The Halo Business Angel Network has announced its first overseas partnership with the New York-based Digital Irish Angels (DIA) Syndicate.
HBAN, which is an all-island organisation and is a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, is responsible for the promotion of business angel investment.
It said the new partnership with DIA will enable the syndicate to invest in and support early stage Irish companies who have a US market focus.
The DIA syndicate has more than 20 investors. With backgrounds in finance and technology, the Irish-US entrepreneurs are looking to invest in Irish companies that want to enter the US market.
The investors are particularly focused on start-ups in the technology, media, and fintech sectors.
Over the next 12 months, HBAN said its New York-based syndicate aims to invest in four to five Irish companies.
The business angels will not only provide funding, but also the support and access to their networks, to help these start-ups grow their businesses in the US and on a global scale.
John Phelan, national director of HBAN, said the new partnership is testament to both the quality of Irish start-ups and the work of the network in vetting, preparing and confirming companies as investor-ready.
"Many of the start-ups that have received funding in the previous ten years, through the network, have scaled and become international successes," he added.
Feargall Kenny, of the DIA syndicate, said the Irish diaspora community in New York, and the US represents a broad and deep pool of domain expertise, capital and networks interested in helping to grow the number of high-potential tech firms coming out of Ireland.
"Irish start-ups are realistically investor-ready for this group of business angels when they have raised private seed or Series A investment in Ireland and have already established a footprint in the US," he added.
