Texthelp chief executive Martin McKay has been named the International and overall 2022 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year.
McKay was one of the founder of Texthelp in 1996 and became CEO in 2020.
What started as a company focused on people with profound speech and dexterity disabilities has become a world leading Assistive Technology company creating software that helps people read, write, express their thoughts and share information more accurately and fluently.
Texthelp received investment from LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group in May 2019, and LDC was replaced by PE peer Five Arrows, the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co, in December 2020.
In the July 2021 the Antrim firm acquired Wizkids in Denmark, followed by the Education Technology division of Don Johnston Inc in January 2022 and Sweden assistive technology firm Oribi in October 2022.
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The company has doubled turnover since 2020 and now employs 350 people.
The judging panel selected Tom O’Connor and Kieran Cusack, co-founders of Conack Construction, as the winner in the Established Entrepreneur category.
The Limerick firm was founded in 2008 in the middle of a recession, and builds universities, hospitals, hotels, apartments and social housing.
Conack had turnover of €122m in 2021, up 67% on the previous year, and booked a net profit of €5.4m. The company employs c.200 people and works with over 2,000 subcontractors.
OneProjects founders Fionn Lahart and Christoph Hennersperger won the Emerging Entrepreneur category.
The Dublin start-up is developing a connected platform technology to improve the treatment of AFib and cardiac arrhythmias. It’s still at the development stage and the judges seem to have been impressed by the company’s fundraising, which stands at €26m, according to EY.
The OneProjects accounts filing for 2021 discloses equity funding of €10.3m and start-up losses of €6.1m.
The Sustainability Award was presented to Stephen Nolan, managing director of Nutritics, who is featured in the November issue of Business Plus.
Roger Wallace, EY’s partner lead for the awards programme, said it’s noteworthy that two of the winners are from Ireland’s indigenous technology industry.
Anne Heraty, chair of the judging panel, commented: “Each of our winners have proved themselves as visionaries, with a strong desire to create, innovate, grow, learn and contribute to our economies and communities.”
The other judges were Denis O’Brien, Edmond Harty, Joe Hogan, Mark Roden, Evelyn O’Toole, Harry Hughes, Richard Kennedy, Jenny Melia, Aimee Connolly, Michael Carey, Jerry Kennelly, and Jeremy Fitch.
Photo (l-r): Frank O’Keeffe of EY Ireland, Anne Heraty, Martin McKay, minister Michael McGrath, and Roger Wallace
