Thriftify on shortlist for €1m project

By Maurice Garvey

CLONDALKIN entrepreneur Rónán Ó Dálaigh has been shortlisted for a national funding project which has up to €1 million available.

Ó Dálaigh established Thriftify, a web-based project that helps charities maximise the true value of unsold donated stock, particularly donated books.

Thriftify and 10 other finalists will compete for access to funding and grants at Thinktech, a development programme devised by Social Innovation Fund Ireland and supported by Google.org and the Department of Housing.

Having processed 20,000 books for one charity shop chain, Ó Dálaigh sees potential for the initiative to expand to the UK, and feels Thriftify can make a profit of €250,000 a year.

Rónán Ó Dálaigh, CEO of Thriftify, said: “We are delighted that Thriftify has made it to this stage of the Thinktech selection process. Participating in Thinktech would enable us to take all of the resources and solutions we have created and scale them up.’’

Thriftify will compete for access to funding and grants, as well as support and mentoring to further develop their social innovations.

The finalists will take part in with the overall award ceremony at Google’s EMEA HQ in Dublin.

Thinktech was recently launched by Minister for Housing Simon Coveney.

Google.org – the philanthropic arm of Google – donated €500,000 to the initiative, which was matched by a government fund of €500,000.

Director of Google.org, Jacquelline Fuller said: ‘’We see great potential for these ideas to make a lasting impact and they also demonstrate Google’s view that technology has the power to make a real difference and create positive change in society.”