| Venture capital market remains active |
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Niall Carroll, managing director of ACT Venture Capital
The Irish venture capital market is a decent size in relation to Europe, with the level of investment at about 70p.c. of the European average as a percentage of GNP. This level implies there is great scope for increasing the level of future investment in venture capital in Ireland. The main source of venture capital investment is from domestic banks and pension funds, however a very encouraging trend is investment from non-Irish sources particularly from European sources. This trend cements the fact that Ireland is still viewed as a ‘hot spot’ for investment in Europe.
Venture capitalists invest throughout the economic cycle and in effect a lot of the positives associated with the Irish economy remain intact including a reputation for technology innovation, a young well educated workforce, a good IT infrastructure, and a low corporation tax regime as well as being member of the Eurozone. Therefore ACT Venture Capital’s outlook for the venture capital market is quite positive. The overall slowing in the market is a welcome sign because it means that valuations are now more realistic. The slowdown in private individuals investing in the venture capital market is not a huge worry in the sense that the size of their investment was not significant in Ireland and that as ‘business angels’ they tend to be more sensitive to market fluctuations.
Fund: ACT Venture Capital invests primarily in first round funding of early stage companies and may also initiate a subsequent round of funding. Their investment range is ?1million to ?10 million with some larger investments |
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| Article appeared in the November 2001 issue.
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