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National Digital Research Centre Competition

NDRC hosted their third 'Lift Off' competition on Wednesday 4th May 2011. The event saw nine promising start-ups in the digital space compete for a €60k investment fund.

Each of the competing start-ups pitched to an experienced panel including Brian Caulfield of DFJ Esprit, Shay Garvey, Delta Partners and HBAN Angel Investor of the Year Conall Lavery from TechExecs Syndicate.

NDRC WinnersNDRC
Pictured above, b-sm@rk winners of the National Digital
Research Centre's Lift Off Competition.		Pictured from left: Peter Bolger, Partner, Mason Hayes & Curran,
Gary Leydon, programme director, NDRCand Jeanne Kelly,
Partner, Mason Hayes & Curran.


An Italian start-up b-sm@rk was named overall winner of the National Digital Research Centre’s Lift Off competition on the day.  B-sm@rk has developed an online tool for brand marketers and retailers, which allows users to tag and review web content to learn more about consumer preferences.

As the overall winner of the Lift Off competition, the company has netted €35,000 in seed funding and a further €5,000 in legal and financial support from Mason Hayes & Curran and Grant Thornton.

Nicola Farronato, director and chief executive of b-sm@rk, established the company in Venice in September 2010. He subsequently moved its four-strong founding team to Ireland to take part in LaunchPad, a three-month, micro-seed investment programme aimed at digital start-ups.

Ben Hurley, chief executive of NDRC, said b-sm@rk’s win showed the centre’s LaunchPad programme, which was established in early 2010, was gaining ground internationally. Dublin start-up Scrazzl, a developer of web tools to aid life science product discovery and evaluation, was named runner-up in the competition, winning a total prize fund of €20,000.

If you would like any further information, please contact: Marketing Manager, Amie Hanley at amiehanley@mhc.ie.

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