Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 November 2018
104. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation further to Parliamentary Question No. 205 of 25 October 2018, the reason there has been such a drop in companies participating in the 2013 to 2018 scheme compared to the 2007 to 2012 programme; and if there will be a successor programme to cover the 2019 to 2023 period. [47657/18]
View answerIt is in the nature of seed and venture capital investing that it takes time to complete the investment process of funds participating in the Scheme. Accordingly, the 2013-2018 programme is still making investments and total investment is expected to be significantly higher once the investment period is finished. Allocations of capital to funds under the most recent Seed & Venture Capital Scheme were made over the period 2013-2018. To date 11 funds have received allocations and established funds under the SVC Scheme (2013-2018) to 2017. These funds are in the middle of their investment periods and are expected to continue to make additional new investments up to 2021. In addition, a number of other funds received an allocation under this Scheme in 2018 and these funds will also add to the total of new investments once they begin investing.
Following an extensive evaluation of Enterprise Ireland’s Seed & Venture Capital Scheme, a new programme of funding of €175m for Seed and Venture Capital Fund was announced on the 9th of October. The new Programme will be in place next year and will cover the period to 2024.
The fund is expected to leverage up to €525m in additional private sector funding to make available a total of €700m. Well over 100 innovative Irish companies are expected to benefit, with thousands of jobs created and hundreds of millions of euros in additional exports generated.
