The Smooth Company founder Áine Kennedy has won in the Emerging category at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) Awards 2025.
Kennedy founded The Smooth Company in 2022. Having identified a gap in the market for a solution to smooth flyaway hair, her first invention was the Smooth Stick. Nearly two years in the making, the taming wand and flagship product is formulated with ingredients such as biotin, vitamin E and aloe vera, all of which promise to both nourish the hair, while keeping it in place.
Prior to starting The Smooth Company, Kennedy had spent eight years working in the beauty industry and getting an entrepreneurship degree, before investing all her money into her business.
It has since amassed more than 150 million organic TikTok views, and has customers in about 70 countries. Here in Ireland, the product range is sold in Peter Mark salon, Brown Thomas and Arnotts.
In a LinkedIn post, Kennedy said that winning the award was “one of the highest honours you can receive as a founder”.
“To stand on that stage alongside some of the most talented, driven and inspiring entrepreneurs in Ireland is something I will never forget,” she said. “Being selected as a finalist alone was a milestone. Winning was the cherry on top, and a moment that will stay with me forever.
“This award isn’t mine alone. It belongs to The Smooth Company dream team, the hardest-working, most passionate group I could ever ask for, and to our incredible community, who believed in me and supported this brand long before moments like this existed.”
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