The Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) invested €13.6m in 50 Irish startups through 2016, up 25% from the previous year.

HBAN is a not-for-profit group, a joint initiative of InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland. Its 2016 investment tally included €1.5m invested in eight deals completed by Northern Ireland-based business angels.

HBAN said that its investments in 2016 leveraged a further €20.5m from other public and private funds, bringing the total invested to around €34m.

While the number of companies receiving angel investment did not fluctuate from previous years, angels invested greater sums of money in 2016. The average angel investment last year was €272,000, up from the 2015 average of €217,000. When investment from other sources is included, this made an average investment of €700,000 per company.

Companies that received investment last year included Pundit Arena, Glofox, SoopaPets and DiaNia. Key sectors included ICT, healthcare, consumer products and food.

In Association with

John Phelan, national director of HBAN, said: “What’s so impressive about these results is that, at a time when there was a shortage of seed funding in Ireland, the average business angel investment per funding round increased by 25%.

“There was a significant drop in the value of seed funding available in the last couple of years, leaving promising startups struggling to source funding. We were delighted to see that our business angels played a significant role in closing that funding gap by increasing the amount they invested.”

Photo: Angel investor Bernard Collins (left) with John Phelan, HBAN