€25,000 Cash Prize for Ireland's Brightest Sparks at Web Summit 

With the countdown to the 2014 Web Summit underway, the finalists of Ireland’s most prestigious start-up competition, the ESB Spark of Genius Award, have been revealed. The shortlist includes 30 high potential young Irish companies, representing the best of the Irish smart economy with innovative solutions in the areas of smart technology, mobile marketing and various other creative business areas. Past winners of the ESB Spark of Genius include SmartThings, recently acquired by Samsung for a reported $200m, as well as Viddyad and Datahug. 

These 30 companies will pitch to a panel of five judges at the ESB Spark of Genius Day on September 17^th in the NDRC with the three finalists announced at the end of the day. The three finalists will then go onto pitch their business at the Web Summit on November 4^th and the winner will be presented with the award and a cash prize of €25,000 plus a range of services to assist them in the start-up phase.

Representing the judging panel, Eamon Leonard, Chief Community Officer and Entrepreneur in Residence at Web Summit, "We are delighted with the quality final field for ESB's Spark of Genius this year. Over the past number of years the competition has consistently shown the best of Irish start-ups and we'll hopefully have more success stories from this final shortlist. Having just joined the Web Summit as their Chief Community Officer, I'm personally really excited to help the Irish tech start-ups community grow and achieve success internationally and Spark of Genius is a big part of shining a light on that community."

Speaking about the shortlist, Bernardine Maloney, Head of Communications at ESB said, “We are delighted at how the ESB Spark of Genius competition at the Web Summit has gone from strength to strength attracting an outstanding calibre of companies. Our challenge now is the difficult task of selecting 3 finalists from the 30 shortlisted, who have set a really high standard.  ESB is proud to support the growth of Irish entrepreneurs and very proud of the success of previous winners of this competition. We wish every competing company the best of luck in the next round.”

Over 20,000 people will attend Web Summit this year. Keynote speakers include Peter Thiel, PayPal founder, ‘Entourage’ actor and founder of Shift.com, Adrian Grenier, the founder of Dropbox, Drew Houston, former CEO of Apple, John Sculley and CEO of Evernote Phil Libin.

Tickets are limited and available at www.websummit.net

30 Shortlisted Companies

Adoreboard

Adoreboard predicts and monitors how people feel about brands online, helping executives make smarter business decisions

http://www.adoreboard.com/

Bizimply

Bizimply is the platform for managing the daily life of your business.

http://www.bizimply.com

BullorBear

The Social Gaming Platform.

www.bullorbear.com

Clinch

Clinch helps you embed the talent acquisition process into your company at an early stage to make hiring easier, faster and cheaper.

https://clinch.io

CloudDock

CloudDock makes cloud storage services compatible, enabling, for example, Dropbox users to collaborate seamlessly with Google Drive users.

https://clouddock.co/

Fab All Things

FabAllThings is an interactive design platform that connects customers with unique, customizable, 3d printed products.

http://www.faballthings.com/

FoneSense

We work with brands to help them to amplify their message through audio and visual engagement and reward brand ambassadors.

http://fonesense.com/

Fund Recs

Fund Recs develops cloud based reconciliation software for the Funds Industry, replacing prehistoric enterprise software with SaaS.

https://www.fundrecs.com/

Haskoin

We build open­source software to make Bitcoin accessible to developers and enterprises. http://haskoin.com/

I've Read That

I'veReadThat is an industry backed book discussion and discovery platform which harnesses the most sophisticated recommendation engine: you.

http://www.ivereadthat.com/

Indigo

60% of all flights are followed by a paid airport­to­city transfer service. These are hard to buy in advance online. We make it possible.

www.indigo-connect.com

journie

Analysing online conversations for brand owners, filtering out the most relevant, high quality content. Helping to build strong reputations.

http://journ.ie/

KonnectAgain

KonnectAgain is reinventing alumni relations for colleges and companies to help them unlock the true potential of their alumni.

https://www.konnectagain.com

Legalshine

Legalshine is a tool for large organisations to control their legal costs. It analyses legal bills and uses the data to eliminate waste.

http://legalshinehq.com/

Locatible

Indoor positioning accurate to within 3 feet, with turn by turn directions, voice integration, enormous analytics in real time.

http://locatible.com/

LogoGrab

Unleashing the power of your Brand. Harnessing the potential contained within the logo to Engage, Measure and Profile customers.

http://www.logograb.com/

Medxnote

Medxnote is a secure mobile messaging app for hospitals. Some people describe it as “WhatsApp for Healthcare"

http://medxnote.com/

OPSH

Opsh is shopping made simple. Shop across all of your favourite fashion stores with just one checkout.

http://www.opsh.com/

Popdeem

Popdeem is a social marketing platform that allows brands to reward their customers for sharing local brand experiences.

http://popdeem.com/

Prospr

Prospr is the glue that connects coaches with their clients, and helps them communicate with each other more effectively.

http://www.prosprhealth.com/

Restored Hearing

Restored Hearing provides scientific solutions to problems with hearing. Our mission is to protect people from tinnitus and promote healthy hearing.

https://restoredhearing.com/

RunLastMan.com

RunLastMan.com allows you to run live sports prediction games on our website to raise funds for a club or charity, or for fun with friends.

www.RunLastMan.com

Sedicii

Sedicii is used to identify and authenticate people without exposing their private information http://www.sedicii.com/

Simteractive

Simteractive is a highly ambitious Dublin­based game development startup with a vision to revamp the lucrative mobile sim game market.

http://simteractive.com/

SocialArcade

Social Arcade is an online, drag & drop template service for launching multi-platform, branded Apps, Quizzes and Games – aimed at Creative Agencies and SME’s as a tool for competition and engagement.

http://www.socialarcadea

Tender Scout

TenderScout SaaS increases your likelihood of success when competing for public sector contracts

http://www.tenderscout.com/

TracknStop

The end of the road for car theft. Lifesaving technology software and hardware to track, disable & stop vehicles remotely.

http://www.tracknstop.com/

Vconnecta

Vconnecta's technology provides field driven insights that transform how organisations manage community engagement.

http://www.vconnecta.com/

WhatSalon

A mobile application that allows you to browse and instantly book hair & beauty appointments through our integration with salon software.

http://www.whatsalon.com/

Xpreso

Xpreso solves the last mile problem by connecting couriers and consumers in real time, putting online customers in control of their parcels.

http://xpreso.com/