Final call for start-ups to enter Electric Ireland Spark Of Genius contest

5 Sep 2012

Early stage tech start-ups have one more week to get their entries in for this year’s Electric Ireland Spark of Genius competition in order to be in with a chance of competing for a prize fund worth more than €100,000 at the Dublin Web Summit.

The competition is now in its third year and is sponsored by Electric Ireland. It focuses on tech firms that are in the early stages of development. Finalists will be chosen in the coming weeks and will get a chance to pitch to compete for a prize fund worth more than €100,000 at the Dublin Web Summit.

These finalists will also have the opportunity to network with international investors from the likes of Andreessen Horowtiz, Greylock Partners, Accel, and Atomico, as well as media, speakers and attendees at the Dublin Web Summit.

The Irish relationship management start-up Datahug won the Spark of Genius competition in 2010. The company went on to secure a US$1.5m investment last year. The funding round was led by Oyster Technology Investments, which included Ron Conway, an early investor in Twitter, Google and PayPal.

Then, in 2011, the daily deals software provider Redeem & Get won the Spark of Genius competition. Redeem & Get recently launched its Daily Deal Pro service for marketers during the F.ounders conference at the NASDAQ in New York’s Times Square.

“Over the last few months we’ve seen huge successes from Irish start-ups. Balcony.tv, Logentries, Intercom, and Newswhip have all received close to US$1m in funding and recognition on an international scale,” said Dublin Web Summit organiser Paddy Cosgrave. “We’re delighted to have Electric Ireland on board again this year to give Irish start-ups the leg up they deserve.”

Entries for the Spark of Genius competition will close on Monday, 11 September. The winners will be announced at the end of the Dublin Web Summit on 18 October.

Bright spark image via Shutterstock

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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