Fiachra Ó Comhraí, a former vice-president of sales for Salesforce. com, is raising €500,000 in new funding for a gamification startup that has already secured backing from Telefónica and Enterprise Ireland.

Mr Ó Comhraí's firm, Gordon Games, will next month complete the Wayra accelerator programme in London where it has developed three products which aim to encourage sales people to sell better, and more, using tactics commonly used in the games industry.

“We use games to help companies engage with their employees,” Mr Ó Comhraí said. “Sales people can feel like they are just putting data into the system rather than being rewarded for doing so.

“If you develop and engage more with your customers then, for example, this could be reflected in a health status bar or a Tamagotchi-style creature [a popular Japanese created digital pet] which can flourish or turn into a zombie depending on how well you are doing looking after your customers,” he explained.

"This is about helping companies ensure that their sales force is constantly developing their pipeline and maintaining their territory."

Product development
Mr Ó Comhraí said he seed funded Gordon Games initially with his own money before attracting investment from Enterprise Ireland and Telefónica through its corporate venturing programme, Wayra. New investment, he said, would allow the company invest more in product development and marketing as well as double its staff numbers to eight people.

Mr Ó Comhraí’s team includes two former employees with Salesforce.com – Eleanor O’Neill, an experienced enterprise applications developer and Gar Kavanagh, a programmer who also previously worked at Wonga.