Jobs on offer as Mayo software firm expands

A MAYO-based sports software company has just closed a substantial investment. 

Sportlomo, a software platform for amateur sport, is a spin-off from 21st Century Computers and Web Design, which is based in the Barcastle Industrial Park at Moneen in Castlebar.

The company founders, Seamus and Vivienne Kyne, are well-known in the area having established their original computer training business in 1997. Both hail from Galway but are living in Mayo for over 25 years. 

Their new software company, Sportlomo, is better known locally as Sports Manager.

Vivienne Kyne stated: 'Our company has evolved over the years. As a small company we have to be able to re-invent ourselves.

'We established our business in computer training and then added web design.

'We have worked with many sports organisations and in the process we could see a clear need for low-cost, efficient software to help them manage their fixtures, results, tables, referees, teamsheets and websites.

'We’ve bootstrapped the company to this point in time. But, to seriously tackle international markets and increase our number of users overseas, we needed funding to build out our software and scale up.'

The Kynes have big growth plans for Sportlomo after attracting a significant investment in the start-up’s first funding round from two Angel Networks, Bloom (Dublin) and a new west of Ireland angel investment group, West by North West Syndicate (WXNW). 

This investment has also been backed by Enterprise Ireland. 

Seamus Kyne told The Connaught Telegraph: 'The support from the Mayo Local Enterprise Office and Westbic was very important in helping us secure investment. These agencies worked hard to help us bring our investment deal over the line. 

'Now our first task is to ramp up employment quickly over the next few months. We are actively looking for software developers who might want to move to Mayo.'