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High Growth Start-Ups
In association with Business & Innovation Centres (BIC) |
INTO THE SKY
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Patrick Munden,
Director,
South East BIC |
Bics are advocating major efforts to create and nurture a high-growth entrepreneural culture.
The significance of high growth start-ups
has started to filter in
through budding and
serial entrepreneurs
alike. As they realise
why and how high growth
start-ups are vital to Ireland’s economy,
and as new start-ups focus around
technology and innovation, the Irish
Business and Innovation Centres (BICs)
are gearing themselves to provide
support, be it financial requirements
or developing business plans, to foster
these companies.
Typically, high growth start-ups are
companies that make a significant
contribution to economic growth,
drive for technological change and are
instrumental in creating new jobs.
They are likely to achieve significant
growth within three years and are
usually export-oriented.
FOOTHOLD
However, high growth start-ups need
venture capital and advice and this is
only logical, considering the high risk
that is involved and the high potential
that it encompasses. The company
founders depend largely on outside
funding. And even though they often
excel in their subjects, they may lack
business and market knowledge.
This is where BICs come in, helping
to build high growth start-ups and
advocating major efforts to create and
nurture a high-growth entrepreneurial
culture. Explains Michael O’Connor,
CEO, Cork BIC, “starting a new venture
is an interdisciplinary process
challenging the entrepreneur to learn
and adapt. The EC BICs understand
this process and complement these
challenges with cross functional skills
and a staff and network of contacts
who have been there before.”
INDIGENOUS GROWTH
The future prosperity of the Irish
economy will depend on indigenous
industry and BICs realise the
importance of assisting existing
indigenous companies in each region.
Particular emphasis is placed upon the
development of innovation systems or
formalised business planning to prepare
the company for growth in Ireland
and, eventually, overseas markets. “The
lifeblood of any region is the stock of
indigenous small firms. The more that
are launched the greater the number
that are likely to grow into dynamic,
innovative enterprises generating
sustainable local employment for each
region,” says Patrick Munden, Director,
South East BIC.
GETTING FUNDS
An example of a company assisted
by EC BICs is Cinario, which was
set up in October 2002 by Charlie
Sherlock to develop intelligent
software applications for the risk
management and security control
markets. The company is founded by
a team of leading software experts
who have previously, developed
and successfully brought to market
solutions for fraud, business
intelligence, enterprise systems
management and integrated
monitoring systems.
Dublin BIC assisted the company
develop their business and invested
(through the Dublin seed capital
fund) €225,000 in the company as
part of a co-investment.
Dublin BIC has incubating
support for start-ups in the Dublin
enterprise and technology centre
and the Guinness Enterprise Centre
(GEC). |
Expanding Markets
Original Solutions provides IT
consultancy and services to clients
across a range of sectors including
banking and telecoms. The company
has developed a Limerick delivery
centre as its base for offsite delivery
of contracts while it consults
personnel work on site at clients’
premises.
John Collins formed Original
Solutions in May 2003. While
the company’s sales to date have
primarily been from their strong Irish
customer base, they have recently
secured their first UK customer.
Operating in Dublin, Limerick and
the UK, the company offers a range
of services to its bluechip client
list including business consulting,
application development, legacy
re-engineering services, application
lifecycle management and managed
testing services.Last year’s turnover
was approximately €6.5 million.
Shannon Development’s financial
support package was focussed
on extending Original Solutions’
near-shore outsourcing model
to the UK market. The company
has successfully developed its
outsourcing business in Ireland and
secured contracts with some blue
chip names in the Irish market. The
company employs over 80 people,
25 of which are at the company’s
base in Limerick. |
TEchnological Innovation
Recognising the importance of
assisting traditional industries to
become more technically competent
resulted in WestBIC providing
support and assistance to FurnTech.
Established over 18 months ago,
FurnTech has achieved a number of
key milestones in the development of
their interiors portal Furniture.ie.
Using Furniture.ie, consumers have
a single location to search for furniture
from different companies, view special
offers and find information on services
online. The website also provides a
valuable outlet for furniture companies
to display their products and company
offers to consumers in a single location.
Since redesigning their portal in
October 2005, the site has experienced
considerable growth with an average
of 35,000 visitors each month and
by attracting a number of key new
customers to use Furniture.ie to
promote their company and services
online. An example of this continued
growth is Habitat Ireland having
agreed to promote their entire range
of furniture, shops and special offers
online using Furniture.ie.
FurnTech was also a recent finalist
in a trade competition throughout
the UK and Ireland, sponsored by the
trade magazine Cabinet Maker, and
was selected for its innovative use of
technology to promote the trade in
Ireland. Richard Moyles, managing
director of FurnTech outlined his
vision for Furniture.ie, “to create a
single location to source the best
available products for your home
and facilitate in the creation of great
homes and living spaces in Ireland.” |
Planning FOr Growth
In 2005, South East BIC (SEBIC),
in conjunction with Enterprise
Ireland (EI) and the regional city
and county enterprise boards,
developed a programme to work
with those enterprise board clients
that are already in business and,
with thorough specialist business
consulting, have the potential to
expand and eventually become EI
clients.One such company is Carlowbased
remote monitoring security
company, Netwatch. Established in
2003, the company now employs 30
people and is the first company in
Ireland to use satellite and Internetbased
technologies to provide remote
visual monitoring security systems to
businesses throughout the country.
In conjunction with Netwatch
senior management, the SEBIC
consulting team developed a
business plan to position the
company for further growth and
the potential to enter overseas
markets. This plan was entered
in the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn
competition and was runner-up in
the final of the Leinster region.
David Walsh, managing director
of Netwatch says, “the whole
process of developing the plan,
examining our company’s future
and anticipating our financial
requirements going forward,
was very beneficial to the whole
management team at Netwatch.”
Recent graduates include IT Force.
Joe O’Reilly of IT Force explains, “one
of the big benefits has been our
ability to grow or contract within the
GEC. This was very important during
the dot.com downturn. When we
came to the GEC at first, we employed
five people. Now we have 44.” |
Capitalising On Opportunities
ABTRANS EXPANSION WILL ALLOW THEM TO CAPITALISE ON GLOBAL BPO OPPORTUNITIES
Abtran specialises in business
process outsourcing (BPO)
services. It provides clients with
fully outsourced contact centre
operations. Specialist functions
include recruitment, human
resources, training and a dedicated
research and development (R&D)
team.
The company currently employs
250 staff at its Cork headquarters
and has enjoyed strong growth
since startup. The company is set to
invest €1.5 million in its R&D and
professional services division.
According to Pat Ryan, director
of Abtran, “the expansion which
we are investing in will allow
us to capitalise on opportunities
in the growing market for BPO
throughout the world. We see
further expansion taking place
among clients in Ireland, Europe
and the United States. Our
growth plans for the future will
be underpinned by continued
investment in sophisticated
technology and highly skilled
personnel.”
The move will lead to the creation
of an additional 50 new jobs in
2006 and also lay the foundation
for further significant employment
expansion in the coming three
years.
Enterprise Ireland is working with
Abtran to explore international
market opportunities and has
to date provided the company
with funding for R&D through its
research technology and innovation
(RTI) fund. |
Author: Patrick Munden is the Director of
South East BIC.
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