A TOTAL of €53.5 million in venture capital was raised by 32 Irish companies in the first quarter of the year, according to figures released by the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA).
This compares to €43.3 million raised during the same period of 2008, and €33 million in the first quarter of 2007. Although the average amount raised was just over €1.6 million, the amounts raised by individual firms ranged from €50,000 to €18 million.
“This compares very favourably to fundraising in the US and UK which is down in the first quarter,” said Regina Breheny, director general of the IVCA.
Figures from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) in the US show investments were down 47 per cent by value to $3 billion. The NVCA figures do not include investments made by private or so-called “angel” investors.
When deals involving only private and State investors such as Enterprise Ireland are stripped out of the IVCA figures, the total raised falls to €41.7 million.
Ms Breheny conceded that venture capital firms were not providing early seed capital funding of less than €1 million. “The economics are not there when you take the cost of the due diligence and legals into consideration.”
Despite the positive figures, one well-placed source in the investment community said it would be harder to raise funds this year compared to last. “VC firms are conserving more money for their existing portfolio companies.”
The €18 million raised by Opsona Therapeutics, a biotech company developing drugs for arthritis and coronary care, also skews this quarter’s figures and accounts for one-third of the value of the deals.
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