Dublin-based software firm Emojitones has raised €475,000 in a bid to convince the world that emoji icons are better when they can speak. The firm has developed a range of standard and custom emoji that play sounds when used in text messages.

The audio-boosted emoji are accessed via a free app and can be supplemented with paid-for emoji. Emojitones was founded in 2015 by Guy De Bromhead. Still only 33, he is a seasoned entrepreneur who is also one of the owners of property development firm Zest Projects and White Smiles dental surgery in Dublin.

De Bromhead started out as an accountant, before establishing White Smiles in New Zealand in 2010. He sold the firm shortly after forming it and used the funds to finance another dental clinic in New Zealand, before selling that and moving to Dublin. De Bromhead also established Younger You, a skin clinic in Dublin that he was involved in from 2011 to early 2015.

The €475,000 fundraiser involves a number of private investors, including several UK-based members of the Coffey family. They operate a real estate business registered in Louth called Bigwood Properties Ltd, which itself invested over €75,000 into Emoji Technologies Ltd last year.

Allotment filings for February and March of this year disclose that Emoji Technologies sold some of its shares for between €1,250 and €2,500 each.

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