Wednesday 25th May, 2016: FIFTEEN Irish businesses are among 160 candidates who have made it into the pitching stage of the Virgin Media VOOM 2016 competition. The 160 top businesses across each of the two competition categories – ‘Start-up and Grow’ – emerged after over half a million public votes were cast across Ireland and the UK.

The innovative Irish businesses, successfully reaching the pitching stage, range from a transport themed glamping village, to fashion, food and wellness start-ups. Details and links are below.

The final candidates in each category will now take part in a 29 hour, live streamed Pitchathon on 1st & 2nd June where businesses will pitch back-to-back to a panel of expert judges. The judges will be challenged to whittle the Pitchathon contestants down to just 40 semi-finalists who could go on to pitch to Richard Branson and international business heavyweights Tyra Banks, Sara Blakely and Marcus Butler, in the VOOM 2016 grand finale on 28th June.

The Pitchathon will also be a Guinness World Record attempt for the Longest business pitch marathon, as part of Ireland’s and the UK’s biggest and most valuable pitch competition. It will have three ‘marathon’ judges who will be present for the entire 29 hours – Julie Deane OBE, Founder and CEO of Cambridge Satchel Company, Andy Fishburn, Head of Investment at Virgin and Peter Kelly, Managing Director of Virgin Media Business. They will be joined by several guest judges including Gavan Smyth, Vice-President, Virgin Media Business Ireland and Gavin Carpenter, CEO of Irish company Phonovation. Other judges include Jamal Edwards of SBTV, Sharmadean Reid of WAH Nails, and Peter Williams from Jack Wills, as well as 12 professionals selected by LinkedIn.

The Irish entries (below) are posted under two categories which companies applied to; Start-Up and Grow. The ‘Start-Up’ category is for fresh and exciting businesses that are still in the early stages of development. The ‘Grow’ competition is for businesses that are already recording revenues but are looking to ramp things up. ‘Position’ refers to the ranking of each entrant after the public vote (across Ireland and the UK) closed on Monday 23rd May.

The competition hunts for the most exciting and innovative businesses. A winner will be chosen from each of the two categories.

Grow Category

The ultimate winners of VOOM 2016 will share a prize pot of €1.2 million with prizes including out of home marketing campaigns, broadband and telecoms packages, social media and PR support and mentoring from VOOM professional advisors and from Virgin Media.

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About Virgin Media Business Ireland
Virgin Media Business is the leading national provider of integrated business communications ranging from Metro Ethernet services up to 100Gbps, Internet connectivity up to 10Gbps and broadband services for the small office and home office market.

Virgin Media Business offers the complete spectrum of business communications products through its high capacity fibre network. Services include Carrier Ethernet, Metro Ethernet connectivity, co-location, SIP and TDM voice services, leased lines, managed bandwidth and direct internet access.

Virgin Media’s BitBuzz is a Wi-Fi network operator providing a range of managed services to hotels, airports, cafe bars, pubs and other public locations throughout Ireland and the UK.

Virgin Media Business is one of the largest business-to-business communications providers in Ireland with a strong presence in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and 14 regional towns.

Virgin Media is a part of Liberty Global plc, the world’s largest international cable company. Together Virgin Media and Liberty Global serve 27 million customers across 14 countries, helping connect people to the digital world and enabling them to discover and experience its endless possibilities.