Growth technology fund Atlantic Bridge has announced a new €60m investment fund for early stage companies with global potential that are built from leading research at Irish third-level institutions and universities.
The University Bridge Fund will accelerate the commercialisation of ground breaking research generated at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and all third level research institutions.
It will provide capital and expertise for scaling companies into the US and Chinese markets and elsewhere.
The Fund was initiated in a joint leadership collaboration between UCD and Trinity.
It will provide investment and expertise at the commercialisation stage for companies focusing on software, hardware, engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and agri-food.
The fund includes investment from AIB, Bank of Ireland, the European Investment Fund and Enterprise Ireland.
Irish companies that have benefited from the funding model for scaling-up technology companies include Movidius, Swrve, Fieldaware, Glonav and PolarLake.
Over the last 10 years Trinity and UCD have jointly spun-out over 60 companies, which have secured in excess of €200m in investment, The companies include Equinome, Logentries and OxyMem from UCD and Genable, Opsona Therapeutics and Swrve from Trinity.
"Irish third level institutions are generating cutting edge research, which we believe has great potential to be commercialised into global companies of scale. Atlantic Bridge will bring world class investment processes, scaling expertise and an international platform to generate strong commercial returns for investors," commented Gerry Maguire, general partner at Atlantic Bridge.
