Emerging business Superfy is making the waste and recycling management business sustainable and smart.
Superfy is one of eight start-ups chosen to take part in this year’s Bord na Móna Accelerate Green programme.
The programme is Ireland’s leading sustainability programme designed to scale-up companies who are developing products and services based on green innovation in response to climate action and sustainability challenges.
“we are solving the problem of being able to cost effectively scale nationwide materials collection and recycling programmes”
The current cohort of businesses employ over 70 people with turnover of more than €5m.
The eight start-ups will be at the upcoming Accelerate Green conference entitled ‘Ireland’s Sustainable Future’ on 1 June 2023 at the Tullamore Court Hotel. Click here to learn more.
Smart resource management
Superfy delivers sustainable smart resource management solutions for companies for sustainability, waste, recycling, operations, workforce and fleet management.
“At Superfy, we are delivering solutions for the circular economy. In particular, we are solving the problem of being able to cost effectively scale nationwide materials collection and recycling programmes,” said Superfy CEO Ronan Quinlan.
According to Future Market Insights, the global smart waste management market is estimated to surpass sales of US$ 2Bn in 2022, expanding at a 20% CAGR over the assessment period of 2022-2032.
“Investing in the smart waste management market can potentially reduce the overall collection and transportation costs significantly by 50%,” Future Market Insights said.
What gets measured gets managed
“Our software platform, sensors and smart containers track and monitor waste and recycling materials from bin to truck to depot and recycling centre, enabling operational improvements and efficiencies throughout the collection and processing value chain.”
Entrepreneurship is in the DNA of Superfy’s founders.
Ronan Quinlan is CEO of Superfy and leads the strategic direction of the business. Ronan co-founded Taoglas, a leading global internet of things (IoT) company, and has more than 25 years’ experience in the technology industry.
Leon Hayes is COO of Superfy and is responsible for all aspects of the Superfy platform and operations teams. As an early pioneer in smart waste management, Leon founded Smartsensor Technologies and grew the business to across various sectors and countries before being acquired by Taoglas in 2021.
“The Irish market is not big enough for technology businesses”
To stay agile, the company uses a range of technologies to manage all areas of the business, including engineering, operations and marketing. “We also have a mix of full time and contractors to leverage area expertise and flexible work requirements. AWS, MS, SAP, Atlassian, Hubspot are all software we use.”
“The start-up ecosystem in Ireland is excellent, with support from many fellow entrepreneurs and government agencies readily available,” Quinlan said.
He said the business is planning to raise funding in 2024.
Quinlan is clear on the journey of the entrepreneur and in terms of mistakes and lessons to be learnt said: “We have learned many, but key to our success in not to repeat them!”
His advice to fellow founders is to think global from day one. “The Irish market is not big enough for technology businesses.”
Main image at top: Superfy founder Ronan Quinlan and VP Marketing, John Dillon
To learn more about attending the Accelerate Green conference ‘Ireland’s Sustainable Future 2023 on 1 June at the Tullamore Court Hotel click here
