Launchbox kicks off sixth year with 10 new student teams

Student accelerator programme Launchbox has kicked off with 10 new teams, with projects ranging from assistive care technology to booking platforms for live events.

The programme, which is managed by Trinity College's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub in partnership with Bank of Ireland, offers entrepreneurs mentorship, funding, and access to alumni and investors.

This is the sixth year of the accelerator, with 50 student ventures that have come through the programme creating 122 jobs and raising €6.3 million in investment and funding. Among previous participants are social enterprise Foodcloud and software firm Artomatix.

"It's very exciting to be welcoming another 10 student companies onto Trinity's student accelerator programme," said chief executive of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub, Trinity College Dublin, Fionnuala Healy. "LaunchBox is a great opportunity for students to work on their business idea with mentors over the summer and Demo Day is always a highlight of the year in Trinity."

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Among the teams in the 2018 programme are Change, which will allow people to donate money by rounding up their credit and debit card payments to a whole number and donating the extra cents and euro to charities; Bop, which is developing a way to identify, highlight and destroy bacteria and other dangerous bugs; and Enablearm, which is building assistive facial care products such as shaving devices. Greener Globe produces an LED-timed shower-head, which is designed to save water and mone, while Dockit has developed a mobile application for waiting staff that aims to reduce waste, improve sales and increase customer satisfaction.

Bank of Ireland came on board as a partner in 2014.

"Ireland's continued achievements in enterprise and innovation can only be assured through support for programmes like this," said head of enterprise and innovation at Bank of Ireland, David Tighe. "LaunchBox's focus on early stage business development, and on empowering entrepreneurship and collaboration, is hugely important for our communities and through our community programmes Bank of Ireland continues to support this mission."