The announcement came after 10 teams of student entrepreneurs sought capital investment from venture capitalists and angel investors as part of LaunchBox 2022. The final, known as Demo Day, took place on 2nd September and saw the shortlisted teams pitch their companies to seek support to accelerate their start-ups. A myriad of industries were represented by the young entrepreneurs on the day, from esports and circular fashion to quantum computing.

Ecode was founded by students Elise Vens, Emmet Lowry, and Nathan Gaborieau, pictured above with Tangent's Head of Entrepreneurship Gavan Drohan.  The trio has invented a circular fashion communication platform that empowers consumers to make more informed, sustainable decisions online and in-store.

“Ecode aims to be the go-to sustainability hub for conscious fashion. With QR codes on items and plugins on e-commerce websites, we enable brands to communicate their sustainability efforts allowing consumers to make conscious decisions. By giving insight on how to take care of your clothing and repair, recycle or reuse them, we extend our impact further than the store and enhance circularity,” the students explained.

All three students studied in Trinity for Phase 1 (September 2021-Feb 2022) of the CHARM-EU masters which is how they found out about Launchbox. For Phase 2 in February all three moved to ELTE in Budapest to follow the ‘Food’ track, but they came back early to participate in Launchbox. LaunchBox, sponsored by Bank of Ireland and hosted by Tangent, provides students with mentorship, funding, access to alumni and investors, and a collaborative environment to launch new ventures. Following an application period which saw overwhelming interest, 10 teams collectively representing nine Trinity schools were selected to partake in the programme, the oldest of its kind in Ireland.