the best emerging company award in the Dublin final of the 2012 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition.
The start-up also secured €20,000 in funding and will now compete in the all-island final of the competition that will take place on 28 November in Belfast.
Wattics will be up against the other regional winners, including Limerick company Gnarly Adventure, ShiftDock from Co Antrim, Catagen from Belfast, MitaMed from Cork, and Full Health Medical from Galway.
The Seedcorn business competition is aimed at early stage companies in any sector from the island that have a new equity funding requirement. The competition has a prize fund of €280,000.
Now based at NovaUCD, Wattics was founded by Dr Antonio Ruzzelli, Anthony Schoofs and Alex Sintoni as a spin-out from UCD’s School of Computer Science and Informatics and the CLARITY Centre for Web Sensor Technologies.
The start-up has developed an energy-management software solution that connects to smart meters to allow businesses to decode the energy patterns of individual electrical loads.
According to the company, the solution works with electrical, gas, water and heat meters that are used in industrial and commercial sites.
“The Seedcorn competition is the best platform in the country to get in touch with investors, prove our business proposition and increase company visibility,” said Ruzzelli.