Mervyn O’Callaghan of CameraMatics announced as High Potential Start-Up 'Founder of the Year 2021' at Enterprise Ireland awards

Today, Mervyn O’Callaghan, co-founder and CEO of CameraMatics, was named the Enterprise Ireland High-Potential Start-Up (HPSU) Founder of the Year for 2021 at a virtual awards event, sponsored by Grant Thornton.

CameraMatics provides cutting-edge, award-winning SaaS technology for fleet and driver risk management. The company helps customers reduce accidents, improve operational efficiencies and manage compliance. Scaling fast, CameraMatics has close to 1,000 customers including global leading fleet operators.

The Founder of the Year Awards acknowledge and celebrate the commitment that entrepreneurs and start-ups have made to build world-class companies of the future. There were 12 nominees for the 2021 award, all of whom were voted for by their peers who have been taking part in Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) Founders Forum over the last 24 months.

Fionn Lahart of One Projects and John McCarthy of Taxamo were also acknowledged for their companies’ achievements to date and voted as runners-up. Other finalists included: Ian Duffy, Accelerated Payments; Niamh Parker, Altada; Ross Lawless, CALT Dynamics; Karina Kelly, Content Llama; Kerrill Thornhill, MEG; Oisin Curran, Odyssey VC; Sharon Cunningham, Shorla Pharma; Wendy Slattery, The Beauty Buddy and Peter Jenkinson, Wrkit.

Enterprise Ireland and Select Strategies created the HPSU Founders Forum to give founders a platform where they can address issues, share challenges and seek support from each other and from founders who are further along in their entrepreneurial journey. Since its inception, over 300 founders have participated in the HPSU Founders Forum from a range of sectors including software, medical devices, food, engineering and construction.

The 2021 Founder of the Year was decided by a judging panel which included representatives from Enterprise Ireland, Atlantic Bridge, Ergo, Google and Grant Thornton. Previous award winners include Brian Shields of Neurent Medical, John Ghent of Sytorus and Tony McEnroe of Sirius XT.

Addressing the virtual audience at the award ceremony, Kevin Sherry, Executive Director of Global Business Development at Enterprise Ireland said: “On behalf of Enterprise Ireland, I wish to congratulate Mervyn O’Callaghan from CameraMatics on winning this year’s Founder of the Year Award. The primary objective of the Founders Forum is to provide a platform for founders to help other founders succeed internationally and scale faster. Mervyn is an excellent example of a founder with a clear pathway to scaling globally with the potential to become a world leader in his field. I would also like to congratulate the 11 other nominees, all of whom were shortlisted by their peers, which is a real testament to their potential and future success.”

Jenny Melia, Divisional Manager ‒ High Potential Start-Ups at Enterprise Ireland added: “The Founder of the Year Awards celebrate Ireland’s vibrant ecosystem of entrepreneurs who have displayed commitment to building their businesses and realising their global ambition. Each of today’s nominees have achieved so much within their own fields of work and their success is an inspiration for the next generation of founders coming up behind them. Congratulations to all those who took part and a particular commendation to Mervyn O’Callaghan from CameraMatics on winning this year’s Founder of the Year Award.”

Speaking at the event, Kevin Foley, Partner at Grant Thornton said: “Grant Thornton is delighted to sponsor the Enterprise Ireland Founder of the Year Awards once again in 2021. Each of the nominees have really surpassed our expectations as a judging panel and we can clearly see why each of the founders were nominated by their peer group. The exceptional talent that Enterprise Ireland and the Irish start-up ecosystem continues to nurture and support gives us fantastic encouragement and optimism for the future of the Irish economy. We congratulate Mervyn O’Callaghan from CameraMatics on winning the 2021 Enterprise Ireland HPSU Founder of the Year Award and look forward to hearing a lot more about all the finalists as they implement their business plans over the coming months and years.”

On accepting the Enterprise Ireland HPSU Founder of the Year Award 2021, Mervyn O’Callaghan, co-founder and CEO of CameraMatics said: “I’m delighted to have been named as Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Up Founder of the Year 2021. I’m very grateful to all my peers in the Founders Forum for nominating me for this award. I’d also like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to the entire team at CameraMatics – we couldn’t have come this far without your exceptional talent and continued dedication – and a special word of thanks to my co-founder and long-term business partner Simon Murray. The guidance and support that we received from Enterprise Ireland, the Founders Forum and my peer founder participants over the last year or so has been invaluable in helping us to achieve our vision of improving driver and vehicle safety globally, particularly as we have navigated these uncertain times together.”

Short-listed nominees

Ian Duffy, Accelerated Payments
Accelerated Payments gives SMEs around the world the freedom to grow domestically and overseas with affordable and accessible working capital through its unique fintech platform.
Bi-line: Individual Invoice Financing, Simply Done

Niamh Parker, Altada 
Altada makes it possible to embed effective commercial AI at the heart of organisations, closing the gap between commercial ambition and actual impact. 
Bi-line: Make the impossible, AI Possible

Ross Lawless, CALT Dynamics 
CALT Dynamics takes the hard work out of hardware, offering on-demand, batch-production manufacturing services powered by its proprietary 3D printing technologies. 
Bi-line: Manufacturing made easy

Mervyn O’Callaghan, CameraMatics 
CameraMatics provides cutting-edge, award-winning SaaS technology for Fleet and Driver Risk Management. The company helps customers reduce accidents, improve operational efficiencies, and manage compliance.
Bi-line: Intelligent Fleet Risk Management Solutions

Karina Kelly, Content Llama
Content Llama provides web-ready product content to ecommerce retailers so that they can create awesome product pages, increase sales and revenue, and do less work in the process.
Bi-line: The Stripe of Product Content/ Revolutionising Product Content for eCommerce

Kerrill Thornhill, MEG
MEG is a digital quality management system that simplifies how healthcare providers engage their staff in managing quality, patient safety and compliance processes.
Bi-line: MEG - Engage, Measure, Improve

Oisin Curran, Odyssey VC
Odyssey VC guides, informs and empowers life sciences companies on their digital transformation journeys with best fit innovative compliant digital solutions.
Bi-line: Guiding, informing & empowering compliant digital transformation

Fionn Lahart, On Projects
Despite technological advances, treatment for Atrial fibrillation (AFib) succeeds half the time. OneProjects is developing a cutting-edge technology to significantly improve outcomes for millions of patients globally.
Bi-line: Delivering Personalized Cardiac Therapy 1.0

Sharon Cunningham, Shorla Pharma
Shorla Pharma is a speciality pharmaceutical company developing and commercialising innovative oncology drugs for women's and paediatric cancers.
Bi-line: Developing and commercializing oncology drugs

John McCarthy, Taxamo
Taxamo is a technology company revolutionizing tax management for businesses selling online. The company’s ground-breaking VAT solutions combine payment and tax tech and are tailored to individual business needs.
Bi-line: Scalable tax solution, for global online sales

Wendy Slattery, The Beauty Buddy
Beauty Buddy connects global brands with the everyday consumers through product sampling, reviews, market research and unique data analytical insights.
Bi-line: Real People - Real Reviews - Real Insights

Peter Jenkinson, Wrkit 
Wrkit portals cultivate healthy habits in work and life so clients can retain, strengthen and measure a healthier and more productive working environment
Bi-line: Creating engaging, healthy, productive workplaces