Pictured: NDRC LaunchPad director Gary Leyden with Eamon Keane, CEO of Xpreso
In an event to mark the culmination of the NDRC LaunchPad 8 programme in Dublin, real-time courier re-routing player Xpreso won the Lift Off 8 competition with €30,000 in follow-on investment.
Xpreso solves the “sorry we missed you” problem by connecting couriers and consumers in real-time; putting consumers in control with precise delivery alerts, rescheduling and rerouting options.
This saves courier companies money while providing a Hailo-like delivery experience for online consumers.
The company beat off stiff competition from a group of fellow incubator companies, including CloudDock, Digital Perceptions, Inforama, Vivos.me, Twiddle, FoodCloud, Medxnote, Social Energy, Loylap and Media Planner.
All 11 companies had just completed the NDRC LaunchPad 8 three-month accelerator programme.
The event also marked the inaugural GamePad start-up competition, with Sock Monster Media announced as the winner. Sock Monster competed against Dark Oasis Studios, LoPoly, Pewter Games Studios and Social Arcade.
The NDRC has recently been ranked as the No 1 IT University Business Incubator in the World and the new Lift Off champion joins notable NDRC LaunchPad alumni such as Soundwave and Newswhip, which are disrupting markets, attracting investment and creating jobs.
At Lift Off 8, Xpreso and the other start-ups had five minutes to pitch to an audience of investors, mentors and a judging panel which included John Pryor (RocketSpace, San Francisco), Will Prendergast (Frontline Ventures), Conor Stanley (Tribal VC) and Ben Hurley (NDRC).
Get ready for NDRC LaunchPad 9
NDRC LaunchPad attracts aspiring entrepreneurs with ideas capable of being brought to market and achieving a commercial return.
NDRC provides up to €20,000 per project in pre-seed investment to support the founders of each of the 11 start-ups during the three-month programme and participants also have the option of a further development time at NDRC in Dublin.
NDRC’s Gary Leyden announced that the deadline for the next NDRC LaunchPad 9 is tomorrow at 5pm, with start-ups pitching during the first two weeks of January to get a place on the next incubation phase.
Leyden described the culture at the NDRC as unique. “It’s what sets us apart and makes this a great place to do a start-up business. It’s really about the support all the start-ups give to each other and that’s what makes it not a good accelerator, but a great accelerator.
“We hope to see the same model emerge around GamePad, that it will be the beginning of a platform to help build the indigenous games industry here in Ireland,” Leyden said.
