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IRISH TECH ENTREPRENEURS are forced to “think global” which gives them an early edge on many of their European competitors.
Karl Aherne, the local head of international startup “accelerator” Wayra, said Ireland’s size meant new technology businesses needed ideas which would also work outside the country’s shores, unlike startups based in London or Berlin.
Our startups are automatically thinking globally because there is no money to be made in Dublin – it’s just too small,” he said.
Wayra Ireland recently took on another 9 tech startups to add to the portfolio of 21 companies it has helped push into the marketplace.
Each get a €50,000 funding injection and 9 months in the Wayra offices, where they get advice on selling and scaling their products
The quality of the businesses applying to join Wayra Ireland are equal to or better than at other locations,” Aherne said.
What’s a Wayra? And who are you calling a disruptor?
Wayra, which is backed by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, takes a stake in its chosen startups during their first, main investment rounds in return for the early support.
Selected startups, all of which come from the technology sector, have so far raised over €7.5 million in funding for their businesses, the company said.
Ahern said Wayra was looking for “disruptors” – entrepreneurs with the power to reinvent existing business models with their ideas – as well as startups with the potential to keep growing when their products were taken to a global market.
And here’s one of them
Restored Hearing, one of the latest round of startups to be chosen by Wayra, began life as a Young Scientist project when co-founders Rhona Togher and Eimear O’Carroll were doing their school leaving certificates in 2009.
They developed a new way of dealing with tinnitus – that annoying ringing in the ears that signals hearing loss – using sound to “massage” the inside of the ear back into supporting ailing hairs responsible for picking up audio.
Togher said their product cut treatment times for tinnitus sufferers from 2 hours a day to only 15 minutes.
Clients log onto the company’s website and listen through a pair of headphones for a claimed 15% improvement in their condition within a month.
“What we are hoping to do next is to take our product offline – we are hoping to launch that this year,” Togher said.
READ: Now there’s €40m up for grabs if software’s your bag
READ: Irish startup to develop breakthrough biotechnology test for major US clinic
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5%. Who makes this suff up! More like 25% at least.
@Cars: Facts mostly.
@Cars: it’s a rolling year stat….. It’s up 18.4% from January 2021. Maybe that’s what you refer to. Google “CSO CPI inflation calculator”….. An eye opening tool
@Daniel Roche: skewed statistics more like. If only it was 5%, that’s fairytale stuff to feed to the general population. The current government (and previous) failed miserably to deliver. Their only option to stand any chance of remaining in power will be to try indoctrinate the citizens with complete BS to paint a fictional picture of delivering.
Ii’ a lot more than that, grocery prices have soared.
5% ? put 2 if front or the 5 and it’s correct
Diesel gone up over 10c in Circle K in two weeks in Tallaght
@Eddienowy Byrne: same here in Wicklow
@Eddienowy Byrne: just in time now that the government are putting on 5c on Friday on diesel and 7c on petrol .. they hate giving people a break
@Gavin Kelly: That would imply that a break has ever been given.
@Gavin Kelly: Especially handy when they can claim their fuel and expenses.
@Gavin Kelly: That’s a lie and you know it,I’m not agreeing with it but at least tell the truth,that is a major problem and why people will vote FF or FG,they can’t trust the other side,better the devil you know, maybe tell the truth.
@George Vladisavljevic: You know the old saying ” All pigs are equal but some pigs are more equal”, Animal Farm.
5% and the rest. They having a laugh
Fuel rocketing back up as well since they put taxes back on ….this will lead to the increase of prices on everything
Full shopping bags are down 50%! And the Price has increased by 25%!
That’s just fact.
Who ever compiled this,please let us all know where you shop.
@Thomas: I shop in German supermarket and the numbers look about right to me, for the period over the last 12 months.
Definitely not 25% or even +40% as claimed here.
But maybe it’s my shopping habit – very little processed food on much meat either.
@Wolfgang Bonow: me also,the numbers may not be as high as 25 percent in some cases,but nothing is near as low as 5 percent.
@Wolfgang Bonow: even the German supermarkets have increased prices big time way more than the 5% spoke abouts.
They can no way still call themselves discount supermarkets
@Wolfgang Bonow: I do too.
But I noticed bread had increased in price by 17% between my last 2 visits.
These so called “journslist” from the journal printing lies and spreading falsehoods for the irish government..
Shame on you all at the journal,
@Adam: I agree,the authors of this article obviously know this is way down on the reality,but go ahead and publish it anyway.
Absolute rubbish. Inflation is really running at about 43% easily. I haven’t changed my spending at all and unfortunately for banks their apps are the real key to finding out just how bad inflation really is. My app had my spend at 43% higher than this time last year and I’ve actually cut back on certain things.
5%??? try 15 or 20% with some of the price increases ive seen lately……greed greed and more greed
They will most definitely need revision,
Brown Thomas getting a Lidl ‘middle isle’ this week apparently
It can’t be that number…. Most of the prices have increased by 30 to 50 percent… That are lying.
5%? Do they take us for fools or what…And as a lot of comments state the fuel increases will add to inflation even more, not to mention the carbon tax coming in the budget.
have your say