The Ireland Economic Development Agency is strengthening its commitment to start-up ecosystem development
Enterprise Ireland, the country’s economic development agency, has committed to supporting the development of a robust startup ecosystem, sharing ambitions to expand the pool of early-stage startups it works with and supports to 450 by 2024, a figure that represents a 20% increase from 2021 levels.
These ambitions were outlined in Enterprise Ireland’s Strategy 2022-2024, which sets out the agency’s focus areas for the coming years. As part of the plan, Enterprise Ireland says it will focus on accelerating entrepreneurship, and continue to help entrepreneurs start, grow and scale Irish businesses.
Key Performance Indicators, Enterprise Ireland Strategy 2022-2024
This will be done through a number of initiatives, Enterprise Ireland says, including the new €90 million Irish Innovation Seed Fund program launched by the government earlier this year, which will support young startups working in strategically targeted areas such as fintech, life sciences and women-led businesses.
For larger and more established companies, Enterprise Ireland will offer assistance and support to help them scale and internationalise, provide them with routes to new sources of funding, connect them with opportunities abroad and help them strengthen their management and financial capabilities. The aim is to increase the number of companies achieving sales of over 10 million euros, 20 million euros and 50 million euros by 10% by 2024.
Efforts must also be made to improve skills, says the agency. It has set a target of supporting 1,000 leaders and managers in significant leadership development programmes, with at least 30% participation by women.
Promote innovation
Established in 1998, Enterprise Ireland is the government agency responsible for the development and growth of Irish businesses in global markets, helping them to start, grow, innovate and increase export sales.
The agency also provides funding and support to companies of all sizes and growth stages, from entrepreneurs with business proposals for a high-potential start-up, to large companies expanding their operations, improving efficiency and increasing international sales.
Enterprise Ireland’s role differs from that of the Industrial Development Agency (IDA Ireland), the country’s investment promotion and development agency responsible for attracting and developing foreign investment in Ireland.
This arrangement differs from other jurisdictions such as Switzerland, Hong Kong and Lithuania where there is only one investment promotion agency. These agencies usually act as a resource center for foreign companies looking to launch locally, helping them set up and providing them with consulting and support services free of charge.
Enterprise Ireland, meanwhile, has taken an active role in promoting the Irish start-up ecosystem by both helping home-grown start-ups expand overseas, and helping foreign entrepreneurs relocate to Ireland.
In 2021, the agency supported 82 new start-ups with high potential through investments of more than 18 million euros and other non-financial support. 24 of these were led by female entrepreneurs and 11 came from academic research.
Also in 2021, 43 pre-seed companies went through the Competitive Start Fund (CSF), which provides selected companies with up to EUR 50,000 in equity funding. These received a total of 2 million euros in funding.
For the past three years, Pitchbook has ranked Enterprise Ireland among the ten most active venture capital (VC) investors in the world alongside world-renowned VCs and incubators such as Y Combinator, SOSV and Sequoia Capital.
