NDRC-supported digital companies raised €152 million in cumulative follow-on investment to end 2016, a 22% increase on 2015, according to the organisation’s annual report, published today.
More than 800 people are now directly employed in companies that have emerged from NDRC‘s digital acceleration and investment programmes. NDRC also reported investment returns of €460,000 for the year.
Established in 2007 and based in the Digital Hub, NDRC has built and invested in 226 companies with an estimated market valuation of €427 million.
In 2016, 32 start-ups were mentored and accelerated through NDRC, an almost 25% increase on the previous year. These companies were selected from a competitive field of 440 applicants to NDRC programmes.
In addition to NDRC’s core investment and acceleration activity, the organisation ran pre-acceleration programmes to stimulate innovation in FinTech, HealthTech and InsurTech, working with leading industry and corporate partners. It also ran a dedicated Female Founders programme in partnership with Enterprise Ireland.
NDRC Chairman Dr Sean Baker said: “The interdependence between a competitive, innovation-rich economy and a healthy startup sector remain starkly clear across the globe. Continuing to source and build Irish start-ups that have the potential to create jobs at home and to compete internationally is more critically important than ever before.”
NDRC CEO Ben Hurley (pictured) said: “Our ultimate goal is to deliver a sustainable supply of globally scalable Irish digital companies, creating new high value jobs that positively impact economic growth as a whole. Our results indicate a pattern of steady and consistent growth across all metrics; increasing the volume and building the quality of our digital startups remains our focus.”
In 2016 NDRC secured the tender to run two regional accelerators on behalf of Enterprise Ireland. These joint initiatives are designed to grow the number and quality of digital startups nationally.
Companies securing significant Series A investment this year included NewsWhip, Bizimply, Nuritas and SilverCloud.
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