Barry Canton
BE 2002, MEngSc 2003
Barry Canton
Mechanical engineer Barry Canton is one of five founders of Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotech company at the foref...
Entrepreneurship
Dave Byrne
BComm International (French) 2018, MSc Finance 2020
Dave Byrne
Dave Byrne, co-founder and CEO of NovaUCDheadquartered software startup ReaDI-Watch, founded in 2021, launched the busin...
Conor O’Loughlin
MBS Finance 2010
Conor O’Loughlin
Conor O’Loughlin, a former scrum-half with Connacht Rugby, co-founded Glofox, the gym management software company, in...
Jerome O’Connell and Nick Holden
PhD 2012 - PhD 1992, MEngSc 1998
Jerome O’Connell and Nick Holden
Jerome O’Connell and Nick Holden’s NovaUCD spin-out agtech start-up, Proveye, has raised €1m in seed funding in a...
Sharon Keegan
GradCert 2017
Sharon Keegan
Sharon Keegan, who appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den series in 2021, raised €750,000 to expand her women’s athl...
Charlie Gleeson
BComm 2019
Charlie Gleeson
Charlie Gleeson, founder and CEO of Zipp Mobility, headquartered at NovaUCD, the hub for new ventures and entrepreneurs,...
Tom O’Connor
BE 1998
Tom O’Connor
Tom O’Connor, with business partner Kieran Cusack, was named Best Established Entrepreneur at the 25th EY Entrepreneur...
Michael McCambridge
BCL 1986, DipBS 1989
Michael McCambridge
Michael McCambridge of McCambridge’s Bread has been shortlisted in the Established category of the EY Entrepreneur of...
Barry Canton
BE 2002, MEngSc 2003
Mechanical engineer Barry Canton is one of five founders of Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotech company at the forefront of cell programming for applications in biopharma, agriculture, and industrial chemicals. It continues to experience impressive growth, going public on the NYSE in 2021 and with 1,200 staff today across locations in the US and Europe
Dave Byrne
BComm International (French) 2018, MSc Finance 2020
Dave Byrne, co-founder and CEO of NovaUCDheadquartered software startup ReaDI-Watch, founded in 2021, launched the business in Canada this year. The datadriven, cloud-based platform, which assists companies to manage R&D and innovation in real-time rather than retrospectively, has a customer base of Irish companies in multiple sectors.
Conor O’Loughlin
MBS Finance 2010
Conor O’Loughlin, a former scrum-half with Connacht Rugby, co-founded Glofox, the gym management software company, in 2017. Glofox has been acquired by US tech group ABC Fitness Solutions for more than €200m. The Glofox platform allows users to manage all aspects of their fitness business and has customers in more than 80 countries. It previously raised over €22m in investment.
Jerome O’Connell and Nick Holden
PhD 2012 - PhD 1992, MEngSc 1998
Jerome O’Connell and Nick Holden’s NovaUCD spin-out agtech start-up, Proveye, has raised €1m in seed funding in a round led by Inspire Investments and Enterprise Ireland. Proveye offers remote sensing image analysis for agriculture; its target customers are agricultural advisers, fertiliser and pesticide suppliers and food processors.
Sharon Keegan
GradCert 2017
Sharon Keegan, who appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den series in 2021, raised €750,000 to expand her women’s athleisure brand, Peachylean, best known for its colourful leggings. The company raised €500,000 from private investors and €250,000 from the High Potential Start-up Unit (HPSU) at Enterprise Ireland, which helps internationally focused start-ups to scale up. To date, Peachylean has operated mainly online but is starting to move into physical retail stores
Charlie Gleeson
BComm 2019
Charlie Gleeson, founder and CEO of Zipp Mobility, headquartered at NovaUCD, the hub for new ventures and entrepreneurs, signed a merger deal with rival Zeus Scooters, Ireland’s largest micromobility company. Zipp is a significant player in the European micromobility sharing market, having launched e-scooter and e-bike operations across Ireland, the UK and Poland. Zipp previously secured funding from Enterprise Ireland, Fasanara Capital and angel investors including UCD alumnus Brian O’Driscoll.
Tom O’Connor
BE 1998
Tom O’Connor, with business partner Kieran Cusack, was named Best Established Entrepreneur at the 25th EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2022. The pair founded their Limerick-based building and civil engineering contractor, Conack Construction, in 2008, and have grown it to be one of the biggest construction companies in Munster, winning contracts in both the public and private sectors and employing 200 people. Annual turnover is now in the region of €150m.
Michael McCambridge
BCL 1986, DipBS 1989
Michael McCambridge of McCambridge’s Bread has been shortlisted in the Established category of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2023. McCambridge’s Bread, which started in a small bakery in Ranelagh in 1945, is one of the best-known brands in Ireland making wholewheat, brown soda, seeded and gluten-free breads and mixes from two locations in Rathcoole. Michael joined the family business from Diageo in 1994, after the sudden death of his parents, John and Maureen, in a road accident.