A Galway man has been praised at a glittering business awards event held recently for his “awe-inspiring” vision, innovation, and commercial achievements.
The comments were made at the 15th annual Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards at the City West Hotel in Dublin last Thursday where Salthill man Paul Kenny was announced the winner of the ‘Emerging’ category for his online coupon company, Dubai-based Cobone.com
Other notable wins included the Entrepreneur of the Year award in the ‘International’ category which went to Dr Edmond Harty, a world leader in the development and manufacture of dairy farm equipment, and the winner of the ‘Industry’ category was finalist Colm Piercy, CEO of Irish telecoms business Digiweb.
Speaking at the awards ceremony Frank O’Keefe, Ernst & Young partner-in-charge of the Entrepreneur of the Year programme, said: “It is a privilege to have publicly celebrated the incredible achievements of Edmond, Colm, and Paul, together with our other 2012 finalists, previous winners and alumni. These awe-inspiring entrepreneurs and innovators are proven winners and significant job creators.
“By developing Cobone.com and Digiweb from their earliest incarnations to the international businesses that they are today, Paul and Colm have created enterprises that have become major players within the global e-commerce and telecoms sectors.
“Digital marketing entrepreneur Paul Kenny founded Cobone.com in 2010 at the age of just 25 and in the two years since the business has achieved phenomenal growth - in excess of 30 per cent, month-on-month, to become the leading daily deal website in the Emirates and break all e-commerce records in the Middle East and North Africa region.”
Internet entrepreneur Paul Kenny completed a masters programme in management information systems at NUI Galway and worked in the family business, the well-known Kenny’s Bookshop of Galway. Following a family holiday in Dubai, Mr Kenny received a number of job offers and soon established a fine reputation in online marketing. Having successfully secured seed funding from Jabbar Internet Group, the Cobone.com business began by offering online, daily deal ‘coupons’ to consumers within the United Arab Emirates for products and services offered by spas, restaurants, and a range of other leisure activities. From the outset, Cobone.com grew rapidly, soon becoming a leading daily deal website and breaking all e-commerce records in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA ) region. As of April 2012, Cobone.com had saved its customers more than $50 million and sold almost one million coupons.
