Seedling taking root with U.S and Canada opportunities

A Northern Ireland business owner has revealed how attending an online conference aimed at setting out finance options for local smaller businesses last year has help opened up new opportunities in the U.S. and Canada.

Roisin Maguire, co-founder and CEO of Seedling, a digital platform for teachers to create personalised learning resources, attended the Access to Finance conference which helped accelerate her business by signposting her to the right angel investors who could help her grow her company.

The third Access to Finance conference, jointly hosted by the British Business Bank, InterTradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland, returns to a physical format this year at The Junction in Dungannon on Thursday, June 23 from 8.30am to 2pm.

This year it aims to demystify external finance for smaller businesses as well as raise awareness of alternative finance options and how they complement traditional bank finance to accelerate growth.

Roisin Maguire has gone from being a delegate at last year’s webinar to a panellist this year as she shares her experiences of the past 12 months with angel investor, Mary McKenna.

Roisin said: “Like most people running a start-up I had attended numerous webinars during lockdown seeking advice on finance options and pitching to investors. I found the Access to Finance webinar really interesting, and the speakers were first class. I immediately started linking in with the other delegates and speakers. I also reached out to Susan Nightingale, the British Business Bank’s senior representative in Northern Ireland, who was very helpful and signposted me to relevant information.”

Further conversations with investors, Mary McKenna and Gillian McGolgan led to an investment in Seedling totalling £50,000.

Roisin’s background is in graphic design, but she quickly moved into the digital design space, working for the BBC for a number of years on its educational services such as BBC Bitesize.

Her husband and business partner, Tony had worked for a software company and in 2002 the couple set-up digital design agency, Eyesparks.

The new company began working with exam body, CCEA to produce educational materials for schools. Some of these materials were digital educational games with a lot of them centred on minority languages such as Ulster Scots and Irish.

Roisin explained: “We built a very easy to use platform which enabled teachers to build games very quickly. These games could be easily created without the need for coding or design experience. We then reached out to Invest NI who took a stand at the annual British Educational Tech Show in London each year. While at the show three years ago we met a representative from the Toronto School Board.

“After explaining more about our games platform to him he said there would be a huge need for it in Canada as there are a number of minority languages around the First Nations population and the government has committed to providing the same teaching materials in all schools.

“Our platform could provide access to modern teaching materials populated with the minority languages.

“Invest NI helped put us in touch with an executive in Canada and six months prior to the pandemic our platform was being used in five schools there. It was also at this stage that we transitioned from our digital service business, Eyesparks to the SaaS (software as a service) company, Seedling.

“When schools re-opened, we teamed up with a sales partner who specialises in selling into government as our strategy changed to selling into school districts, which have up to 400 schools under their control, rather than individual schools.

“We have also signed contracts with the Anchorage School District in Alaska and the South Dakota Department of Education in the U.S.

“The investment money we received is being used to pay our sales partner as we seek to sell at scale in America and Canada.

“We’re also looking at taking part in another funding round later this year as we need boots on the ground in either Canada or America where we will be looking to establish an office.”

Roisin credits the advice and support she received from the British Business Bank as being key factors in Seedling’s development over the past 12 months.

She added: “We were certainly at the stage when we were getting frustrated with pitching to angel investors and not getting anywhere. We just couldn’t find the right people who shared our vision. If I hadn’t attended the Access to Finance conference last June our company certainly wouldn’t be in the position it is today.

“The whole process of fundraising takes time and effort, and the pitching can be endless. I would certainly recommend to anyone starting up their own business to engage with the support and information the Bank can provide.”

The Access to Finance conference is particularly suited to local businesses in more traditional sectors operating in rural locations, as well as the business and finance advisors who work with them.

The event will help attendees understand the positive role of external finance when it comes to successfully growing a business.