New live community to provide mentoring, discussions, access to training, events and various resources.
The Kerry-based RDI Hub is going nationwide with the launch of a new RDI Virtual Hub digital community.
This will see it expand its offering to corporates, SMEs and start-up entrepreneurs across Ireland.
“Over the past four years, the RDI Hub has created a thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurship and business growth in the Southwest”
Members will also unlock access to a range of exclusive events and growth sessions and find out more about key initiatives such as STEM Passport for inclusion (a programme to help young women from underserved communities find potential career paths in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) DIBEST (Digital Innovation for Blue Enterprises & Social Tourism), the annual John McCarthy AI Summer School, and NDRC startup programmes to further their growth ambitions.
This news comes fresh on the heels of the recent announcement that the RDI hub has partnered with Microsoft to deliver a series of AI masterclasses, which will teach members how to best leverage AI to optimise their business’s productivity.
Stimulating the regions
The launch of the virtual hub is the latest in a series of enterprising initiatives offered by the RDI Hub – last June the Hub hosted a mortgage innovation challenge which offered €1m in grants to stimulate innovation in the provision of mortgages in Ireland. In November last year, the Hub opened its in-house podcast facility which has since been expanded to include a full video recording studio and green screen facilities.
The RDI Virtual Hub offers a curated resource library and one-to-one coaching sessions with a diverse panel of seasoned mentors. Notable mentors include:
- Hugh Reynolds – Havok and Swrve Founder & ex-Apple’s Special Projects and Uber’s Advanced Technology Group.
- Jamie Heaslip – Entrepreneur, Angel Investor & Ireland Strategic Growth Lead at Stripe
- Rose O Sullivan – Strategic Finance Manager at Fexco specialising in commercial modelling, developing pricing strategies and helping startups navigate the complexities of financial management as they scale
The RDI Hub is a not-for-profit Public Private Partnership with Fexco, Kerry County Council, and Munster Technological University and is a €21 million investment, transforming Kerry into a globally connected technology innovation hotspot. It’s one of the regional hubs for the National Digital Research Centre and receives support from the Department of Business, Enterprise & Innovation’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund.
Hub membership has gone from strength to strength and is now home to over 70 companies, ranging from start-ups and SMEs to global companies such as Glencar Construction, Axiota, Interflow Logistics and Vertex. Since 2020, over 50 new products and services have originated from the Hub, enabling the creation of more than 300 jobs.
Success stories to date include Xavatar, which has just launched a first-of-its-kind metaverse-based TV show that will air to over 60 million homes in the US, and Graphite Note, an AI platform that simplifies the use of Machine Learning in analytics by helping business users to generate machine learning models without coding.
“Over the past four years, the RDI Hub has created a thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurship and business growth in the Southwest,” said CEO Liam Cronin.
“Our new RDI Virtual Hub will enable us to expand this innovative spirit worldwide, by bringing together a virtual community of mentors, entrepreneurs, and innovators to share their insights and experience on a much larger scale.”
“We have a diverse range of members, operating across a broad range of sectors including Fintech Smart Manufacturing, Aquatech, Greentech, Sustainability AI, Robotics, and the Metaverse, creating a rich pool of expertise that will benefit businesses hugely when it comes to optimising their operations,” Cronin added.
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