The Silicon Valley Bank will pump another $100 million into Irish startups
It has already lent to 15 fast-growing tech companies like Movidius and Clavis Insight.
TECH LENDER THE Silicon Valley Bank will release a second $100 million tranche of loans to fast-growing Irish companies over the next five years.
The bank today revealed it was renewing its “collaboration” with the state-backed Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), with which it previously partnered for another $100 million in loans in mid-2012.
It has already funded 15 startups with the initial cash stream, including chip designers Movidius, travel software company Boxever and retail tech business Clavis Insight.
The US- and UK-based bank, one arm of the $5 billion, Nasdaq-listed SVB Financial Group, offers a range of lending, investment and consultation services to the technology and life science industries.
As part of the arrangement, the ISIF helps the bank identify potential clients in Ireland and also invests in funds managed by SVB Capital, the group’s venture capital and private equity arm.
The ISIF recently revealed it was likely to speed up the rate of its investments over the next four years in order to have its full resources committed by 2020.
The state fund and its predecessor, the remainder of the National Pension Reserve Fund, have spent about €2.2 billion to date, with the balance of its approximately €8 billion in discretionary assets still held in cash, bonds and shares.
Movidius, one of the beneficiaries of the bank's loans
A critical gap
ISIF director Eugene O’Callaghan said the bank had shown it could apply “specialist lending expertise” to what was a “critical gap in the Irish market”.
“Ireland’s emerging and high-growth technology and life sciences companies have enormous potential, but lending to them requires a real understanding of their life cycle, business model and financing requirements,” he said.
The Silicon Valley Bank has also set up a permanent presence in Dublin and appointed a head of Irish business development, Clive Lennox.
He has worked for the bank for around five years after a previous, four-year stint working for the now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank and its state-owned successor, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
The Irish Independent reported last month that the Silicon Valley Bank had lent “well over” $50 million from its initial $100 funding pool to date.
