UCD Spin-in secures more than half a million euro in seed funding for UK rollout
Posted 29 July, 2024
Daniel Coen, CEO and Founder, Skippio, at NovaUCD in Dublin Credit: Paul Sharp, Sharppix
A University College Dublin spin-in company that is seeking to improve fan experiences at large-scale venues and events has secured €540,000 in seed funding to help scale into the UK market.
(opens in a new window)Skippio, at NovaUCD, the University’s Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs, has developed an innovative platform to tackle one of the most common issues at events, long queues for food and beverages.
Users can order and pay for items from anywhere in a venue without ever having to join a queue, receive real-time updates about their orders and when it is ready to be collected.
“Our solution is currently reducing queue times by over 90% compared to the global industry average, ensuring fans spend more time enjoying the event they paid good money to attend with friends and family rather than standing around in queues,” said Daniel Coen, CEO and Founder, Skippio.
“By significantly reducing the number of people dropping out of queues, Skippio is delivering a win-win for event goers and operators alike.”
By reducing queues and improving efficiency, venues will also see significant increases in their overall revenues, efficiency and reduction in waste, according to the company.
Coen added: “We are delighted to have closed this seed funding round with a number of brilliant angels and Enterprise Ireland. The funding will be used to expand our business into major UK venues and events, grow our team and continue to develop our application with the customer at the forefront.
“We are in addition looking at more challenges around the fan experience outside of F&B that we can also help to address.
“Our goal at Skippio is to have all the best venues and events on one platform for event goers, so users don’t have to download or login to multiple apps, that they rarely use and often delete. We plan to start rewarding users with loyalty points, discounts and free gifts very shortly with some major partnerships in the works, our aim is to be the market leader in this space,”
Skippio has to date successfully completed the three phases of the Enterprise Ireland funded New Frontiers Programme delivered by IADT Media Cube in partnership with NovaUCD.
The company was also one of the first Irish start-ups to successfully obtain Enterprise Ireland PSSF (Pre-Seed Start Fund) funding of €100,000.
This latest investment round was led by private investors with the support of Enterprise Ireland High-Potential Start-Up (HPSU) funding.
Donnchadh Cullinan, Head of ICT HPSU at Enterprise Ireland said: “At Enterprise Ireland, we understand the importance and necessity for emerging deep-tech which offers a solution adaptable across global markets. Skippio’s technology solution addresses a gap in the market allowing consumers to enjoy an event rather than spending unnecessary time queuing.
I want to congratulate the team at Skippio on its recent investment wins. Enterprise Ireland is proud to have provided support to Skippio during the early stage of its growth journey including via the pre-seed start fund and participation on the New Frontiers programme and now more recently as a high potential start-up. [This] announcement will further allow Skippio to scale and compete and bring its platform to the next level.”
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation)
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
