The Irish Government has launched the €150m Development Capital Scheme to address the funding gap for mid-sized Irish businesses. It asked fund managers to signal their interest in establishing funds to invest in Irish SMEs.
The Development Capital Scheme aims to address a funding gap for mid-sized, high-growth Irish businesses with prospects for job creation. It will increase the availability of risk capital for Irish medium-sized enterprises in manufacturing and technology along with high-growth trading services companies in sectors such as food, life sciences, engineering and electronics.
The new fund will see Enterprise Ireland invest a total of €50m in two funds and is aiming to leverage a further €100m from the private sector. Companies with an employee base of 60 to 160 people are expected to benefit from the scheme.
The scheme is part of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs 2012, which aims to improve access for credit.
“A key part of this Government’s plan for growth and job creation is building a powerful engine of indigenous enterprise. Our ambition must not only be to attract the next Google or Microsoft to Ireland, but to develop and grow the next Google or Microsoft in Ireland,” said Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton.
“Through the Action Plan for Jobs, we will implement a range of measures to ensure that indigenous businesses, which employ the large majority of people in this country, have access to the supports they need in order to start up and grow in the way we need them to.
“One key aspect of this is access to finance – we must not only ensure that the banks restart lending in the normal way, but also implement a series of measures targeted at sectors with potential for high levels of employment growth,” he said.