My Job: Meet Joe Higgins — the Cork man with €250m available to invest in Irish SMEs

Joe Higgins heads BGF's Cork expansion and Irish SME investment

Joe Higgins, investor and Cork office head, BGF.  Picture: Chris Bellew

Name: Joe Higgins

Occupation: Investor and Cork office head BGF

Background: BGF is a major capital investor supporting the growth of Irish SMEs through long-term, minority equity investment.

Based at the BGF office in Cork, Joe Higgins focuses on identifying and executing new deals, in addition to sitting on the boards of portfolio companies.

A Cork native who has spent the past number of years building the firm’s presence in Munster, he leads the plan to significantly expand its activity in the region.

BGF was first established in the UK in 2011, followed by its entry to Ireland via a Dublin office in 2017. It has invested €5.1bn in more than 600 companies, making it the most active investor in the UK and Ireland.

Backed by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Bank of Ireland, and AIB, BGF has €250m available to invest in Irish SMEs. The Cork office opened in early 2020 — a date Joe Higgins remembers all too well.

“We opened the Cork office in February 2020, just three weeks before covid hit,” he explains. “It meant we were very restricted, as everything was at the time, and found ourselves operating virtually during that period of lockdown. It was an interesting time being so isolated for four or five months, especially in a business where it is normally all about meeting face to face.

“We had to operate in that restrictive environment, but did still manage to put together over three-quarters of every investment virtually before meeting for the final phases.”

Operating from its offices in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, BGF has now invested more than €260m in over 30 companies across the island of Ireland.

“It is a business very much about relationships — people are buying us, and we are the same with them. That is why we have local offices and teams on the ground, which is critical in terms of building strong relationships and staying close to companies that we want to transact with.”

Having deployed over €50m across Ireland in 2025, BGF has supported businesses across scale-up strategies in the technology, business services, healthcare and industrial sectors. The investments include the County Down-based CWC Group, a family-owned specialist care provider, and the first deal to be completed under BGF’s £300m Invest In Women, in addition to an investment in the Dublin-based accountancy and tax services company Ecovis.

Follow-on funding was also provided to Nuada, a next-generation carbon capture business. The firm’s €4m investment into Limerick-based Eventmaster, an online registration platform in the Irish sports participation market, saw it earlier this year acquire digital fundraising platform iDonate.

“Eventmaster has demonstrated impressive momentum in building a market-leading platform for fundraising, ticketing and membership services, and our follow-on investment underlines BGF’s long-term commitment to backing ambitious businesses with the potential to scale and innovate.”

BGF’s investments in Cork over 2025 included cleanroom and containment solutions firm ClearSphere, which provides solutions across the pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare, and industrial sectors.

BGF’s €6m investment will enable the company to accelerate its growth strategy into markets in Northern Ireland and Britain.

“ClearSphere is well placed to capture increasing demand across its core markets. Our investment reflects our confidence in its ability to continue this momentum and expand its delivery of best-in-class solutions.”

Cork digital transformation firm Granite Digital also secured a $10m (€8.6m) investment from BGF to fund its international expansion, with a particular focus on the US.

“Granite is a prime example of the kind of high-performing, founder-led business BGF looks to support,” said Higgins. “From its roots in Cork, the company has built a strong reputation for delivering digital excellence across Ireland and beyond.”

While 2025 was a landmark year for the firm, he sees further deals in 2026: “Based on the pipeline, we would be positive in our outlook for the rest of this year. Our approach goes beyond funding, it is about long-term partnership, strategic support, and giving founders the confidence to scale.”

Prior to BGF, Higgins spent several years in leveraged finance, corporate banking and restructuring at AIB, before working at MML Capital Partners and, more recently, as an investment director at BMS Finance, providing direct lending to Irish SMEs.

Looking to the future, he sees the continued growth of Cork and its hinterland as fertile territory for BGF investment across a variety of sectors.

“There is a really solid base of indigenous well-established businesses across technology, healthcare and business services, and a lot of that driven by FDI, in terms of servicing those companies.

“Many of those companies have grown steadily over the years, and are now looking to scale internationally — which is where we can help them. We have our UK network, but also a franchise further afield in the US, Australia and Canada.

“A lot of companies come to us to take the next step off the island of Ireland, which is a journey we can absolutely help them with.”

BGF takes an equity stake of typically 10% to 40%, with founders retaining control and ownership of their company.

Investing without fixed exit deadlines, BGF offers a more flexible timeline than traditional private equity, allowing companies to focus on long-term sustainability.

Investments include a mix of equity and loan notes tailored to the specific needs of the business, with the capacity to provide additional capital to support further growth, acquisitions, or new opportunities after the initial investment.

In terms of what industries might be more attractive than others, he says it is more a case of being ‘sector agnostic’ for BGF: “That is very much what I like about my job — each day can be focused on a different company in a different industry.

“We look right across the spectrum, and are open to all sectors. That’s down to the scale of our wider portfolio and the number of sectors where we have developed deep pockets of specialism in and hence an ability to add real value — that’s a huge differentiator for BGF — we are multi-sector specialists.”

“Ultimately, the criteria we look for are ambitious SMEs that are looking to grow and scale — but also with our model looking to retain control. If you’re thinking about BGF, you are maybe thinking of taking some cash off the table now, take a partner on to support — but ultimately you’re playing to a bigger day out anywhere from three to six years down the line. That is the kind of entrepreneur that we want to back.”