From controllers for gamers with disabilities to food waste monitoring, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland gives savvy startups the boost they need, writes Deanna O’Connor

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland supports social entrepreneurs working to achieve a social, societal, or environmental impact, along their journey from early stages, moving from ideas to action, and through pilot projects. Since its foundation in 2004, SEI has supported over 500 social entrepreneurs, whose work has affected the lives of millions of people.

Some of its best-known alumni enterprises include FoodCloud, AgriKids, Grow It Yourself (GIY), Fighting Words, Anam Cara and Grow Remote. With such a broad range of sectors and ideas represented, the common thread is simply good ideas that help people.

SEI’s Impact programme is a nine-month accelerator programme that identifies high-potential social entrepreneurs who are already on the path to success.

The programme supports them with significant funding and mentoring, as well as providing access to a network of support. Impact awardees receive training in areas such as fundraising, governance, leadership, and storytelling.

The 2021 programme attracted 110 applications from all corners of Ireland, with five organisations successfully pitching for places.

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The five organisations, who are addressing social problems through innovative solutions, each received €20,000 in unrestricted funding and nine months of bespoke support to help them grow their impact.

The 2021 cohort of recipients tackled issues including food waste (Positive Carbon), inequalities for multilingual families (Mother Tongues), a lack of supports for people with dyslexia (Peer Educational Technologies), the need for increased grief education (Shapes of Grief), and the exclusion and isolation caused by inaccessible games controllers (ByoWave).

Commenting on the Impact programme, SEI chief executive Tim Griffiths says: “It was a privilege to work with the five Impact awardees over the past nine months. We are very proud of the strides they have taken as part of the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Impact programme and look forward to seeing how they will continue to grow and improve the lives of people all over Ireland.”

Case Study: Positive Carbon

Aisling Kirwan and Mark Kirwan (no relation) founded Positive Carbon when they were both working with FoodCloud. Their patented AI-powered technology works by using a sensor positioned over waste bins to monitor food waste, assigning it to different categories which allows food businesses to track what is being wasted, and make positive changes, and savings.

When they joined the Impact programme, Aisling says they were ready for expansion. “We had fully completed commercial and technical pilots with a small group of customers and were looking to launch significantly more at that point — the timing of it was very good.”

For Aisling, her key takeaway from the programme workshops was around storytelling: “Being able to take something that’s quite complex and get it down as concisely as possible to be able to communicate your message to investors was very beneficial. They don't need to know every aspect of it, or every feature that's ever existed.”

Being part of a network of other start-ups with similar concerns was an unexpected highlight.

“An auxiliary benefit is being in that community. Some of my favourite parts were the breaks between workshops where everyone was chatting. It’s a safe space to be able to say things that are giving you a headache. These people are going through the same things you are, and it’s really beneficial being able to chat things out in that group.”

Reflecting on how far they have come since joining the programme, Aisling describes it as “huge leaps”. With the Positive Carbon customer base increased sixfold, they have recently announced signing their largest contract to date with KSG.

The food services group delivers restaurant, café and hospitality services in 120 locations around Ireland and are installing the Positive Carbon food waste measurement system at ten of their sites in 2022.

“Groups like KSG are looking for sustainable businesses to work with,” Aisling notes, and says the seal of approval from SEI “gives that recognition for those companies seeking you out and understanding what it is you’re trying to do”.

Case Study: ByoWave

When childhood friends and avid gamers Brandon Blacoe and Eibhlin O’Riordan reconnected at a game jam in early 2020, the idea for ByoWave formed. Eibhlin, who suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disease that weakens the connective tissues, couldn’t find gaming controls to suit her needs. Brandon, a biomedical and electronic engineer, had the know-how to make a custom controller for her.

Together they formed ByoWave to make customisable modular video game controllers for people with disabilities, enabling users to configure the pieces of kit in the way that best suits their range of movement, and access the entertainment and socialisation that gaming can provide.

They posted early prototypes on Reddit and, with great interest from the disabled gaming community, started making them using 3D printing. “At this point we knew that if we were to make a viable business out of it, we had to scale it,” Brandon states.

When they entered the Impact programme, the funding enabled them to build 50 advanced demo units. “In a hardware company, ultimately the biggest barrier to entry is having money to prototype.

So that cash injection allowed us to have units tested more quickly, from both a technical perspective and a customer requirement perspective — which is everything for what we are doing.”

The programme also proved invaluable to ByoWave in terms of practicalities such as engaging with PR and media and preparing a press pack available for download from their website.

Brandon also credits SEI’s HR manager with being generous with their time and advice on the interview and hiring process, from understanding interviewees’ characters to legal documentation and contracts provided by law firm Ogier Leman.

“ByoWave now employs eight full-time staff and four interns,” says Brandon. “It’s so exciting for us because we feel like we have a team now. We plan to release 2,000 units over the next six months and another 10,000 units six months after that. I’m going over to China now to make sure the manufacturing line is fully ready and equipped for quality assurance.”

With talks under way for a game-changing (pun intended) investment, the next year is set to be an exciting time for the young company.

Photo: Awardees of €20,000 funding from the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Impact awards. (Pic: Mark Stedman)