Kilkenny company Arivu joins innovative high growth start-ups on Prep4Seed and pitch for investment

Kilkenny company Arivu joined a dozen other high-growth start-ups on the fourth Prep4Seed programme delivered by the Irish BICs in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, preparing them for seed investment.

Arivu, led by Matthew Nelson and Mark Cliffe, is a software company that helps businesses prove their products meet European Deforestation EUDR is an EU law coming into force in December 2024 and impacting over €110bn in European imports alone.

Arivu is gaining early traction with integrations into leading ERP and related software platforms already serving affected companies. Having raised pre-seed funding with Enterprise Ireland’s PSSF in late 2023, Arivu is now raising a seed round to scale and maximise this opportunity.

The first 12-week Prep4Seed Programme of 2024 culminated this week at the Investor Pitch Day when 12 startups pitched to an audience of Angel Investors and VCs at Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters. The programme, delivered by the four Irish Business Innovation Centres (BICs), in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, prepares start-up clients for seed investment bringing participants through the investor readiness process quickly and effectively. The Irish BICs are AxisBIC, Furthr, South East BIC and WestBIC.

The 12 Irish based early-stage companies pitching for over €14.6 million in investment were from a variety of industry sectors including: Industrial, Life Sciences, FinTech, Food and ICT.

“The ambition and capability of Ireland’s start-ups has never been higher than it is today," said Leo McAdams, Divisional Manager, Enterprise Ireland.

"The evidence is clear in the calibre of talent and innovation demonstrated by the 12 start-ups spread across a range of sectors that are pitching today. Through the Prep4Seed programme, delivered in collaboration with the four BICs, Enterprise Ireland will continue to support these future enterprise leaders and start-ups to thrive and influence the future of global business.”

Commenting on the programme, Matthew Nelson, CEO & Founder of Arivu said: "As an early-stage start-up, Arivu Labs has been honoured to be backed by Enterprise Ireland and to become part of the Prep4Seed programme. From our first interaction with Rosemary, Ayzel and the South East BIC team, we received professional and personalised support specific to our business model and our needs at this stage in our company’s journey. The Prep4Seed programme has exceeded our expectations specifically in the area of financial planning for the purposes of capital raising and ensuring alignment between our investor narrative and our budgeting, forecasting and capital raising requirements.

South East BIC team’s focus on financials as well as strategic narrative stands out to the Arivu Labs team not only for its significant value add for our fundraising efforts but as a differentiator among accelerator and incubator programmes we have experienced in the past.”

Participants attended five Masterclasses run by the Irish BICS and tailored one-to-one meetings with experienced BIC consultants which covered a broad range of areas including Sales & Marketing, Financial Modelling, Market Validation, Pitching & Investment and Company Foundation. Participants were also brought through intensive investor pitch preparation sessions and trial pitches preparing them for today’s Investor Day. 

To date 54 startups have participated in the 12-week Prep4Seed investor-ready programme delivered nationally by the Irish BICs: AxisBIC, Furthr, South East BIC and WestBIC in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland.