Waterford City The Best Place For Start-Ups In Ireland

Waterford City, the oldest city in Ireland, reaches far back in time to when the Vikings's settled here in 853 AD. Since then the city has played host to a variety of thriving businesses and trades. Waterford's current environment provides a well established infrastructure from which businesses can thrive and progress, sites such as Waterford Airport, Waterford Port, The M9 and N25 linking to Dublin and Rosslare put Waterford in it's unique position. Many multinational companies view this city as their home, such as, Baush & Lomb, Genzyme, Hasbro and Honeywell, as well as companies native to Waterford such as Waterford Stanley, Dawn Meats, Eishtec and Waterford Crystal. Many startup businesses have began to take off here in Waterford City over the past few years and it has become one of the best destinations for startups in Ireland.

Waterford embraces all types of business and is increasingly popular amongst startups in Ireland, particularly the technology and software sector. You might ask yourself how could even one technology startup get off the ground in such a small city? You might be surprised to hear that there have been many, some of which have become international traders, for instance FeedHenry a software firm (which was bought by Red Hat for €63.5 million in 2014). Betapond a global leader in creating social media applications who count Marks & Spencer and Unilever as customers and is now a partner with Facebook. And nearForm which has grown to be the largest provider of Node.js solutions in Europe.

You might also ask yourself what is it that made Waterford so successful for these startups?

It can, in part, be traced back to the formation of the Telecommunications Software & Services Group in Waterford Institute of Technology in 1996. Set up by two academics in this field, Dr Willie Donnelly and Eamon de Leaster. It has become an internationally recognised centre of excellence for ICT research and innovation and has it's very own building with 100 researchers working at the WIT Campus. This building also provides office space to startup businesses who have access to the centres software services.

From this a startup culture was cultivated, it has grown and developed to cater for businesses that have established themselves internationally and others working in such diverse areas as tourism and communications. It is clear to see why Waterford is considered the best place for startups in Ireland.

One recent example of a successful startup in Waterford is Kollect, launched in December of 2015 this company offers on-demand bin collection,junk and skip hire. Kollect saw there was potential in the market to cater for smaller households who don't generate enough rubbish to justify paying monthly fees. Kollect are targeting households that only need to empty their bins every three weeks or more but who are paying the same amount as a household of 6. With Kollect there are no contracts or monthly fees, users simply order as they need their bins collected, this can save smaller households up to 40% annually on their bill.

The Kollect team have developed an online booking engine for on-demand, pay-as-you-go waste collections. Customers simply log onto kollect.ie, enter their address, select which bins need collecting and then pay online. Kollect partners with waste collection companies, adding their routes to the online platform, so when a customer books online, the booking engine subcontracts the collection to the next bin truck passing their homes.

Using the same system Kollect provide a skip hire service, customers can simply go to the skip hire section of kollect.ie, choose their location from the drop down menu, choose which size skip they require and pay for the order all within sixty seconds! If you need a skip in a hurry Kollect can guarantee next day delivery and they are operating this service throughout Ireland.

Just one year into business and Kollect have already been recipients of many accolades including The Bank Of Ireland Start Up Awards, High Potential Start Up from Enterprise Ireland and most recently Best New Start Company In Munster from Seedcorn Competition. Working from their offices in Waterford city Kollect are planning to operate their services nationwide, so this is a company to look out for, they are revolutionising the waste disposal industry in Ireland.

If you are looking for a bin collection service or simply to hire a skip just go to one of the best startups in Ireland, kollect.ie and you can always call 051 364495 where one of their friendly customer service team will be more than happy to help you.