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Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney, and the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath today welcomed the announcement of a further commitment of up to €20 million to Resolve Ventures, in what is the second allocation from the Irish Innovation Seed Fund.
The first commitment under this programme saw an allocation to WakeUp Capital in June 2023 and this fund is expected to commence investments before the end of the year.
Resolve Ventures is a new fund manager focusing on seed stage investment in Ireland. The team, led by David Scanlon and Alan Costello, have extensive expertise in the Irish tech start-up landscape and previously ran the Accelerate Green sustainability programme. The fund will target early-stage investments into innovative technology companies addressing some of the biggest climate & sustainability challenges, such as technology solutions for renewable energy production and storage, sustainable agri/foodtech systems as well as smart city, construction, and mobility innovations.
The team expect to have a first close of the fund and begin actively investing into a promising pipeline of opportunities by late 2023/early 2024.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney, commented:
"I am pleased to announce the second significant commitment of funding under the Irish Innovation Seed Fund Programme. This allocation to Resolve Ventures continues to reflect government’s recognition that if new companies are not supported at the seed and early stage, it creates an issue where there will not be enough scalable indigenous companies available later in the development lifecycle.
"That is why this allocation is such a positive initiative for the Irish market, with Enterprise Ireland investing alongside the EIF. It is government ambition that we want to create an ecosystem pipeline where we have Irish entrepreneurs building successful global businesses that are reflective of a focus on technology and innovation and providing high quality employment, which in turn strengthens the Irish owned exporting sector. This is a key deliverable in my department’s White Paper on Enterprise.
"I look forward to making further announcements regarding allocations of funding."
Minister for Finance Michael McGrath added:
"I welcome this second allocation of funding from the €90 million Irish Innovation Seed Fund Programme, which was launched to provide greater access to early-stage funding for high innovation start-ups and SMEs.
"It is encouraging to see further progress being made in this collaboration between the European Investment Fund and Enterprise Ireland, with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund participating as a co-investor, with all three partners working together to support investment in innovative Irish and European companies.
"The government remains committed to further developing the Irish venture capital market and helping high-growth SMEs access funding to scale up and reach their full potential."
David Scanlon, General Partner of Resolve Ventures, said:
"We are delighted with the significant amount of funding secured to date. At Resolve Ventures, we believe in investing in our future and doing our part in delivering the impact momentum necessary to attain the targets set out by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
"Through this fund, we hope to aid innovative tech solutions that are crucial to ensuring the rapid decarbonisation of the Irish and wider global economy, in compliance with legally-binding targets. Fostering our Venture Ecosystem is key; we're not only directly investing in companies, but also in carbon reduction and the conservation of our planet for future generations, by broadly scaling the deployment of nature-positive, equitable solutions."
The Irish Innovation Seed Fund Programme is a €90 million fund of funds, made up of a €30 million investment from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, through Enterprise Ireland, which is matched by a €30 million investment from the European Investment Fund, and a €30 million co-investment from Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. As a fund of funds, the programme will invest in other specialist fund managers who will target high growth innovative companies based on disruptive intellectual property, who are at the early stages of external funding for innovative, high growth, scalable sectors.
As part of Budget 2021, the Minister for Finance proposed the establishment of an equity fund for early-stage seed and growth capital. A working group comprised of representatives from the Department of Finance, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE), ISIF, Enterprise Ireland (EI), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) conducted a market mapping exercise and identified an acute need for additional support in the seed funding market. This segment of the market continues to be an area of high demand in Ireland, and it has proved very challenging to attract market funding for early-stage companies.
The fund was launched in 2022 by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.
Essentially, the fund of funds invests in specialist fund managers, who then source companies with strong potential for a commercial return on investment. The specialist fund managers pool funding from multiple investors, both public and private, which creates capital for these high potential companies.
Investment in innovation is an essential component of supporting an enterprising and productive economy. Government support for innovation assists in creating and maintaining high-value jobs and helps to attract investment and develop business in Ireland.
The fund will target SMEs who will typically be high growth innovative companies based on disruptive intellectual property and who are at the early stages of seeking external funding in innovative, high growth, scalable sectors including:
The programme will focus on supporting key priorities such as female entrepreneurship, regional development and sustainability.
Further successful fund managers will be announced in the coming months.