Ecode wins Launchbox 2022 student entrepreneurship competition

Posted on: 05 September 2022

A circular fashion communication platform called Ecode, founded by three students at Trinity College Dublin, has won Trinity's annual student entrepreneurship competition Launchbox.

The announcement came after 10 teams of student entrepreneurs sought capital investment from venture capitalists and angel investors last Friday as part of LaunchBox 2022. The final, known as Demo Day, saw the shortlisted teams pitch their companies to seek support to accelerate their start-ups. A myriad of industries were represented by the young entrepreneurs on the day, from esports and circular fashion to quantum computing. 

LaunchBox, sponsored by Bank of Ireland, and managed by Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace, provides students with mentorship, funding, access to alumni and investors, and a collaborative environment to launch new ventures.

Following an application period which saw overwhelming interest, 10 teams collectively representing nine Trinity schools were selected to partake in the programme, the oldest of its kind in Ireland. 

Ecode was founded by Trinity students Elise Vens, Emmet Lowry, and Nathan Gaborieau.  The trio has invented a circular fashion communication platform that empowers consumers to make more informed, sustainable decisions online and in-store. Imprint Esports (details below) took second place, followed by Givedish and Netsso in joint third. The winning teams will receive cash prizes, as well as co-working space to further their business at Dogpatch Labs. 

Many Launchbox programme alumni have developed viable businesses across a wide range of sectors. Since 2013, the student ventures involved have created approximately 300 jobs and raised over €100 million in investment and funding. Alumni companies include social enterprise Foodcloud, which helps businesses redistribute surplus food to those who need it, Touchtech Payments, a payment processing venture that was acquired by Stripe in 2019, and Equine MediRecord, which digitises the medical records of the multi-billion-euro horse racing industry’s equine stars and has recently received an investment of €10M.

Tangent CEO Ken Finnegan said “At Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace, we emphasise the importance of agility and innovation in all of our courses and programmes, and it has never been more necessary and important than in the current climate. Both the LaunchBox programme and the LaunchBox startups have demonstrated unparalleled flexibility and innovation in the move to a fully online programme and are a testament to the culture of creativity and adaptability here in Trinity”.

Gavan Drohan, Head of Entrepreneurship at Tangent, said “Trinity is known as a community of innovators, and this reputation is undoubtedly sustained thanks in no small part to LaunchBox. It was so encouraging to witness the next generation of entrepreneurs present their big ideas to a packed room representing the Irish start-up ecosystem”. 

LaunchBox 2022 – participants

Ecode:  Platform offers fashion brands a tool to communicate sustainability efforts and connect with consumers in a new circular way of valuing clothing.

Imprint Esports:  Imprint Esports aims to help esports teams hire more successful players by providing an enterprise platform for analysing esports player performance data.

GiveDish: Givedish provides a "get a dish, give a dish" model to allow consumers to vote with their actions in the fight to end food poverty both locally and globally.

Netsso: Netsso enables clients to work worry-free, with maximum efficiency by streamlining the information requesting process during corporate transactions on an encrypted cloud platform

Script: Script helps immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and anyone who struggles to complete government forms to do so, in their native language.

Navigate Health: Navigate Health makes self-reporting symptoms, medication and life-style factors easier for patients with chronic disease, requiring as few clicks as possible. This information can then be used by healthcare professionals to personalise treatment.

Luup:  Luup makes sustainable fashion more accessible by aggregating vetted brands you are actually proud to wear. When shopping with us, you can’t help but be sustainable.

Qutrip: Qutrip wants to develop and provide quantum computing solutions to problems in logistics

Frensei: A peer-to-peer social network for learning skills and achieving goals. We offer affordable personal mentors for even highly specific goals, while building a community.‘AbsolutelyAI: AbsolutelyAI is a no code data science tool that helps increase sales and conversion on eCommerce stores’.

AbsolutelyAI: A no-code data science tool that helps increase sales and conversion on eCommerce stores.

(Image caption from above:Gavan Drohan, Head of Entrepreneurship at Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace, with LaunchBox winners, Ecode, (l to r)  Elise Vens, Emmet Lowry, and Nathan Gaborieau.)                            

• Tags:
• Innovation
• Students
• Sustainability