The Irish leader Enda Kenny will give the opening address at the UK & Ireland Tech Tour, (September 17 to 20), where companies will access over 60 international investors to aid their global expansion.

Tech Tour, the European organisation which offers an investor platform to existing and emerging technology companies, announced that 27 companies have been selected as part of its UK & Ireland Tech Tour and will be revealed on September 17.

The presenters, who are privately held companies, will be introduced to key investors and professionals who can assist in their global expansion. Over 100 companies from across the technology spectrum based in Ireland and the UK have applied.

The Tech Tour runs from September 17–20 with opening presentations to take place at the technology centres of Digital Hub and Wayra in Dublin. The Tour then travels to Glasgow, where participants are greeted by Amor Group and The Glasgow City Chambers for closing presentations.

The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, will be the keynote speaker at the opening dinner held in Dublin Castle, and said, “I want to welcome the Tech Tour to Ireland. We are fast becoming known as the Digital Island, a hub for the European tech industry, so we are delighted that such a prestigious event is coming to Dublin this year and will provide our technology companies with an excellent platform to pitch to an audience of global investors and media

“Over many years Ireland has built up an unrivalled ecosystem for High Potential Start Up’s with world class incubators, like Dogpatch and Launchpad, international venture capitalists and a vibrant domestic support infrastructure including Enterprise Ireland, domestic VCs and entrepreneur bootcamps and training. Coupled with our skilled workforce and the presence of leading multinational operations like Twitter, Linkedin, Google and Facebook, this makes Ireland one of the best places in the world to start a technology business.”

The companies, broken down by industry segment, are as follows: seven in Internet and New Media, five in Software, four in Medtech, four in Cleantech, two in Software Applications, two in Wireless Networking, one in IT Infrastructure, one in New Materials & Processes, and one in Electronic Systems and Optical Components.

Previous presenting companies from the last UK & Ireland Tech Tour, held in 2010, have seen a great deal of success including:

• Aepona was acquired by Intel for EUR 92.7M in 2013
• Lagan Technologies was acquired by Kana Software in 2010
• Complinet was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2010
• Just Eat Group raised EUR 98.5M in funding and acquired SinDelantal in 2012
• Maxymiser raised over EUR 12M in funding
• Mobile Interactive Group acquired by Velti for a total of EUR 45M

The Tech Tour was founded in Geneva in 1998 in response to the growing interest in emerging technology companies in various European regions. Tech Tour is composed of key contributors to the high technology industry. Tech Tour recognizes that continued prosperity in Europe lies in its ability to transform today’s innovative projects into tomorrow’s global technology leaders. For further information, please visit www.techtour.com.