Limerick agri-tech firm aims for All-Ireland win

AN ABBEYFEALE agri-tech company has been named as a winner in a provincial investment competition.

Cotter Agritech landed the 'best new start' prize at the Munster heat of the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition, and will now go on to represent the province in the Belfast All-Island final next month.

Founded by Jack and Nick Cotter in 2019, Cotter Agritech developed SmartWorm - a mobile app using in-house developed, proprietary advanced algorithms that consider a range of physiological and environmental factors to assess individual animals and predict if they require an anti-parasitic treatment or not in real time.

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It enables livestock farmers to move from blanket flock/herd treatment, to only treating the animals that need it, reducing drug use by up to 50% without compromising production or welfare.

Nick Cotter said: "We entered Seedcorn to improve our investment pitch, receive feedback on our scaling plan and get exposure to potential investors who want to join us in our journey of solving drug resistance across livestock farming. We are delighted to be advancing to the all-island final."

For now, Jack and Nick have won €20,000 which will drive its new product launches across its key markets of Ireland, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

"Additionally, we will use some of the funds to commence trials for SmartWorm for cattle, where the opportunity to solve anti-parasitic drug resistance is even greater," Nick said.

Shane O’Hanlon, Funding for Growth Manager at InterTradeIreland, said: "Congratulations to all the finalists who participated in our Munster regional finals. The competition is always intense, and the innovation we see continues to impress year after year.”