DEALS OF THE WEEK
In Season Farm raises €15k
DROGHEDA-BASED In Season Farm has just raised €15,000 through leading peer-to-peer lending site Linked Finance. In Season Farm specialises in producing baby vegetables — radishes, parsnips, carrots, and beetroots — for delivery to some of Ireland’s top restaurants.
The company is the brainchild of Brendan Guinan and this is the fourth time the farm has successfully raised finance on the Linked Finance platform. This loan will help the company double its growing area. “We’re supplying Total Produce under their new brand called Gra Produce,” says Guinan. “We have found borrowing on Linked Finance a fast and effective way to help finance the expansion.”
Linked Finance is targeting to have lent more than €350m to SMEs by the end of 2019.
Clean Ireland in truck deal
CLEAN Ireland Recycling has taken delivery of the first dedicated compressed natural gas (CNG) waste-collection truck into Ireland.
The firm and Gas Networks Ireland invested €750,000 in the new CNG Scania truck, as well as a compressor and refuelling station at the company’s operation in Shannon, Co Clare. The investment will deliver a 22pc saving on carbon emissions and a fuel cost saving of up to 30pc compared with the truck’s diesel equivalent.
More specially-commissioned Scania CNG trucks will follow over the coming years to replace some of the company’s diesel-powered fleet. “This investment will reduce our own emissions significantly and, in doing so, the carbon footprints of our customers,” said Brian Lyons, operations director of Clean Ireland Recycling.
Linked Finance raises €1m
LINKED Finance, the peer-to-peer lending platform, has raised €1m from Shay Garvey’s Frontline Ventures, according to documents filed in the Companies Registration Office during the week.
Separate documents also show that chief executive Niall Dorrian had put some cash into the business — almost €100,000.
Earlier this year the ambitious company signed a deal with France’s Eiffel Investment Group.
Eiffel said it would contribute up to 20pc of the liquidity for new loans on the platform.
“This agreement with Eiffel is a vote of confidence in Linked Finance’s business model and recognises our strong growth trajectory,” Dorrian said at the time.
New wind venture blows in
ENERGYPRO Analytics and Galetech Energy Services (GES) have established a new joint venture EnergyPro Asset Management, which will be owned equally by the two companies. The new venture will have an initial combined long-term contract roster of 180MW of wind turbines. It will manage assets for a variety of wind farm owners, from independent Irish developers to multinational institutional investors such as Impax Asset Management and Greystone Infrastructure Fund.
The company has a modern control centre from which wind farms’ performance can be monitored and the assets safely managed.