Kildare Business Set for National Enterprise Awards Final
21st May 2025: A well-known food brand from Naas, Co. Kildare is set to compete with the country’s best small businesses as one of the finalists for the National Enterprise Awards, taking place this week.
Fused by Fiona Uyema will represent Local Enterprise Office Kildare at the prestigious awards, which will take place on Thursday 22nd May, in the Round Room, at the Mansion House in Dublin.
Fused is led by co-founders Fiona and Gilmar Uyema, who bring a wealth of experience, expertise, and passion for food innovation to the business. Their combined vision and dedication has been key to the company’s growth and success.
Fused strives to provide high-quality, sustainably packaged sauces and spices that enable home cooks to easily recreate authentic, restaurant-quality Asian dishes. With a commitment to clean-label products, natural ingredients, and zero refined sugar, Fused aims to deliver exceptional culinary experiences while meeting the growing demand for convenient, premium, and flavourful meal solutions.
This is the 25th year of the Local Enterprise Office initiative, which was won last year by another Kildare based business, DREAMDEV Technologies. Set up in 2019 by Eoin Barry and Douglas Augiar, the AI augmented platform helps companies significantly increase their product’s time to market.
This year, there is a wide variety of finalists competing for the title of National Enterprise of the Year. These include:
- TAPiTAG from Westmeath, who develop NFC-powered digital solutions, including business cards, marketing tags, and donation platforms and have over 45,000 users in 75 countries.
- Spellings for Me, Tipperary, who have developed an AI-powered personalised spelling programme, designed for primary schools and home learning.
- SPRYT, Monaghan, an AI-powered virtual receptionist that helps healthcare providers significantly improve patient engagement.
- Slick+, Sligo, a knowledge sharing system for remote and hybrid teams.
- Seabound Engineering, Donegal, Ireland’s only SCMS-certified aluminium shipyard, specialising in custom-built vessels for the aquaculture, inshore and offshore fishing, and marine sectors.
Alongside Fused, there is also a selection of food businesses in the running this year, including Naked Bakes from South Dublin, SOS Cookies from Limerick and WONDR Jellies from Mayo, the world’s first high protein, low sugar jellies.
Jacqui McNabb, Head of Enterprise, Economic Development and Tourism, Kildare County Council said: “The National Enterprise Awards serve to highlight the very best businesses that the Local Enterprise Offices are working with across the country. The diversity of sectors and innovation shown again this year is outstanding and the winners will no doubt produce businesses destined for international success. These businesses have excelled in their areas and have the potential to follow in the footsteps of previous winners to become successful global companies.”
The Finalists are competing for a prize fund of €50,000. Along with an overall National Enterprise of the Year winner there are categories for Best Start-Up, Best Export Business, an Innovation Award, a One-to-Watch Award, and a Sustainability Award. There is also an Outstanding Achievement award for a business that started with their Local Enterprise Office and has gone on to achieve international growth with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland.
Local Enterprise Office Kildare has had prior success at the awards, with four previous winning clients. Eoin Barry of DreamDev Technologies, Sonia Desey of Pestle & Mortar and Padraig and Thomas Hennessy of TERRA NutriTECH have shown that this competition is the first step on a bigger journey, opening many doors nationally and internationally. These inspiring entrepreneurs create businesses and employment in County Kildare that compete globally and were worthy winners of the National Enterprise Award.
The National Enterprise Awards are one of a number of initiatives run by Local Enterprise Offices to foster entrepreneurship across the country. Other initiatives include Local Enterprise Week, the Student Enterprise Programme, National Women’s Enterprise Day, and Local Enterprise Showcase. The Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities are funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland.
