Exceedence Ltd. is a spin-off from University College Cork’s Environmental Research Institute, founded by UCC researcher Dr Ray Alcorn and commercial champion John Keating, with the objective of bringing sound, equitable and independent financial modelling advice to developers considering investing in onshore and offshore renewable energy. 

Exceedence evolved from a deep research legacy, established over many years of successful Irish and European funding awards. The team was successful in securing an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund in 2011, which started their commercialisation journey. Dr Gordon Dalton was the lead principle investigator and along with Dr Alcorn, who is a chartered electrical engineer, drew on his deep background in marine renewables from both an industry and academic perspective. In October 2015, the company Exceedence spunout from UCC, and began working with their first customers, Global Renewables Solutions and Tidal Flyer– a company which remains an Exceedence customer to this day. 

UCC Innovation supported Dr Alcorn in securing funding from Enterprise Ireland, and in the process of spinning out from the University. Dr Patrick Morrissey (now General Manager, IPIC) and Dr Andrew Marsh (now Business Development, IBM) were the active Case Managers aiding in this journey. 

Since their launch, Exceedence has focused on engaging with their customers and on continuously refining their fintech software platform, taking part in the 2016 NDRC Accelerator as a selected Catalyser company. They have also participated in a number of European projects including the EU-SCORES project (European Scalable Offshore Renewable Energy Source), where they are leading out on business plan development for large scale offshore parks, and the Marine Energy Alliance Interreg project, where Exceedence provided modelling and cost reduction pathways to 16 technology companies including, wave, floating wind, offshore solar, floating hydrogen, tidal and mooring systems. 

Building on their continuous involvement in the renewables sector, Exceedence ran a crowd-funding investment round in 2018/2019, and were successful in attaining HPSU (High Potential Start Up) status and investment from Enterprise Ireland in 2020. They have also been successful in being selected for the Microsoft Founders Hub, opening the team’s access to high level Microsoft mentorship and guidance, along with providing access to the Azure Marketplace, where Exceedence software is promoted for commercial use.  

The newest Exceedence product is exfin, a technical financial modelling platform which supports the entire renewable project journey, from pre-feasibility to final decommissioning of any offshore wind, tidal, wave or floating solar facilities. Launched earlier in 2023, the product has enjoyed strong success to date, and has aided Exceedence in securing a number of large-scale Irish Governmental tenders to support the ongoing development of the Irish renewables sector. 

Speaking on the Exceedence spinout experience to date, Dr Alcorn said “UCC Innovation have continued to engage with us throughout our journey and have been open to hearing and learning from our lived experience as a University spinout. These learnings have often been taken on board by the UCC Innovation team, and we have continued to participate in their commercialisation support initiatives such as the SPRINT Accelerator program and the Digital Badge in IP and Innovation”.