Chartered accountant Johnny Harte looks at some little pockets of funding available to businesses and startups in Ireland.
How do you plan to fund your business? From experience, funding rarely comes from just one source, and over the course of several years, many businesses will go through various levels of funding. Listed below are some of the options you may not be aware of but should be considering.
Local Enterprise Offices (LEO)
LEOs are a great place to start and have a variety of financial supports available through the 31 offices across the country. Everything from feasibility grants to helping you research market demand and sustainability of your potential product or service (up to €20,000), through to priming grants and business expansion grants. The only issue with the LEO grants is that the grants only cover approximately 50% of the costs which can be a challenge for many early-stage businesses.
Microfinance Ireland
Microfinance Ireland is a not-for-profit lender established by the government to provide additional lending to startups and SMEs with loans ranging from €2,000 up to €25,000 that can be used for working capital, marketing costs and to fund the set-up of business, the purchase of stock, equipment, machinery and business vehicles.
“Some of the hottest startups in Ireland today started in accelerator programmes.”
Accelerator programmes and incubators
Accelerator programmes and incubators offer entrepreneurs the time and space to explore their idea, challenge their assumptions and surround themselves with like-minded people. There are some exceptional accelerator programmes in Ireland these days, some of which are ranked among the best in the world and there are at least 20 programmes running throughout Ireland. Two worth noting are the NDRC LaunchPad (which invests up to €20,000 in digital companies for an equity stake and now have programmes in Dublin, Galway and Waterford) and YieldLab (€100,000 investment into early-stage agrifood
