The Irish Times - Friday, February 26, 2010
GORDON SMITH

A DUBLIN company that develops compliance and risk-management software has raised €600,000 to fund its expansion and is recruiting 22 additional employees.

The investment in Onformonics was led by AIB Seed Capital Fund, which is co-managed by the Dublin Business Innovation Centre. Additional funding was raised through Enterprise Ireland and private investors.

Onformonics develops web-based software for companies to manage their regulatory compliance requirements more easily and to identify potential risks. The idea for the company came to co-founder Conor McGoveran at his previous job in Realex Payments, where he handled the company’s compliance efforts.

“It was my fourth year to do that and I was surprised that nobody had brought out a product that would make my job easier,” Mr McGoveran said.

He set up Onformonics two years ago with his business partner Martin Petrov, formerly an auditor with the information security and compliance company Trustwave. The company initially earned revenue through a combination of product sales and consultancy, but Mr McGoveran said he did not want to fall into the same trap as many Irish software developers that became reliant on their services business for cashflow.

“We’re a software company first and foremost and we’re quite focused on being a product-led company,” he said. “That was the main reason to take on the seed capital funding.”

Mr McGoveran’s background is in the internet industry. Potential customers include credit card-processing companies, technology service providers, retail outlets and organisations that process payments or hold customer information. The company plans to expand into the Middle East, Africa and the US by the end of the year.

Source: Irish Times