Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur
IBYE 2019
is a national competition to find
€2 million investment fund
and targeted business supports

Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur 2019
Overall Winner
.......is Shorla Pharma

The search for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneurs of 2019

IBYE is a programme run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) with the support of the Department of Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. The competition is open to people between the ages of 18 and 35 with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business. Now in its 5th year, IBYE has an investment fund of up to €2million. IBYE is a nationwide competition, run across three categories: Best Business Idea, Best Start-Up Business and Best Established Business. Up to 450 young entrepreneurs will be invited by the LEOs to attend free regional ‘Entrepreneur Bootcamps’ later in the year to help them develop their business and new venture ideas.

With an IBYE investment fund of €50,000 each, every LEO will award up to six investments to three category winners and three runners-up at county level. The local winners in the Best Start-Up and Best Established Business categories at county level will receive investments of up to €15,000 each and the two runners-up will each receive up to €5,000.

It could be you…………

€2 Million Investment Fund

A €50,000 Investment Fund will be awarded to the Category Winners and Runners-Up from each of the 31 Local Enterprise Offices, an Investment Fund of a further €100,000 is available for the winners of the IBYE National Final.

IBYE

Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Competition 

€2 Million available in investment funds and targeted supports#

IBYE

The competition is broken down into three categories

Looking for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur

Testimonials from previous IBYE Winners

Blog

Important Dates

Application phase

Submit your application and optional video online

Enterprise Day

All applicants are invited to attend a full day event organised by their local LEO to include briefing on all LEO Supports, the competition stages and rules and judging criteria

Screening Process

Applicants screened on assessment criteria. Participants selected for County Entrepreneur Bootcamp.

Entrepreneur Bootcamp

County Finalists will enter into a specialised Entrepreneur Bootcamp to help develop their business skills and to build a viable business plan to commercialise the opportunity.

County Finals

Participants from the Entrepreneur Bootcamp will submit their final business plan and make a pitch to the County Assessment Panel. This Panel will consist of a minimum of three judges to be selected by the Local Enterprises Office. Three Category Winners and from these Winners one overall County Winner will be selected. All three Winners will progress to the Regional Final.

Regional Finals

In total 93 County Winners will progress to the Regional Finals. Each Regional Finalist will receive additional mentoring and business support prior to making a pitch to the Regional Assessment Panel. In total 24 Category Winners will be selected to progress to the National Final.

National Final

The 24 Finalists will compete for the three National Category Awards for Best Business Idea, Best Start Up Business and Best Established Business. In addition Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur for 2019 will be announced.

Application Phase
Enterprise Day
Screening Process
Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Final Pitch and County Finals
Regional Finals
National Final