DCU’s UStart was Ireland’s first student start-up accelerator programme. It enables students to discover and develop their entrepreneurial flair. It empowers them to become trail-blazing social and business entrepreneurs, by helping to bring their innovative ideas to market. Our programme provides training, seed funding and access to mentors and sector specialists.
This approach has already produced many successful student start-ups with UStart teams securing over €1 million in private investment since 2013 and generating over €750,000 in revenue.
The world-renowned Carnegie Trust conducted an evaluation of the programme after one year and commented: “The quality of the participants, their business concepts, their pitching propositions and their understanding of business planning underlines the raw potential of the DCU student community to provide a pipeline of outstanding domestic entrepreneurs for the Irish economy.
