Markets

Irish businesses have ‘huge’ difficulty getting venture capital investment

The head of Enterprise Ireland says tech-based and life science-based businesses in particular are struggling to scale up due to a shortage of funding

Leo Clancy, chief executive, Enterprise Ireland: ‘If you look at scarcity of labour, housing is probably the single most contributing factor.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Irish businesses are having “huge” difficulty attracting investment from venture capitalists, the head of Enterprise Ireland has said.

Leo Clancy said that firms in certain sectors were having particular problems in securing investment to grow.

“If you talk about fast scaling, tech-based businesses or life science-based businesses, that’s one segment [where] it is more difficult to get VC [venture capital],” he said.

“I’ve had clients say to me recently that unless they were doing two ...