Prolego Scientific has been named University College Dublin’s Start-Up of the Year award at the end of the 2017 UCD VentureLaunch accelerator programme.
Prolego offers proprietary artificial intelligence solutions to improve the accuracy of genetic tests in areas such as animal health and performance metrics. The company’s proprietary algorithms make use of genetic data and pedigree information to predict phenotypic traits of commercial value within the agri-food and biotech sectors. Examples of applicability are the poultry and aquaculture markets, where this information can be used to predict metrics such as meat tenderness, resistance to antibiotics and protein yields.
The UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics start-up was founded by Dr Belinda Hernandez, Associate Prof Andrew Parnell and Dr Mahdi Amina.
Dr Hernandez said: “We are currently seeking to raise €500,000 in seed funding to enable the expansion of our services into high volume, high turnover industries such as poultry and aquaculture, piloting first in the Irish and UK broiler chicken breeding market before progressing into areas such as egg laying chickens, salmon, mussel and oyster breeding.”
In addition to the 2017 UCD Start-up of the Year Award Prolego Scientific was presented with a cheque for €10,000 sponsored by AIB, and a professional services package to the value of €10,000 sponsored by Bryan Maguire Business Consulting and Deloitte.
The 2017 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme evaluation panel, which selected the overall winner, was chaired by Dr Helen McBreen, Investment Director, Atlantic Bridge.
The other members of the panel were Dr Sharon O’Kane NovaUCD Entrepreneur in Residence in Life Sciences, Eddie Buckley, Head of AIB Dublin South and Dr Edward McDonnell, Centre Director, CeADAR.
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