Technology

Where angels dare to tread!

At the recent IT@Cork Web 2 conference, reference was made by Fergus Burns to the difficulties startups have raising funds in Ireland. He asked the question “how many VCs are in the audience?” – there were none. As Fergus said, that tells its own story.

Things may be starting to change however. In his post on Irish Entrepreneurism Shel Israel noted that

The venture issue is another story and it is the one where I see change happening sooner and faster.

Now I come across an organisation which seems like a perfect fit for this need – Business Angels Partnership. The partnership works with startups to put together a business plan to present to its panel of business angels. The partnership is a not-for-profit so they don’t take any of the funding from the startup.

The funding provided is seed capital (100k-300k) early stage investment. No customer is required of the startup (although I assume it wouldn’t hurt the proposal!).

It sounds like an ideal proposition. For the angel investor, the partnership presents them with a qualified set of business proposals to look over and for the startup, they receive help putting the proposal together and get introduced to angel investors.

Win, win! Anyone know of anyone who has gone through this and did they win the lotto get funded?

4 thoughts on “Where angels dare to tread!”

  1. Tom, I think there are a number of “angel networks” around Ireland. I believe that they are accessable through Enterprise Ireland and also through the InterTradeIreland Equity department.

  2. I think we are talking about the same thing Paul. If you check out their website, you’ll see that the business angels partnership are sponsored by EI and InterTrade ireland and they have several bases around the country.

  3. Pingback: Advanced Technology Products Interactive » Blog Archive » Venture capital in ireland.

  4. Why would anyone invest in a start-up in Ireland when they can invest in bricks & mortar. The banks can’t pump the money out fast enough and considering the tax revenue generated by the housing boom it is not likely that the state will do anything to divert funds to ICT growth.

    I too would love to hear from anyone who has had success with the angel.ie network.

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