Italian entrepreneur Gianni Matera came to Ireland in 2013 with the proceeds from a multi-million euro company sale burning a hole in his pocket and an eagerness to invest. Matera founded Growing Capital, a seed and early stage investment firm in 2015 and announced soon afterwards that he intended to plough €4m into Irish startups by 2020. Since then, he has been putting his money where his mouth is.

Eleven companies have received investments from Growing Capital so far, the latest being FlipDish, established by James and Conor McCarthy. FlipDish sells white-label apps and website platforms for restaurants and takeaways; it raised €250,000 through Growing Capital, Matera's investment partners and matched funding from EI in January. Other startups benefiting from Matera’s largesse include gym software management firm Glofox (€250,000), Motordata Ltd (€200,000), Caragon Consulting (€150,000) and Brim Brothers (€120,000).

Matera started his career as a business consultant with Accenture, before becoming a country manager in Italian telco Buongiorno. He founded digital advertising company DigiTouch in 2007, and this company floated on the Italian Stock Exchange in an IPO that raised €9m. Matera sold of his shareholding to net a nice reward.

He went on to found an app-builder called DigitAlchemy, which he still owns and is managed by a colleague. Matera is a member of the Halo Business Angel Network and his interest in sniffing out startups is sustained by Enterprise Ireland, since he likes the fact that the taxpayer matches whatever funding he puts into a business. The Italian’s goal is to triple the value of his seed investments by the end of the decade.

“Ireland is also a great place to be a seed investor,” Matera says. “We typically invest in businesses that are already trading, maybe even profitable. By contrast, seed investing in the US typically involves similar investments in untested ideas for a smaller shareholding.”

In Association with

Photo: Gianni Matera (right) with HBAN director John Phelan