Irish buck venture capital trend

IRISH firms bucked the international trend, raising almost €220 million in venture capital (VC) investment in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 26% on last year.

This is up from €141.5m raised in the first nine months of 2007, according to figures from the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA). The number of companies that raised funds in this period was 86, compared to 64 in the same period last year and to 73 in 2007. Amounts raised ranged from €50,000 to €47m.

Irish technology companies raised €109m in the third quarter, bringing to €220m the amount raised to September this year.