Business Angels Don't Fear to Tread 

HBAN Say Private Investors Are Increasingly Filling a Critical Role in Early Stage Irish Companies

Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN), an all-island umbrella group for business angel networks, says private investor syndicates are playing a critically important and effective role in boosting indigenous enterprise developments, particularly as other avenues of investment are more difficult to access due to economic conditions.

HBAN claims over €1 million of investment has been placed by its syndicate members into emerging Irish companies in the last quarter, and says Ireland is now catching up on international trends where syndicates of private investors have become a well established source of capital for innovative companies. In its 2009 Activity Report, the European Business Angels Network (EBAN) estimated that in 2009 there were some 75,000 private investors across over 300 syndicates with over €3 billion invested in emerging companies.

The €1m will fuel the growth of three firms in the software sector, including Dublin based software firm InishTech where HBAN investor syndicates contributed €275,000 towards a total funding round of €1.8m, made up of €650k investment by the Bank of Ireland Seed Fund, a €400k investment by Enterprise Ireland and €475k by founders Aidan Gallagher and David Smyth, who are both on the board of Aircraft Management Technologies with Delta Partners' Shay Garvey, and John O'Sullivan.

HBAN, set up last year to the promote angel investment throughout the early stage entrepreneurial community in Ireland, is a joint initiative of InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland. It focuses on supporting companies that are seeking to raise financing of between €250,000 and €1.25 million by linking entrepreneurs to individual investors or investment syndicates.

Diane Roberts, National Director of HBAN said: "The costs of starting a company are less today than they were some years ago and the downturn has created significant opportunities for entrepreneurs and private investment can create an exponential growth effect for their start-ups. There are also opportunities for private investors where they come together as syndicates to invest in emerging companies. These could be firms with intellectual property ready to be commercialised or already on the market. Many are already in receipt of state backed enterprise funding or they will be at their next funding round which further enhances their prospects.

Investments are also providing value for money as valuations are reflecting economic conditions. Investing in early stage companies is also considered to be an attractive prospect by many investors following the fall in stock market and property values.

HBAN is delighted that the Technology Angel Investment Group, launched in June  this year, has made its  inaugural  investments," said Roberts.

Margaret Hearty, InterTradeIreland Director of Business Programmes and Services said: "Investor syndicates provide very meaningful support for early stage firms, especially those in industries geared towards the information technology, medical devices and life sciences sectors.

Emerging companies face considerable challenges in sourcing such funding and we are committed to supporting high potential firms in becoming investor ready and increase their changes of success. Syndicate based investing in particular has a powerful role to play in launching and growing these firms, many of which will become global success stories, creating jobs and helping to stimulate economic recovery and growth. "

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