Iconic is in a prime position to grow after a successful seed funding round of more than €400,000 from a number of investors including Enterprise Ireland, and business angel investment from Bloom Equity and the Boole Investment Syndicate through the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN). Iconic provides cloud-based translation solutions to language service and translation companies and targets a language industry that is worth in excess of €37 billion annually^[1]. Its flagship product automates the translation of intellectual property documents. Founded in 2013 by Dr John Tinsley and Dr Páraic Sheridan, Iconic’s advanced proprietary technology was born from almost a decade of research and development at the CNGL Centre at Dublin City University into developing a unique approach to machine translation with subject matter expertise for highly specialist and technical domains. Welocalize, one of the top 10 global language service providers, has already implemented Iconic’s translation automation service across its offices in US and China. Dr John Tinsley, CEO, Iconic, said: “This announcement is testament to our success to date and ambitious growth plans. Our team of experts has created machine translation solutions for content which had been considered too technical and challenging for automated translation. We are excited about the strong growth we have already achieved in delivering translation technology to the very complex intellectual property and financial services sectors. “Our support network, including Enterprise Ireland, DCU, and HBAN, as well as the angels in the Boole and Bloom syndicates have been so helpful. Obviously they bring much needed funding, but more importantly they bring years of practical business expertise and advice which adds so much value as we plot the next critical steps on our growth journey.” Kevin Sherry, manager High Potential Start-Ups at Enterprise Ireland, said: “Iconic Translation Machines are a great example of the type of company we like to support, spinning out from university research and targeting a significant global opportunity. From its beginnings at DCU, Iconic has grown from being a concept to a company with a strong technology and commercial offering.” HBAN played a key role in matching Iconic with angel investors with an interest and particular experience in high-potential software companies. Michael Culligan, national director at HBAN said: “When we first met the team at Iconic, we were very impressed with the company’s offering. No one else was providing the kinds of solutions Iconic has already mastered. We introduced them to Bloom Equity and the Boole Investment Syndicate and the relationships have blossomed from there.” HBAN is a joint initiative of InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland, dedicated to the all-island promotion of business angel investment. Declan McCabe of Bloom Equity said: “What impressed me most about Iconic was the technology it has pioneered. Translation companies have strived to automate their translation processes and Iconic has plugged this much needed gap in the market.”