Firms pitch for investment to accelerate their development

Seven companies spent last night pitching for investment from leading venture capitalists and angel investors at Cork’s County Hall.

The event is part of Bank of Ireland’s Accelerator programme and the companies are at different stages of developments.

The companies made pitches to some of Ireland’s biggest venture capital firms including Kernel Capital and Delta Partners as well as a number of angel investors.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney was among the attendees.

“Any initiative that accelerates the development and growth of a business should be very much welcomed.

“Whilst appreciating how intense these programmes can be, they also provide exceptional mentoring and one to one support which must make a significant difference to the development potential of the business.

“This has already been acknowledged by the support of several of the companies by Enterprise Ireland and personally, I am delighted that two participating companies have re-located to Cork from the UK and Italy.”

The seven companies were Rezoomo, CareZapp, FuelBox, Closr, SBaam, Cortechs, and Over-C.

SBaam has relocated from Italy to Ireland and Over-C has moved from the UK. CareZapp, Closr and Cortechs have already received funding from Enterprise Ireland.

Bill Liao, lead mentor and European venture partner at SOS Ventures, said: “We are very excited about the future of these companies. Each team displayed a real determination to succeed and a willingness to try new ideas and go outside their comfort zone.

“The programme succeeded in challenging each individual and team throughout and as they exit this phase of their development they know who they are, what they do and where they are going along with tangible improvements in their abilities to scale their businesses.”

Gerry Prizeman, head of enterprise development at Bank of Ireland, said: “We are delighted with the outcome of this very intensive programme and the success achieved by the participants to date.

“We are confident that their pitches this evening will attract further investment, thus allowing them to continue on their development trajectory.”