Dogpatch Labs today unveiled the latest cohort of startups in the NDRC programme, Ireland’s national startup accelerator. Six fast-growth technology companies have been selected from a pool of nearly 300 applicants to take part in the 6-month programme powered by the startup and innovation hub. Participating startups will receive an investment of €100,000 and will benefit from world class mentoring and scaling supports available via the Dogpatch network.
This cohort reflects several wider trends within Irish innovation, with multiple participating founders having left successful careers in Google, Amazon & other tech leaders to spin up their companies. This shift towards entrepreneurship as a career path is a clear endorsement of the opportunities available within the Irish ecosystem and via programmes like NDRC. The selected startups also have a strong engineering skillset, with each founding team including a technical co-founder or embedded CTO.
This cohort reflects the balanced nationwide distribution of Ireland’s innovation talent, and includes startups from a range of industries & sectors from machine learning and computer vision, to supply chain and global logistics:
Examfly: Limerick-founded EdTech transforming the learning experience for professional exams & training using interactive technologies. Examfly already counts PWC & Deloitte among its customers. https://examfly.com
Chopcast: Intelligent content repurposing platform founded by Google & Hubspot alumni. Media startup Chopcast helps users automatically turn long videos into clips for social media based on key moments. https://www.chopcast.io
Tipple: Offaly-HQ’d commerce and logistics platform, enables brands to sell into new markets by handling the excise, VAT and fulfillment at point of sale. The ex-Amazon founding team are focused on eliminating friction in cross border transactions and increasing revenue for D2C brands. https://heytipple.com
MoveAhead: First NDRC University spinout under Dogpatch Labs management. EdTech startup MoveAhead takes the first child-centred approach to motion-tracking and pose estimation, marrying children’s movement with computer vision and data science. https://moveahead-project.com
Tracworx: The Limerick-based leadership team previously founded the FarmEye agritech software, but switched focus during the pandemic to Supply Chain Tech. They developed Tracworx, the digital infrastructure for returnable packaging. https://www.tracworx.ai
Terrabyte: The engineer focused startup is a social platform where Developers show off projects and find work. Where Reddit meets GitHub, a space where developers connect with like-minded developers to show off projects, learn and hang out. The Full Stack has almost 10k users. https://thefullstack.network
The programme will be led by newly appointed Accelerator MD, entrepreneur & investor Ian Browne. Browne founded the successful My Surgery Website, growing it to over 4,000 customers and millions of users before it was acquired by Nasdaq-listed Stericycle. He has played a leading role in developing an Ireland-wide startup ecosystem through his work with Ignite NI over recent years helping indigineous founders raise over €75m in early stage funding.
Speaking on his appointment as programme MD and commenting on the strength of this cohort, Ian Browne said:
“I’m honoured to be taking on the role of accelerator MD & excited to work with the participating founders and the first-class Dogpatch team. The past two years of NDRC under the management of Dogpatch Labs has shown the strength of Ireland’s startup ecosystem and I’m looking forward to playing a role in developing this further.
The quality of applications for this cohort was remarkable, with high potential startups coming from across the regions, from FDIs, from large corporates and increasingly from forward looking universities. All of these founders are hoping to build the high growth companies of the future. It is clear that Ireland’s talent pipeline is strong and growing, we aim to support and accelerate that talent as part of a vibrant startup ecosystem.”
This is the second NDRC cohort this year, with the H1 2022 programme concluding in July. Applications for the H2 cohort opened in April 2022, with 6 startups being selected following a nationwide search and several rounds of interviews. Close to 300 applications were received underscoring the depth of talent that exists in the Irish startup ecosystem.
The 6-month programme will see dedicated Entrepreneurs-In-Residence providing guidance, fundraising support and scaling advice for growing through difficult times. Previous programme MD Philip Reynolds, ex-VP Engineering at Workday, joins Maria McMenamin, former global sales leader at Stripe & Salesforce, as Entrepreneurs-In-Residence to provide expert support to participating founders. This complements mentoring sessions from over 40 entrepreneurs including Ciaran Lee, Co-founder and CTO of Intercom and Patricia Scanlon, Founder & CEO of Soapbox Labs.
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