Student entrepreneurs chase business investment via LaunchBox 2017

Posted on: 16 June 2017

Ten student entrepreneur teams today set out on a path they hope will lead to business success as Trinity College Dublin’s incubator programme, LaunchBox – Ireland’s first and most successful – kicks off its 2017 programme.

Now in its fifth year, LaunchBox’s tale has quickly evolved into one of extraordinary success, with a host of budding entrepreneurs having used the programme as a springboard to create viable businesses across a wide range of sectors.

Since 2013, the students involved have created 40 startups and raised €6.1m in investment and funding. Their companies, which include social enterprise Foodcloud, which helps businesses redistribute surplus food to those who need it, Touchtech, a payment processing venture, and Artomatix, which develops tools for automating digital media creation, have created approximately 100 jobs.  

Among the 2017 teams aiming to follow in these footsteps by creating startups that address unmet needs are Equine Medirecord, which will develop a platform for recording racehorse and bloodstock medication information, Self, which aims to solve size-and-fit issues plaguing the fashion e-commerce industry, and Ticketchain, which will enlist Blockchain technology to safely and ethically manage the resale of tickets for high-profile events.  

Chief Innovation and Enterprise Officer at Trinity, Diarmuid O’Brien, said: “LaunchBox is an opportunity for our students to back themselves and use their ambition, talent and innovation to start a successful company. New businesses account for 67% of job growth in Ireland. Our students and their businesses can create jobs, develop new products and services, and positively impact Ireland and beyond.”

Commenting on its sponsorship of LaunchBox, Head of Innovation at Bank of Ireland, David Tighe said: Bank of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin have a long legacy of working together and this relationship continues to grow. We recently opened our latest Workbench facility in Trinity to help foster entrepreneurship and today we are delighted to announce we are once again supporting the 2017 LaunchBox programme. Bank of Ireland wants to support a culture of entrepreneurship and our sponsorship of LaunchBox is a reflection of the Bank’s wider ambition to foster innovative thinkers.”

Meet the 2017 teams – for more information see LaunchBox

Equine Medirecord aims to develop, sell and maintain a mobile application and website to allow proper recording of medicines administered to racehorses and other bloodstock. This is the first application of its type.

Franc, a magazine founded in 2015 to provide a view of fashion that was both intelligent and accessible, aims to expand internationally and digitally.

Lexi aims to change how we learn with the goal of creating a more immersive environment for children to learn a language, in a new and more natural way, and by incorporating the fundamentals of linguistics and recreating how we all learned our primary language.

Marsh Sisters will create high-end, hand-crafted luxe marshmallows that are gluten and dairy-free, come in a variety of constantly updated flavours, and are free from all artificial sweeteners and colours.

Self, a tech startup, seeks to solve the size-and-fit issue apparent in the fashion ecommerce industry. Self strives to become a unifying factor in the online shopping experience.

SpeakUpp! will develop a platform for speaking events involving crowds of any size. The team aims to replace the standard wireless microphone, by building a platform that utilizes the average smartphone to enable both textual and verbal communication between a speaker and audience member.

Stoury aims to create a cross-platform application to revolutionise the tourism industry by allowing people to create their own custom tours, so that a member of any community, passionate about where they live, can give the richest experiences to all those interested in its culture.

Ticketchain aims to develop white label B2B ticketing platform which allows events, venues and stadiums to control their own primary and secondary ticket markets. By leveraging Blockchain technology, the team hopes to eliminate fraud and reduce touting.

Tourus aims to deliver a platform that provides integrated solutions for decreasing costs and increasing visitor engagement for established cultural sites through the use of our iBeacon-enabled application that uses Bluetooth technology to transfer information.

Wynk aims to produce a mobile dating app that stands out from the rest by finding users things to do and people to do them with.