6 start-ups chosen to accelerate in latest NDRC programme

4 Aug 2022

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Dogpatch Labs has revealed the latest cohort set to scale with the NDRC accelerator: Examfly, Chopcast, Tipple, MoveAhead, Tracworx and Terrabyte.

Six early-stage start-ups are getting ready to take their business to the next level with NDRC, Ireland’s national accelerator programme.

This is the third cohort of start-ups picked for the NDRC accelerator since it was taken over by Dogpatch Labs in 2020.

The six start-ups have been selected from a pool of nearly 300 applicants and represent a range of sectors from edtech and media to logistics and supply chain management.

Over the next six months, ambitious founders – many of whom are former employees of Big Tech companies – will be supported and mentored by an extensive Dogpatch Labs network. Each start-up will also receive €100,000 in funding.

“The quality of applications this year was incredibly high, so choosing the cohort was a difficult job for us,” Ian Browne, Dogpatch Labs’ new MD for the accelerator, told SiliconRepublic.com.

Browne, an entrepreneur and investor who previously worked with Ignite NI, said that the companies in the accelerator’s latest cohort are “particularly technical”.

“They’ve all got co-founders that come from technical backgrounds or perform the role of CTO. And that’s really beneficial because it helps them move the needle a lot faster.”

NDRC’s first cohort under Dogpatch Labs was launched last June, when 11 early-stage companies were selected from a record pool of around 500 applicants. Another seven start-ups were selected to accelerate with NDRC in January, with the programme ending last month.

The latest cohort is walking into the accelerator during a time of economic uncertainty in the tech and investment space. But Browne noted that the downturn is just temporary and there’s reason to be optimistic about accelerating as an early-stage business currently.

“From a funding perspective, I think this is just a short-term thing. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the public markets which feed into the private markets – which will all start to settle down in the fourth quarter of this year,” Browne said.

“My general advice is to plough on as much as you possibly can to get from now until probably February next year, at which point the market will become much more liquid.”

So here are the six start-ups that will be ploughing on and scaling their ambitious business ideas with the NDRC accelerator until the end of this year.

Examfly

This edtech start-up aims to transform the learning experience for professional exams and training using interactive technologies. It works with subject matter experts, software developers, animators and game designers to create curated modules for its platform.

Founded in 2019 by tax and wealth management expert Deirdre Lyons, Dublin-based Examfly already counts PwC and Deloitte among its customers.

Chopcast

Dublin-based Chopcast is an intelligent content repurposing platform founded by Google and HubSpot alumni. It helps users automatically transform long videos into clips geared towards social media based on key moments within the video.

Tipple

This Offaly-based commerce and logistics platform enables alcohol brands to sell in new markets by helping them handle excise, VAT and fulfilment at the point of sale.

Led by a founding team of former Amazon employees, Tipple is focused on eliminating friction in cross-border transactions and increasing revenue for direct-to-customer brands.

MoveAhead

NDRC’s first university spin-out, MoveAhead, is an edtech start-up that takes a child-centred approach to motion-tracking and pose estimation.

Designed to improve movement skills digitally, it uses computer vision and data science to create games and other applications that benefit modern children.

Tracworx

The leadership team behind Limerick-based start-up Tracworx previously developed the FarmEye agritech software.

They then set out to build an app “for finding things in buildings”, before focusing on tracking systems for hospitals. But the team pivoted during the pandemic to tracking tech for global supply chains and is now focused on developing infrastructure for returnable packaging.

Terrabyte

Engineer-focused start-up Terrabyte is developing a social platform that marries Reddit with GitHub.

On its platform, developers can show off projects, find work and connect with like-minded peers. Formerly known as The Full Stack, it has almost 10,000 users now.

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Vish Gain is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com