Talk the talk

Kevin Fielding of venture capital firm Alta Berkeley talks to Ian Guider

We hear reports that venture capital companies have plenty of money to invest, so is now the right time to be getting back in to the market?

Worldwide, now is the time to invest in start-up companies. There has been a drop in the number of deals, which means a drop in the value spent and that translates into more realistic valuations of companies and an opportunity to get in and make some returns. In Ireland the overall money invested dropped only slightly, but under that figure, money invested by Irish VCs into start-ups was down heavily, which tends to happen when valuations are reduced.