Andrea Hunter, Aer Lingus Business Development Manager presents the Innovation of the Year Award to Irene McAleese, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of See.Sense. They are joined by Aer Lingus cabin crew member Jo Freeman and compere Wendy Austin at the 10th annual Aer Lingus TakeOff Foundation Business Awards, in the IoD Headquarters, Pall Mall, London.

See.Sense is a shining light at Aer Lingus TakeOff Foundation Business Awards

Newtownards-based cycling technology and data company See.Sense, won the Innovation of the Year Award at the tenth annual Aer Lingus TakeOff Foundation Business Awards, which took place on Tuesday 8th May in the palatial surroundings of the Institute of Directors Headquarters on Pall Mall, London.

See.Sense’s products are manufactured in Northern Ireland and shopped to more than 70 countries around the world.

The company’s recent highlights include the manufacture and launch of a new product, ACE, an artificial intelligence powered cycle light which collects data and generates never-seen-before insights on routes, road surfaces, accidents and near misses – enabling cities to identify hot spot areas and make cities safer for everyone.

Irene McAleese, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of See.Sense said: “The innovation has enabled us to create bike lights that significantly outperform competitors and the ability to collect data through the light has opened up new revenue streams for the business.

“We are a highly ambitious company with global aspirations and like to give back to our community as we grow. We continue to manufacture our products locally in Northern Ireland and we are proud to have created interesting and varied roles for our expanding team.

“Through the crowd funding platform, we are preparing to raise £4-5m this year to accelerate further expansion into international markets on the product front as well as build a ‘smart cities’ data practice.”

The categories were; Most Innovative Company; Exporter of the Year, Best Business Start-Up, Best SME Award, Fast Growth Business, Excellence in Marketing, Business Person of the Year, Overall Excellence and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The winners were:

Innovative of the Year Award: See.Sense

Best Business Start-Up: AG Electrical NI Ltd

Best SME Award: STATSports Group Ltd

Fast Growth Business Award: FIN TrU Ltd

Excellence in Marketing: Babocush

Exporter of the Year: Brookvent

Business Person of the Year: Cathal Grant, CGDM Construction Ltd

Overall Excellence: Selective Travel Management

Lifetime Achievement: Trevor Annon, Mount Charles

Andrea Hunter, Business Development Manager of Aer Lingus NI said: “Aer Lingus is delighted to be at the helm of these very prestigious business awards again this year, to celebrate genuine innovation and to connect businesses with opportunities globally every day via our Belfast City to Heathrow route and to Europe and the US from Dublin,” she said.

“Receiving an Aer Lingus TakeOff Foundation Business Award is a fantastic accolade as the standard of entries was exceptionally high this year and each award was extremely hard fought. 

It’s been a pleasure to select and reward the winning companies and we’re are very much looking forward to hearing about their continued success in the future.

This year the eleven strong panel of judges included Andrea Hunter, Business Development Manager at Aer Lingus; John Mulgrew, Editor, Ulster Business; Gary McDonald, Business Editor, Irish News; Margaret Canning, Business Editor, Belfast Telegraph; Richard Sherriff, Business Editor, News Letter; Wendy Austin, Presenter, BBC Inside Business; Bob McGowan-Smyth, Investment Director, Crescent Capital; Kieran McGarrigle, Partner, Head of Finance, Arthur Cox; Kirsty McManus, National Director, Institute of Directors NI, Jeremy Fitch, Executive Director, Business and Sector Development Group, Invest NI and Roseann Kelly, Chief Executive, Women In Business.