ProvEye Ltd
Tell us what your business does?
ProvEye enables quantitative analysis of the earth’s surface properties using unique state-of-the-art image correction. The current focus is implementing the IP for satellite imagery to access a much larger market, and then combining ProvEye IP with crop models to unlock reliable, reproducible management support and prediction of agricultural behaviour. The same technology can be used with satellite, UAV or vehicle sourced optical image data. Using any combination of these, ProvEye can be used to measure properties of land over wide areas, which in turn can be used to describe current status, make recommendations for management inputs and make predictions about yield outcomes. Optical data are valuable for the digital transformation of agriculture, but their value is limited by noise during image acquisition that can mask the information signal. ProvEye removes noise, to reveal a clean signal with an automated, consistently reproducible image correction technology that can be combined with predictive models and embedded in end-to-end solutions offered by ourselves or with business partners.
Founders:
Jerome O Connell, and Nick Holden
Number of Staff:
4
Start Date:
2019-03-01
Where did the idea for your business come from?
ProvEye Ltd, incorporated in March 2019, is a University College Dublin spinout operating from NovaUCD. ProvEye was built on IP developed by Jerome O Connell and Nick Holden since 2009. The IP was optimised and commercialised for use with UAV optical data supported by the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund between 2017 and 2019.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?
No, I was passionate researcher until I saw I could make a much greater impact in the commercial sector.
What planning did you do before you started up?
We used an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund to commercialise the IP. It was a big help in us developing out the technology.
Which entrepreneurs do you admire?
Elon Musk
What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?
Recruitment is a big challenge for start-ups, especially in the tech sector. To be successful a start-up must have some talented people on board. It’s difficult to entice people away from high paid jobs in Google and Intel. How we have overcome this in ProvEye is by getting employees involved in the long term vision of the business. If you can bring your employees along for the journey then you are far more likely to be successful.
How have you promoted your business?
We have attended trade shows throughout the world (pre-Covid) and have done online webinars as well as conference talks. We are currently developing some white papers on our technology which we will disseminate through our social media outlets.
Where do you see the business in 3 years’ time?
We hope to have over 30 people employed in 3 years’ time, with customers in Ireland, the UK, Europe, and the US. We will have an additional 3 products launched and will being to move the company into the data analytics space.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Believe in your technology but know your customer and if your technology doesn’t address a core problem for your customer then you won’t be successful.
