€125 million raised in follow on investment by NDRC backed ventures

Very early stage investor NDRC has reported €125 million in cumulative follow-on investment for new enterprises emerging from the company’s investment programmes to end 2015. This growth includes investments in ventures that have recently emerged from NDRC’s pre-seed investment programmes and later stage venture capital funding, reflecting the growing maturity of its portfolio. NDRC received a record €1.5 million in realisations from companies that were acquired in 2015. The total cumulative enterprise value of ventures emerging from NDRC to date is €328 million, a rise of almost 50% on the previous year underpinning the impact that NDRC has on indigenous, internationally trading new companies.

Ben Hurley, Chief Executive of NDRC, pictured above said: “The report reflects the continued flow of investments through NDRC and the increasing maturity of NDRC ventures that have proven their viability since emerging – companies like Logentries, Newswhip, Silver Cloud Health, Boxever, Nuritas, Soundwave and Clearsight Innovations. We have a unique investment model that is not only delivering a pipeline of investor ready ventures, but is also strengthening awareness of Ireland as a globally focused, digital talent base.”

NDRC LaunchPad opens for applications today which is a 3-month accelerator programme including a €30,000 capital investment to accelerate new business model innovations to seek investor readiness. Further information is available on www.ndrc.ie.

NDRC portfolio ventures that made significant progress in 2014 / 2015 include Logentries, one of the first companies to participate in NDRC’s LaunchPad programme in 2010, which was acquired by US security analytics giant Rapid7 in 2015 for €63 million. Clearsight Innovations, an NDRC founded entity, was also acquired in 2015 for an undisclosed sum. Soundwave raised over €2.9 million in follow on investment before being sold to Spotify earlier this year, while Boxever had raised €12 million by the start of 2016 and announced plans to double its workforce.

NDRC’s digital ventures cross a range of industry sectors. It invests primarily using an accelerator model through its NDRC LaunchPad, NDRC Venturelab and new NDRC Catalyser investment programmes, providing modest amounts of capital and high amounts of hands on support to early stage digital companies. NDRC is currently running a Female Founders programme in partnership with Enterprise Ireland. It has also recently launched a HealthTech pre-accelerator in partnership with e-Health Ireland (a part of the HSE).