Sowing the seeds of success: How seed capital brings companies to fruition

Grants can be a godsend but start-ups face many obstacles on the road to becoming successful businesses

While government grants can be a godsend for start-ups, there is a downside to accepting funds with conditions attached.

One of the conundrums for innovative start-up businesses is that they need money to turn their ideas into commercial reality but they have neither assets nor revenue to secure lending or attract equity investors. We look at Ireland’s growing seed capital sector and the state supports aimed at helping high-potential start-up enterprises from commercialisation of their idea to, ideally, profitability.

Owen O’Driscoll, co-founder and CEO of PlanDail, now rebranded to Trrue, cannot stress enough the need for start-ups to access funding. While he understands that government grants can be a godsend, he identifies a downside in the prerequisites that can attach to them.