Catalyst reveals Springboard alumni have raised £90m in funding as applications open for 2022

Springboard supports ambitious early-stage companies by providing a tailored mentorship programme that challenges and supports their company.

Aimed at companies who have achieved early success, the programme provides access to an experienced entrepreneur network that helps firms to maximise opportunities and reduce go-to-market risk.

Catalyst is an independent, not-for-profit organisation focused on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, supporting transformative businesses and developing NI’s tech industry.

With a dedicated group of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) to act as mentors as well as access to over 500 domain experts, its Springboard programme takes companies through a rigorous process that tests their assumptions and gives them the tools needed to scale up and accelerate growth.

Paul Clancy, programme manager at Springboard, said: “Over 100 companies have graduated from Springboard since its inception and those companies have raised more than £90m of equity funding and have created over 1,000 jobs in the local economy. We have been fortunate to be able to help leading NI companies like Plotbox, Cumulus Neuroscience and Cloudsmith at an early stage and the team has been delighted to see the progress of more recent graduates such as SustainIQ and Civic Dollars as they begin their journey to success.

“This level of funding ensures that NI companies are better equipped to tackle the global problems they have set out to solve and shows the growing interest from investors in the region. The buzz around the NI ecosystem has never been as vibrant and Springboard want to continue to support that growth by taking a new group of motivated entrepreneurs through the programme.”

Springboard graduates Maria Diffley and Liam McEvoy, co-founders of environmental technology company SustainIQ, added: “At Sustain IQ, we have developed a software tool that helps companies improve how their business monitors, measures and reports on social, environmental and economic performance.

“Springboard helped us at a critical juncture of our business by providing us with mentorship and support to allow us to understand our pricing strategy and how to present our story. It also allowed us to become ‘investor ready’ and we were successful in raising our pre-seed funding at the start of 2021.”

Applications are now being invited to be part of the programme in 2022.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you