Limerick gets first venture capital company

Trade

Irish Technology Capital (ITC), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund created by Irish Diaspora technology leaders and investors, is to locate its European headquarters in Limerick City. ITC will become the City’s first ever venture capital company.

ITC was established by Limerick born technology entrepreneur John Hartnett and MacroVision founder John Ryan. Fellow Limerickmen, Apple CIO Niall O’Connor and Rory McInerney, vice-president of R&D at Intel, are current investors in the fund.

The company will be based out of LIT’s Enterprise Centre and will bring a range of services and supports for high-potential companies, including access to a multi-million euro fund and to a wider network of US based angel funds and later stage investment.

Hartnett said: "One of the deciding factors in choosing Limerick for our European headquarters was the availability of high-growth potential companies at early stage and we are fully satisfied, based on our research here, that the wider Limerick region satisfies this requirement.

"Through our involvement with Limerick we have seen first-hand some outstanding examples of young technology companies and, based on this, we believe that there is definitely the level of innovation and enterprise required for emerging companies here to develop into extremely successful global operations.

LIT president Dr Maria Hinfelaar said: "We are delighted that Irish Technology Capital has agreed to establish their European Head Quarters for ITC here in Limerick. We have no doubt that the funds expansion will be very much evidenced in investments in exciting companies based in this region. The Irish Technology Capital Fund will also act as a gateway to Silicon Valley in supporting these companies.

"The potential access to funding and expertise of the ITC partners and, indeed, of their wider network of investors will be critical to these emerging companies. However, the location of the fund here will also shed a light on Limerick and the Mid-West region as a high quality technology centre and destination for inward investment."

TechCentral Reporters

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