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Bebo Founder@ Dublin Web Summit

CategoryBusiness

DateTuesday, March 23, 2010

AuthorS K

Bebo Founder@ Dublin Web Summit

Michael Birch To Be Keynote Speaker At Dublin Web Summit in June

Bebo founder Michael Birch will be the keynote speaker at the Dublin Web Summit on Thursday June 24th in Trinity College Dublin.

Birch, who is still in his thirties, is a serial entrepreneur whose other successes include Birthday Alarm and Ringo.

Having sold Bebo for $850 million, Birch recently launched a new European fund for start-up companies, and he has placed around $49 million in it to invest in new ventures.

Birch's new Venture Capital fund has been designed to bridge the gap between angel and traditional venture funding and places a strong emphasis on "fostering and supporting entrepreneurialism in Europe on a wider level".

Commenting on him delivering the keynote speech at the Dublin Web Summit organiser Paddy Cosgrave said: "We're delighted to bring Michael Birch to Dublin to inspire the next generation of Irish IT entrepreneurs.

"One of the key recommendations of the recently published Innovation Taskforce report is to ensure the availability of smart capital for starting, growing and transforming enterprises," said Cosgrave.

"As a fellow European, Birch is best placed to discuss a number of topics relating to starting, funding, growing and selling companies," said Cosgrave.

Previous speakers at the Dublin Web Summit have included Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales; WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and Craig's List founder Craig Newmark.

A full list of speakers and their running order will be published closer to the event.