John Hartnett, ITLG president and founder
Senior Silicon Valley executives and investors are coming to Ireland for a series of meetings and workshops with 50 Irish tech start-up companies tomorrow, 5 October.
The Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) and Dublin City University have organised the one-day event, which also includes a conference and technology showcase.
Led by ITLG president and founder John Hartnett, this is the fourth consecutive year of the ‘Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland’ event.
To date, companies who have participated in previous investor workshops have secured more than $2m in funding. These include Skillpages, Wavebob, SiSaf and Mcor Technologies. Ten companies will be chosen by the delegation to travel to the annual ITLG Innovation Awards to be held in Stanford University in San Jose, California, in the spring of 2012.
Dragons’ Den-style challenge
This year, three innovative companies will participate in a Dragons’ Den-style ITLG University Challenge and will be in with the chance of receiving funding of up to €100,000 as part of the University Challenge Award prize.
The companies taking part in this year’s University Challenge include Pilot Photonics from DCU Invent, ALR from University of Limerick and InfiniLED from University College Cork. The winner will also get to travel to San Jose next year, where they will meet with the ITLG and receive follow-up mentoring through the Irish Innovation Center.
“For our emerging Irish technology companies, engagement with experienced Silicon Valley technologists and investors will be hugely beneficial and will have a strong catalytic impact. Leveraging diaspora investment is key to the rapid global scaling of these companies. Ongoing engagements of this type can result in significant enhancements of our innovation ecosystem,” said DCU president Prof Brian MacCraith.
