71pc of local Irish tech firms grew revenue last year
Almost three-quarters of local Irish technology companies grew their revenue last year, according to new research from Bank of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin.
The research project, led by Professor Brian Lucey at Trinity College, was conducted with 100 indigenous SME technology companies and was presented at Bank of Ireland’s Technology Sector Insights briefing last Friday. The objective of the research was to look at the revenue performance and funding choices of Irish technology companies.
More than half (54pc) of the companies said that they were profitable.
Exploring the most important area of their businesses for investment, 49pc said sales and marketing, 30pc said technical staff, and 22pc said that their main focus would be on research and development activities.
“There is significant momentum in revenue growth for this business cohort, with seven in 10 increasing revenue last year, up from six in 10 in similar research we conducted in conjunction with UCC in 2014”, said Mark Cunningham, director of Business Banking at Bank of Ireland.
Specifically, Cunningham pointed to financing made possible under the InnovFin agreement to encourage businesses to start investing in order to scale up.
The InnovFin agreement allows Bank of Ireland to provide finance to innovative companies in Ireland for a total of €100m over the next two years with the support of a guarantee provided by the European Investment Fund and backed under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
Bank of Ireland has completed funding for a broad range of technology companies this year including Version 1, Phorest, S3Group, MicksGarage and Milner Browne.
The bank also recently launched a new incubator programme for tech start-ups in Galway – StartLab – designed to support the tech start-up community in Galway city and the surrounding region.
