Atlantic Bridge Ventures raises €85m

ATLANTIC BRIDGE Ventures has completed an €85 million first closing of its second investment fund, which it intends to grow to €130 million by the time of its final close next year.

The Atlantic Bridge II fund will focus on late-stage venture capital, growth equity and small to mid-size buyouts, but general partner Brian Long said the firm was “not excluding anything at the moment”.

Founded by former executives of Irish chip design company Parthus, Atlantic Bridge’s first fund originally closed at €100 million but grew to €250 million in funds under management.

Investors in the fund to date include the European Investment Fund, the National Pensions Reserve Fund, Enterprise Ireland and private entities and individuals.

Although the new fund will look at opportunities across Europe, Mr Long said “pretty much everything we do has some kind of Irish angle”. He said Atlantic Bridge was currently at an advanced stage of negotiation with a US firm that will relocate its headquarters to Ireland if the investment goes ahead.

Mr Long said it had been more “challenging” raising the current fund due to the turmoil in financial markets.

“We are fortunate that we have a new fund at a time when investment is scarce,” he said. “There’s some very good value to be had and there’s some very good technology around.”

Mr Long said Atlantic Bridge had a pipeline of about 20 deals that it was considering and three of these are at an advanced stage of due diligence. He said he expected the first investments by the new fund to be announced in the first quarter of the new year.

Atlantic Bridge’s first fund quadrupled its initial investment in Glonav, a US firm with an Irish research operation, when it was sold to a subsidiary of Philips in late-2007 for $110 million. Other portfolio companies include Acision, Envivio, Firecomms and Nanotech Semiconductor.

Mr Long noted there had been a strong recovery in international merger and acquisitions activity and he expected Atlantic Bridge would benefit as a result. “Over the next few quarters you can expect decent activity from us as well,” said Mr Long.