UCC Student hits the right note with online fundraising innovation for musicians - Award Sponsored by CorkBIC
19 October, 2020
- University College Cork student wins award for innovative crowdfunding platform
- Timothy Lehane's 'Fanfund' is a welcome development at a challenging time for artists
- The Computer Science student has now won the AxisBIC Computer Science Entrepreneurship Award 2020 award worth €1,000
Pictured (L-R) Larry O'Donoghue, Senior Consultant, AxisBIC; Timothy Lehane, Fanfund & Professor Cormac Sreenan, Head of School of Computer Science and Information Technology at UCC
An innovative online platform which enables emerging artists to crowdfund their future projects has won its Cork developer an entrepreneurial award.
Fanfund, developed by University College Cork student Timothy Lehane, allows up-an-coming musicians to raise funds for future ventures, while gaining exposure to potential new listeners.
News of Fanfund comes at a challenging time for musicians who cannot earn an income through touring due to public health restrictions on gig venues.
Artists can launch a funding round to raise capital from their existing fans and the platform’s user-base, which goes towards prospective concert/merchandise activities.
Tim's idea has seen him win the AxisBIC Computer Science Entrepreneurship Award 2020, launched by University College Cork’s School of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT), in collaboration with AxisBIC. The objective of the award is to encourage and support entrepreneurial activity by computer science students, based on their final year project.
The entrepreneurship award is made possible by a generous donation from AxisBIC. AxisBIC plays a hands-on role helping and advising start-ups, entrepreneurs and SMEs navigate the minefield of building business plans and propositions, raising finance, and pitching to investors. Over the past 30+ years, AxisBIC has worked with over 500 start-ups.
Expressing his delight on winning the prize of €1,000, Tim is continuing to work on his software platform with a view to marketing it in the near future.
“I felt highly motivated towards realising my idea, as I had a definitive objective to work toward. For that reason, I’m very grateful to be in receipt of the AxisBIC Computer Science Entrepreneurship Award 2020. The award is a fantastic opportunity to validate the integrity of my idea with people who have real industry experience,” Tim said.
The runner up for the 2020 Award is student Aidan Miskella, for his project on a software platform for companies to recruit and manage temporary employees.
The UCC Organising Committee for the award comprises representatives from CSIT, UCC's IGNITE Programme, UCC’s Gateway, Blackstone LaunchPad at UCC, and UCC Innovation. The evaluation panel included external members with entrepreneurial experience.
Congratulating the contestants, Larry O'Donoghue, Senior Consultant, AxisBIC said:
“The panel could see a real entrepreneurial quality in all finalists and we hope they continue on their entrepreneurial journey. We were genuinely very impressed with the calibre of students and how comprehensive their projects were, with some being very close to being suitable for prototype testing.”
Professor Cormac Sreenan, Head of School of Computer Science and Information Technology at UCC said:
“We plan to continue to encourage our students to think innovatively when designing and executing their final year projects and would like to wish the winners every success in their future careers”.