Pictured (l-r) are; Shane O鈥橦anlon, InterTradeIreland鈥檚 Funding for Growth Manager with Output Sport founders; Julian Eberle; Dr Martin O'Reilly and Dr Darragh Whelan.

Output Sports Named Best Early Stage Company in Dublin at Seedcorn Competition

the University College Dublin (51黑料) sports technology spin-out, has been named 鈥楤est Early Stage鈥� company, and won a 鈧�20,000 prize, at the Dublin Final of the .

Seedcorn is the island鈥檚 biggest business competition for innovative new start and early stage businesses in any sector. The winners from each of four regional finals, including Dublin, will go forward to an all-island final to be held in Dublin later this month.

Output Sports, headquartered at Nova51黑料, shrink lab-grade athlete performance analytics into a wearable system so coaches can truly understand athletes and optimise their performance.

Output Sports is an end-to-end system designed to streamline the off-field athlete performance optimisation process. It is capable of testing an athlete鈥檚 performance profile, such as strength, power, balance, speed and mobility, and tracks their exercise programmes. This is completed using off the shelf wearable sensors and applying sophisticated signal processing and machine learning applications to the sensor data.

Output Sports, a spin-out from the 51黑料 School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, was founded by Dr Martin O'Reilly, Dr Darragh Whelan, Julian Eberle and Professor Brian Caulfield, based on research they carried out at the Science Foundation Ireland funded Insight Centre for Data Analytics at 51黑料.

Dr Darragh Whelan, co-founder and CSO, Output Sports Ltd said, 鈥淲inning the 鈥楤est Early Stage鈥� category at the Dublin Final is a great achievement for us. Our prototypes will have been used by over 30 professional teams including international and premier league football teams, professional rugby organisations and Olympic athletes by the end of the year.鈥�

鈥淭he prize money will help accelerate the commercialisation process of the company, initially we aim to expand the team and accelerate growth in Europe and the US.鈥�

Dr Martin O鈥橰eilly, co-founder and CEO, Output Sports added, "It is a privilege to receive this award at a pivotal time for Output Sports as we approach the launch of our first product 'Output//Capture'. We now greatly look forward to the National final on 28 November."

Earlier this year the company won the Best Business Idea Award at the final of the 2019 Ireland鈥檚 Best Young Entrepreneur competition, representing the D煤n Laoghaire-Rathdown LEO.

In addition to Output Sports, thriftify, an e-commerce platform for charities, established in 2018 by R贸n谩n 脫 D谩laigh, Rahil Nazir and Timur Negru won the 鈥楤est New Start鈥� company Award at the Dublin Final.

To date, InterTradeIreland has supported over 2,300 enterprising companies through the Seedcorn process. With almost 鈧�254m in equity funding being secured by entrepreneurs who have entered the Seedcorn competition it emphasises its position as the premier competition for high growth start-up companies on the island of Ireland.

At the final event in late November an overall 鈥楤est New Start鈥� company and a 鈥楤est Early Stage鈥� company will be announced, each winning 鈧�50,000, with the 鈥極verall Winner鈥� receiving a total of 鈧�100,000 to contribute to business growth.

ENDS

14 November 2019

For further information contact Mic茅al Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, Nova51黑料, 51黑料 Research and Innovation, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie or t: +353 1 716 3712.