Focus on high-potential startups lets us realise potential despite pandemic

BACK in February, more than 600 business founders, investors and shareholders gathered in Croke Park for Enterprise Ireland’s annual High-Potential StartUp Showcase, a celebration of some of the country’s most promising startups. Last year, Enterprise Ireland invested in 91 high-potential startups (HPSUs), new businesses with significant potential to create jobs. Also celebrated were 36 recipients of Competitive Start Funding (CSF), a critical injection of earlystage funding for some promoters.

The event saw the launch of Enterprise Ireland’s Formula for Success, a campaign to attract ambitious founders to establish fast-growing, export-led companies in Ireland. It was a day of terrific optimism which coincided with an ambitious new five-year roadmap from Enterprise Ireland, designed to grow and nurture even more startups of the future.

Covid’s impact was seismic for young companies. While the strategy with which we started the year is still very much alive, Enterprise Ireland’s first priority is to stabilise existing HPSUs in which it has invested €122m since 2015.

Our role in the HPSU unit is to help these companies navigate all the supports available to them, not just from Enterprise Ireland but across the wider ecosystem.

For many, cash-flow has been of uppermost concern. In some cases, client companies saw sales stop suddenly. In others, companies which were raising funds for growth saw investment slow down or step back.

Founders are concerned about holding on to talented personnel who they worked hard to secure. Others worry about what the ‘new normal’ will look like and whether they will have the resources required for the economic uplift when it comes.

Some are seeing their plans accelerate because of Covid, including HPSUs in sectors such as healthcare, life sciences and technologies which support new and remote ways of living and working. Enterprise Ireland has launched a suite of targeted supports to help HPSUs with the new challenges they face.

A €5,000 business financial planning grant engages a financial consultant to prepare a resilient financial plan. It is open to all Enterprise Ireland clients and demand is strong. It is helping them to update their projections, identifying likely impacts of Covid and assessing the additional funds they may need as they adjust.

We have introduced bridging funding for existing HPSUs, where projects were progressing well pre-Covid. It provides an equity injection alongside investors to support liquidity and give clients time to replan and raise additional funds.

As well as stabilisation supports, we are helping HPSUs reset for the future. Talented and skilled people are becoming available around the country who might not have been available before. Our employment supports are helping HPSUs attract senior key managers with the skills the company will need for the future.

Feasibility study grants are helping them to scope out new opportunities and, where necessary, develop new business models. Enterprise Ireland is continually gathering intelligence from its 40 overseas offices, so HPSUs can see what is happening in markets and sectors worldwide.

And, very importantly, we continue to invest in the next generation of HPSUs. We are continuing to fund early stage companies, working with them to develop their global ambition and secure investment. More than 100 applicants recently applied for pre-seed funding under our Competitive Start Fund.

Disruption creates new opportunities. Tough conditions drive innovation and efficiencies. Over the next 12 months more people will be on the move. Senior managers will identify an exciting opportunity and will be prompted to set up a new business and raise investment, just as we saw in the last recession. We want them to come and talk with us in Enterprise Ireland about how we can support them to accelerate and go global. In the meantime, we will continue to focus on developing our early-stage companies and supporting existing HPSUs to get through the next period, readying them for the opportunities of the future. That too will be cause for celebration. They are our future exporters.