Quality of Irish start-ups ‘improving’

The quality of start-up companies being founded in Ireland is improving every year according to influential investor Richard Moran.

Mr Moran, CEO of Accretive Solutions, a venture capitalist firm, heard pitches from a number of Irish companies in the Hartnett Enterprise Centre in LIT as part of the Irish Technology Leadership Group.

Mr Moran, who has taken part in the ITLG pitch camp for the last six years, said the work that the colleges and Enterprise Ireland are doing in supporting the growth of entrepreneurship in Ireland is paying off.

“Not all but one or two of the companies that I saw today could go in front of any American venture capital firm and have the potential to get funding. Over the last six years, the level of sophistication has expanded and I think that is due to the infrastructure, the universities, the banks and the Government. I think they are all starting to collaborate and build some companies.”

Mr Moran believes Ireland is developing expertise in the payments sector, with firms like Trustev and Stripe being founded by Irish entrepreneurs. He believes that these could be a “silver bullet,” for the Irish economy.

At least two of the companies pitching were in bioscience and were looking for funding to cure cancer.

CEO of Inflection Biosciences, Darren Cunningham, said his company had spent the last year looking at 150 opportunities before partnering with the Spanish National Cancer Research Institute, to develop a targeted cancer therapeutic.

The company is looking to raise €500,000 in funding for clinical trials before raising another €10m over four years to develop targeted cancer therapeutics.

Mr Cunningham, a former Elan executive, pitched his company’s plans to a panel of investors. “It is a good opportunity to present to investors, you have to be able to stand up and deliver your idea.”

Another firm, TriMod, is on course to develop a method that allows the immune system to kill cancer cells. Co-founder, Jeremy Skillington, said the company had developed a cancer vaccine that has worked successfully in mice. TriMod were also looking to raise up to €10m over the next number of years to bring their drugs to market.

Founding partner with ITLG, Cian Hughes, described the companies that he had seen as disruptive. “We’ve seen a broad range of companies, some in bioscience, some in ecommerce, some very interesting ideas, some very innovative ideas, certainly something I haven’t seen in the market place before, disruptive.”

Mr Moran said he had one simple goal with his involvement in ITLG — to find one Irish company all Americans will be able to name.

“I want to be able to go to a dinner party and ask people to name an Irish company and get a response.”