Kerry County Council Local Enterprise awards PASSWORD

KCC-Kerry’s-Best-Young-Entrepreneur-1 REPRO FREE 23.11.16 The overall “Best Young Entrepreneur” for the county was named by Local Enterprise Office Kerry as Derek Counihan, age 32 from Tralee, who founded the company Harpoon. This business provides services to support businesses monetise their digital marketing using up to date technology. The entrepreneur also won the category for Best Start-Up Business and an investment fund from LEO Kerry worth €15,000. PRESS INFO - Kerry’s Best Young Entrepreneurs Announced €50,000 investment fund presented by Local Enterprise Office Kerry to six young entrepreneurs in the county, all aged between 18 and 35.Kerry’s best young entrepreneurs have been announced at the County Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition, which took place in the Ballygarry House Hotel earlier today.IBYE, which has a €2 million investment fund, is run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) and is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. A total of €50,000 was awarded in prizes across three different categories including best Business Idea, Best Start Up Business and Best Established Business.The overall “Best Young Entrepreneur” for the county was named by Local Enterprise Office Kerry as Derek Counihan, age 32 from Tralee, who founded the company Harpoon. This business provides services to support businesses monetise their digital marketing using up to date technology. The entrepreneur also won the category for Best Start-Up Business and an investment fund from LEO Kerry worth €15,000.The other main category winners on the day were Pádraig O’Leary, age 33, from Killarney who won the Best Business Idea with his business Cora. Cora will provide cloud based services to assist pharmacies optimize their revenue streams through non core activities. Pádraig won a prize of €7,000.David Monson, aged 31, from Ballyheigue, of Monson Irish Jewellery, won the Best Established Business category and a prize of €15,000. All three category winners will now be representing the County at one of eight IBYE Regional Finals, taking place during January and February 2017.Meanwhile, the category runners-up also shared an investment of €13,000 between their three businesses. They were: Rowan Copeland, aged 21, Castlegregory in the Best Business Idea category with Go Yeti; Joseph Moynihan, aged 27, JM Agri-Design, Tralee in the Best Start-Up Business category and Jessica Clinton, aged 34, Ballyhar Foods, in the Best Established Business category.Tomás Hayes, the Head of Local Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Kerry said: “Our office started the search to find Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur in August and the competition received a record-breaking number of entries this year, with 1,800 young entrepreneurs applying nationally. After a very successful IBYE bootcamp and County Final, the future is bright for both youth entrepreneurship and job creation in the region.”These sentiments were echoed by Moira Murrell, the Chief Executive of Kerry County Council who commended the participants on the very high standard of the applications received.Special guests at the IBYE County Final included the Mayor of Kerry, Cllr Michael O’Shea, Jerry Moloney, Regional Manager of Enterprise Ireland and Moira Murrell, Chief Executive of Kerry County Council.The Regional Finals for IBYE to select 24 national finalists across the three competition categories will take place in January and February 2017. Further details on the competition and supports available to young entrepreneurs are available through www.localenterprise.ie and from the IBYE website at www.ibye.ie. ENDSFor media queries, please contact your Local Enterprise Office.Notes to Editor:About IBYE: www.ibye.ie• Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur is an enterprise initiative run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) around the country and funded by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. A €2 million investment fund is available through IBYE which supports young entrepreneurs through training, mentoring and direct financial investments.• Now in its third year, IBYE was open to people between the ages of 18 (at date of application) and 35 (at 31st December 2016) with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business, including: individuals, venture teams, partnerships, existing businesses with a new idea, or people overseas (including Irish emigrants) who will headquarter in Ireland.• Each LEO has a total fund of up to €50,000 to invest in six businesses (three category winners and three runners-up) according to criteria including businesses’ investment needs. The three categories are as follows:- Best Business Idea(pre-trading) – up to €10,000 investment fund through every LEO (€7,000 for category winner and €3,000 for runner-up, through every LEO) - Best Start-Up Business(up to 36 months), with up to €20,000 investment fund through every LEO (€15,000 for category winner and €5,000 for runner-up, through every LEO) - Best Established Business(over 36 months) with up to €20,000 investment fund through every LEO (€15,000 for category winner and €5,000 for runner-up, through every LEO)• The county winners will now proceed to eight regional finals in January and February 2017 from which 24 contenders (three from each region – one in each category) will be selected to compete for the national title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur. • A further €100,000 investment fund will be available to invest in the winners of the three categories at the national final, one of which will also be named as “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur. Photo By : Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD © Tralee Co Kerry Ireland Phone Mobile 087 / 2672033 L/Line 066 71 22 981 E/mail - info@dwalshphoto.ie www.dwalshphoto.com

Kerry County Council Local Enterprise awards PASSWORD