Irish Tech SMEs raise a record €486m in first half of 2016

High Tech Irish SMEs raised €249m in the second quarter of 2016 or a record €486m for the first half of the year, according to the Irish Venture Capital Association VenturePulse survey published today in association with William Fry. This is a 58% increase from first half of 2015 when €307m was raised.

“2015 overall was a record year with €522m being raised over the 12 months so it is promising to see the momentum continuing,” commented Michael Murphy, chairman, Irish Venture Capital Association.

He added, “The importance of good international relationships is once again emphasised by sustained strong support from international investors. The Irish venture capital community continues to be the main source of funding for Irish innovative SMEs both through direct investment and as the local lead investor for international syndicate investors.”

He pointed out that international syndicates invested €89m in the second quarter bringing the total in the first half of 2016 to €205m. This compares to investment by international syndicates of €142m in the first half of 2015.

In addition, two companies this year raised capital of €98m directly from international investors.

Life Sciences were active in the second quarter with 38% of funds raised by eight companies in this sector. Three companies in particular raised over 33% of total funds. Growth/expansion funding was 93% of total funds raised.

Regina Breheny, director general, IVCA commented that first round seed funding, at 7% of funds raised, continues to be low. “However, a number of new seed funds are now up and running and we should begin to see some recovery in early stage investment.”

She added that since the onset of the credit crunch in 2008, in excess of 1,300 Irish SMEs have raised venture capital of €3bn. These funds were raised almost exclusively by Irish VC fund managers who during this period supported the creation of over 20,000 jobs; attracted over €1.3bn of capital into Ireland and geared up the State’s investment through the Seed & Venture Capital Programme by almost 16 times.

Summary

The IVCA VenturePulse survey shows that Irish companies raised €249.1m from investors in Q2 2016. Funds raised in the first half of 2016 reached a high of €486.4m. This compares with funds raised of €306.9m in H1 2015, with €211.9m in H1 2014 and with €164.9m in H1 2013.

Seed/ Early Stage

In Q2 2016 early stage companies raised seed capital of €16.8m (7% of funds raised) bringing the total in H1 2016 to €41.5m (8% of funds raised). This compares with €19.4m (6% of funds raised) in H1 2015, with €6.4m (3% of funds raised) in H1 2014 and with €34.2m (21% of total funds raised) in H1 2013.