MBTA 2025: Shortlist for the Meath Local Enterprise Award

SPONSORED BY LEO

Fifth generation family farm blending heritage with innovation and science

URBÓ Milk

Tell us about your business and team

URBÓ Milk is an Irish-family-farm-based brand producing premium flavoured protein milks from grass-fed cows on a robotic dairy farm in Crossakeil. At URBÓ fresh whole milk is used, straight from the 5th generation family farm, blended only with natural ingredients to produce every can in its own purpose-built factory.

URBÓ is the only company in Ireland to can its own milk and achieve a 12-month ambient shelf life without using preservatives - a first in Irish dairy innovation. The URBÓ team brings together farming heritage, innovation, science and engineering expertise to deliver a convenient, nutritious product that stands out in taste, sustainability and traceability.

Describe the best thing about your service

What sets URBÓ apart is the combination of genuine farm-to-fridge traceability, nutritional performance and everyday convenience. Its milk comes from grass-fed, free-to-roam cows on the Boyne Valley farm, which all fully traceable to source.

Each serving offers 15g of protein, 100 per cent of daily Vitamin D, less than 2 per cent added sugar and is low in lactose.

Packaged in recyclable aluminium cans rather than typical cartons or plastic, URBÓ is designed for people on-the-go who want a healthier, dairy-based alternative to soft drinks or standard energy drinks

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever been given?

“Build your brand on values that your customers believe in - quality, traceability and sustainability.” This advice drove us to invest in grass-fed, free-roaming herd management and full traceability from farm to can, ensuring our product truly aligns with this promise.

What does the future hold for your business?

In the coming year URBÓ will expand its flavour range, deepen its retail presence across Ireland, export internationally and continue to optimise its sustainable packaging and farm practices.

We aim to lead the “milk in a can” market and make high-protein Irish milk a global player in convenience nutrition.

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Helping families and communities get faster access to neurodiverse assessments

Evolve Neuro

Tell us about your business and team

Evolve Neuro is a neuroscience-driven company using brain data to understand and improve how people think, focus and perform from its Co Meath base. To date it has worked with Premier League clubs, international rugby players, UFC fighters, golfers, and global CEOs to study how the brain operates under extreme pressure.

Building on that expertise, we’ve developed a world-first, five-minute brain-based assessment that can identify ADHD and other neurodiverse profiles with clinical-level accuracy. By reducing assessment time and cost by over 90 per cent, we’re helping individuals gain faster access to diagnosis and support - improving their lives and the lives of those around them.

Describe the best thing about your service

The best thing about Evolve Neuro is that it helps people finally understand themselves. Undiagnosed ADHD and other psychological conditions can lead to anxiety, underperformance, and lost potential — both personally and professionally. We believe mental health services should be as accessible as physical health, and just as affordable. Our five-minute brain-based assessment makes that possible, bringing clarity and confidence where confusion once existed. At our core, we all want to know ourselves better. Evolve Neuro gives everyone the tools to understand their own mind and make meaningful improvements in their lives and relationships.

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever been given?

The best business advice I’ve ever been given is this: in business, as in life, never, ever, ever give up. Some days you just put one foot in front of the other — and that’s enough. The businesses that last are the ones that stay the course, with heart and commitment.

What does the future hold for your business?

The future for Evolve Neuro is about helping families and communities get faster access to ADHD assessments. Long waiting lists are simply not acceptable. We’re proud to be developing this technology here in Meath and will soon expand across the UK and Middle East, bringing quicker answers and better support to more people.

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Energy-packed chocolate hitting the sweet spot in national and global markets

RYSE Chocolate

Tell us about your business and team

RYSE is the first chocolate energy bar of its kind in Europe. Each RYSE bar contains 80mg of caffeine (equivalent to a Red Bull) for energy and vitamins B6 & B12 which help improve focus and metabolism. RYSE was created by Ian O'Rourke and David Stone (brother in laws) from Assigh, Co Meath and launched into retail in June 2025. It has grown rapidly and is now available in over 350 stores nationwide in stores such as SPAR, Mace, Londis, Daybreak and Avoca. The brand picked up a globally recognised award for innovation at the Lunch tradeshow in London in September.

Describe the best thing about your service

Ian and David carried out extensive research on the confectionery category and discovered that there was a large amount of protein bars on the market, however, there were no energy focussed bars. In 2022, they began working on their current concept of delivering a great tasting energy bar that delivers a smooth and steady release of energy in an entirely new way.

Over the last 3 years, they have optimised the offering 26 different times before the official launch in June. The bars are creating an entirely new way to consume energy in a cleaner and tastier way than energy drinks. It is a truly Irish innovation with huge growth potential to scale the brand globally.

What's the best business advice you've ever been given?

At the start, “do things that don't scale.” We have learned a huge amount by getting out and sampling people, asking them questions and receiving feedback. These are non-scalable ways to communicate with consumers, which provides honest and quick feedback on things from packaging to positioning to even the flavours that we offer.

What does the future hold for your business?

The team and brand have huge ambitions. RYSE will launch its new direct to consumer platform in November 2025.

In January 2026, RYSE will launch in all Holland and Barrett stores on the island of Ireland. RYSE will launch in the UK in a selected retailer in July 2026 and the team expects to grow from two to four people in 2026 and even further in 2027.