Cork and Limerick female entrepreneurs, start your engines!

27 Jun 2017

David Stanton, Minister of State for Justice and Equality, TD, with Dorothy O’Tuama of Lee Valley Food Trails. Image: Cathal Noonan

Female entrepreneurs in Cork and Limerick can now benefit from a new €330,000 fund to help get start-ups off the ground.

Support for entrepreneurs and start-ups all across Ireland is continuing to churn out newer and newer initiatives.

In the past two weeks alone, Dublin Business Innovation Centre opened a new start-up hub and co-working space on Dawson Street. The facility has a capacity for more than 200 people and is aimed at early-stage entrepreneurs.

Also in the capital, VidPitch is the latest start-up tournament to emerge, with €5,000 on offer to budding companies.

Trinity College Dublin’s incubator LaunchBox recently welcomed a new cohort of entrepreneurs, and Startup Weekend went off with a bang.

That’s all very Dublin-centric, but there is further support elsewhere. NDRC’s PorterShed base in Galway is a recent opening, for example.

Meanwhile, a new initiative that seeks to develop sports technology research and business growth in Ireland has been set up in Limerick, spearheaded by three local entrepreneurs.

This week, an initiative aimed at Cork and Limerick sees €330,000 worth of funding allocated for female entrepreneurs from the region.

The Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network will be led by SECAD (South East Cork Area Development), working in partnership with Ballyhoura Development in Limerick, and Cork Institute of Technology’s Rubicon Centre and Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence.

Training programmes will include personal development and business skills training; one-to-one and group mentoring; female ‘role model’ sharing of experience and support; themed networking and experiential learning events; formation and facilitation of networking sessions; and a networking and business pitching event.

“This funding will support women across Cork and Limerick who have a concrete business idea and wish to become self-employed or who are already in the early stages of business development,” said Suzanne Kearney, assistant CEO of SECAD.

“The programme will provide the option of accredited training as well as business and employment supports. We believe this will be a hugely valuable project for both economic development in these regions, as well as for equality of opportunity.”

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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