Economic Development and Enterprise

IGNITE programme at UCC

The IGNITE programme at UCC, which nurtures start-ups from ideas to commercial reality, is celebrating ten years of success this year. The IGNITE programme has supported more than 120 start-ups led by recent graduates since its inception in 2011. Over that time the companies have created  250 jobs and raised more than €16 million in funding. 

Cork County Council is proud to support IGNITE together with University College Cork, Bank of Ireland, Cork City Council, the Local Enterprise Offices of Cork City, South Cork and North and West Cork.

Companies that have resulted from the IGNITE programme include ApisProtect, co-founded by Dr Fiona Edwards Murphy, Trustap founded by Conor Lyden. Legitfit, co-founded by Ryan O’Neill, Gearoid Collins and Ian O’Sullivan, Ezi-Vein, founded by Marie Casey and AnaBio Technologies, founded by Dr Sinead Bleiel.

IGNITE Director Eamon Curtin said: “We are very proud of all that has been created over the last ten years here at IGNITE. Our start-ups are building innovative businesses in a variety of sectors including food and agriculture, health and medical, business and financial with a key focus on having an economic, environmental or social impact. 

“Since 2011, the programme has evolved to meet changing needs and we now offer a comprehensive range of workshops, seminars and guest speaker events. Participants also get access to a wide network with over 100 entrepreneurs, business owners and industry executives contributing to the programme every year.”

As well as the full-time programme, IGNITE also offers a range of supports such as Start-Up Lab, an eight-evening programme, to help student and recent graduate founders to develop their ideas before progressing to IGNITE.

Anyone interested in finding out about IGNITE can register at the following link: IGNITE.

IGNITE highlights the 10 Years of Impact in a short video below or on YouTube.