Enterprise Ireland has launched a €750,000 fund to invest in promising FinTech startups.
Ireland’s state-owned economic development agency said it has created the Competitive Start Fund for FinTech and Deep Tech start-up companies that have the capacity to succeed in global markets.
The fund will focus on PropTech, artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, the internet of things, blockchain and cloud.
Minister of State for Financial Services, Michael D’Arcy TD said: “With Ireland being the fourth largest exporter of financial services in the world, developing and supporting the Fintech sector is a national priority. As the home to one of the most important financial services centres in the EU and one of the world’s largest concentrations of technology companies, Ireland combines the technical and financial expertise that global FinTech buyers seek.
“The new competitive start fund is a key action of the Department of Finance’s IFS 2020 Action Plan for 2018 and will provide a new funding stream, critical for early stage start-up funding for FinTech and DeepTech companies.”
It is not the first FinTech fund to be formed by Enterprise Ireland, with its first launching in 2016. In the same year, FinTech startups sponsored by Enterprise Ireland generated more than €1bn in revenue and in 2017 Enterprise Ireland claims it was one of the largest FinTech investors in terms of deal count (23).
In August 2017, Ireland’s state agency also launched a €44m co-investment fund for seed and early-stage companies. The fund looked for opportunities in FinTech as well as food, software, General ICT, services, cleantech and lifesciences.
The new fund was announced at the agency’s Future of FinTech event in Dublin. At the event Enterprise Ireland said it will also launch a white paper on RegTech due to the country’s RegTech companies ‘establishing a world-class reputation’ for helping financial services customers deal with the increasingly complex and rapidly evolving regulation.
In May, Ireland-based P2P mobile lending platform Flender has raised a £350,000 investment from Enterprise Ireland. The contribution comes as part of the company’s current £2m funding round, which it is still in the process of raising.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
