Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Start-up and Scaling Environment in Ireland: Discussion
Mr. Nick Ashmore:
Certainly, in terms of the investment landscape, there is much existing collaboration and co-operation but also potential. Industry in Ireland plays a very important role, and it certainly has an active role in supporting the venture ecosystem. We have a number of investments made with UK-based venture capital firms that are active across the British Isles and in the North but also in the South. A good example of that is BGF. We have now an Irish outpost of what was originally called the British Growth Fund, which focuses on that long-term investment into growing companies. It is sort of a €3 million to €10 million space. Its Dublin operation is now growing substantially but it is active in the North as well as its UK operations. The Irish operation can benefit from the larger operation in the UK and the leveraging of expertise and sectoral specialty with a focus on sustainable investments and things like that. It is, therefore, a broader ecosystem. The hazards of Brexit aside, the venture ecosystem is actually much more collaborative across Europe anyway. Those questions and answers are not as important in that respect