TU Dublin Big Winners at Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards
TU Dublin Big Winners at Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards
TU Dublin were big winners at the Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards which took place in Cork on June 7th.
The biggest winner of all was Ciara Walsh, a BSc in Marketing student, who with her JustTip co-founder James Fahy from University of Galway, were named as the overall winners of the 2024 Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards at a ceremony in University College Cork.
JustTip is a tipping platform that provides a cashless tipping solution which allows customers to tip employees directly. The fintech solution is separate to the business which utilises it, and streamlines the process. With end-to-end transaction reports, it also provides complete transparency for employees and customers. The company is located in the TU Dublin business incubator in the Greenway Hub at the Grangegorman campus.
As the overall winner, JustTip receives €10,000 as part of the Enterprise Ireland student prize, and they will also receive mentoring from Enterprise Ireland to develop their products and explore new market opportunities.
Commenting on winning the award, Ciara said:
”JustTip is honoured to have won this prestigious award, we would like to thank our team and Gloria Rull at GROWTHhub TU Dublin for all the help over the years, I can’t wait to see what is next for JustTip and a massive thank you to Enterprise Ireland for sponsoring the award and everyone involved.”
JustTip was one of ten finalists at the 2024 Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards, which was open to third-level students from across Ireland. In a strong showing for TU Dublin, a second TU Dublin student also made the final. Jack Doyle, a final year student on the BSc in Product Design, won the Enterprise Ireland Merit Award and €1,500 for his business idea based on his final year project which developed an innovative solution to test water contamination in private wells.
Commenting on the award, Jack said:
“I am absolutely thrilled to have received the merit award at the Student Enterprise Awards. It was a real ‘cherry on the cake’ moment to finish off my time in TU Dublin.”
Commenting on the Ciara and Jack’s achievements, Paul O’Reilly, TU Dublin GROWTHhub lead, said:
“In recent years we have seen a sharp increase in the number of students getting pursuing their entrepreneurial ambitions and this is something we want to celebrate and encourage. Ciara and Jack are great examples and indeed role models for other students. Ciara and JustTip are already achieving significant successes which is remarkable when you consider she was only a 19 year old when she co-founded the company. There is no limit to what these guys can achieve.”
In a remarkable day for TU Dublin, GROWTHhub’s Gloria Rull was also recognised for her contribution to student entrepreneurship, receiving the Enterprise Ireland Academic Award which recognises the entrepreneurship education contribution of a third-level project supervisor. GROWTHhub is funded by the Higher Education Authority Human Capital Initiative Pillar 3 and operates as TU Dublin’s centre for student entrepreneurship learning.
Register your interest for 2025 awards here.