THE WILDE Angels, the angel investment fund headed up by technology entrepreneur John Hartnett, is leading an investment round of $1 million in Louth-based 3D printer company Mcor Technologies.
Speaking to The Irish Times this week before the official opening of Limerick Institute of Technology’s start-up incubator centre, which has been renamed the Hartnett Enterprise Acceleration Centre, Mr Hartnett said the Wilde Angel fund had closed six investments.
Last April it participated in a $1 million fundraising for SiSaf, a Belfast drug delivery company.
Mcor, founded in 2005 by brothers Conor and Fintan MacCormack, has developed a printer that produces 3D objects using A4 reams of paper. It is cheaper to run than competing brands which use plastic to build models.
The Wilde Angels, whose investors also include senior executives from Apple, Intel, Cisco and CyberSource, has also backed a number of businesses in the US including Pirate Eye, which has developed a system to prevent films being pirated in cinemas, MediaMelon, a developer of video distribution services, and Stream Glider, a company that has developed apps to help people manage their online interests and which grew out of research at NUI Galway.
Mr Hartnett said one of the aims of the Wilde Angels fund was to syndicate investments with US venture capitalists which would open up a bigger pool of capital to Irish start-ups.
He said about €300 million of venture capital was available in Ireland last year while Silicon Valley accounted for about 40 per cent of the $8 billion available from US VCs.
Both SiSaf and Mcor have been finalists in the Irish Technology Leadership Group’s (ITLG) company of the year awards. Mr Hartnett is president and founder of the ITLG, a network of Irish and Irish American executives working in the technology sector in Silicon Valley.
Earlier this year the ITLG opened an east coast chapter in New York and Mr Hartnett said a Los Angeles-based group will be launched in September to encompass the Irish working in the film and games sectors in that city.
At the official opening of the Limerick centre this week, it was announced that firms locating there could avail of one week’s mentoring at the Irish Innovation Centre in Silicon Valley. This is an associated venture of the ITLG and acts as an incubator for Irish tech businesses trying to establish a beachhead in the US.
Mr Hartnett, who is originally from Limerick, said the Wilde Angels would also consider investing in companies based at the Limerick centre. “One of the challenges for Limerick is that there are no venture capital firms in the city,” said Mr Hartnett.
