Tech firms raise €109m, say investors

THE IRISH Venture Capital Association (IVCA) has claimed that technology firms raised €109 million during the third quarter.

However, an analysis of the figures shows that just €42.1 million of the total has been supplied by recognised venture capital firms.

This involves stripping out the €47 million refinancing of Nasdaq-quoted biopharmaceutical firm Amarin and the €13 million management buyout of retailer XtraVision, which would not be classed as venture capital transactions.

Another eight deals, accounting for €6.7 million of the total, can be disregarded as they involved Enterprise Ireland and private investors with no VC participation.

John Tracey, chief executive of TVC Holdings and IVCA chairman, said he felt it was “appropriate” to include the Amarin deal as the terms had been explicitly detailed and a number of VCs, including Irish firm Fountain Healthcare Partners, had participated.

Mr Tracey also pointed out that the XtraVision buyout had been backed by NCB Ventures, an IVCA member.

“I think we’ll see a lot more of these restructuring deals, both in technology and non-technology sectors,” said Mr Tracey. “There’s quite a number of good companies out there with too much debt”.

The single largest investment in an early-stage Irish technology firm was the €22 million raised by Intune Networks. Kernel Capital and Dermot Desmond’s IIU participated in the deal.