New Frontiers recognises top entrepreneurs in Class of 2019

Three of the Southeast’s best start-up were honoured for their entrepreneurial spirit in developing innovative business solutions for international markets

The New Frontiers Class of 2019 Showcase and Awards took place at WIT recently. Members of the Southeast start-up community were in attendance to meet the New Frontiers Class of 2019.

These entrepreneurs have developed solutions for markets such as; a system for anglers to know the best time to go fishing, a cloud-based analytics system to optimise on-line advertising, software for retailers to provide size recommendations to on-line shoppers, a system to assess staff learning and development needs and software development tools for the cloud.

Innovative business solutions

The founders of three of the Southeast’s best start-up in 2019 were honoured for their entrepreneurial spirit in developing innovative business solutions for international markets.

1.            Best Business Opportunity:              Stackolater – Fergal Dearle
2.            Best Business Plan:                          STYL.wrap – Shana Chu
3.            Most Innovative New Business:       Needy Insights – Bryan Hurley

Supporting entrepreneurship development

WIT Dean of School of Business Dr. Tom O’Toole congratulated the entrepreneurs on their awards, saying, “Your hard work in identifying emerging market opportunities and your dedication in launching new businesses deserves to be recognised. The School of Business has a strong record in supporting entrepreneurship development. We will continue to recognise and support entrepreneurial talent and we wish the New Frontiers Class of 2019 every success in further developing their businesses”.

Director of Programmes (CEDRE) Dr. Eugene Crehan said, “These entrepreneurs earned their awards by engaging with target customers in a meaningful way to achieve the best Product-Market Fit solutions for customers’ problems. It is evident that they have worked hard on Phase 2 of New Frontiers to increase their market knowledge. They are now part of a community of innovative entrepreneurs who have completed the New Frontiers Programme at WIT”.

New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme

Since 2011, WIT has supported 198 participants on Phase 1 of New Frontiers and 68 participants on Phase 2 of New Frontiers.  These 68 Phase 2 participants created 122 jobs in the region and between them have secured €4.8m in private and state investment. 14 of them have secured the Enterprise Ireland €50,000 Competitive Start Fund and 8 of these are now Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start-up companies having secured private investment and matched funding from EI in the range of €300,000 to 500,000 each.

The New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme at Waterford Institute of Technology is funded by Enterprise Ireland and is delivered twice annually in the South East region by Waterford Institute of Technology in collaboration with Institute of Technology Carlow (ITC). Phase 2 of New Frontiers is an intensive 6-month programme where participants learn how to establish and run a new high growth potential company. Applications for Phase 2 at WIT are now open. See New frontiers Waterford for application details, any queries please contact [email protected].