I take it the Deputy is referring to the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2013-2018 which was successfully launched in May last year. This Scheme will see a Government investment of €175 million over its lifetime, which is targeting an additional €525 million in funding from the private sector totalling a €700 million fund of capital investment.
The launch of the first call for expressions of interest under the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2013-2018 was a key Action Plan for Jobs target for 2013. The call attracted 14 expressions of interests.
The original timing of this call was designed to align with the end of the majority of investment periods of Funds supported under Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2007-2012.
At its October 2013 meeting, the Board of Enterprise Ireland committed €99.5m to a number of venture capital Funds following the conclusion of an extensive and in depth evaluation and due diligence process.
Companies will begin to receive investments under the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2013-2018 when the Funds that received commitments under this Scheme have completed their fundraising. Once this is done the Funds can close and investments commence.
I am confident the State’s investment in the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme will be fully utilised, given Enterprise Ireland’s engagement with this sector which goes back almost 2 decades and has been very successful in assisting the growth of HPSUs, attracting leveraged funds, bringing top level managers to Ireland and attracting interesting first time international money to the Irish SME market.
