Two Irish startups have won a trip to Silicon Valley and a European Roadshow in a competition organised by Welcome and DCU Ryan Academy.

Artomatix and Fonesense will attend the Mind the Bridge Startup School in San Francisco for a three-week immersion programme in September. Joined by six other startups from Berlin, Madrid and Milan, they will enter an intensive programme of mentoring, networking and workshops.

Back in Europe, the startups will travel to Berlin, Milan, Madrid and Salamanca where they will attend events and pitch their startups to investors and business angels, as well as to the media.

Founded in 2014, Artomatix aims to solve the problem of increased costs for art development by applying machine learning and big data concepts to art creation. “Although digital art is created on computers, the process doesn't take advantage of the single most important benefit computers have to offer: automation,” said Eric Risser, chief technology officer of Artomatrix.

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Artomatix allows the computer to take on the time-consuming and tedious art creation tasks, automating digital media creation.

Artomatix is the third company that founder and CEO Neal O’Gorman has established. His first was acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2006. Artomatrix is advised by marketing consultant Paul Hayes; Professor Connelly Barnes, who is a pioneer in the field of computer graphics; and John Huikku, 3D Supervisor at Brown Bag Films.

Artomatix have received support from Trinity College’s student incubator program Launchbox, Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers program and NDRC Venturelab. The company has also received sponsorship from Rocketspace and Nvidia, who awarded the company $100,000 for winning its Early Stage Challenge competition in 2015.

Fonesense is a mobile-advertising platform that enables marketers and developers to engage with users by using highly targeted content and engagement offers at the right moments. Founded by app developer Christian Ryder in 2013, Fonesense aims to deliver ‘the right user, at the right moment, in the right location, with the right media.’

The company promises high click-through rates by only showing advertising at the right time, and claims increased user engagement rates of more than 20%. Fonesense also provides a mobile advertising solution where users select a branded ringtone to earn rewards.

Fonesense has won previous awards, including the FI Ware Global Cloud Excellence and Smart Business with Greatest Potential, and the AdTech New York VC Pitch Competition.

Welcome, a Startup European initiative funded by the European Commission, covers all the expenses for the startups. Eoghan Stack, CEO of DCU Ryan Academy said: “The Welcome project is an unmissable opportunity for Irish startups to connect with Silicon Valley, meet fellow entrepreneurs, investors and potential mentors from across Europe and scale their businesses into European markets and the US.”