Innovative Start-Ups Complete Inaugural Furthr Foundry Accelerator Programme 

• Ten of Ireland’s most aspiring tech entrepreneurs now investor ready and seeking to raise investment capital up to €4m
• Safely awarded the ‘Most Investable Start-Up’  

Ten of the country’s most promising tech entrepreneurs have completed the first Furthr Foundry Accelerator Programme, Ireland’s latest Pre-Seed Accelerator. The intensive 12-week programme concluded this week at the Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC). On the final day, the participating start-ups took part in investor pitches and had one-on-one meetings with leading Irish VCs and Angel Investors. During these meetings, each start-up engaged in detailed discussions about their business plans, received valuable feedback, and sought investor perspectives.

The ten high-potential start-ups who completed the Pre-Seed Accelerator Programme will now be seeking to raise a combined pre-seed capital investment of up to €4m.

Winner of the ‘Most Investable Start-Up’ award announced on the Finale Day as voted for by the panel of investors, was Safely, founded by Jack Manning.  Safely serves commercial vehicle fleets in the US, UK, and Ireland by offering a driver safety solution that has been estimated to reduce claims by over 50 per cent. In addition to being recognised as the ‘Most Investable Start-Up’, Safely also received a cash prize of €3k, sponsored by Growing Capital, the leading provider of pre-seed private investment in Ireland.

Commenting on the Furthr Foundry Accelerator Programme and what the “Most Investable Start-Up’ award recognition means for his company, Jack Manning, founder of Safely, said: “It’s great to have won! It’s validation that all the hard work to date is worth it. And it really does make me believe that I can grow this business, get the investment I need to really scale it to the level I want to scale it to. So, it’s unbelievable validation, great to have won it. But the job’s only really starting I suppose.”

Commenting on the programme and the engagement with the participating start-ups, Gianni Matera, founder of Growing Capital, said: “If the aim of this pre-seed accelerator is to prepare start-ups for their pre-seed round, then I believe it has been successful. Many start-ups are now ready to apply for a PSSF, and some are even poised for an HPSU round.”

The panel of investors attending the finale event included representatives from some of Ireland’s most active Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, including Sure Valley Ventures, Elkstone Private Partners, Growing Capital, Furthr VC, Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland, Seedrs, ACT Venture Capital and Furthr Investor Network.    

Speaking to the Start-Ups on the Finale Day for the Furthr Foundry Accelerator Programme, Martin Murray, CEO at Furthr, said: “Today’s final part of the Foundry Accelerator Programme culminating in the finale day, is hopefully only the beginning of our journey in supporting your growth and in realising your ambitions for your respective businesses. Our success will be measured by supporting our clients to become ‘investor ready’ to take on their first institutional investment and myself, along with our business and investor mentorship teams, look forward to working closely with you to make this happen.”

Devised by Furthr, the country’s leading business innovation centre, in conjunction with the programme’s key partners including Growing Capital, Microsoft’s Founder Platform and the Guinness Enterprise Centre, the Furthr Foundry Accelerator Programme sets out to support, prepare and deliver 10 investor ready high potential start-ups who will take on pre-seed investment following their successful completion of the programme.

Companies participating in the inaugural Furthr Foundry Accelerator programme included a wide range of diverse tech empowered businesses and industry sectors, leveraging some of the fast emerging technologies to enable digital transformation for many businesses, including artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, EdTech and biotech.

The ten companies who successfully completed the first Furthr Foundry Accelerator Programme were, Allocator Training Institute, Biovit Technologies, Co-Swipe, Decision Analytics, Safely, Teddlo, Hiremate, PassionFruit, Simple Probate and Workstuff.ai.  

Furthr is now planning for the next cycle of the Furthr Foundry Accelerator Programme, expected to kick off in September 2024.  Tech entrepreneurs with aspirations to establish and scale their Start-Up enterprises for investment are encouraged to contact Furthr or go online for more information on the Furthr Foundry Accelerator.