The Irish Government has today pledged €15m (of €85m) for a fund designed to increase employment in Ireland’s life-sciences sector.
Fountain Healthcare Partners II, which has received the capital, is now set to invest in 10-15 businesses over the lifetime of the overall fund, which actually totals €158m.
This marks the first funding announcement under the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2013-2018.
Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, said revenue streams such as this are key to his Government’s drive towards more job opportunities and a greater enterprise environment.
“Over the past three years, we have established new finance schemes which are making available a total of well over €2bn to Irish businesses,” he said.
“International evidence shows that the presence of a dynamic seed and venture industry is crucial to this. To support more innovative and internationally oriented start-ups that can go fast to market and scale, we must increase the availability of venture capital to facilitate company growth and job creation.”
Meanwhile, Dr Manus Roga, managing partner at Fountain, claimed this fund, the second of its kind, has received impressive backing due to the success of the first fund.
“Fountain’s investment strategy focuses on building a balanced portfolio of companies with complementary risk and return profiles within the life-sciences sector. This strategy has resulted in both strong absolute and relative returns from our first fund.”
Scientist in a lab image via Shutterstock
