merrion street

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, has today (Wednesday) announced that €20m is available for co-investment in seed and venture capital funds, and issued a call to fund managers to signal their interest in setting up funds. This €20m comes under the Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital Programme 2007 – 2012. Enterprise Ireland is now inviting applicants for the remaining €20m in this fund and is seeking co-investors who have the ability to access private sector and institutional capital in Ireland and overseas to support Irish innovative companies focussed on ‘go fast to market’ strategies.

Advertisements will appear in national newspapers this week seeking co-investors for this funding.

To date close to €155m of the total €175m under the Seed and Venture Capital Programme 2007 – 2012 has been committed to 11 Seed and Venture Funds. In total these 11 funds have in excess of €630m under management for investment in early stage and growing companies. Approximately €20m is remaining and this third call for expressions of interest is being issued with the objective of Enterprise Ireland making a number of commitments to fund managers focussed on assisting investee companies to ‘go fast to market’ and assisting in attracting international syndicates of investors.

Making the announcement Minister Bruton said:

‘Venture capital funds provide crucial funding, advice and networks both to early-stage high-potential companies in key high-growth sectors and to expanding established businesses. They are critical in helping to bridge the funding gap for Irish companies and ensuring that these companies can continue to grow and create jobs in Ireland. The Government is determined to support the development of a more dynamic venture capital industry in Ireland and the Action Plan for Jobs commits to delivering a number of key measures to step up our performance in this area’.

‘Enterprise Ireland’s Seed and Venture Capital Programme has been extremely successful in raising finance for investment in Irish companies at all stages of development. Today’s announcement that a further €20million of Government funds is being made available for investment is a great boost to the venture capital industry in Ireland and to the high-growth early-stage companies which will benefit from investments as a result of this initiative. ".

Niall O’ Donnellan, Head of Investment Services at Enterprise Ireland, commented: ‘The Seed and Venture Capital sector plays a vital role in supporting and increasing employment in innovative businesses by providing essential risk equity to enable many of our clients to realise growth opportunities. The recently published Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital Programme Report 2011 showed that Irish venture capital firms supported by Enterprise Ireland made 131 investments in 93 companies with a value of €60 million in 2011. This marks a 43% increase on the value of investments in 2010. This represents a significant result, mirroring the strong performance by Irish exporters in 2011 and the increase in the number of innovative start up enterprises supported by Enterprise Ireland during the year’.

Further details are available at:

www.enterprise-ireland.com/svcapital