FUNDING FOR START UP COMPANIES

An Irish joint venture operation is to review 300 business plans in the coming year before putting up to 100 of them to syndicates of potential investors. Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) hopes to be able to assist more than 25 of those pitching for business, with funding of between €250,000 and €1.25m being provided.
HBAN will, this week, hold a seminar for more than 50 people at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin aimed at investors interested in becoming involved in the syndicates, who would be willing to share their experience. The network also believes that €40m to be used by Bank of Ireland and AIB as seed capital for Enterprise Ireland-supported ventures should instead be used to set up a co-investment fund  similar to those in a number of  other European countries.
Half of the investment would, typically, come from syndicates  of about 12 people  willing to invest €50,000 in suitable companies on a regular basis. The investors might be people who have left companies with profits and are looking for new opportunities, the story in the Sunday Tribune reported.
Diane Roberts, the national director of HBAN, said start-ups could usually  get access to the first €250,000 but there was a funding gap between that and the €1.5 m level at which venture-capital firms would show interest.