Irish Firm at forefront of funding revolution

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Irish Technology Company Seedups launched their full service on 1 February.

Developed as a crowdfunding platform for start-ups to match with a growing network of investors, the company has already hit a number of milestones since their beta launch.

Founder Michael Faulkner explained the concept of the business as “networking new entrepreneurs with angel type investors who are looking for the best new start-ups in which to invest”. The business model has been described by an existing Seedups investor as Dragons’ Den meets Facebook.

Seedups had its soft launch on 5 November last and in little over two months has attracted over 200 entrepreneurs from Ireland and the UK raising funds for new start-up ventures.

Industry interest has come from the UK, US, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, India and even further afield, where people are attracted to the potential of crowdfunding start-up businesses. The company is in active talks with a range of international partners and will be attending the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in Austin Texas as part of a delegation from Ireland.

With banking still dominating the news, Irish entrepreneurs are experiencing global problems. Many economies are finding support from traditional funding streams have slowed: “banks are less willing to entertain risky projects such as start-ups and as such, those with the business ideas, and have a go attitude to setting up are being hampered with the adverse funding environment” said Mr. Faulkner.

The growing pool of investors on Seedups, which stands at 55 providing 3.6 million in seed capital, can see the benefit in seeding start up investments both from a social and investment perspective. Studies undertaken by Nesta in the UK and the Kaufman Institute in the US point to consistently high rates of return for angel investments in the 20-30% IRR range. This is in addition to knowing that start-ups create jobs and help the economy.

Seedups platform has been developed to service the needs of both the communities it serves. It acts as a matching system for the best investment opportunities to get funded whilst at the same time using crowdfunding principles ensures that risk is diversified across a number of businesses for the investor.

Seedups are now calling on technology based start-ups raising €25,000 up to €250,000 in start-up or expansion capital to get set up with the service and start interacting with Investors on the platform.

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