{"id":25140,"date":"2026-06-04T11:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=25140"},"modified":"2026-06-04T11:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:09:17","slug":"women-tech-innovators-recognised-at-techfoundher-breakthrough-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2026\/06\/women-tech-innovators-recognised-at-techfoundher-breakthrough-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Tech Innovators Recognised At TechFoundHer Breakthrough Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Three women reshaping the tech landscape from across the island of Ireland have been recognised for their success in building technology enterprises.<\/span><\/p>\n

The founders, who were part of the inaugural cohort of the InterTradeIreland-led WeBuild programme, delivered by TechFoundHer, were among over 300 local and global women tech innovators at the annual TechFoundHer Summit in Dublin recently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now in their second year, the Breakthrough Awards are sponsored by venture capitalist and angel investor Lata Setty; serial tech entrepreneur, VC and producer of Show Her The Money Catherine Gray along with real estate agent and angel investor Debra Smalley.<\/span><\/p>\n

Celebrating progress, momentum and innovation, the winners were announced live on stage at the Mansion House event, where women-led startups, funders, tech leaders and ecosystem allies came together for a day focused on visibility, innovation and action.<\/span><\/p>\n

Closing out Dublin Tech Week, the summit – developed by Co Down businesswoman and TechFoundHer creator M\u00e1ir\u00edn Murray – is now in its 4th year and represents a significant event in the city\u2019s start-up ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n

With platforms spanning FinTech and HealthTech to bio-driven team optimisation, the 2026 winners were Deirdre McCarthy (founder of <\/span>FLIT), Karen Kelly (creator of HeartPath) and Rachel McMullin (owner of FreQNC).<\/span><\/p>\n

Congratulating the winners, <\/span>M\u00e1ir\u00edn said the Breakthrough Awards are a chance to recognise \u201cmeaningful progress made by women founders, from launching an MVP, winning funding and growing a user base to shifting mindset, direction and confidence in powerful ways\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

TechFoundHer itself is a platform supporting women tech founders across Ireland and Northern Ireland. Initiatives like the Summit event, WeBuild programme and the Breakthrough Awards have become integral to supporting female founders navigating the male dominated tech sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Breakthrough awards matter because women tech founders and innovators are already leading, building and shaping the future of technology and too often, the amplification is missing\u201d added M\u00e1ir\u00edn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese awards are about creating our own platform of recognition. They shine a light on the progress, momentum and meaningful innovation happening across women-led tech ventures, especially at the early stages where visibility can make such a difference.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Carlow\u2019s Deirdre McCarthy created financial literacy tool FLIT to support women in making more confident, informed and economically savvy financial decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a magic to this programme, I can’t quite put it into words, but I was lucky enough to do Innovation Labs and now WeBuild and both times I saw a huge surge in progress\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something to do with feeling safe and supported which allows me to be courageous and step out in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fellow WeBuild participant Co Down\u2019s <\/span>Rachel McMullin is the visionary behind <\/span>FreQNC, a tool that takes task tracking to a deeper level giving users the ability to predict production and workflow delays before they happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was one of the 28 women on the debut cohort of the InterTradeIreland-led WeBuild Programme who were up for a chance of scooping a Breakthrough Award on the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Delivered by TechFoundHer, Rachel said WeBuild has been instrumental in moving her project forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact has been transformational,\u201d she explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the programme, we secured successful funding support after previous unsuccessful applications, developed a high-fidelity MVP, began investor conversations and validated through engineering leader interviews that teams consistently lack reliable systems to detect overload before delivery risk materialises.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Each Breakthrough Award winner will receive a package of $1,000 and a range of support including coaching from leading entrepreneurs in the field, as a token of recognition of their achievements.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kildare winner Karen Kelly\u2019s platform HeartPath is<\/span> an enterprise and community-level tool that helps organisations systematise how they check for and prevent long-term metabolic and heart-related health issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Karen, WeBuild provided her invaluable expertise that helped her utilise emerging AI tools to fast forward her build.<\/span><\/p>\n

She explained: \u201cWeBuild helped transform HeartPath from an idea in my head into a structured technology company.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith support from the programme, and by learning how to use AI tools we accelerated at a pace that would previously have been impossible for a founder-led team without a technical background.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHeartPath is now a multi-tenant platform hosted on Azure, capable of supporting programmes from community screening centres to tertiary hospitals and every level in between.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The WeBuild programme is led by InterTradeIreland in partnership with Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland, as part of the Shared Island Enterprise Scheme funded by the Government of Ireland through the Shared Island Fund. The programme is designed to help women founders access the knowledge, networks and support needed to progress their tech ventures. The programme\u2019s first cohort commenced in January this year with 28 founders, with a further 26 founders taking part in the current cohort. M\u00e1ir\u00edn said the tide is changing across Ireland and women tech founders are quickly becoming integral to the future of the sector across the island.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said: \u201cOur WeBuild founders are unafraid, they\u2019re building, testing, learning, growing and turning ideas into action. This is exactly why practical backing, community and recognition matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early stages of an entrepreneurial journey, recognition is not just symbolic, it helps build credibility, open up new conversations and gives founders the amplification they need to take their next step.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese awards are about saying to women founders: we see what you\u2019re building, we recognise the value of your innovation, and we\u2019re here to back your breakthrough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside announcing The Breakthrough Awards winners, the 2026 TechFoundHer Summit brought together an extraordinary line-up of women tech experts, innovators and keynote speakers, including Professor Maura McAdam (author of the recent book Permission Granted), space communicator Dr Niamh Shaw (fresh from reporting on the Artemis II mission), Dr \u00c1ine Kerr (who led a powerful founder breakthrough session) and the inspiring Saoirse Murphy (the recent Young Scientist of the Year winner).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

InterTradeIreland was lead sponsor of the Summit with Bentley Systems as showcase sponsor, supporting founder showcase moments across the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Headline sponsor was Dublin City Council. Enterprise Ireland and Aquino Global Ventures championed diversity, EY was the ecosystem partner with Cloudsmith and Entrepreneurs Unleashed supporting as community sponsors.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on TechFoundHer and its programmes go to<\/b> techfoundher.com<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three women reshaping the tech landscape from across the island of Ireland have been recognised for their success in building technology enterprises. The founders, who were part of the inaugural cohort of the InterTradeIreland-led WeBuild programme, delivered by TechFoundHer, were among over 300 local and global women tech innovators at the annual TechFoundHer Summit in … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1798,1814,1960],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25144,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25140\/revisions\/25144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}