WeQ4U was named winner of the 2015 EU-Xcel virtual accelerator at an event in UCC last Tuesday. Over 50 participants from all over Europe attended the challenge final marking the end of a four-month programme that whittled down a field of 250 companies to a shortlist of 12 finalists.
The event, which is part of the George Boole Bicentenary Celebrations, gave finalists the opportunity to network with fellow tech entrepreneurs, and pitch their ideas to potential investors.
The winning pitch WeQ4U is a platform and app that substitutes physical queues for virtual ones. The software is being implemented in theme parks and plans are already underway to diversify its application. The cross-europe team has members from Italy, Greece and Denmark,
DataMine, a data services platform and Craw.ly a SaaS platform targeted towards large corporate businesses were named runners up.
“It is a huge opportunity that everyone should participate in because they really learn something that money can’t buy,” said Haydar Mahmoud of WeQ4U. “The focus on team spirit, enjoying what you do and working hard is a great combination. The programme really gets you to push your boundaries and gets you working and thinking outside your comfort zone. Next we are about to talk to investors. I would never have believed this was possible just a few months ago.”
Dr Brian O’Flaherty, EU-Xcel programme director, said: “The international start-up teams shortlisted for the Challenge Final demonstrate the power of diverse multi-national ICT skilled European teams and there is a key lesson for Europe. This must become the norm and mechanisms that allow multinational company formation, incubation mobility and European-wide entrepreneurship pathways will accelerate this.”
EU-Xcel is a UCC-led Horizon 2020 youth entrepreneurship project which partners with incubators from Denmark, Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain.
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