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The Pitch 2025 saw 10 Irish entrepreneurs take to the stage for just seven minutes to live pitch their business to five expert judges and an captivated audience – all for a game-changing prize worth up to €150,000. But there could only be one winner…
22nd Sep 2025
This was the final scene of The Pitch 2025, when 10 incredible companies made their live pitches to our judging panel and audience – it was a full house!
The night was hosted by IMAGE Contributing Editor Melanie Morris, who introduced the finalists as well as the five judges, all renowned industry leaders: Josephine Fairley, speaker, author and co-founder Green & Black’s; Gary Fox, entrepreneur and host of The Entrepreneure Experiment podcast; Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience (MX) VP of Product and Marketing, Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland; Áine Kerr, entrepreneur, board chair and broadcaster; and Clodagh Edwards, CEO of IMAGE Media.
Gathered in the grand surroundings of Dublin Mansion House, each finalist took to the stage, settled their nerves and began, enthralling the audience with storytelling, motivating back-stories and big, bold vision statements. They were grilled on their facts, stats, markets and projections by the judges, answering with assured confidence.
They were all incredibly impressive, and their range of businesses and unique skillsets are a snapshot of Ireland’s exciting start-up scene. It was a tough judging decision to choose the ultimate winner of the prize worth up to €150,000, designed to bring their business to the next level.
And the winner is…
We are delighted to announce the winner as Fierce Mild, co-founded by Fergal Carroll and Cathal Byrne.
Fierce Mild is an Irish non-alcoholic beer brand brewing unapologetically great-tasting beer with a difference. Made with just five premium ingredients, no additives and only 49 calories, Fierce Mild is rewriting the rules of alcohol-free brewing with its bold #BrewThingsDifferently ethos. On the stage, they articulated their problem-statement, purpose and USP clearly and with passion, helping them stand out among the impressive finalists.
We cannot wait to see how they accelerate and grow in the coming year. Their business will be boosted with a tailored suite of Samsung technology for use across their operations alongside a bespoke media and marketing campaign with IMAGE Media of equal value, ensuring they will hit the right audience with the right messaging, and invaluable mentoring from the impressive entrepreneurs Bobby Kerr and Áine Kerr.
On winning the grand prize, Fergal and Cathal said: “We are going to amplify everything about ourselves so much… This is beyond our expectations! As you’ve seen with our pitch, this [prize] is giving us a voice out there in a market that’s very busy and dominated. For us, the IMAGE side of the prize and the business mentorship will help us with the things we don’t know. We don’t know everything. We know our skill sets; we know what we can do, but having that is amazing. Then Samsung – oh my god – the value of that prize!”
We can’t wait to see how they use this prize to accelerate their business.
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