Irish Innovation Seed Fund (IISF)

The European Investment Fund (“EIF”) and Enterprise Ireland (“EI”) are pleased to announce a EUR 60m pool of funding to support early-stage, high-growth companies in Ireland seeking seed capital to further scale their business operations.

This programme is supported by the National Treasury Management Agency (“NTMA”) through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, with a further potential co-investment of EUR 30m for selected VC funds. In total, the potential funding under the IISF initiative may amount to EUR 90m.

The IISF initiative is seeking commercially focussed VC funds that target the Pre-Seed and Seed stages of development, across all Enterprise Ireland supported sectors, including e.g. ICT, Life Sciences and Climate.  

IISF investment strategy

VC fund managers wishing to apply should demonstrate:

• An ability to secure significant private capital in addition to public support;
• A strong team and track-record of working with early stage, high-growth companies in Ireland;
• A fund strategy that supports, and invests in, the promotion of regional development, female entrepreneurship, sustainability and climate initiatives.

Under IISF, we aim to allocate ideally less than 50% of the fund size, however on a case-by-case basis a higher percentage to any individual fund may be considered. Applying VC funds will typically target investments into early stage companies at their first point of external equity funding.

Fund managers – apply here

The EIF selects financial intermediaries based on a standard application and evaluation process including due diligence of applying fund managers. Please carefully read the call for expression of interest document and check the eligibility criteria before applying.

If you are a fund manager, please read more about how to submit your investment proposal to the EIF and use this online investment proposal form to submit your details.

Deadline for applications: 29 April 2022 (date of receipt by the EIF)

IISF – call for expression of interest (PDF)

Update in relation to the IISF call for expression of interest: please refer to this Q&A document for an overview of the clarification requests received by the EIF during the call process.