Elkstone raises €5m in strategic capital to grow business in Ireland

Irish investment house Elkstone has raised €5 million in strategic capital to expand its business on the island of Ireland.

The company, which invests in venture, property and other impact areas in the economy, said it would use the money to target a wider client base. It is also planning to expand its presence in Northern Ireland, along with the development of a digital, client-focused platform.

The funding was raised from a number of targeted investors who are already familiar with the company, including Pat McCann, former Dalata Hotel group chief executive.

Chief executive Alan Merriman said the money would allow Elkstone to continue to invest alongside its clients.

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“We built the business by having what we call skin in the game. So when we brought clients into venture opportunities, or into real-estate opportunities, we always put our own money in, and as Elkstone has grown that has becoming increasingly challenging, because we need to keep doing it,” he said.

“Part of the capital is to strengthen our balance sheet further so we can continue to put our own proprietary capital into the same investments that our clients are going into, because that alignment really matters to our clients.”

Elkstone is also planning to invest in client acquisition, after having previously benefited from word of mouth, and plans to expand its team from the current 50 people in the coming months. “We’re now of a size and scale where we think it makes a lot of sense to invest in the sales side of the business to acquire more entrepreneurs and more high-net-worth individuals, a more middle market to support what we’re trying to do because we think there’s a big opportunity for venture and for housing,” said Mr Merriman.

“We have offices in Dublin, Galway and Cork, we would like to open up an office in Belfast and we’d like to grow all of those regional offices because we see them being important ecosystems.”

The company, which is best known for its venture investments in start-ups such as Flipdish, LetsGetChecked, Manna, and Soapbox Labs, has executed more than €2 billion of real-estate transactions, including more than 3,200 properties and 1,000 student beds.