Ten high potential startups join the intense Ignite NI Programme

The unique and intensive 3-month programme supports 10 startups to attract investment and scale their business in export markets.

After just two years, Ignite NI has helped 85 early-stage companies across the Accelerator and Propel Pre-Accelerator programmes.

The Accelerator programme, based in the Ormeau Baths in Belfast, instills a global outlook and takes the teams to London, Dublin and San Francisco where they are exposed to international mentors, investors and entrepreneurs.

Ignite NI gives founders direct access to an impressive network of over 400 people including some of the best minds in the technology industry. It enables them to learn from their real-world experiences of what it’s like to start, grow and operate global companies and raise billions of dollars. They include David Singleton (CTO of Stripe), Eoghan McCabe (CEO of Intercom), Susan O’Malley (Director of Strategy at IDEO), and Claire Vo (CPO of Optimizely).

A large proportion of early-stage venture capital raised in Northern Ireland is now attributed to the programme, celebrating over £8.5M raised by teams so far, with £3.9M in Q4 2019 alone, including one of Northern Ireland’s largest seed rounds, £2.1M raised by Accelerator alumni Cloudsmith. The programme has continued to build a strong reputation with a network of 200 global investors.

Chris McClelland, Programme Director of Ignite NI, said: “We received applications from 17 countries across 5 continents which made this year the most competitive selection process to date. It highlights not only the increasing value companies expect from Accelerator programmes of this calibre, but also shining light on Northern Ireland as an attractive location internationally to establish, develop and scale a business.

“The programme itself is fast paced and designed to make an impact quickly. The 2020 cohort are all at an inflection point and, with the right guidance, exposure and support, IgniteNI are confident the Accelerator programme will establish them on the path to success via rapid growth in export markets.”

“These founders are working with cutting edge technology, such as predictive algorithms in machine learning, virtual reality, international payment infrastructure and renewable energy, all rapidly growing markets with global opportunities. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome these teams to the growing Ignite NI portfolio and will be sharing their progress over the coming weeks.”

Stephen Wightman, Director for Technology Solutions and New Product Development at Invest NI, added: “We are pleased to see a third Accelerator cohort of high potential start-ups operating in a diverse field of existing and new technologies. It is particularly exciting to see a number of last year’s Propel Pre-Accelerator teams being successful in securing a place. We look forward to supporting the growth of the teams as they strive to be Northern Ireland’s next success stories working from an NI base, but competing and succeeding globally”.

The ten teams on this year’s Accelerator programme: Altra – Enabling healthcare managers to fill shifts with carers; BookEntertainment – Marketplace connecting entertainers with customers; CORA Technologies – Construction management platform; ESTHER – Peer-to-peer charitable donation platform; Obbi Solutions – Integrates compliance, HR, Health & Safety and Facility Management; payhere – Set-up recurring and one-off online payments in minutes; Shopper.com – Community-driven global marketplace for online and offline voucher codes; SideQuest – Testflight for Oculus; Skylark Control – OS for renewable energy. Initially wind farms and TrueStock – Logistics and inventory management solution that can forecast inventory needs.