A LIMERICK agritech company has scooped a national prize at the InterTradeIreland all-island Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition.
Cotter Agritech, founded by brothers Nick and Jack Cotter, was named as Best New Start at the awards, earning the top prize of €50,000.
The company also took home an additional €20,000 after being awarded the competition’s Sustainability / Low Carbon Award in recognition of its work in the low carbon and sustainability sector.
Cotter Agritech developed SmartWorm a mobile app which uses in-house developed, proprietary advanced algorithms that consider a range of physiological and environmental factors that will allow farmers to assess individual animals and predict if they require an anti-parasitic treatment or not in real time.
Nick Cotter, CEO and co-founder of Cotter Agritech, said that the award brings validation in the work he and his brother are doing.
“We’re in the middle of trying to raise a €450,000 seed round, so in terms of closing that round, this will really accelerate that. It gives us huge credibility and the process of the competition has been hugely beneficial in terms of refining our pitch and our story that we’re trying to tell,” the Limerick man outlined.
“It’s now resonating with investors. It’s been fundamental to our progress to date and it’s going to be a launch pad for us to go and raise that investment round and achieve the ambitions we set out to achieve. We’re deploying our product in Australia and New Zealand next year, so our aim is to deliver to farmers there and increase their profitability by up to 20 per cent.”
