Dublin based Fund Atlantic Bridge is to invest in up to 20 European companies, with the announcement of Atlantic Bridge III, a €140m Fund for technology companies with global market scalability.
Investments are already closing in seven companies, with Atlantic Bridge III focusing on scaling Irish and European companies in high growth enterprise technology sectors such as Cloud, Big Data, Augmented & Virtual Reality software, Robotics and Internet of Things.
Participants in the new fund include existing Atlantic Bridge investors, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Enterprise Ireland and the European Investment Fund, along with new institutional investors, including British Business Bank Investments Limited, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, and a number of institutional pension funds. Atlantic Bridge also welcomes AIB as a new investor into the Atlantic Bridge III Fund and as the strategic banking partner across all its funds.
The project is supported by the Department of Jobs through Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland has been an investment partner with Atlantic Bridge since 2004.
€251m competitive funding through Horizon 2020
588 projects with Irish participation have won a total of €251m in competitive funding from Horizon 2020, the European Union’s programme for Research and Innovation.
The Higher Education system accounted for €157m of the total and companies based in Ireland a further €72m.
Ireland recorded a spectacular success in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie sub-programme of Horizon 2020, which promotes the training of researchers. In the most recent round of funding Ireland won €18.5m, equivalent to 35% of the available Marie Skłodowska-Curie budget, bringing Ireland’s total from this sub-programme to €49m.
Horizon 2020, which runs over the period from 2014-2020, has a total budget of almost €75bn and Ireland has a national target of winning €1.25bn in funding over the course of the programme. The results announced today covers the first two years of the programme.
“A key role of Enterprise Ireland is to support the commercialisation of research and the development of innovative businesses. We are proud to lead Ireland’s participation in Horizon 2020 and the €250m in funding secured by Irish researchers and companies under the programme demonstrates the strength and leadership of the people involved. We will continue to work with Irish researchers and companies to meet our Horizon 2020 funding targets as they target larger projects” - Imelda Lambkin National Director for Horizon 2020 at Enterprise Ireland
About Atlantic Bridge
Atlantic Bridge is the largest indigenous Irish and one of the largest European technology funds, with offices in Dublin, London, Silicon Valley, Beijing and Hong Kong. It has led investment of over €100m in Irish companies. The latest Fund brings the total assets under management of Atlantic Bridge to €400m. Atlantic Bridge also co-manages, with its Chinese partners West Summit Capital, Summit Bridge Capital - a US$100m China Ireland Technology Fund.
About the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (€7.5 billion at end Sept 2015) has a statutory mandate to invest on a commercial basis in a manner designed to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. The Fund has made investment commitments to date of €1.8 billion (including investments made by its predecessor, the National Pensions Reserve Fund) and plans to deploy the remainder of its resources over the coming years as suitable investment opportunities are identified.
About Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland is the government agency responsible for the development and promotion of the indigenous business sector. The mission of Enterprise Ireland is to accelerate the development of world-class Irish companies to achieve strong positions in global markets, resulting in increased national and regional prosperity. Full details of Enterprise Ireland’s support and activities can be found on its website.