Irish VC in Q3 still at Petty Cash Level
7th of November 2007 by conor
There is a great run-down on the venture deals completed in Q3 over on Finfacts. The total investment was up and nearly hit €30m but the number of deals was at five. Yes international readers, you read that right, not five deals per VC, five deals in the entire country.
We know we are far behind the UK and the US in terms of maturity in this area but five deals is just embarassing. How many were done in Israel in the same period? Should Enterprise Ireland be re-evaluating their €170m bank-rolling of the VCs here particularly when one of them used that leverage to build a fund which invested in a UK company first?
It looks like most early stage tech companies here will have to rely on the revamped Business Expansion Scheme to raise capital. This is a scheme which allows investors to get almost half of their investment back via tax refunds. This type of investment is often called dumb money by the more sophisticated investors but my gut tells me that if Ireland creates the next Facebook, it will be backed by the so-called dumbos.