Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton has announced the first five investments by the AIB Start-Up Accelerator Fund, managed by ACT Venture Capital and established early in the term of this Government as part of the banking recapitalisation mandate. It is expected 92 jobs will be created in the coming 12 months in five Irish companies.
The five companies are social news website Storyful.com; gaming software development company Swrve; financial services software company Barracuda FX; and UCD-based medical diagnostics company Biosensia.
The fund contains a total of €22 million, of which €20 million was contributed by AIB in the context of the bank recapitalisation mandate, and €2 million was contributed by Enterprise Ireland.
The investments made by the new Fund will focus on developing high-growth, export-oriented companies in emerging sectors such as Digital Media, Internet, Software, CleanTech and Medical Devices. The €2million invested
by the Fund as part of today’s announcement comes as part of total fundraising of €5 million by the five companies.
Minister Bruton said: “If we are to turn this country around and create a new economy which can support the levels of employment we need, central to that will be dynamic Irish companies. That is why a key part of the Government’s jobs plan is to target policies at sectors where Irish companies have the capacity to break into export markets and grow quickly to create jobs. ICT, financial services and life sciences are sectors where Ireland has a long record of success in attracting multinational companies, but the challenge now is to convert that into success also for Irish companies."
Brendan O’Connor, head of commercial banking, AIB, said: “The fund is an important element of AIB’s seed capital capability and the Bank now has facilitated the creation of €75 million in funding making it the largest seed capital provider in the country. With today’s announcement, it means AIB is facilitating, on average, one new investment per month in equity capital for fast growth and high potential Irish owned businesses, supporting the creation of new jobs across the country."
TechCentral Reporters
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