In today’s piece, we take a look at Irish Government Agency Enterprise Ireland (EI), its role in venture capital, and its support of Platforum9.
In summary, Enterprise Ireland has emerged as the most active investor in European venture deals, in 2023, more than 52 Billion had been invested across 8,569 European deals, according to PitchBook data. As an Irish company, Platforum9 is pleased to have been accepted into the HPSU (High Performing Start-Up) program.
We were pleased to interview our case handler, Cillian Sugrue, who shared some of the important criteria used by EI when making investment decisions. In addition to pure investment, the EI team globally support Irish companies in their scaling and as an early stage start-up, this is really essential to getting out there!
Platforum9: Tell us about EI and your role in the organisation.
Cillian: Enterprise Ireland is a state body tasked with supporting Irish businesses at all stages in their journey. We think about this in terms of Starting Up, Scaling Up and Growing Internationally, and we have a range of supports for each. I work as Development Advisor in the High Potential Start-up team, looking after a portfolio of exciting Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A companies. We are Europe’s Most Active VC so a lot of the work lies in helping these companies to access funding, from ourselves, and from our partners in the ecosystem. But the role is broad, and I think some our best work is done outside the bounds of the investment conversation. I was a founder in a previous life, so any opportunity to sit down with a company and talk through their challenges and their plans for the future is something that I relish.
Platforum9: What’s your personal background and what attracted you to this work?
Cillian: I’ve always been what you might call a bit of a schemer, always working on little businesses and side projects and never to much great success! Over the years I’ve ran software startups (failed), ecommerce websites (failed) and a small hospitality chain (still going strong!), so the prospect of working with founders every day was something I found really exciting. I genuinely love listening to people talk about their businesses, and there’s no better way to start or end the day than speaking with founders who are really, truly passionate about what they’re trying to achieve.
Platforum9: You are investing in Platforum9 through your HPSU funding. What does that mean?
Cillian: So we’re working with Platforum9 at the moment on a funding proposal. Effectively, what that means is that we’re looking at participating in an upcoming funding round for the business. If we want to take a step back and look at the reason that we do so – it’s fundamentally to support the Irish startup ecosystem. We’re a small Island without the deepest risk-capital markets, so Irish startups tend to raise less than their US peers/competitors. Larger raises are not necessary for success but they can help! So Enterprise Ireland uses our HPSU investment offer to help level that playing field.
Platforum9: What are you looking for in companies and founders when you invest?
Cillian: Fundamentally, we want to invest in companies where we can see a clear opportunity, a competent & highly motivated team, and a pathway for that team to go after that opportunity and win. What that means for each company is different, for some that pathway relies on killer-tech, for others it may be unique market knowledge and connections, and for others it’s just good timing and great execution. When we look at founders, I think it’s more straight-forward. We want people who are more than passionate about the problem they’re solving, and have unique insight into that problem. That passion comes in many forms, but when you meet someone who has it, it’s clear to see. Where EI differs I think is in the impact nature of what we do, of course we want our investments to generate returns, but they aren’t our key KPIs. For us, success lies in building a better industrial base in Ireland. That means more jobs in Innovative Irish companies, more exports from Innovative Irish companies to the rest of the world, and, crucially, a more sustainable and equitable foundation to that industrial base. The reality is, if we think a company that we put say €300k into is going to grow to employ 10/15 people in highly-skilled roles, is going to invest in R&D, export €1m+ a year and is going to do so fairly and sustainably over a long period of time, that’s a huge win for the economy. And our investment thesis reflects that.
Platforum9: Why are you investing in Platforum9? What Is it about their vision that appeals to you?
Cillian: There’s a lot of exciting things here, but for me it all revolves around the Founder, Patricia Gannon. There’s people who know their space, and then there’s people who have truly unique perspective, and Patricia’s one of the rare people in this latter group. If you’d asked me prior to working with Platforum9 – “What do you think the prospects are for a social-audio play in the Legal sector?” I would probably have looked on in confusion. But the most exciting entrepreneurs, those like Patricia, can take those ideas that just seem to come from nowhere, and make you see the magic of it. Beyond the team though, we’re looking at a business here that balances the risk-reward scale well. The risks are obviously there, as with any early-stage business, but Platforum9 has built up a strong base of customer validation, is clearly capable of selling to the end-user, and has the ambition to do a lot of selling! Their vision to build a global, community-led platform and use it to deliver value to the largest law firms in the world is truly exciting. And if anyone’s going to do it, we want that person to be building it out of Ireland!
Platforum9: How do you determine success in your investment portfolio?
Cillian: That’s a tricky one not to give a grey answer to! The truth is that we’re a big organisation and we have a lot of different measures of success. Success across our investee company returns is different from success across our classic KPIs of Jobs/Exports/Innovation and different from success towards our critical decarbonisation targets. Ultimately, what we want is for each and every one of the companies we work with to achieve and surpass the ambitions they set. If we can help them do that, everything else will follow naturally. Of course it’s challenging to achieve – but when we think about success day-to-day, it’s all about trying to help make that happen (without getting in the way)!
Platforum9: What qualities do you need to see in a founder, and do you see it here?
Cillian: What I need to see though is simply a real burning commitment to the project. I often gets lost in the startup positivity that starting a company is truly impossibly hard and has real negative consequences for the other aspects of your life. It’s not good for your social life, it can be hard even on family, and it’s really not good for your financial wellbeing. So if I’m backing someone to to go through that, I need to see that they have a truly unique dedication to the cause.
