Why this wealthy Italian startup investor is betting on Ireland

IT MAY SEEM like an unlikely upside, but one of the things that convinced Gianni Matera that he should stay in Ireland was the ease with which he could buy a house.

“When I arrived in Ireland I bought a property from (bad bank) Nama; I just but in a bid and I won it, it was unbelievable,” he tells Fora.

“For a lot of other European countries, you can’t buy from the equivalent of Nama if you don’t have friends or a special relationship. That gave me a signal that I was in the right country.”

Gianni Matera is an angel investor, otherwise known as a wealthy individual who puts their own cash into startup companies. Matera moved to Ireland in 2014 from Italy after selling DigitTouch, a digital marketing agency he founded in 2007.

“Our company grew fast, we had €2 million revenue in 2008, €4 million in 2009, and so on,” he said.

The company listed its shares on the Italian Alternative Investment market for small and mid-size businesses, raising €9 million during the process and delivering Matera a cash windfall.

“I was the sole founder at the beginning and I sold all my shares, 75% of the company, before and during the IPO,” he said.

He set up another company, DigitAlchemy, which he said is a smaller team with better margins than DigitTouch.

“It is owned by me and managed by a friend of mine,” he said. “I’m investing in Ireland with the proceeds from the first company and the dividends from the second.”

Gianni Matera

Irish connections

Over the past two years, Matera has joined the Halo Business Angel Network, the Irish umbrella group for business angel syndicates, for investments worth €1.6 million in eight Irish startups, such as Glofox and MotorSpecs.

He is planning to invest in four more Irish startups before the end of the year, and said that he may invest in another four companies in the second half of 2017.

Matera said he first visited Ireland to do business with some of DigiTouch’s key customers, like Google and Facebook, and while here he met a representative from the IDA.

“Even though I didn’t become a client, the fact that I had met a civil servant who was working to achieve results for their own country gave me a feeling that this was a country with potential,” he said.

“I took a decision to move here on intuition and now that I have spent two years here my intuition has been confirmed, you can rely on trustworthy people to do business with.”

Matera (right) with HBAN national director John Phelan

He added: “When you say you want to do something, the reaction is great, it is very welcome. If I was to go to Germany, they wouldn’t accept me as Ireland accepts me.”

Community

Matera said that there is a strong sense of community in Ireland and that people in business her tend to look out for one another.

“Ireland is one of the best countries in terms of its sense of community. I see it in my daily life with Irish people, everyone is working in their own interest but there is a perception that you are part of a group,” he said.

“When you finish a meeting with someone, even if you don’t do business with them, it is normal to see what connections you both have and what you can do for each other. Irish people have a passion for connection, and they share those connections.”

Matera said that one of the main reasons why he invests in Irish companies is due to Enterprise Ireland, which will often match funding provided by a private backer. He added that another key reason is the relationship between Ireland and the US.

“The biggest market in the Western world is the US and I need startups that, from day one, can target US customers,” he said.

“(With Irish companies) there is a connection because of the language and the culture, there is more of a difference with French or German companies.

“I’m planning to go to Boston to see if Boston seeds are interested in investing in Irish startups, and many of the Irish company founders would probably have an uncle or a grandfather (in Boston), which does help.”