FORMER INTEL chief Craig Barrett will lead a delegation of more than 25 investors, financiers and advisors from California to Limerick for the Irish Technology Leadership Group’s (ITLG) annual event in Limerick in November.
One high-profile investor expected to make the trip is John Denniston, a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB), one of Silicon Valley’s, if not the world’s most successful venture capital firms. KPCB has backed names such as Amazon, Sun Microsystems, Electronic Arts and Google at an early stage.
The ITLG will select 12 Irish start-ups to attend workshops with the US delegation during which their business plans will be critiqued and they will have a chance to pitch themselves to investors.
Despite the widespread coverage of Ireland’s economic woes in the US, John Hartnett, president of the ITLG, says there is plenty of interest in California in coming to see what Irish technology companies have to offer.
“There’s still a certain amount of goodwill in the US towards Ireland,” says Mr Hartnett. “But it’s not enough that there is goodwill, are their real opportunities here for investors, world-class opportunities? I think we have them.” Chief executives and other senior management of Irish technology companies are being encouraged to attend the events in University of Limerick on November 17th to avail of the opportunity to network with the visiting delegations and hear the keynote addresses.
In parallel, an “Education for Innovation” event will take place in NUI Galway on November 16th.
Earlier this year, the ITLG opened the Irish Innovation Centre in San José, a shared-office space which gives Irish firms a physical presence in Silicon Valley.
Mr Hartnett said it has been in talks with 15 Irish start-ups with a view to them taking space and two – chip designer RedMere and SiSaf, a Belfast drug delivery firm – are in situ. Mr Hartnett is firmly of the belief that the ingredients are nearly all in place for Ireland to start producing large successful technology companies.
“I believe we can be the next Israel,” says Mr Hartnett. “There’s $1.5 billion (€1.12 billion) in venture capital going into Israeli companies every year and half of that is coming from the US.
“In Ireland there’s €250 million going in and most of that’s from Irish firms. We really need to ramp that up but it takes time; it’s farming, not hunting.”
The ITLG is also involved in raising an associated venture capital fund, Irish Technology Capital, and Mr Hartnett said it hoped to be able to announce details of its first fund shortly.
The ITLG is known to want to tap into the Government’s Innovation Fund Ireland which will provide €250 million of State funding to match a similar amount from overseas VCs.
