The recipient of the first seed capital fund to a Ludgate company was announced at the launch of the digital hub in Skibbereen last Friday.
BY SIOBHÁN CRONIN
THE recipient of the first seed capital fund to a Ludgate company was announced at the launch of the digital hub in Skibbereen.
A total seed capital fund of €300,000 was revealed in May, when Ludgate steering group member Sean O’Driscoll, president of Glen Dimplex, agreed to match the €150,000 fund donated by local businessman Maurice Healy of The Healy Group. The Healy Group, a €100m-turnover company, is a major global distributor of chemicals and food ingredients.
Last Friday both Sean O’Driscoll and Maurice Healy announced on stage at the Ludgate launch that the first company to benefit from the fund would be a genealogy company called Your Irish Heritage.
‘I have no doubt this firm will be a success,’ Maurice Healy told The Southern Star, adding that news of funding for a further two companies was imminent.
Enterprise Ireland have also expressed an interest in coming on board with some funding for companies which make the grade for the seed capital fund, the Ludgate launch was told.
Your Irish Heritage is an online media and education company with a focus on Ireland’s diaspora around the world.
It is run by Mike and Carina Collins who, in May, relocated the business from Cork City to the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen.
‘Our prime focus is on Irish Genealogy at the moment, and we have over 1,200 paying subscribers to our online platform, where we employ Irish genealogists to help people of Irish descent to locate their ancestral homelands and houses,’ said Mike.
The site sends out a letter every Sunday morning to over 20,000 people in the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK – and has now sent out over 1.2 million letters, and published two books as a result.
The company has also just announced that it is recruiting new employees in the West Cork area. ‘We are also bringing our four-day conference, with 150 attendees from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, to Skibbereen for the first time,’ added Mike.
For more see youririshheritage.com.
