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YOUNG entrepreneurs from Killarney and Ballyhar were among Kerry’s brightest and best who took a bow when they received top accolades this week. Some €50,000 investment fund presented by Local Enterprise Office Kerry to six young entrepreneurs in the county, all aged between 18 and 35.

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.

Jessica Clinton and Michael Lenihan of Ballyhar Foods were category runners-up in the Best Established Business category of the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) county finals which took place in the Ballygarry House Hotel on Wednesday.

The category runners-up also shared an investment of €13,000 between their three businesses. The other runners-up were: Rowan Copeland, aged 21, Castlegregory in the Best Business Idea category with Go Yeti; and Joseph Moynihan, aged 27, JM Agri-Design, Tralee, in the Best Start-Up 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.
 

 
Front, Tomás Hayes, Kerry LEO, Mayor Michael O'Shea, winner Derek Counihan, Jerry Moloney, Enterprise Ireland; back, David Monson, Jessica Clinton, Rowan Copeland, Padraig O'Leary and Joseph Moynihan. PICTURE: DOMNICK WALSH