Enterprise Ireland announces creation of EUR 9m venture capital fund and 'Excellerator' scheme

25 February 2002

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Mark Harney, TÃ¡naiste and Irish minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment announced on 18 February the creation of a new EUR 9m venture capital fund to support existing companies and early-stage start-ups with export growth potential in the West and border counties of Ireland. The fund will be managed by Enterprise Equity Venture Capital Group in Galway City, which has committed EUR 4.5m to the public-private partnership with Enterprise Ireland (EI), which also committed EUR 4.5m. The news follows on from the announcement in January of the Ã¸95m cash injection by Enterprise Ireland, made into 12 new Irish VC funds (11 February 2002, page 12). Conor Oâ€™Connor, CEO of Enterprise Equity, stated that the fund expects to invest average sums of between EUR 250,000 and EUR 1.35m into investee companies, adding that larger investments will be facilitated through syndication.

On the same day Mark Harney also announced the launch of a unique support programme for entrepreneurial companies in regional Ireland. Called â€˜Excelleratorâ€™ the initiative aims to speed up the development of companies with strong growth potential through a public-private partnership between Enterprise Ireland, Shannon Development and Ernst & Young. Ernst & Young is responsible for the design and content of the programme, which was built to address specific skills and knowledge gaps identified amongst entrepreneurs by Enterprise Ireland and Shannon Development. As part of this support Excellerator has created a group of â€˜Championsâ€™ comprising some of Irelands leading business people to act as mentors to the company. Participants include Dennis Oâ€™Brien, Chris Horn of IONA and Liam Young of Conduit.