It’s one thing having what you think is a smart business idea, and it’s another thing bringing it to market. Even more challenging is sourcing the venture funding to give the product time to find customers.

So hats off to Paul McCarthy (56), who established Snapfix in 2016 and recently announced a €1.75m funding round that includes US investor Sator Grove Holdings. Filed accounts to the end of 2020 show that Snapfix Ltd had previously raised €2.3m and run up losses of €1.1m since inception.

Before Snapfix, software engineer McCarthy had been around the block, with employers spanning ICL, National Terminal in Australia, Fusion Systems and Vision Consulting in New York, and Irish e-buying platform Marrakech.

McCarthy’s idea was to apply WhatsApp principles to building maintenance. The Snapfix app uses photos, tiles and messages to monitor maintenance, fire safety, housekeeping, cleaning, renovations and fit-outs. The beauty of the idea is simplicity: any worker can use the app on their own device to flag up issues that need attention to management.

The fifty-something entrepreneur lucked out when he took the Snapfix blueprint concept to Cathal Greaney for app development. Greaney formerly worked with Apple in Cork, and he liked the concept so much that in 2019 he joined the start-up as chief technology officer.

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Though he had worked in a lot of businesses, McCarthy had never started one, so he enrolled on the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers training programme, and came top of the class. More importantly, New Frontiers facilitated an introduction to funding advisor Barry Brennan.

“Barry sat me down to explain that Snapfix was embarking on a 10-year road,” McCarthy recalls. “The first step was seed funding, which we sourced from our friends and family network. One person committed €150,000, and then others followed, and the initial raise totalled €750,000.”

The main Snapfix target market is hospitality, and two years ago McCarthy took to the road, demonstrating the app to hotels around Ireland. Then Covid happened, staff were let go, and a plan B was quickly formulated, with a wider focus on facilities managers.

Snapfix’s trade debtors at the end of 2020 amounted to only €20,000, but despite the Covid whack the company was still able to get away a €1.5m share issue. Snapfix shareholders invest through nominee accounts, and McCarthy describes one of the faithful as a “total legend”. When this individual coughed up for a second time, other investors followed-on too.

In the autumn of 2021, McCarthy and Brennan presented to various business angels and VCs. “We were too early for some, and too late for others, and some wanted to see more traction. Then one of our investors introduced us to Paul Buser of Sator Grove, and I flew to London to meet up. He loved the idea, we had a wonderful afternoon, and he made a quick decision."

Buser was involved in manging the Notre Dame endowment fund and recently relocated from Indiana to Florida. Snapfix too is going to double down on the Sunshine State, where there are c.4,000 hotels.

“We've set ourselves a mission for the next decade to build a global brand, starting with building infrastructure and equipment. We are creating a new language so that everyone in the world can now communicate using photos and our green, yellow and red traffic lights," he adds.