The venture capital landscape in Ireland is in rude health thanks to the long-term support offered by the government in Dublin. That is the view of Regina Breheny, director general of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA). “The whole space is extraordinarily vibrant,” said Breheny. “We have a combination of research that is coming to fruition that has been going on for 15 years, as many incubators and accelerators as you would like, plus every type of support available for new companies, from funding to management advice.”
Much of this support is provided by the state through Enterprise Ireland, the enterprise support agency owned by the Irish government, Breheny said. But she added that Enterprise Ireland’s introduction of a program of seed-funding schemes at the start of the millennium was primarily responsible for Ireland’s recent success.
“Crucially, Enterprise Ireland gave the management of those funds to venture capitalists, which increased the quality of what was coming through the pipeline enormously,” Breheny said. “We are now starting to see scaling of the firms supported by these funds, and in 2016 we had a huge jump in activity, with a large proportion of the money coming from abroad.”
Enterprise Ireland recently revealed it had supported 229 startups in 2016, the highest number since the organisation was founded in 1998, while just over half (53%) of these new businesses were located outside Dublin, in line with the government’s commitment to spread economic growth across the whole of the country.
Breheny said Ireland’s ability to attract foreign investment was down to the quality of both the country’s technology and its entrepreneurs. “There is now a virtuous circle and an interdependence between the research bodies, the FDI [foreign direct investment] industry and the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, in that our entrepreneurs are coming out of the FDI companies with a piece of technology or software they want to develop, and these businesses are being built up by the VCs and then being sold back into the multinational sector.
“That is hugely beneficial for us – it is almost an automatic process here, and I am sure it is not the same in other countries.”
Her statements could be seen in how two of Ireland’s top universities, University College Dublin (UCD) and Trinity College Dublin, partnered growth equity fund Atlantic Bridge to launch a €60m ($68m) investment vehicle targeting domestic spinouts.
The University Bridge Fund has also been backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF), the investment arm of the European Investment Bank, as well as Enterprise Ireland and financial services firms AIB and Bank of Ireland.
The fund will not only back spinouts of UCD and Trinity but support the commercialisation of research across all universities in the country, though the two partners anticipate that approximately half the portfolio companies will come out of their respective pipelines.
Ireland itself is no stranger to choosing a more centralised road to technology transfer – the government launched Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI), a program to boost commercialisation efforts at all public higher education institutions in the country, in 2014. That model is similar to France’s regional tech transfer offices. KTI was set up within Enterprise Ireland, enabling it to tap easily into the body’s expertise.
The new fund will focus particularly on the areas of software and hardware, engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and agri-food, offering both capital and expertise with a specific view of helping spinouts scale into the US, Chinese and other international markets.
The deal marks the first time the EIF has made a cornerstone investment in such a fund in Ireland, though it has made similar commitments to other funds in Europe – most recently providing close to half for University College London’s £50m ($73m) technology fund in January last year.
Trinity and UCD both expect the University Bridge Fund to help them fortify their positions in the top 1% of universities in the world for generating spinouts and startups. In the past decade the two institutions have between them spun out more than 60 businesses, which have attracted more than €200m in combined investment.
Trinity actually holds a higher percentage of cited patents than any other top-100 European university, according to a report published by news agency Reuters. The university’s research portfolio currently has a value of more than €520m.
Tax policies
Ireland’s government is explicit about the attractiveness of its taxation regime for new companies. The Enterprise Ireland website boasts “great tax incentives and a flexible approach to new businesses”, and says the World Bank’s Doing Business report names Ireland as the easiest place in the EU in which to start a company.
The corporation tax rate in Ireland is 12.5%, relatively low by international standards. There is also a rate of 12.5% applied to carried interest – a fund manager’s share of performance profit – for companies, 15% for individuals and partnerships. Capital gains tax is 33%.
However, Breheny said the IVCA and other business organisations were lobbying the government to introduce some form of tax relief for disposals made by entrepreneurs – similar to the Entrepreneurs’ Relief currently available in the UK, which in some cases cuts capital gains tax to 10% for business owners when they sell part or all of their company.
The IVCA also wants the Irish government to introduce a program similar to the UK’s Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, which was launched in 2012 to offer tax incentives for investors in small and early-stage businesses.
Ireland has offered a Research & Development Tax Credit since 2004. Companies carrying out “in-house qualifying research and development within the European Economic Area” are eligible for a 25% credit, which can be set against their corporation tax liability.
Collaboration between industry and startups
The Irish government has an excellent record of promoting partnerships between the private sector and research institutions, primarily through Enterprise Ireland. The organisation says there are more than 200 companies, employing over 1,000 people, based in the campus incubation centres it supports. These centres include:
• Business incubators at each of Ireland’s main universities.
• Six university bio-incubation facilities, which are aimed at startups in the biotechnology sector, across institutions in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
• Institute of Technology incubation centres in 16 locations.
Enterprise Ireland also has a technology transfer program which facilitates the spinout of commercial ideas from higher education institutes. This is done by classing the spinout as a “high potential startup” (HPSU) company, which may then be eligible for investment from the Enterprise Ireland Innovative HPSU fund.
The Irish government also supports the NDRC (previously the National Digital Research Centre) in Dublin. It was set up in 2007 by a group of universities and it invests in early-stage technology companies through an accelerator model.
However, most of the corporate venturing investors in Ireland come from abroad, particularly the US. And despite having its best year in 2016, without a strong domestic corporate venturing ecosystem, Ireland’s deal activity has lagged behind peers, such as Israel and Singapore, according to GCV Analytics.
Government venture investment
Enterprise Ireland currently has a total of €124m ($133m) under management in the seed capital funds it supports. The four main seed funds backed by the organisation are:
• The €53m AIB (Allied Irish Banks) Seed Capital Fund, which was set up in 2007 and invests across all sectors.
• The €22m AIB Start-up Accelerator Fund, which focuses on developing high-growth, export-oriented businesses in the technology and communications sectors.
• The €32m Bank of Ireland Early Stage Equity Fund, which concentrates on technology, food and financial services.
• The €17m Bank of Ireland Start-up and Emerging Sectors Equity Fund, which is aimed at firms in life sciences, medical devices, ICT, software, the internet and emerging technologies.
Seed & Venture Capital Scheme 2013-18: In the spring of 2017, Enterprise Ireland made its third call for expressions of interest under the Seed & Venture Capital Scheme 2013-18, which has thus far made €175m available for investment in Irish startups. Through the latest call, with a deadline this month, the organisation plans to invest a further €44m in venture capital funds targeting businesses in the technology and life sciences sectors. Under the scheme, Enterprise Ireland has backed VC funds including:
• The €138m Atlantic Bridge III, a growth equity fund with offices in London, California, Beijing and Hong Kong as well as Dublin.
• The €103m Fountain Healthcare Partners Fund II, which specialises in biotechnology, pharma and medical devices.
• The €47m Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital ROI Growth Funds.
At the start of 2017, Enterprise Ireland revealed support for four new funds, with a combined value of €188m: these were Seroba Lifesciences, Frontline Ventures, ACT Venture Capital and Suir Valley.
Irish Strategic Investment Fund: An €8bn sovereign investment fund managed by the National Treasury Management Agency. Its mandate is to invest on a commercial basis to “support economic activity and employment in Ireland”.