A new €500 million venture capital fund is set to be launched to promote innovation across Ireland.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen used a visit to New York to announce his plans for a five-year Innovation Fund-Ireland.

Half of the fund will be provided by the Government (€125 million from the Exchequer and the remainder from the National Pension Reserve Fund) with private sector investors supplying the other €125 million.

The fund aims to address Ireland’s lack of a venture capital culture and will look to invest in high growth potential start-ups and existing businesses.

It will be will be overseen by an advisory board chaired by Damien Callaghan of Intel Capital and it is expected that Enterprise Ireland will start inviting applications in September.

Batt O’Keeffe TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, said:

“Venture capital is relatively underdeveloped in Ireland so this is our opportunity to leverage the power of the global investor community and create high-quality Irish jobs in the process.

“The objective is to drive the creation of sustainable jobs in Ireland in the technology, life science, financial services, clean-tech and other sectors.”

Source: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, 12/07/2010