‘One to Watch Award’ Presented to Start-up with Best Pitch at Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas 2018

Twelve start-ups pitched their new technology solutions to investors at the 10^th annual innovation showcase event

Yesterday evening, Kellie Adamson of SepTec was presented with the “One to Watch Award” at Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas 2018. SepTec was one of 12 investor-ready start-up companies to pitch their new technology solutions to investors at Enterprise Ireland’s annual showcase of start-up innovation emerging from higher education institutes at the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin.

The award was presented to Kellie Adamson, SepTec Co-Founder, for the outstanding pitch of the day. Each start-up had just three minutes to promote their innovations and business propositions to an invited audience made up of the Irish research and business communities.

SepTec has developed an exciting new solution for rapid, sensitive and cost-effective sepsis diagnosis. Sepsis is the body’s life-threatening immune response to the presence of bacteria in the blood or other infection and can claim lives within hours. SepTec’s exclusive approach is designed to achieve more rapid and automated pathogen identification in minutes, not hours. The technology can detect sepsis associated pathogens in whole blood within 15 minutes.

In its 10th year, the Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas event illustrates the commercialisation potential of the academic research emerging from Ireland’s higher education system across a range of sectors. This year’s Big Ideas included software which allows you to de-mix music and separate sound, a new medical device to diagnose concussion in seconds and a breakthrough treatment for pancreatic cancer.

Speaking at the event, Julie Sinnamon, CEO, Enterprise Ireland said: “Start-up businesses that spin-out from research are the result of successful collaboration between Higher Education, State Agencies, Investors and Business. These spin-outs are an important source of start-ups for Enterprise Ireland because they tend to be based on disruptive technology, so investors looking to get in early on the next big thing, have come to the right place. Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas event, which is in its 10^th year, is a window on world-class research being carried out in academic institutions all over the country. Many of the companies profiled here have gone on to achieve global success.  I warmly congratulate Kellie Adamson from SepTec on winning the “One to Watch’’ Award.  We hope to work with the company to help them realise their commercial potential and bring their innovation to new markets”.

The keynote speaker at Big Ideas 2018 was author Mark Gallagher who spent much of his career in Formula One. He provided fascinating insights from the world of motorsport and used his experiences of how the Formula One industry transformed itself to discuss “Business innovation in the fast lane”.

Gearoid Mooney, Divisional Manager, Research and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland added: “Enterprise Ireland helps shape and develop Ireland’s market-driven research and development capabilities to meet business needs. We work with research institutes to help with the discovery, protection and transfer of commercially valuable intellectual property, accelerating the process of business start-up and growth. Many of our former Big Ideas participants have gone on to achieve success. Companies like Artomatix, nearForm and Soapbox Labs have all taken to the Big Ideas stage over the last decade to showcase their innovative propositions to the business community. Given the quality and business potential of the pitches here today, there is a little doubt that many of these Big Ideas will become profitable ideas in the future.”

Full details on the event are available at www.bigideas.ie