The recently announced €30m AIB Seed Capital Fund is to be located at NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin (UCD).
AIB was one of the founding sponsors that funded the construction of NovaUCD, which formally opened in 2003.
The AIB Seed Capital Fund, which is being equally funded by AIB and Enterprise Ireland, is the first fund to be established under Enterprise Ireland’s €175m Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2007-2012.
Dr Pat Frain, director, NovaUCD, said: “One of the challenges facing UCD is to accelerate the establishment of new ventures to commercialise innovative ideas and intellectual property arising from its growing research programmes. Two key issues in this regard are access to management expertise and the availability of seed funding.
“This new fund is particularly welcomed since it will focus on early stage high-potential start-ups such as those spinning out from UCD research.”
The average initial investment to be made by the fund will be in the order of €250,000 but smaller investments of €100,000 will also be evaluated. The fund is expected to make between 50 and 60 investments over its seven-year lifespan.
By Niall Byrne
