Trinity’s Student Incubator LaunchBox Welcomes Six New Teams of Entrepreneurs
Posted on: 18 June 2014
Trinity College Dublin has welcomed six new teams through the doors of Regent House to its student incubator, LaunchBox. Now in its second year, LaunchBox will run a three-month accelerator programme, open to teams of Trinity students (undergraduate and postgraduate) with an early-stage business idea. This unique incubator provides coaching, expert advice, seed funding and access to the space and facilities needed to test out and launch new ventures. The programme aims to support students in developing investor-ready ventures. Supported by the Trinity Angels, a network of Trinity’s alumni and friends, LaunchBox offers an innovative combination of practice and education.
The selected teams will take up residency in Regent House, above the front arch of Trinity College, where an inspiring view of the city on one side and the auspicious history of Front Square on the other will provide the backdrop to their entrepreneurial efforts. The space houses a unique ‘pop-up’ studio; a purpose-built structure which caters to all of the needs of a successful start up including super-fast wifi and strong coffee on demand.
LaunchBox offers an innovative combination of practice and education, pairing teams up with experienced entrepreneurs who will coach and provide continuous feedback on their startups. Teams will also have access to a wide range of master classes, covering the fundamentals of starting a venture and including a range of guest speakers and networking opportunities.
LaunchBox 2013 produced a number of successes, with the majority of teams securing funding to take their startups to the next stage of development. Social enterprise Foodcloud raised €70k from professional investors and has secured a major deal with Tesco. The Group/Event Management system Hive raised €50k seed funding from Enterprise Ireland and €100k from RTE’s Dragon’s Den, while Artomatix, who develop tools for automating digital media creation, secured €100k in venture funding.
Dr John Whelan, Programme Director at LaunchBox, said: “Trinity has always had high numbers of entrepreneurial students and now through LaunchBox there is a clear route for student start-ups to deploy their skills. In its first year 60% of the student startups in LaunchBox proved themselves by going on to raise significant professional investment.”
LaunchBox is representative of Trinity’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy, which seeks to deliver economic, cultural and social value through cultivation of an entrepreneurial campus with a focus on producing graduates who know how to create new jobs as well as to get them.
Professor Vinny Cahill, Dean of Research, added: “Trinity College is delighted to continue LaunchBox for a second year. The recent successes of our 2013 teams have underlined the benefits of this programme and served to reaffirm Trinity's commitment to producing graduates that can create jobs through innovation and entrepreneurship. LaunchBox gives students the opportunity to nurture their start-ups in an environment that offers guidance and support while encouraging creativity to create real impact for Ireland.”
Meet The Teams
Labcup – Eoin Mulvey, Rosa Langhammer, Gabor Radics
LabCup is a Chemical inventory management system for academic labs, with the goal of making research labs a more efficient and safer working environment.
LessonPrep.net – Lydia Flynn, Benedict Kuester, Justin Murphy, Heber Hanly, Anna Penalva
Lesson Prep aims to be the go-to place online for quality teaching resources (downloadables and video). We want to create an online community of teachers, make sure great teaching techniques travel, and improve the quality of teaching worldwide.
Aquachia – Paul Ianus, Luke Coffey
Aquachia is a combination of innovative packaging and new age ingredients resulting in a truly original beverage. Our drink is in line to be the most nutritious beverage on the European market
Light-house – Paul Mahony, Patrick Lynch, Paul Mannix
Light-house is an Intelligent, Automatic Lighting System for your home that knows when you need the lights on. Our LED lights can also generate a 60% energy saving on your bill.
SELFiT – Edward Majekodunmi, Nathaniel Ogden, Jack Costigan, Tom Guinness
SELFiT is a fashion focused mobile app. An early stage concept, during Launchbox 2014 we hope to finalise our comprehensive business strategy and develop a SELFiT prototype for future investment.
InDieVelopment – Alberto del Moral, Sohrab Farzaneh
InDieVelopment is a crowdsourcing social platform for indie video games that provides developers with a unique opportunity for raising funds, sharing resources, networking with peers and creating a loyal base of gamers who support the project through to completion.