SMEs

AwakenHub will hire staff to aid US and European expansion

The currently volunteer-led network of female entrepreneurs says funding for staff will ‘free us up to work with the companies and get our hands dirty’

Mary McKenna, Mary Carty, Sinead Crowley and Clare McGee, co-founders of AwakenHub, hope to establish a permanent presence in the US. Picture: Conor Healy

AwakenHub, a network of female entrepreneurs, is planning to hire staff to run the currently volunteer-led group as it scopes out expansion into the US and continental Europe.

The cross-border Irish business group, which was set up two-and-a-half years ago, has more than 1,600 members and has already completed two accelerator programmes for 87 female-led start-ups.

Last week, six graduates of the accelerator pitched to investors at AwakenHub’s first US event at the Bank of ...