Partnership between the Innovation Exchange and Ludgate Hub will bring opportunities to Cork SMEs domestically and globally.
A new initiative will allow globally ambitious tech SMEs located in the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen and across the wider Cork and south western region to pitch to and collaborate with larger businesses.
This week Skillnet Ireland confirmed the partnership between the Innovation Exchange and the Ludgate Hub.
“This is an exciting forward-thinking digital transformation marketplace that brings scaling and enterprise sized organisations together”
The opportunity is to connect large businesses facing digital transformation challenges with SMEs that can fast-track the solution.
Forging connections
“The Innovation Exchange plays an important role in forging connections between SMEs and large corporations, facilitating new ideas and supporting the creation of new business ventures,” explained Paul Healy, chief executive of Skillnet Ireland.
“As part of a national expansion of the programme, we are delighted to introduce The Innovation Exchange to Cork, in partnership with the Ludgate Hub and Furthr. We invite ambitious SMEs and larger companies in the Cork region to join the programme and take full advantage of the many benefits it offers.”
As part of this collaboration, The Ludgate Hub will bring both corporate entities and scale-up businesses situated in Cork together as members of The Innovation Exchange, expanding its growing community.
“This is an exciting forward-thinking digital transformation marketplace that brings scaling and enterprise sized organisations together,” said Grainne O’Keeffe, CEO of the Ludgate Hub.
“It is very positive to see The Innovation Exchange leveraging the hub network and its extensive collaborative ecosystem as an economic asset in the rollout of this initiative. And Ludgate, as Ireland’s first rural digital innovation hub, is thrilled to embrace this opportunity to accelerate growth in the region.”
The aim of The Innovation Exchange is to establish a nationwide footprint by onboarding up to 10 regional channel partners throughout 2023; earlier this year, The Innovation Exchange announced its partnership with the Galway Technology Centre, which supports innovative, global trading companies in the ICT sector. A similar partnership was forged with Kerry based RDI Hub in recent months.
The Innovation Exchange is operated by Furthr (formerly Dublin BIC), which specialises in providing start-ups and scale-ups access to funding via its venture capital arm; and Skillnet Ireland, a business support agency of the Government of Ireland with a mandate to advance the competitiveness, productivity, and innovation of Irish businesses through enterprise-led workforce development.
“It is fantastic to see the rollout of this collaborative programme in West Cork and across the South-West,” said Paul Healy, CEO of Skillnet Ireland. “This partnership between Skillnet Ireland, The Innovation Exchange and The Ludgate Hub is an exciting example of win-win collaboration and I would encourage all businesses to consider joining the programme.
“The development of an ecosystem in West Cork that facilitates SMEs and Large Corporates working with one another will undoubtedly ignite digital transformation and support opportunities for increased growth for these organisations.”
The expansion of The Innovation Exchange, which currently has in excess of 350 participants, will offer even more SMEs access to the programme’s benefits, including an instant sales pipeline, market intelligence and the capability to sell to large companies. Skillnet Ireland has committed €5 million to fund The Innovation Exchange which is designed to address the barriers that exist for scaling companies when selling to large companies and multinationals. The programme will support over 1,000 companies between 2022-2025. Scale-ups and corporates in the Cork region are being encouraged by The Innovation Exchange to sign up here
“It is fantastic to see the rollout of this collaborative programme in West Cork and across the South-West,” the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney, TD, said.
“This partnership between Skillnet Ireland, The Innovation Exchange and The Ludgate Hub is an exciting example of win-win collaboration and I would encourage all businesses to consider joining the programme. The development of an ecosystem in West Cork that facilitates SMEs and Large Corporates working with one another will undoubtedly ignite digital transformation and support opportunities for increased growth for these organisations.”
Main image at top: Conor Carmody, Programme Director at The Innovation Exchange; Sinead O’Riordan, Head of Channel Partnerships at The Innovation Exchange; Paul Healy, CEO of Skillnet Ireland; with Simon Coveney, TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment
