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Three Irish companies will now take part in the Tech Rocketship Awards, designed to identify leading European start-ups that could expand into the UK.
Irish start-ups Corrata, Sedicii and Spire Solutions were named winners of a pitching competition during the Tech Rocketship Awards Ireland event on 9 December. Selected out of a shortlist of 10, the three winning companies will now go through to a European final in the UK next year.
The Tech Rocketship Awards are sponsored by the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT), specialising in helping overseas companies set up and invest in the UK and assisting UK companies to succeed in global trade.
The Ireland event aimed to connect rising Irish tech start-ups with the UK dealmakers, advisers and support networks.
This was the first ever European version of the start-up programme, with the Tech Rocketship Awards seeing hundreds of entries from across Europe and Israel. The awards are now entering national pitching rounds, where the best companies in each country will compete to be entered into the final sifting stage, before going to a European final.
Encouraging UK expansion
Corrata was founded in 2016 by tech entrepreneurs Colm Healy and Brendan McDonagh, and its software is used to protect mobile devices from cyberthreats. Corrata’s SafePathML product was launched commercially in 2018 and now has 40 customers in Europe and North America, including banks, government agencies and healthcare providers. To date, it has raised €1.3m from its founders, venture capital and angel investors.
Spire Solutions’ platform-as-a-service is using AI and AWS cloud computing to develop a management system for vehicle recovery operators. Around €1m has been invested in the business, with seed funding backed by Enterprise Ireland.
Sedicii, founded in 2013, is creating a federated, global identity verification network for trusted identity providers such as governments, banks, telecoms operators and utilities. This, it claims, ensures that businesses can react quickly to new government, regulatory and industry demands for real-time identity verification, authentication and trust services.
Commenting on the success of the three Irish companies in the competition, the British ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston, said: “The UK has the institutions, infrastructure and investment to be uniquely attractive to Irish tech start-ups and other companies.
“We hope, through our DIT team, to facilitate investment and expansion in the UK for some of the great tech companies we have seen [during the competition].”
