Irish Angels Gave Start-Ups €4m in 2009

Ireland's Halo Business Angel Network  Raised €4m for Early Stage Companies in 2009

New figures released today by Ireland's Halo Business Angel Network, the national network for angel investing in Ireland, show that HBAN helped raise investment of more than €4 million in 2009 in early stage enterprises, through its regional networks and investment syndicates.

HBAN is an all-island umbrella group for business angel networks, dedicated to the promotion of angel investment and supporting the early stage entrepreneurial community in Ireland, which  operates regionally through the Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and Galway Business Innovation Centres. Each of these BICs runs a local angel network.

HBAN, which is a joint initiative of InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland, raised over  €4 million last year  for 21 early stage firms in a range of different high tech areas, including medical devices, mobile security solutions, life sciences, biotechnology solutions and software development.

Approximately €3.6 million was raised through the angel investor networks operated by the four regional business innovation centres (BICs) - located in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Waterford. A further sum of just over €800,000 was raised through angel investment syndicates co-ordinated by HBAN.

HBAN National Director Diane Roberts said: "The Innovation Task Force Report, published last week, has shown that there is a definite need for a specific angel capital industry in Ireland. Our role is to promote this sector by creating links between investors and entrepreneurs".

"A big part of this process is the development of syndicates of investors, as a means of creating a greater funding capacity by pooling resources and expertise. Instead of one investor taking all of the risk, we're creating groups of five to ten investors to put funds into firms that have significant export potential. A good example would be the syndicates of investors in life sciences that we began to set up last month," said Ms. Roberts.

"Longer term, the development of the angel capital industry will be an important means of supporting economic recovery. It's widely acknowledged that Ireland will not be able to rely solely on investment from multinationals in future, so supporting local enterprise, through angel investors and other means, will be critical for Ireland, Inc.," said Roberts.

Matt Norton, CEO of mobile security solutions firm Sentry Wireless, one of the early stage enterprises that has raised funds in co-operation with HBAN, said: "For firms like ours that have been in existence for just a few years and are looking for an extra injection of capital to support growth, HBAN represents an extremely important resource. HBAN not only helps to find the investment, it also helps find the kind of investor who has a knowledge and understanding of the business that you're in".

HBAN is a joint initiative of InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland, and acts as a voice to Government, stakeholders, business and the media to promote the interests and needs of the angel investment community.

Intertrade Ireland Chief Executive Liam Nellis said: "HBAN has made a significant contribution in a short period of time, by beginning to bridge the gap in the provision of seed and early stage finance. We look forward to further developing and growing the network to create and harness a culture of angel investment on the island of Ireland".

Collectively HBAN actively works to increase the number of angel investors involved in investing in early stage companies and supports the formation of new and existing angel networks, both regionally and internationally, and within industry sectors.

HBAN strategy  is to create  an Irish ‘angel capital' industry to support investment in early stage companies in Ireland. HBAN seeks to increase the  number of angel syndicates  geared to specifically drive investment in high tech enterprises

HBAN is an all-island initiative to link early stage entrepreneurs with angel investors. The network was launched at the Irish Stock Exchange in 2009 by Sean Gallagher of  RTE's Dragons Den fame.

Gallagher is an angel investor whose SmartHomes company won InterTradeIreland's €100k All-Island Seedcorn Competition in 2004.  He said at the launch last November: "Thirty five years ago Ireland embarked on tax designation, built factories and created an environment which was conducive for people to go out and build successful enterprises. We had a policy and we had a plan - success. But today we're missing out on something and hence InterTradeIreland is supporting this initiative today. In the words of my friend, a former politician, lets get up, get out and get at it!"

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