Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) launched Innovation Fund – Ireland at the New York Stock Exchange this week, and announced that Damien Callaghan of Intel Capital, the venture arm of Intel, will act as chair of the advisory board.
Cowen said the fund is a key pillar of the government’s Smart Economy strategy. “The Ireland of the future will be a smart, high-value, export-led economy. It will have some of the world’s leading research-intensive multinationals, a number of which will be Irish-owned. It will be a centre for advanced manufacturing. It will have thousands of innovative small and medium enterprises.”
The government’s ambition is to make Ireland the best place in Europe to turn research and knowledge into products and services, to start and grow companies, to relocate or expand SMEs, and for research-intensive multinationals to collaborate with each other, and with clusters of small companies.
“Venture capital is an essential ingredient for supporting entrepreneurs and ensuring that businesses can scale and create jobs. Lack of finance consistently emerges as a key impediment for innovative firms,” Cowan said. “We must provide the right environment for such companies to develop in Ireland.”
Innovation Fund – Ireland is designed to attract international venture capital funds to establish European operations in Ireland and to persuade start-up companies to the country. “The success of Innovation Fund – Ireland will not rely solely on companies emerging within Ireland, but will look beyond our borders to attract the best entrepreneurs and high-potential growth companies to Ireland,” Cowan said. This will be aided by the country’s track record in attracting multinationals.
An Advisory Board has been appointed to advise government on the strategic direction, progress and performance of the fund, with Damien Callaghan of Intel Capital agreeing to become chair.
Innovation Fund – Ireland is designed to be complementary to, and build on, existing enterprise policy, the action points in a recent report, “Building Ireland’s Smart Economy”, and the recommendations of the Innovation Taskforce, which are currently being implemented.
An initial call for proposals from venture capital partnerships will be issued shortly via Enterprise Ireland.
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