- Careergro has developed a cloud-based career development tool for employees and companies

Careergro, a human resources start-up company headquartered at NovaUCD, today announced that it has secured an investment of €300,000 from private investors and Enterprise Ireland.

Careergro intends to use the funding to support its business expansion activities and expects to hire an additional 15 people over the next 3 years. Careergro has also announced the opening of a new sales office in Hammersmith, London to support its expansion into the UK market.

 
(l-r) Careergro founders, John Costello, Gerard Cunningham and Kevin Sorohan

For many years HR leaders have emphasised that employees, rather than the organisations they work for, are responsible for their own career development.

Employees however need tools to assist them in accepting this responsibility and to enable them to collaborate effectively with their managers. In this regard Careergro has developed a cloud-based, career development software tool for employees which is already being used in blue-chip companies such as Vodafone and Heineken.

The Careergro tool enables employees to take the initiative and use career-coaching best practices to assess themselves, within a business context, and to create an informed and collaborative development plan.

As Careergro is online, development progress, achievements, peer-recognition and feedback are recorded in real-time. This is in contrast with outdated career development programmes in place in many organisations today, where opportunities to update plans and progress occur annually, if they occur at all.

Kevin Sorohan, co-founder and CEO, Careergro said, “We are delighted to have received the support of Enterprise Ireland and our investors and we are excited to have opened our new office in London. We look forward to helping companies and employees unlock their potential through proactive collaboration around career development and to growing our business in the UK market.”

He added, “The knowledge economy has ushered in an era of rapid change, increased complexity and new ways of working. World-class organisations are looking to collaborate with their employees to be agile, to innovate and to thrive. Companies with trusting, collaborative relationships with employees report improved employee retention, engagement and performance.”

Careergro, headquartered in NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin, was founded in 2010 by Kevin Sorohan, John Costello and Gerard Cunningham.

Kevin Sorohan is a serial entrepreneur, with a track record of founding and selling technology companies. Prior to co-founding Careergro, John Costello was a principal engineer for innovation and product development at a multi-national technology company. Gerard Cunningham has more than 20 years international experience of product development, project management and business development for multi-national technology companies.

Careergro will be formal launching the Careergro tool into the UK market at the 2012 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) HRD Learning and Organisation Development conference and exhibition which commences in London today.

Organisations and individuals can register to use Careergro, which is free to use for individuals and for groups of up to 50 people, via www.careergro.com.

ENDS

25 April 2012

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, University College Dublin, Communications Manager (Innovation), e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: + 353 1 716 3712 or Kevin Sorohan, CEO, Careergro, e: kevin.sorohan@careergro.com, m: +353 86 773 3560.

Editors Notes

Careergro is revolutionising career development by enabling employees to take ownership and manage their own career development. Employees and their managers work in partnership for the benefit of both themselves and their organisations. www.careergro.com

NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is the hub of innovation and knowledge transfer activities at University College Dublin. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with industry and business. NovaUCD as a purpose-built centre also nurtures high-tech and knowledge-intensive enterprises such as Careergro. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx. www.ucd.ie/nova