10 pupil enterprise concepts had been shortlisted for this yr’s awards, starting from respiratory units to mushroom-based meat options.
A pupil duo from Technological College Dublin (TUD) has bagged the general prize at Enterprise Eire’s Pupil Entrepreneur Awards 2025 with their sustainable different to industrial plastic water bottles.
Saor Water, developed by Ryan Ormonde and Jonathan Hoffman, gives custom-made aluminium cans for manufacturers in search of an alternative choice to plastic bottles.
The enterprise, which already boasts Mercedes-Benz and Sculpted by Aimee amongst its clientele, additionally supplies design, compliance and logistics providers for its merchandise.
As the general winners, the 2 have gained a €10,000 award, in addition to mentoring help from the Enterprise Eire specialists and from the competitors sponsors, the Native Enterprise Workplace, Cruickshank and Grant Thornton.
Chatting with SiliconRepublic.com, Hoffman stated that the win “nonetheless hasn’t sunk in but”, whereas Ormonde beneficial that college students who’re contemplating participating in future editions of the competitors ought to “simply go for it”.
“Even when you don’t make it by way of, you’re going to have all this expertise and meet cool folks from it. There’s no cause to not.”
10 enterprise options had been shortlisted for the ultimate spherical of this yr’s Pupil Entrepreneur Awards. Of those, three acquired high-achieving advantage awards, together with a €5,000 money prize.
These embody Dundalk Institute of Expertise’s Max Crinion Morgan who acquired the Cruickshank Excessive Attaining Advantage Award for RespÉire, a short-term respiratory fee monitoring system designed to help nurses throughout affected person observations.
David Cashman, from College School Cork (UCC), took dwelling the Grant Thornton Excessive Attaining Advantage Award for his enterprise, The WellSchools Community, which gives a trauma-informed mannequin for constructive training that helps Irish faculties in prioritising pupil wellbeing.
Whereas Sean O’Sullivan, additionally from UCC, acquired the Native Enterprise Workplace Excessive Attaining Advantage Award for his meals innovation firm Lion’s Reign, which produces jerky utilizing lion’s mane mushrooms as a plant-based different for meat.
The six remaining finalists didn’t go empty handed, with every receiving a prize of €1,500 from the Enterprise Eire Advantage Awards fund.
Final yr, former Begin-up of the Week JustTip took dwelling the highest prize for its cashless tipping platform. CEO and co-founder James Fahy stated that “innovation is certainly on the core” of this yr’s shortlist of enterprise options.
“We’ve seen an enormous step up from the place we had been final yr, the usual was already excessive,” he stated. “I believe it’s nice to see innovation at its best coming straight from the universities nationally.”
Chatting with SiliconRepublic.com about this yr’s cohort, interim CEO of Enterprise Eire Kevin Sherry stated that the standard of entrepreneurs “simply retains getting higher and higher”.
“Each single yr, you see the standard and the calibre will get higher,” he stated. “For us in Enterprise Eire, that’s what we’re about. We’re about attempting to assist entrepreneurs create and set up companies and ship jobs and worth. That is simply improbable.”
With extra reporting by Colin Ryan.
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