by Alan Jacques
AN 18-year-old Clarina businessman who is working to save Irish farmers on their fertiliser bills has won Limerick’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition.
Christopher Kelly of Talamh, a provider of tech solutions to the agriculture sector, was also named winner of the ‘Best Start-Up Business’ category of the competition, which was organised by the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Limerick.
His company’s Blue-Box product aims to achieve significant savings for Irish farmers on their fertiliser bills by identifying what parts of the farm most need fertilising.
Patrickswell native Kieran Normoyle (25) of Deviate Aspire, which is currently developing a simple to use technology that mitigates the effects of hypothermia, won the ‘Best New Business – Trading up to 24 months’ category.
29-year-old Mark Sheahan from Grange of Recycle Right was named winner of the ‘Best Established Business – Trading more than 24 months’ category. The domestic waste collection and recycling service currently has in excess of 5,000 customers, nine staff and is one of the fastest growing collection companies in Ireland.
The three local category winners, who will share a total investment fund of €50,000 being offered through LEO Limerick, now proceed to a regional competition with the winners from the region progressing to the national stage of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition.
Supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland, the competition is designed to seek out and support entrepreneurial talent across the country and features an Investment Fund of €100,000 to be shared among the national winners.
Head of Enterprise at LEO Limerick, Eamon Ryan said he looked forward to supporting all of this year’s finalists over the coming months and years by assisting them to further develop their business models.
“We will also be supporting our three category winners as they proudly fly the flag for Limerick, competing against other young entrepreneurs in the region for a place at the prestigious national final,” said Mr Ryan.
