Founder Labs is designed to support early-stage founders building scalable, high growth potential startups.
To empower high-potential startups in Northern Ireland with the resources and mentorship to achieve rapid growth and success.
Founder Labs is an initiative funded by Invest NI and delivered by a partnership between Ormeau Labs, The AMP, Queens University Belfast and Dogpatch Labs. These experienced partners have helped thousands of founders across the island of Ireland from the idea stage right through to raising money from global investors. Collectively we have helped founders raise over $200m in venture capital.
Anyone who has an ambitious and transformative idea with a tech focus. It can be at the idea stage, or you may have already launched a product and have your first few customers.
You can apply if you have already raised some investment, but teams that have already raised a larger amount of investment (e.g. over £500,000) may not get much benefit from the programme.
Ultimately, we want founders that are ambitious, and businesses which are scalable. What do we mean by that? Well after 3 years of trading, we'd want your business to have revenue or funding over £1M, and for the majority of your sales to be from outside Northern Ireland.
No, you do not need to be an Invest NI customer to apply. If you are successfully accepted into Founder Labs, you will be onboarded as an Invest NI customer.
We expect at least one member of each cohort team to be in-person throughout the programme, but not all co-founders need to be based in Northern Ireland.