Mail Distiller help launch InterTradeIreland 2007 Seedcorn competition
Posted: Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Record prize fund for seedcorn competition
A record prize fund of £187,000 is on offer in this year’s InterTradeIreland All -Island Seedcorn Competition for fledgling companies.
Launching the 2007 competition Liam Nellis, InterTradeIreland’s chief executive, announed that £26M of additional equity investment has been leveraged by participants over the last five years, of which over £5m has been for small companies based in Northern Ireland.
“The experience of every company that has taken part in the competiton is that the prize money is simply the icing on the cake. The opportunity to access invaluable advice from some of Ireland’s top investment experts has helped them to raise significant additional investment and grow their businesses at an accelerated speed,” he explained.
Previous Seedcorn winners who have reaped the rewards of seeing their businesses blossom include Mail Distiller which has just announced a second “sizeable” investment deal with Crescent Capital. The company had already clinched a £500,000 injection from the investment company in 2006.
The chief executive of the Carrickfergus firm, Colm McGoldrick, said: ” I think the competition is a tremendous reality check and a process worth going through, You make some excellent contacts along the way and it is a good method of getting in front of a group of people at the top of their game in Ireland. ”
“It is a level of access I don’t believe exists elsewhere. These things alone make entering the competition worth the effort.”
To register an interest in entering the All-Ireland Seedcorn Business Competition, log on to www.intertradeireland.com/seedcorn. Business plans must be submitted by 5pm on the closing date of September 28.
Published in the Belfast Telegraph business supliment Monday, April 20th 2007
