A group of 10 start-ups from Northern Ireland is set to benefit from a funding boost following their successful completion of Catalyst’s Co-Founders programme.

The 10 companies will each get £10,000 proof-of-concept funding to further develop their ideas following the programme.

The Co-Founders programme is an annual entrepreneurship programme run by Northern Ireland tech innovation non-profit Catalyst. It launched the initiative in 2017.

The companies that have received the funding awards span sectors from fintech, health and well-being to education and climate tech. As well as receiving funding to develop their businesses, they also progress to the next stage of the Catalyst Co-Founders programme.

The second phase of the programme sees start-ups given access to mentors and industry specialists to accelerate their idea.

Having successfully passed the first stage of the Catalyst programme, the founders have already validated their ideas. The validation process involved testing their ideas in the real world, as well as developing a pitch for the £10,000 award.

Hannah Cummings, Co-Founders programme manager at Catalyst, said: “Co-Founders provides the opportunity for anyone with an entrepreneurial spark to come together and co-found a start-up in a supportive environment. We believe increasing the number of individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset will have huge benefits to the Northern Ireland economy.”

The winners of the first stage of the programme celebrated their success at an in-person showcase event in Belfast.

Catalyst’s Co-Founders programme is supported by the Department of the Economy in Northern Ireland. Last year’s programme funded the ideas of start-ups such as Belfast Lifestyle Medicine, an app for managing irritable bowel syndrome; Stable Pro, an online platform for managing horse wellbeing; and Atlas Fitness, a fitness app that uses machine learning to create custom workouts.

This year’s awardees were:

Pneuvo, a software platform designing better drugs to benefit humanity.
Insurin, a mobile app that aims to help newly diagnosed diabetics to manage their condition.
ProspectRx, an AI-directed precision medicine tool aimed at improving treatment options for poorly served patient populations.
MEDIK.AI, an AI tool making it easier to analyse symptoms and direct patients to appropriate medical services.
Stable Manager, an equestrian digital hub to quantify equine performance and simplify horse care.
Pocket Angler, a dedicated fishery management system for owners and real time travel partner for anglers.
Win it Together, a digital tool for fundraising raffles.
Tapa, a tool connecting students in university to local employers seeking workers.
Exapt Feedback, a tool making online learning work for everyone.
Unify, a business and brand-building platform for the creator economy.

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