New €500,000 fund created for broad range of Irish start-ups

16 Sep 2016

Enterprise Ireland has announced its latest competitive start-up fund, with €500,000 set aside for high potential start-ups “in all sectors”.

With submissions for the latest fund open between 21 September and 5 October, “ambitious” entrepreneurs with projects aimed at international success are encouraged to apply.

The broad-reaching new €500,000 purse is aimed at early-stage companies in sectors as varied as internet, gaming, apps, mobile, SaaS, cloud, life sciences, clean-tech and enterprise software. In short: digital.

start-ups Ireland

Early-stage start-up fund

The funding awarded will allow businesses “test the market” for their products and services, building their business plans accordingly.

With the ultimate aim of setting up high potential start-ups (HPSUs) – those that could employ over 10 people and achieve €1m in export sales within three years – Enterprise Ireland has rolled out a number of these initiatives in the past year or so.

“A key role of Enterprise Ireland is to help companies to start and scale their businesses and we see this all-sector fund as a strategic investment in ambitious young companies looking for a support platform to launch their business ideas that will have global appeal,” said Orla Battersby, who heads up the organisation’s HPSU division.

“These businesses will represent some of Ireland’s newest and most exciting entrepreneurs and this fund gives a vital injection of funding and support when they need it most.”

Government-backed start-up fund

Of course, funding isn’t everything, with several start-up founders recently retelling the numerous obstacles that emerge even after backing has been achieved. Though the Government is pushing hard to encourage more to take those risks on.

“A key part of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs is targeting sectors where we have established strengths, and supporting growth and expansion in those areas in order to create jobs,” said Minister for Jobs, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD.

“Ireland is recognised as a key hub for innovation and entrepreneurial drive and this new fund targeting all sectors across the board will make a real contribution to supporting more start-ups and, ultimately, more jobs in Ireland”.

Main start-up image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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