iHubs Newsletter March 2022

Tr3Dent Announces Closing A Private Placement For Senior Secured Convertible Debentures

Galway, Ireland – February. 24, 2022 – Tr3Dent Limited. (the “Company” or “Tr3dent”), a leading global provider of an intuitive, end-to-end strategic planning and structured collaboration platform announced that it has successfully closed a private placement of senior secured convertible debentures (the “Debentures”) of CAD $942,500 on December 13, 2021 (the “Offering”) led by Canadian institutional and individual investors. The closing of the Offering follows prior investments into the Company including the initial investment round led by Enterprise Ireland 2017 and brings the Company’s total capital raised to date to just over CAD $2.5M. The Debentures will automatically convert to ordinary shares of the Company upon the closing of a subsequent financing associated with the company seeking a listing on a Canadian stock exchange (the “Go Public”).

With a Go Public event targeted for later this year, this Offering was a critical milestone in executing Tr3Dent’s public listing roadmap. Facilitated by Toronto-based investment and merchant bank Foundation Markets, net proceeds from the Offering will be utilized to expand the company’s sales and business development teams and strengthen its footprint in the North American markets. The closing of the Offering also is expected to allow Tr3Dent to significantly increase its product development team, accelerating the continued growth, innovation and adoption of Tr3Dent’s flagship platform, “Transformation Accelerator,” globally.

Founded and headquartered in Galway, Ireland, Tr3Dent has been an integral part of GMIT (Galway Mayo Institute of Technology) Innovation Hubs (iHubs) since 2015.

“Over the years, Tr3Dent has experienced rapid growth and became a standout innovator in our incubation units,” said George McCourt, head of innovation and enterprise at GMIT Innovation Hubs. “Though laser-focused on the company’s future, Kevin and the Tr3Dent team also became very active in GMIT community. This would be the first GMIT iHubs’ client to raise funding in connection with an anticipated Canadian stock exchange listing, and we are delighted to have supported Kevin and Tr3Dent on this journey.”

With Gartner projecting IT spending to reach 4.5 trillion in 2022 alone, up 5 percent since 2021, newly adopted technologies will pose full-scale disruptions to organizations’ traditional business models, operations and ecosystems. As companies work to fast-track digital transformation projects and better support remote workforces, Tr3Dent’s Transformation Accelerator is well-positioned to empower organizations of all sizes to quickly, easily and confidently navigate digital transformation challenges.

About Tr3Dent:

Tr3Dent is a leading global provider of an intuitive, end-to-end strategic planning and structured collaboration platform that empowers organizations of all sizes to navigate their digital transformation journeys quickly, easily and confidently. Leveraging its expertise in visualization technology, Tr3Dent’s flagship platform, Transformation Accelerator, helps improve cross-organizational productivity and structured collaboration while simplifying the organization, design and management of the complex information required to enable successful digital transformations. Founded in 2014, Tr3Dent serves more than 500 organizations and partners around the world across a variety of industries, including management and IT consulting, technology, education, telecommunications, insurance, healthcare, supply chain and retail. Headquartered in Galway, Ireland, Tr3Dent also maintains operations in Toronto, Canada. For more information, visit www.tr3dent.com. 

International “Invent For The Planet” Event Hosted By GMIT Puts Focus On Solving Global Challenges

Over the weekend of 18 to 20 February, GMIT’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in collaboration with the GMIT iHub hosted the international “Invent for the Planet” event involving 29 universities from 15 countries across five continents participating in a 48-hour Intensive Design Experience (IDE) to solve eleven global challenges.

The students, from diverse disciplines and institutions, focused on solving three of the challenges, namely: Small-scale Renewable Energy Resources; Disaster Resilience Food-Energy-Water infrastructure; and the Digitalization of Seafood Production. The latter was proposed by the Irish sponsors and was the most selected challenge with 21 of the 97 international teams choosing it.

GMIT is the first Irish third-level college to host the event which took place in multiple global locations simultaneously. In 48 hours, the students had to form a team, develop a solution, create a prototype, produce a 90-second video and a 10-minute presentation to pitch their idea to a judging panel. The winning team, “FoodErgy”, proposed to use the exothermic heat of the accelerated composting process to contribute to home heating. The team are Sean Andreassen (from Lahinch, Co Clare ), Year 3, Energy Engineering student, GMIT; Piotr Kirche (Łódź, Poland, currently living in Galway), Year 3, Biomedical Engineering student, GMIT; Jonathan Orpen (from Killybegs, Co Donegal), Year 1, Mechanical Engineering student, GMIT; James Britton (from Mountcharles, Co Donegal), PhD student, Bioprocess Development, UCD; and Manuel Bruch (from Dublin , originally Tönisvorst, Germany), PhD student, Biotechnology, UCD. Speaking about their win, the team said: “’Our aim is to change the public mindset on food waste, utilizing it for renewable energy through a new technology that can be shared globally in the fight against climate change.”

This year’s national leg of the event was sponsored by a number of national agencies, Government departments, research centres and technology investment firms including: BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre; Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) – Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency; Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; Science Foundation Ireland; Irish Bioeconomy Foundation; Marine Institute; Nua na Mara, and Hatch.

Team mentors were Damien Toner, Development and Innovation Executive, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM); Frank Kane, Aquaculture Section, Marine Institute; Dr Majbritt Bolton Warberg, Blue Bioeconomy Programme Manager, Marine Institute; Niall O’Rahelly, Ireland Aquaculture Community Manager, HATCH; Dr Joanne Casserly, Scientific and technical officer, Marine Institute.

Judges were Dr Jamie Downes, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Marine Institute; Cliodhna Ni Ghriofa, Business Development Manager, Nua na Mara; Niall O’Rahelly, Aquaculture community Manager, HATCH; Dr Carine Gachon, Transcend Project Manager, GMIT; and Dr Oliver Mulryan, Head of Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, GMIT.

Dr Jack Saad, lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, GMIT, and event organiser says: “The event gives the student a chance to demonstrate their cognitive abilities. Over the two days it was amazing to see the metamorphosis of the teams, from people who didn’t know each other to a collaborative team of friends who pushed each other to the limit of their abilities. Their imaginative solutions to global problems were inspirational.”

“The most picked up challenge was ‘Digitalization in Seafood Production’ which was submitted by our Irish sponsors; 21 teams out of 97 have globally worked on providing solutions. Great appreciation goes to our sponsors for their efforts to attract the global attention to this essential and crucial statement.”

Turlough Rafferty, Operations Manager, GMIT Innovation Hubs and event co-organiser, says: “Invent for the Planet provides a learning platform for students to engage in challenges effecting the planet today. In a 48-hour design sprint, students form egalitarian collaborative teams to come up with an innovative sustainable solution for positive change. A daunting but very rewarding creative endeavour”.

Dr Oliver Mulryan and Dr Carine Gachon, GMIT Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, paid tribute to all the participants, sponsors and the mentors who gave their weekend to the event. “Thank you for your time, advice and guidance and to all local industries who continually support and enhance the students’ learning experience. Your continual support is greatly appreciated and long-term leaves an indelible mark on the students’ learning and college experience.”

Damien Toner, Development and Innovation Executive, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), says: “The teams have shown a capacity to quickly identify problems in the Global Aquaculture sector and to identify potential solutions. Their enthusiasm and skillset is infectious and bodes well for future Irish based research and development commercialisations”.

Dr Majbritt Bolton Warberg, Blue Bioeconomy Programme Manager, Marine Institute, says: “I was delighted to be involved in Ireland’s inaugural Invent for the Planet held in GMIT iHubs this past weekend. Now more than ever we need to look across and bring together different disciplines to find solutions to global challenges. To see people from different backgrounds with no or very little knowledge of a topic, come together, develop and then present a well thought out solution after just 48 hours was incredible. Congratulations to all the Irish participants, you’ve all done something you can be very proud of”.