Pictured are: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, Sheelagh Daly, Local Enterprise Offices, and Tom Hayes, Enterprise Ireland, with the Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) finalists at a business bootcamp co-ordinated by the Local Enterprise Offices today at the Wayra offices in Dublin. 

28 year old Eamon Keane of Xpreso software in South Dublin has been named as Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur, winning a total €50,000 investment fund for his business. The Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton T.D. made the announcement in front of 350 guests at the first-ever national final, held at Google’s European Headquarters in Dublin on December 7.

Keane, from Templeogue, co-founded the parcel tracking software company in 2013 after dropping out of his PhD studies and has already signed up Ireland’s biggest independent courier company. The young entrepreneur also took the ‘Best Start Up’ award at the competition, which attracted over 1,100 entries when it was launched earlier this year through the Local Enterprise Offices.

Supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the nationwide competition forms part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 with an overall investment fund of €2 million awarded to county winners and national winners.

The ‘Best New Idea’ award and €20,000 investment prize went to Philip Martin from Blanco Nino in Tipperary; the ‘Best Established Business with Add On’ award and €30,000 investment prize went to Dean Gammell from The Group System in Westmeath.

Each of the three finalists also wins a place at the Google ‘Adopt a Start Up’ programme next year. Meanwhile, the Google award for ‘Best Online Promotion of a Business’ went to Padraig O’ Scanaill, from Fund Recs in Waterford.

Congratulating all the winning entrepreneurs Minister Bruton said: “In Ireland we have great entrepreneurs – we just don’t have enough of them. Two thirds of all new jobs are created by start-ups and so we must encourage more young people to consider starting a business as a career choice – to become the job-creators of the future.”

All 31 Local Enterprise Offices ran the competition locally and organised regional bootcamps for over 400 participants. In all, 24 finalists from 17 counties competed for the overall title and 9 of them made a live pitch to the judging panel at the Foundry in Google. This year’s judging panel included two entrepreneurs: Sarah Doyle of Kinesense and Brian Crowley of the TTM Group, alongside Colin Goulding of Google, Mary Fitzpatrick of the Local Enterprise Offices and Tom Hayes of Enterprise Ireland.

Details for all the finalists are available at www.ibye.ie and by searching #ibye on social media and YouTube.