Plan to help firms get funding

DRAGON’S DEN-type interviews are being set up between companies and investors in Cork and Kerry by the South-West Regional Authority (SWRA).

The authority hopes the pilot scheme, funded by the European Union, will become a blueprint to help other small companies realise their potential.

A SWRA meeting in Ballincollig was informed yesterday the EU-funded AR Venture Project had identified a number of businesses that were too large to fit the criteria for financing from enterprise boards and too small to be dealt with by Enterprise Ireland.

Claire Davis, who initiated the project, said initially the authority had selected seven companies which would pitch their plans at a meeting of investors and enterprise experts. The companies — in the IT, seafood, science and food sectors — are looking for financing of anything between €10,000 and €200,000.

SWRA director John Forde said they had developed a course for companies which were seeking to expand and the blueprints for these would be used in the future by enterprise boards to back business expansion.

“This is a really good example of an EU project working,” he said.

Meanwhile, as part of another EU-funded project, the authority is helping similar businesses hook up with counterparts in Spain, Portugal and France.

Mr Forde said the AT Clusters project was primarily aimed at small food producers. “By getting like-minded businesses (in different countries) together there are economies of scale to be had, especially in terms of marketing.”