This group is trying to tempt rich expats to back Irish businesses

THE GROUP RESPONSIBLE for angel investing in Ireland is trying to form foreign syndicates of wealthy expats to invest in Irish companies.

Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) national director John Phelan also said that the organisation expects to double the amount of funds directly invested by business angels within five years.

Business angels are usually high-net-worth individuals who privately invest their own money in companies during their early stage of development, as well as contributing their own experience.

Speaking to Fora at an Enterprise Ireland event this week, Phelan said that the group thinks that angel investments in the country could increase significantly, with wealthy expats one possible source of new funds.

“The motivation would be to double it (angel investment), I would say over four or five years,” he said.

HBAN national director John Phelan

“We have a group out in New York that are looking at investments here. They’re looking at closing some of them and are doing the due diligence now, so we would hope to close some of those over the summer and we have one (syndicate) in Singapore that we’re looking to get up and running.”

Calling all angels

HBAN, a joint venture between Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, is an all-island umbrella group responsible for developing business angel syndicates. During 2015 the group helped to raise funding rounds of about €27 million.

Of this €10.8 million came from direct angel investments in 50 companies, while the remained was sourced from a mix of public and private funds. The group says that angels tend to invest between €50,000 and €250,000, although some put in more.

Phelan said HBAN was on the hunt for wealthy people who have “an affinity for Ireland” and want to invest in their own sector.

“Singapore would be the fintech side of things, New York would be slightly different, there they’re looking at just tech in general.”

He said that he was unsure of the exact potential for investment from abroad, but added: “These things are always interesting to explore.”

“If you start seeing traction you double down on where the business is coming from,” he said.

“We started off with individuals investing, then we saw over the years that syndicates performed very well – so we doubled down on the syndicates. One of the things I’m seeing is the international potential is possibly there and I think it would be interesting to explore it.”

Last year HBAN said that about 700 jobs will be created by companies that it supports. Angel investments have risen steadily since 2011, when they supported 344 new jobs and helped almost 30 companies raise €12 million.

The figures come against a general decline in early stage investment in Irish high-tech SMEs. The total seed funding raised by the sector in 2015 was just under €44 million, a 58% decrease since 2010.