Oli Cavanagh and Charles Dowd. Image: Strikepay
Strikepay, founded by fintech entrepreneurs Oli Cavanagh and Charles Dowd, scooped the top award for its fast-growing cash-free tipping tech.
Irish fintech company Strikepay has scooped the top prize at this year’s National Startup Awards.
The start-up, previously called Strike, was founded in 2020 to enable cash-free tipping without the need for a payment terminal or a new app on a customer’s phone.
Its founders, fintech entrepreneurs Oli Cavanagh and Charles Dowd, raised €625,000 in seed funding earlier this year and said they intended to seek a further €6.5m in investment by the end of 2021.
Strikepay has already begun acquiring and collaborating with other companies to bolster its product offering. In June, it acquired UK payments rival Gratsi and in April it appointed former Just Eat exec Edel Kinane as its chief growth officer.
Earlier in the year, it teamed up with Camile Thai Kitchen to enable contactless tipping for food delivery drivers and partnered with mobility company Bolt to bring its cashless tipping technology to taxis in Dublin.
Strikepay was one of several winners at the awards ceremony, which was livestreamed last night (2 December).
Other winners included health-tech start-up Stimul.ai, customer analysis tech business Glimpse, and sheep monitoring start-up Cotter Agritech, which has been participating in a new accelerator programme at University College Dublin.
As well as taking the top award, Strikepay also won Best Fintech Startup.
This year marked the 10th year of the National Startup Awards. The event was sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Microfinance Ireland, Sage, Cronin Accountants and McCann Fitzgerald.
Last year’s top award was given to drone delivery service Manna. The start-up had been working with companies such as Tesco, Just Eat and Camile Thai to test its drones, and has seen further growth since then.
The full list of winners at the 2021 awards, in order of gold, silver and bronze, are:
Startup of the Year 2021
Strikepay
Early Stage Startup
Imvizar, CyberPie, The Fifth Dimension
Emerge Tech Startup
Xunison, Helgen Technologies, LiveCosts.com
Fintech Startup
Strikepay, ID-Pal, Itus Secure Technologies
Food and Drink Startup
Fiid, SiSú, Thanks Plants
Social or Sustainable Startup
Altra, Peer, Fifty Shades Greener
Product and Manufacturing Startup
Cotter Agritech, Orca Board, Filter
E-commerce and Retail Startup
FinalBend, The Book Resort, Nufields
Tech Startup
Glimpse, LegitFit, Examfly
Medtech Startup
Stumul.ai, SymPhysis Medical, Bonafi
Covid Pivot or Response Startup
Zoom Party/Find A Venue, KSH Group, Streat School
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