IRISH STARTUPS ARE riding the wave of a “tech boom” as another investment fund dips its hand into the talent pool in a bid to take the best local entrepreneurs to the world.

SVG Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture-capital group, has paired up with Irish telecoms company Eircom to sink $10 million (€7.8 million) into 10 local startups looking to expand into Europe or the US.

The fund, branded the Lab353 Accelerator programme, will back startups in the fast-developing fields of cloud computing, mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT), a general term for the interconnection of everyday objects.

Hand-selected startups will be set up in Eircom’s Dublin office where the business backers said the fledgling companies would get a 10-week “mentoring process” to help them quickly scale their ideas for global roll-out.

SVG has previously backed Irish startups like 3D-printing company Mcor Technologies, which has been turning heads with its full-colour manufacturing platform.

In May next year, the latest crop will get their turn pitching their ideas to investors in an attempt to get up to $1 million (€785,000) in funding each.

A ‘real tech boom’

SVG Partners founder and CEO John Hartnett said the program would give startups and “tech disruptors” the backing they needed to “thrive in a highly competitive worldwide market”.

“We are at the forefront of a real tech boom here and I am looking forward to the great leaders and disruptive technologies this programme will reveal,” he said.

The latest startup fund joins several other venture capitalist funds and investment groups throwing themselves into the technology fray, such as the recently-launched €56 million transatlantic SmartInvest fund and €40 million software fund from Frontline Ventures.

Applications for the Lab353 Accelerator program close on 31 December.

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