Initiafy, a platform that makes it easier to onboard new and temporary staff, booked a loss of €990,000 in 2015, according to filings. The venture was started by Sean Fennell  and Julie Currid  in 2012 and has been expanding in the American market.

In October 2013, six investors invested €200,000 in Initiafy for a 16% stake in the venture. In tandem with the private equity, Enterprise Ireland invested €200,000 in the form of convertible preference equity.

In 2014, the Initiafy founders set up an office in New York. “We had done some initial sales into the US and the deal sizes were much bigger than in the UK,” Currid told Business Plus in 2015.  “There is a greater need for our product in the US because 60% of the workforce is blue collar, and there is much more of a culture of contingency workers. Construction is booming in America at the moment so it just seemed like an obvious kind of testing ground for us.”

The US expansion required fresh capital and in December 2014 Leslie Buckley, the chairman of media group INM, invested €200,000 in the operating company, Induction Manager Ltd. In addition, Initiafy raised €250,000 from Delta Partners, a VC fund, and €200,000 from ACT Venture Capital. Some charter investors followed on with another €100,000 and all of this leveraged another €250,000 from taxpayers through Enterprise Ireland.

Buckley follow on with €61,000 in November 2015, along with €20,000 from Peter Fitzmaurice. In June 2016, Buckley invested a further €57,000 and Fitzmaurice invested €15,000. According to the company, €250,000 has been raised in 2016 by way of new ordinary shares and loan notes.

In Association with

The staff complement at Initiafy grew from 12 to 17 people through 2015, with payroll increasing from €355,000 to €771,000. Shareholders' funds at year-end were a negative €802,000. The accounts note that €1,090,000 refers to liabilities relating to convertible preference shares and loan notes.

Photo: Sean Fennell and Julie Currid, founders of Initiafy