Welcoming the IPOready class of 2019/2020!
Last week, we kicked off the IPOready programme for 2019 and 2020.
Now in its third year, this year marks our biggest year yet with 14 companies participating — 10 of which are based in the technology sector.
IPOready Overview
IPOready is our strategic financing programme for high-growth companies exploring fundraising options up to and including Initial Public Offering.
The objective of the programme is to equip participating companies with an in-depth understanding of all sources of finance available to them and to help them determine which is most suited to their needs.
By the time these companies graduate in 10 months’ time, the participating founders and entrepreneurs will have:
- learned about the various sources of strategic finance, including IPO;
- developed the skills to get their business ready for large scale investment;
- refined their pitch for investors; and
- built a valuable network of peers, advisors and investors
The participants!
- Akari Software: Akari Software’s Curriculum Solutions Suite provides comprehensive, easy-to-use online Curriculum Management Software for managing the design, delivery, publication, cost-effectiveness and quality of education courses throughout all stages of the curriculum lifecycle.
- AMCS Group: AMCS is the creator of the AMCS platform which is an enterprise grade cloud and software platform that is designed based on the best practice processes of thousands of waste and recycling companies across the globe.
- Brightwater Selection: Brightwater is Ireland’s leading independent recruitment consultancy, founded in 1998, with offices in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.
- Business Post Media Group: The Sunday Business Post is a traditional, profitable print and publishing business which is being reinvented as a digital media, events and business service enterprise.
- Camile Thai: Camile is Ireland’s market leading Thai restaurant brand focusing on health and wellness and sustainability. The group is currently operating 21 restaurants across 5 cities and rapidly expanding across Ireland and London, with the chain planned to reach 30 restaurants by the end of 2019.
- Cora Systems: Cora Systems is a worldwide leader in providing enterprise project and portfolio management solutions to global organisations and government agencies. Cora helps its clients manage large-scale programmes and portfolios of projects, giving project managers and C-level executives the control, governance and insight to make better decisions.
- Cubic Telecom: Cubic Telecom is a global connectivity platform company offering solutions for leading Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) and device manufacturing companies across the globe.
- HealthBeacon: HealthBeacon was founded to create an innovative Digital Health solution to target the problem of medical adherence for high value pharmaceuticals in chronic cases such as Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohn’s Disease and various respiratory conditions.
- Hub Controls: Hub Controls’ mission is to help households to control their utility bills. At HUB Controls they want to eliminate domestic energy wastage, ultimately enabling households to transition to cleaner energy sources. Their first product is the HUB Controller.
- NewsWhip: NewsWhip is the emerging global leader in content intelligence, giving Fortune 500 brands, PR firms, and media companies insight into the spread of news, information and ideas. NewsWhip’s platform tracks millions of stories and events from across the web and social media, using patented algorithms to predict engagement with each one.
- O’Brien Fine Foods: O’Brien Fine Foods is a family business that produces a range of cooked meats products (ham, chicken, turkey and beef) under its brands, Brady Family, Homebird and Greene Farm and retailer brands, Dunnes Simply Better, Tesco Finest, Lidl Delux and Super Valu Signature Taste for the retail sector in Ireland and the UK.
- Spearline: Spearline is a leading market intelligence company in the telecommunications industry. For the last 10 years, the Spearline platform has enabled large enterprises and telecommunications service providers to test connectivity and quality on their global telecoms network. Operating in over 70 countries, the data gathered by the Spearline platform allows companies to greatly reduce downtime and improve their customer experience.
- Wisetek: Founded on 2008, the initial purpose of Wisetek was to provide an outsourced solution for reverse logistics, e-waste recycling and IT asset disposition services. In the ten years to 2017, Wisetek expanded its service offerings and customer base to provide a global end to end service for managing used IT systems.
- Xtremepush: Xtremepush is a multi-channel engagement platform that enables clients to understand their end prospects & customers within mobile apps, mobile website or desktop and automate relevant engagement across all these digital channels.
Inauguration Day
In Thursday’s inauguration session, held in the Morrison hotel on Dublin’s North Quays, the list of companies was unveiled and all of the participants were introduced to each other.
Maurice Pratt, Chairman of Uniphar PLC, Euronext Dublin’s most recent IPO, opened up the inauguration day by telling the candidates about his multiple experiences with public markets.
Maurice’s opening remarks were followed by a brief overview of the programme and modules from Euronext Dublin’s Head of Equity Listing, Orla O’Gorman, and Listing Account Manager Niall Jones, after which we heard from our partners, Enterprise Ireland and ISIF.
To learn more about each of the companies, representatives from each company were invited to give a 7-minute presentation about their businesses.
In the middle of the session, we hosted a panel discussion with the programme mentors so that the entire cohort of participants would become acquainted with the mentors, their backgrounds and expertise. The mentors for this year are as follows: Paul Burke, Kevin Keating, Paul Lynch, Hugh McCutcheon and John Tracey
After concluding the formalities, we hosted the first of many group dinners and drinks — where the participants can really get to know each other!
We’re thrilled with the diversity and breadth of businesses (and personalities!) and cannot wait to dive into this year’s modules and content.
We will continue to document our journey along the way — and if you have any questions about the programme or would like to enquire about becoming a participant for next year, please contact IPOready@Euronext.com
