The start-up companies at the forefront of Northern Ireland’s knowledge economy have attracted over £30million to fund their growth in the last twelve months.
This is one of the key milestones revealed today (Wednesday 20 May 2015) in the Annual Report of the Northern Ireland Science Park’s NISP CONNECT: www.nispconnect.org/nisp-connect-annual-reports
NISP CONNECT is an independent non-profit organisation at the heart of the Science Park’s innovation ecosystem. It supports the development of new technologies, start-up and early stage companies through mentorship, education and guidance on securing capital funding.
NISP CONNECT Director Steve Orr puts its success down to Northern Ireland’s excellent entrepreneurs and the network of experienced people who invest their time and energy in making the entrepreneurs more successful.
He said, “This Annual Report captures all the people and organisations who contributed their time and resources to supporting the next generation, pro bono, to build our knowledge economy from the inside out. We have an incredible talent pool and we successfully leverage our networks to connect our most experienced people with our most promising, to accelerate their growth.”
With no shortage of entrepreneurial talent, one of the biggest challenges facing early-stage companies has been how to attract the funding and investment necessary to turn a great idea into a commercial success.
Steve Orr said, “I believe that Northern Ireland’s entrepreneurs are now on an unstoppable path of progress. In the 12 months to March 2015, over 32 companies in Northern Ireland set out to raise over £1m in funding. 22 of these companies successfully landed their investment and others have received offers. This is dramatically different to how things were even two years ago, when the vast majority of entrepreneurs were at the pre-seed and seed stage of investment.
Orr continued, “The pipeline is now so strong that I would not be surprised if another 22 companies raised similar amounts over the next 12 months.”
Steve points out that it’s not just quantity, but quality which is now established on another level. He continued, “In December 2014, NISP CONNECT, in collaboration with Belfast City Council and Invest NI, took 16 tech companies to Silicon Valley, California, on the NI Tech Mission. After an exhausting week of pitch forums and customer pitches, one thing was crystal clear: our companies were “Valley Standard”.
Responding to the new set of challenges facing Northern Ireland tech CEOs, NISP CONNECT and CultureTech will host BIG – CEO Scaling Retreat, an exclusive, invitation only, twenty-four hour retreat to help our most promising early-stage CEOs to access knowledge and relationships that will help them to conquer their most pressing challenges as they set out to scale their businesses. This will take place as part of the CultureTech Festival in September in Derry-Londonderry this year. More details will be announced in due course.
