As Western Development Commission hits €100m in investment, we speak to head of investment Gillian Buckley, on how that has been leveraged many times over for the region.
The Western Development Commission’s (WDC) Western Investment Fund (WIF) has hit a significant milestone having now invested €100m across SMEs, start-ups, community projects and strategic regional initiatives throughout the west of Ireland. Early investments have included well known names like Aerogen, AltoCloud and CitySwift.
An ”evergreen investment fund”, all returns are reinvested into new start-ups and scale-ups, so it is an important source of seed funding for companies from Donegal to Clare, particularly those in the deep tech sector, its “sweet spot”, according to head of investment, Gillian Buckley, who says that the investment has leveraged many times over in additional public and private capital.
The WIF invests venture capital in high-potential SMEs and start-ups, as well as social finance to social enterprises and community-led development projects. Today WIF portfolio companies and projects employ some 5,000 people directly and indirectly and have generated over €5bn in revenues, half of which are exports, according to WDC.
“It is a major milestone for what is a relatively small fund in the West of Ireland,” says Gillian Buckley, head of investment at the WDC. “And the vast majority of that money has been monies that we have revolved through the evergreen fund process and reinvested back into the region. It has leveraged well in excess of €500m for the wider region for projects from both public and private sector sources and European Union grant fundings as well.”
When it comes to its focus on deep tech, Buckley says it all goes back to the rationale for establishing the Western Development Commission and the investment fund. “It was about retaining our young talent and our population in the region and offering them high quality jobs.”
“The bulk of money goes into deep tech companies across the Western region. We dedicate funds specifically to try and encourage, startups and scale ups, and deep tech would be our sweet spot.”
While the fund invests at the early stage, Buckley says it regularly goes on the journey with the companies. “We have some companies that we’ve been invested in for almost 20 years,” she says. “We are patient capital, and we do need patient capital. We also have to revolve and reinvest those monies as well, of course, but we try and be supportive of the entrepreneurs. We understand the journey and it’s tough, but we hope to help lighten their load.”
Some big names have been on that journey with the WIF, Aerogen being a significant example, where the fund helped support John Power to complete a management buyback of the company back in 2008.
“John has gone on to scale that business very substantially – they have over 600 people now employed,” she says. “When we invested, it would have been probably, in the region of 10 to 12 people.”
And indeed Aerogen, headquartered in Galway, has become Ireland’s largest indigenous med-tech company, announcing in January that it would create more than 700 new jobs over the coming decade as part of a €300m expansion supported by Enterprise Ireland. The med-tech company specialises in acute care aerosol drug delivery. Its product, the Aerogen Solo, is based on vibrating mesh technology and used for respiratory patient care in various hospital settings, from the emergency department to intensive care.
Buckley cites Cityswift and AltoCloud as other important seed investments in the region.
“CitySwift is another great example of seed investments, where we would have gone in there in the very first round, and they’re scaling phenomenally and selling their technology globally,” she says.
“And AltoCloud of course With Joe Smyth and Barry O’Sullivan. We seed funded the company, and exited, and they were acquired by Genesys, who now have over 400 people employed in the west of Ireland and have their headquarters for generative AI in Galway as a result of that acquisition.”
It is all part of a virtuous circle for the regions, says Buckley. “We invest in the startup. We try and support them. Sometimes they scale themselves or sometimes they’re acquired and they scale as a result of the acquisition. But they’re employing people in the region.”
And it is this local high value employment that is critical she says. “One of the stats we’re most proud of is that 70pc of employment in our supported companies is graduate level – well above the national average.”
And the social and community funding should not be forgotten in the equation, she says. “Other aspects of the fund around sport, social enterprise, community projects in the west of Ireland, it is all about developing the region and adding to the quality of life of the people who work in these companies. It is a virtuous circle.”
Western Development Commission senior investment manager Geraldine McLoughlin will be a panellist at the Founders Exchange in Galway on October 24 in PorterShed at 11.30am.
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