Minister Troy Launches AI Accelerator Programme
Dublin: Robert Troy TD, Minister for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, launched ‘Alsessor’ a new artificial intelligence accelerator programme at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin’s ‘Ideas Workspace’, in partnership with Altada Technology Solutions.
The new AI Accelerator Programme aims to support early stage start-ups and entrepreneurs in the growth and commercialisation of their businesses in the areas of Retail, Digital Health, FinTech, InsurTech, Regulatory, and Compliance. Hundreds of applications from around the world were received from early stage start-ups, and ten have been chosen:
AIMap IT a GIS inventory mapping tool for telecos and other utility providers
Empeal, a SaaS health risk and productivity platform for medical practitioners
FOV (Field of Vision), a Haptic Tablet/Assistive tech to assist the visually impaired in a immersive sports experience
Meta-Flux, an AI-assisted detection diagnostics platform for disease prevention
Pepp1, a consolidated digital global pensions wallet
RafiQ, a colloquial Arabic personal voice assistant
Syze, a recommendation sizing tool for Fashion retailers
Tiro, an Intelligent Voice assisted minute maker
Voala, a Virtual try on tool to enhance the customer experience for Jewellery retailers
XR Concepts, the AI Golf Coach
Minister Troy said:
“I firmly believe that AI is one of the most important of the technologies currently transforming our economy and society. Sitting at the crossroads of higher education, industry, and research, this ambitious Accelerator programme aims to support early-stage start-ups and entrepreneurs in the growth and commercialisation of their businesses.
“Supporting innovators and entrepreneurs to grow their business is of vital importance to myself and my department and is a key priority for Government. I am particularly excited to hear that some of the companies selected to participate in the Alessor AI Accelerator programme have chosen to come to Ireland from overseas to develop their business ideas, and I would like to thank Tangent and Altada for their role in making this happen.
“Our vision is for Ireland to become a leading country in using AI to the benefit of our citizens, through a people centred and ethical approach to AI adoption and use.”
Ken Finnegan, CEO of Tangent, Trinity’s ideas workspace said:
“Artificial Intelligence is changing the way we work and live and the value and benefit for early stage start-ups participating on this world-class accelerator is enormous and that was shown by the high number and calibre of start-ups that applied. We have had so much interest that our partners, Altada, have agreed to extend their support from 1 year, to 3 years – which is incredible. The selected teams will have access to funding, the best minds across industry and academia to progress their organisation, and also access to a network of supports.”
Allan Beechinor, CEO and co-founder of Altada, said:
“Through Alsessor we will be able to nurture the up and coming AI talent of which we have an abundance of both here in Ireland and abroad. Having come through accelerator programmes ourselves, we can say firsthand that they make an incredible difference in that earliest stage of getting a business off the ground. We are keen to see the 10 companies at the end of this programme and see the progress they have made. We had very difficult decisions to make on selecting the first cohort. We are excited to watch these teams scale rapidly”.