Peter Sandys named new chair of Irish Venture Capital Association

30 Aug 2017

Peter Sandys, new chair of the Irish Venture Capital Association. Image: Lilly Markovic

Seasoned life sciences investor takes helm of venture capital industry group.

The managing partner of Seroba Life Sciences, Peter Sandys, has been elected chair of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA).

Sandys succeeds Michael Murphy of Investec Ventures Ireland who has completed his term of office.

This is Sandys’ second stint as chair of the IVCA, having held the role previously in 2010.

Prior to co-founding Seroba Life Sciences, Sandys was formerly managing director of ABN Amro Corporate Finance (Ireland) Ltd and before that, he worked with Ernst & Young (now EY) in Dublin and London.

Always keep raising

According to the IVCA, since the onset of the credit crunch in 2008, in excess of 1,375 Irish SMEs have raised venture capital of €3.3bn.

These funds were raised almost exclusively by Irish venture capital fund managers who, during this period, supported the creation of 20,000 jobs.

The IVCA said that more than €1.37bn of capital has been attracted into Ireland and the industry has leveraged the State’s investment through its Seed and Venture Capital Programme by almost 16 times.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com