Five founders selected for Endeavor Ireland ‘s Scale Up Programme for Northern Ireland

Endeavor Ireland has selected five founders to participate in its Scale Up Programme for Northern Ireland.

Endeavor is a global not-for-profit organisation with a mission to support and accelerate high-impact entrepreneurs by connecting them with talent, capital and a worldwide peer and mentor network.  As part of this mission to support the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem, Endeavor Ireland runs a Scale-Up Programme. Its first Scale Up Programme was in 2023 and focused on women entrepreneurs. This year, given its all-island mission, it is focusing on founders with global ambition in Northern Ireland.

Following a call for applications in January, the following Northern Ireland-based founders have been selected to take part in this programme:

•  Ryan Donnelly, Co-founder, Enzai,
•  Laura Haldane, Co-founder, SciLead
•  Mark Dowds, CEO and founder, RESPONSIBLE
•  Roger Johnston, CEO and founder, Axial3D
• Greg Maguire, CEO and founder, Humain

The five entrepreneurs will now participate in a five-month programme that will include 10 one-on-one mentorships tailored to their specific needs. The inaugural session of the programme was held at the KPMG office in Belfast this week. KPMG is one of Endeavor Ireland’s corporate partners. 

The Endeavor Ireland Board is made up of 11 board members - all established businesspeople who are giving back to the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Board includes businesspeople from Northern Ireland such as Paddy McKillen Snr and Angela Moore. Rosaleen Blair, Deputy Chair of Kainos and founder of AMS which has extensive operations across Northern Ireland, is also a Board member and the Edge from U2 is the Founding Chair.

Managing Director of Endeavor Ireland, Rory Guinan, said; “Endeavor is a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on supporting entrepreneurs with high-impact potential to scale up, and to ultimately provide a societal benefit for the island of Ireland. The mission for Endeavor Ireland has always been an all-island one, but while we have engaged with some great founders in Northern Ireland since we established in 2019, none of the companies that have advanced to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs are from Northern Ireland, and that’s why we chose to focus on founders in this area as part of our second Scale Up Programme.  We had a great response to the call for applications and have been blown away by the founders selected for this programme. We’re very excited to get started with them. This programme will provide them with mentorship and advice to help create a lasting impact for their companies and for their communities.”

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The founders made the following comments on their selection to take part in the programme:

• Ryan Donnelly, co-founder of Enzai, an artificial intelligence governance platform which allows companies to build and deploy AI with confidence and advises how to use it safely and responsibly said; "Endeavour is such a well-respected organisation that I was delighted to hear that they were running a programme specifically for Northern Irish founders. We're very focused on the GTM motion now, and the opportunity to work alongside the top tier mentors that are part of the Endeavour network will be incredibly valuable for our business.”

• Mark Dowds, Founder and CEO, RESPONSIBLE, a technology solution that allows upmarket fashion brands to buy back previously worn items from shoppers "I am very proud to be accepted onto the programme mainly because it has huge reach within Ireland and internationally. This reach is really interesting to me as I would like to be connected with other global entrepreneurs that can help me and my company grow."

•  Laura Haldane, co-founder of SciLead, a platform that enables sales and marketing teams to identify, engage and qualify their ideal prospects. “We’re really excited to have been selected as one of the five companies for the Endeavour programme in Northern Ireland. I’d heard about the programme last year during the Deloitte Awards, I was delighted when I heard it was coming up North for there first time. Being matched with mentors from all around the world for our specific tailored use cases is going to be incredibly helpful for us, particularly as first time founders.”

•  Roger Johnston, CEO and founder, Axial3D, a leader in medical segmentation and 3D printing, provides hospitals and medical device manufacturers access to an easy to use, fast, affordable way to transform 2D medical image data into 3D “I am amazed at the calibre of the people on the Endeavor Ireland Board. It is truly inspiring and having access to the Endeavor global network is a remarkable opportunity and support as we continue on our mission to make 3D imaging standard for patients around the world, whether 1st world or 3rd world.”

•  Greg Maguire, CEO and founder of Humain, a gaming company that creates characters for world leading AAA video game developers. “This is an amazing opportunity to join a global community of successful entrepreneurs, for each of us to learn from our shared experiences and to enable us to lead our company through a diverse range of perspectives.”
  

Source: Written from press release