Losses rise to €1.19m at online grinds school backed by Brian O’Driscoll and Caelan Doris

An online grinds company that includes Brian O’Driscoll and Caelan Doris among its investors last year saw losses increase to €1.19 million since it was founded. Grinds 360, a joint venture between Brendan Kavanagh, the owner of ed-tech company Olive Media, and teacher Ronan Murdock, was launched in 2024 at an event with Kevin Marshall, head of education with Microsoft Ireland.O’Driscoll, the former Ireland rugby captain, owns some 2.8 per cent of shares. Doris, the current Ireland captain, owns under 1 per cent.Grinds 360 currently offers a subscription for lessons on all Leaving Certificate subjects for €1,099. The company says over 30,000 students have registered since it launched.READ MOREKavanagh, who has previously said university “is for slow learners”, had claimed in a 2025 Business Post interview that Grinds 360 would be profitable in its first year of trading. Unaudited accounts filed this week show losses increased in the company’s second year. It is not uncommon for start-up companies to incur losses in their first years in business.Grinds 360 made a loss of €417,000 in its first 13 months. Its loss for the year up to August 31st, 2025, was €777,031, bringing total losses to €1.194 million. The accounts report positive equity of €817,503, taking into account just over €2 million raised through investors including from rugby and GAA players. Leinster player Jordan Larmour and former Kilkenny hurler Walter Walsh are also investors.The net current liabilities for the company showed debts of €1.43 million, with over €1 million owed to another Kavanagh-owned company. The accounts record intangible assets of €2.2 million, which consist of software and a content library.There were big payments to other companies where Kavanagh is a shareholder and director. Grinds 360 acquired software and digital content costing €2.51 million from Olive Media Solutions UK, the UK holding company for Olive Media in Ireland, up from €1 million paid the previous year. Another Kavanagh company, Tactix XR, where O’Driscoll and Doris are also shareholders, was owed €19,980. Software costing €264,342 was acquired from O.Labs Hub Ltd and marketing services costing €69,470 were acquired from Surgexel, two other Kavanagh companies. The number of staff employed jumped from two to 23, with 17 employed as tutors. A company spokesman said the losses over its first two financial accounts “are not comparable”. He said the company’s first accounting period ended when its revenue was under €5,000 and before its platform launched in September 2024.The spokesman added that the loss of €417,000 in the first accounts was “not a trading loss” and so “cannot serve as a baseline” for suggesting trading losses accelerated with the €777,031 loss reported up to the end of August 2025. “The year to August 31st 2025 was the first full trading year in which revenue exceeded the original year-one forecast,” the spokesman said. “Net assets were positive at €817,503 with no bank debt, and current management accounts show the company trading profitably.”He said €2.13 million of current debt included €762,492 of deferred income and approximately €1.09 million owed to group companies. He said group debt has since reduced to €68,000.The spokesman said transactions with other Kavanagh companies were “made on arm’s-length commercial terms and relate to services actually supplied”.He added that Kavanagh was correct to say Grinds 360 was profitable in his Business Post interview in September 2025. The spokesman said the newly-filed accounts cover the period up to the end of August 2025 and do not include a €1m operating profit he said was made last September when memberships converted to revenue.“The company is profitable and the level of profitability has continued to increase,” he said.