The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe TD, has welcomed the announcement of Innovation Fund Ireland, which was launched in New York today by the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen TD.
Innovation Fund Ireland aims to support enterprise development and job creation by drawing top venture capitalists to Ireland.
O’Keeffe believes the €500m fund would for first time create a proper venture capital community here that would generate ‘smart’ new jobs.
“Innovation Fund Ireland will attract leading international venture capital firms and experienced investment managers to Ireland where they will invest in innovation-intensive small and medium-sized firms and open doors to powerful networks of contacts and decision-makers,” he said.
“Venture capital is relatively underdeveloped in Ireland so this is our opportunity to leverage the power of the global investor community and create high-quality Irish jobs in the process.”
Home-grown success stories
The objective is to drive the creation of sustainable jobs in Ireland in the technology, life science, financial services, clean-tech and other sectors.
“Ireland has a strong technical human capital base, significant public investment in research and development and a high concentration of major enterprises which now must be translated into more home-grown success stories,” the minister continued.
“To create a thriving high-value indigenous enterprise sector, we must expand the indigenous enterprise base.
“And we can do that by enabling entrepreneurs to co-invest with the Government in high-potential start-ups that can create ‘smart’ jobs in key growth sectors of the economy.”
