10 Ambitious Founders Celebrated At The New Frontiers Waterford Showcase Event

The Glassworks enterprise and innovation campus (formerly the Waterford Crystal manufacturing site), located beside the South East Technological University’s (SETU) academic and research facilities, was the setting for the recent Phase 2 showcase event celebrating the 10 founders graduating from the New Frontiers in Waterford.

The event was attended by a range of stakeholders from the local and national startup ecosystem, including Dr Patricia Bowe, Head of Department of Management and Organisation at SETU; Ciara Concannon, National New Frontiers Programme Manager at Enterprise Ireland; and Brian Fives, South East Regional Development at Enterprise Ireland.

Nine of the 10 founders presented five-minute pitches showcasing their ventures, with two participants recognised with special awards:

• Best Business Opportunity Award: Leo Moore of Subbie (sponsored by Klearcom)
• Most Innovative Business Idea Award: Feargal Máirtín of SúilSiar Teoranta (sponsored by Scurri)

The two winners received a cash prize of €1,000 from the sponsors as well as a handmade trophy created by the Irish Handmade Glass Company, a former participant company of the New Frontiers programme in Waterford. The judging panel was composed of Sandra Whelan, COO of ENGAGE XR; Liam Dunne, CEO of Klearcom; and Brian Casey, Lead for SETU Professional Doctorate in Design.

The guest speaker at the event was programme alumnus Rory O’Connor of Scurri. He traced his own startup journey for the audience, sharing insights from his time on New Frontiers and what came next – building a technology business that powers more than 200 million parcel deliveries annually.

Guided by Programme Manager Dr Eugene Crehan, the founders on this year’s programme have been developing solutions for market challenges that range from business intelligence to healthcare and equine management to fertility care and AI governance.

Eugene congratulated the cohort, saying, “I know that it has been both busy and challenging, at times, and I’d like to thank you for your engagement with me and with the programme facilitators and mentors throughout the programme. 

“I would like to say ‘Well done’ on your dedication in staying focused on the market opportunity, increasing your knowledge of your market all the time while you work on developing solutions for your target market customers.

“I hope that you can continue on your growth trajectories and that several of you will follow in the footsteps of some of our former Waterford New Frontiers participants, like Rory and others, who scaled their businesses securing private sector investments and Enterprise Ireland’s PSSF and HPSU funding.”

The New Frontiers cohort in Waterford

The graduates from Waterford are:

Sean Hancox of Aonsight

Aonsight simplifies business intelligence with affordable, unified tools for prospecting, market research and hyper-local insights, empowering smarter decisions across organisations.

Tamara Tetiura of Stable Manager

A multilingual digital platform helping stables, riding schools, and racing yards organise horses, staff, schedules, and all operations in one place.

John McGovern of Resolve No Shows

Missed appointments cost service thousands every month. Resolve No Shows recovers that capacity automatically.

Shane Doherty of Huwmo

Huwmo helps independent hotels reduce Booking.com dependency by sending discounted deals to a shared guest community when low demand is detected. Hotels earn commission when guests they onboard book at other partner hotels.

Gavin Pedley of Fertally

Fertally is a digital fertility companion that connects patients, clinicians and evidence. By harnessing the power of machine learning, biomarker data and predictive analytics, Fertally aims to increase patients chances of success, reduce clinic workloads and improve the fertility treatment experience.

Leo Moore of Subbie

Subbie automates the collection and calculation of SaaS metrics like ARR, Churn, NRR, and LTV across all payment sources, giving you audit-ready, real-time actionable insights without the manual spreadsheet grind.

Azadeh Beizaei of AziraMed Strategy

AziraMed is a regulatory technology venture developing an AI-powered regulatory intelligence SaaS platform designed to automate and optimise regulatory submission workflows for pharmaceutical and veterinary pharmaceutical companies.

Feargal Máirtín of SúilSiar Teoranta

Súil Siar is an intelligent EdTech platform powering bilingual and minority language education. Our flagship product delivers the entire post-primary curriculum through Irish providing a proven, scalable model ready for international expansion.

Christian Albrecht of ATLAS by AuthNGo

Ireland’s sovereign AI workspace that never forgets. Model-agnostic, privacy-first AI with full EU data sovereignty. Enterprise capability at accessible pricing.

Stephen Dwyer of CloudMount

CloudMount provides real-time, multi-dimensional AI compliance through advanced detection frameworks aligned with UNESCO, NIST, and EU AI Act standards.

Best of luck to these founders as they take the next steps with their businesses!

Phase 3 participants

Ciara Concannon also announced the participants who have been successful in securing a spot on Phase 3 of the programme, which provides follow-on support that includes funding and mentoring. Congratulations to:

• Shane Doherty of Huwmo
• John McGovern of Resolve No Shows
• Leo Moore of Subbie
• Stephen Dwyer of CloudMount

Calling startup founders near Waterford

The New Frontiers programme in Waterford is based in Xcelerate, one of two SETU business incubators that offers a supportive and open atmosphere enabling businesses to develop through collaboration and innovation. The New Frontiers Programme Manager at South East Technological University’s Waterford Campus is Dr Eugene Crehan. Find out more about Eugene and our Waterford location or see our upcoming application deadlines.