Sigmoid Wins InterTradeIrelands Seedcorn Competition
Monday 12.12.05
100,000 Prize For Winner
At the final networking dinner in Dublin last night (December 6th), Sigmoid was announced as the overall winner of InterTradeIrelands All-Island Seedcorn Business Competition 2005. Chosen from eight finalists from all corners of the island, Sigmoid becomes the third winner of the competition since it was first run by InterTradeIrelands EquityNetwork in 2003.
All of us here at Sigmoid are delighted to win the Seedcorn Business Competition, stated Dr. Ivan Coulter, CEO of Sigmoid. The whole process has really helped us focus our business plan properly to go after equity funding and the 100,000 will be a huge benefit to accelerate our development.
Sigmoid aims to capture a significant niche market share within the $50Bn drug delivery industry with its Liquid/Emulsion Drug Delivery System (LEDDS). LEDDS is a new method for delivering drug treatments to specific locations within the gastro-intestinal (digestive) tract.
What this Competition demonstrates is that the island is filled with entrepreneurs with great ideas, Denis O’Brien, Chair of the Judging Panel, Chairman of Communicorp and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ireland pointed out. The latest figures indicate that we have over 300,000 entrepreneurs North and South and that we are topping the European league and closing on the world leaders, the Americans.
Previous winners Smart Homes (2004) and Luxcel Biosciences (2003) have credited their success in raising capital to the knowledge built up during the Seedcorn Competition.
Congratulations to Sigmoid, they had to get past some very tough opposition, explained Liam Nellis, CEO of InterTradeIreland. This year we had over 400 expressions of interest and 118 business plans submitted, 18 shortlisted companies and 8 regional winners. And the quality of business plans continues to rise each year.
The Seedcorn competition was open to individuals or groups of individuals based on the island of Ireland involved in a new venture seeking early stage and start up funding and must have been in existence for three years or less on 30th September 2005. In order to be eligible for selection, the companies could not have already raised private equity in excess of 1 million.