Start-up competitions and awards with cash prizes: what they pay, who can enter and when they open

The competitions at a glance

The 2027 dates for the Irish competitions were not published when we checked on 3 October 2026.

Seedcorn: the biggest prize fund

InterTradeIreland's Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition is built to copy a real investment process. It takes no shares in your company.

It is for independent ventures incorporated in Ireland or Northern Ireland, at the seed, start-up or early stage, ideally aiming at international markets. The founders must still hold key management roles and own significant equity. A venture that has already raised more than €1 million in outside equity cannot enter.

1. Phase 1 is an online form of no more than 12 questions, with each answer limited to 300 characters, plus a short slide deck.
2. Shortlisted companies get a one-to-one session with InterTradeIreland's equity adviser. They then send an extended slide deck with financials, or a business plan of up to 25 pages. In 2026 the deadline was 7 August.
3. The best-scoring companies in each region pitch at a regional final in October. The four regions are Dublin, Munster, Connacht and Leinster, and Northern Ireland. Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan enter with Connacht and Leinster.
4. The regional winners pitch at the all-island final in November.

You pick one of three categories: business-to-business, business-to-consumer or deep tech. The top prizes of €130,000 and €100,000 are paid in instalments as the company hits targets set out in its business plan.

Every entry is reviewed by InterTradeIreland's investment experts and gets individual feedback. The judges look for what an investor looks for: high growth, a strong management team and a way for an investor to exit. A business that plans to stay local is unlikely to be shortlisted.

National Enterprise Awards: through your Local Enterprise Office

You cannot enter the national final directly. Each of the 31 Local Enterprise Offices chooses one business to represent its area.

The 2026 final was held in the Mansion House in Dublin on 18 June. The finalists competed for a share of an €80,000 prize fund and the title of National Enterprise of the Year. There were also regional awards and awards for best start-up, best export business, innovation, digital, green and female entrepreneur.

Each office runs its own selection. Carlow, for example, held a county final on 4 March 2026. Entrants had to have fewer than 50 employees and to have received direct support from the Local Enterprise Office, and the closing date was 11 February.

This is one an ordinary business can win. The 2026 overall winner was a sweet shop business from Mullingar with retail stores and an online shop.

Ask your office in December or January what it needs from you. You can check which Local Enterprise Office covers your area.

The more specialised awards

Student Entrepreneur Awards. Enterprise Ireland's awards for full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students, entering alone or in teams. Stage one is a two-minute video. The top 50 are asked for a business plan, and ten go to the final.

Stelios Foundation North-South Business Cooperation Awards. Run with Co-operation Ireland, in their second year in 2026, when 91 businesses applied. To enter, a company had to meet all of these:

• registered with the Companies Registration Office, or with Companies House with its registered office in Northern Ireland
• active on both sides of the border, with customers in both
• incorporated in 2020 or later
• a founder or shareholder who owns at least 50% of the shares
• annual turnover of at least €200,000, and at least three staff besides the owner

Innovation Arena Awards. Run by Enterprise Ireland with the National Ploughing Association for Irish-owned agricultural innovators. Nine finalists pitch live on the first day of the Ploughing.

European Prize for Women Innovators. Run by the European Innovation Council and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. You apply as an individual, not as a company. You must be the founder or co-founder of a company with a breakthrough innovation, and the prize leans towards deep tech and science. The Rising Innovators category is for founders under 35.

A competition that has stopped

Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur was run by the Local Enterprise Offices with a €2 million investment fund. More than 1,600 people applied in 2019, and the national final was held on 15 September that year.

It has not been run since. The competition's website no longer loads, and it is not on the Local Enterprise Offices' current list of awards. Some county pages still describe the 2019 competition as if it were live.

Check any competition on the organiser's own website before you spend time on an entry. If your business has a social purpose, there are separate funds and awards for social enterprises.

Is it worth your time?

Prize money is not a grant you qualify for. Most entrants win nothing: in the 2026 Stelios awards, 91 businesses applied for nine prizes. The dates suit the organiser, not you.

The work is not wasted if you need the documents anyway. A business plan and cashflow written for a competition can be reused for a loan or grant application. Our guide to what a funder expects to see in a business plan covers the same ground.

If you need money on a timetable, look first at the grants your Local Enterprise Office can pay.

Ask your accountant how prize money is treated for tax.

Common questions