FINAL CALL TO ENTRY FOR €280,000 SEEDCORN PRIZE FUND

Young companies struggling to beat the credit crunch still have time to enter the all-island Seedcorn Business Competition and put themselves in with a chance of winning big cash prizes of between €20,000 and €100,000.

And this year InterTradeIreland, the cross-border business development organisation which runs the competition, is calling for more local entries in the Emerging International Company category.

Dr Godfrey Gaston of TitanIC Systems, Belfast, which won last year’s Emerging International Company category in Northern Ireland, said: “As a young company, the prize money alone was a huge bonus to us, but overall entering Seedcorn was the best thing we’ve done.

“We had great exposure and were put in contact with VCs across the island.  The competition also motivated us to get our business plan together and offered great advice on that.  It was a wonderful experience and I urge other young companies to have a go.”

Dublin company Openplain, which last year launched their online computer activity tracking service, Journallive.com, have gone on to further success since winning €50,000 as 2007’s overall best Emerging Company.

“Since Seedcorn, Dublin Seed Capital Fund have agreed to invest €200,000, private investors have invested €250,000 and we’ve another investment of €375,000 under current consideration,” said co-founder Jonathan Mulligan.

“We’ve hired a sales & marketing director and recruitment is underway for a marketing director and two developers. We have about 35 customers for JournalLive.com and negotiations are at an advanced stage to sell our OnPremises version to a very large and presitigious international financial institution, which should lead to many further sales in that sector.”

Through Seedcorn, small firms across the island have leveraged €78m of additional equity investment over the past five years.

Liam Nellis, chief executive of InterTradeIreland, said that “In challenging economic times, the cash prize will prove very attractive to fledgling enterprises, but more than that, Seedcorn offers invaluable advice from top investment experts, great networking opportunities and  fantastic exposure,” he said.

Following the scoring of written business plans, one winner from each category is selected from each of four regions. All eight regional finalists make their presentation again at the final in Belfast on November 26, when the judges select two overall winners.  

To register your interest and find out more about how the competition works, including how to put together a business plan, log on to the new dedicated website: www.seedcorncompetition.com.  Business plans must be submitted by 5pm on the closing date of September 26.



·    Prizes are paid in Euro, subject to the current exchange rate.