Ideal collaborative environment

LaunchBox, in partnership with Bank of Ireland, and managed by experts in Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace at Trinity College Dublin, provides mentorship, funding, access to alumni and investors, and the ideal collaborative environment to launch new startup ventures.

With the COVID-19 crisis still affecting day-to-day life for citizens around the globe, LaunchBox 2020 will innovate by bringing the programme fully online and remote, to ensure the same experience is enjoyed by its teams.

Now in its eighth year, the programme has evolved into one of global – not just national – impact, with a host of entrepreneurs having used it as a springboard to create viable businesses across a wide range of sectors.

Since 2013, the student ventures involved have created approximately 145 jobs and raised more than €69 million in investment and funding.

Their alumni companies include social enterprise Foodcloud, which helps businesses redistribute surplus food to those who need it, Touchtech Payments, a payment processing venture that was acquired by Stripe in 2019, Artomatix, which develops tools for automating digital media creation and was also acquired last year, and Equine MediRecord, which digitises the medical records of the multi-billion-euro horse racing industry’s equine stars.

Gavan Drohan, head of student entrepreneurship at Tangent, said: “Trinity is a community of innovators, and we’ve seen that even more clearly with the COVID-19 crisis.

"At Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace, the agility and creativity of our team and our students has allowed us to continue our activities remotely since the lockdown began. We’re thrilled to support the next generation of innovators through the 2020 LaunchBox programme.”

LaunchBox 2020 – meet the teams

1. Arís Recycling turns cigarette butts into high-quality plastic products. Cigarette butts are the most common item of litter on the planet. By collecting, cleaning and recycling cigarette butts, Arís Recycling provides them with a destination other than landfill and the ocean.
2. While flood prediction models are improving rapidly, our communication of this critical information has not changed in more than 70 years. The use of paper is both inefficient and allows for error. CFlood is a product that can be used by both engineers and members of the public – CFlood allows flooding data to be easily and accurately visualised by everyone.
3. Divorshe is a legal tech company, which aims to help women who are frustrated by the lengthy, costly and confusing process of obtaining a divorce. Divorshe is building an easy to use and straightforward online platform to complete the process from start to finish, decreasing error rates in the paperwork and reducing the time it takes for solicitors to review and process the required documentation.
4. EVE – the Electric Vehicle Ecosystem – makes charging stations for electric vehicles as accessible as petrol stations by creating an ecosystem that drastically increases coverage of charging options for electric car owners. Through the user-friendly app, electric car drivers will always find an available and accessible charging station.
5. Frosted is a revenue-generating media platform that acts as the epicentre of Irish urban music and culture. Through engaging video content, articles, events and more, it is revolutionizing the way artists as well as other forms of creatives are promoted, enabling the discovery of talent from across the country.
6. Bio – Oak Digital Health is creating a solution to manage pain and fatigue associated with chronic conditions. Oak will use a digital platform to deliver evidence-based techniques trusted by clinicians to manage patients’ health.
7. ProMotion is a platform that connects brands with bicycle owners. They provide the opportunity for advertisers to use private bicycles as a medium for advertising, whilst simultaneously associating their brand with positive health and wellbeing, and rewarding people for their eco-friendly, health-positive choices.
8. Rezero is an environmental initiative that replaces single use takeaway packaging with reusable solutions. This national deposit-return network and shared pool of resources prevents disposables from going to landfill.   Place your order, pay a deposit on the container, enjoy and return to the network for a refill or deposit refund. Rezero won the Provost’s Innovation Challenge @ Tangent in 2020.
9. The mission of Solar Flare is to produce natural gas, a commonly used fossil fuel, by using sunlight. Solar Flare mimics natural photosynthesis to transform carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into completely clean, carbon-neutral and recycled fossil fuels.
10. Volyymi is a system that gives independence back to paralysed wheelchair users. The Volyymi system measures the volume of the users’ catheter bag and sends valuable information to the user such as hydration levels and the current capacity of the bag. This reduces the anxiety of the user and the level of external care they need.