€85m in business angel funding available to Irish start-ups - InterTradeIreland

Margaret Hearty, the organisation’s director of business services and programmes, said it is a crucial time for start-ups to become investor ready. She said almost €50m investment in funding partnerships had been made since the Halo Business Angel Networks had been set up and that there is now an even greater opportunity for companies.

“The island of Ireland has an excellent infrastructure in place to support new business and InterTradeIreland is at the coalface of this,” she said.  “Small and medium businesses will drive the future of our economy and they need support to take the opportunities and to grow. 

“Research has shown that venture backed firms outperform non-venture backed firms. Job creation is also much stronger within VC backed companies, with research indicating that VC backed companies create 80pc more jobs than non VC based companies. Our focus at InterTradeIreland is to work with SMEs to help them become first class investor-ready companies.”  

The 11th annual InterTradeIreland Venture Capital Conference takes place at Belfast City Hall on Wednesday 7 March and is designed to facilitate networking between Ireland’s leading venture capitalists, business angels and start ups that are seeking funding from across the island. 

This year’s conference, which is entitled ‘Navigating the Funding Maze’, will look at the experiences of companies that have been through the venture capital process and showcase the options and opportunities available to Irish companies today.

“The environment for start-ups has changed dramatically with the advent of lean start-ups, born global start-ups and the social local mobile internet media revolution, bringing both increased opportunities and competition,” said Michael Culligan, national director, Halo Business Angel Network.

“Supports such as business angel investing, angel co-investment funds, accelerator programmes and seed venture capital funds are a response to this reality.  Notwithstanding the severe macroeconomic challenges of recent years, there exists a vibrant entrepreneurial culture on the island.  This responsive entrepreneurial ecosystem is exactly the environment where business angel activity can flourish and play an increasingly important role in the creation of wealth and jobs.

“Entrepreneurs should seek out angels who have entrepreneurial as well as domain experience and can genuinely contribute to the building of the company in an area where the founders need help.  The venture capital conference is a perfect chance for these entrepreneurs to meet some of the key investors in the Irish market and to see what they are looking for in a potential investment.”

Delegates at the conference will be able to put questions to the active venture funds on the island, hear first hand experiences from companies that raised finance as well as perspectives from investors Danny Moore, principal at Lough Shore Investments, and Dennis R Costello, managing partner at Braemar Energy Ventures.  The conference will highlight the current sources of equity funding as well as alternative sources.