Dungannon's Conall Laverty aims big with '˜internet of things' start up

Conall Laverty launched Wia last year and the ambitious start up is already expanding its Dublin base.

Success is nothing new for the 26-year-old who launched his first online platform aged just 13.

His latest venture allows businesses create their own basic cloud architecture at low cost and to be able to process data within minutes.

And its attracting interest from investors with NDRC (National Digital Research Centre) supplying Wia with funding through its LaunchPad programme.

NDRC, which says it invests “earlier than others dare” will provide Wia with micro-seed investment as well as 12 weeks support with every aspect of the business.

Participants in the scheme can also expect to receive a fast-track to attracting follow-on investment.

Mr Laverty said Wia was on the cusp of major growth.

“My ambition is to grow the company to making one billion connections and the platform will have the capacity to do that by the third quarter this year,” he said.

The company already partners with global corporation including Intel and Ubuntu.

“There are only three of us at the moment but we are actively recruiting developers and marketers and it is exciting to see the number of people interesting in joining us especially as we’re competing against Google and Facebook.”

Mr Laverty said the ‘internet of things’ was the use of technology “to make every day tasks easier”.

And while Wia’s growth will be reliant mostly on adding business customers, Mr Lavery said the platform “can be used by anybody”.

The firm is preparing to launch a product that can be used by the public for what Mr Lavery described as “home projects”.