The BDO Development Capital Fund has invested €5m in the Lifes2good Group, one of Ireland’s fastest growing healthcare companies.
BDO said that the investment will enable Lifes2good's further international expansion and will lead to the creation of 50 jobs in its headquarters in Galway and across the group over the next three years.
The BDO Development Capital Fund provides development and growth capital for established, mid-sized and profitable companies to assist them to achieve and accelerate their export-led growth plans.
Lifes2Good was founded in 1997 by James Murphy, who is also a renowned tenor singer. The company's Viviscal hair growth supplement is a big international success, and around 95% of sales are now sourced overseas.
Sinead Heaney, Managing Director of the BDO Development Capital Fund, said: “Lifes2Good is exactly type of company that our fund was set up to support. It is a high growth indigenous company with a proven and ambitious management team with significant export market growth opportunities.”
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Fund director Andrew Bourg, who has joined the Board of Lifes2Good, added: “Throughout our dealings with Lifes2Good, we have been hugely impressed by James and the management team's ambition and track record.”
James Murphy commented: “We have hugely ambitious expansion plans and we are now positioned to implement them. We can also now tap into the expertise that comes with The BDO Development Capital Fund and the support of both the fund's advisory panel members
“The funding provides us with the investment needed to grow our current significant US and UK business, position other markets for accelerated growth and support new product and brand development through innovation and acquisition.”
The BDO Development Capital Fund amounts to €75m and is funded with €25m of taxpayer resources through Enterprise Ireland, €20m from Bank of Ireland and €30m from large Irish corporates such as CRH, Glanbia and Glen Dimplex.
Lifes2Good is the fund's second investment. The Galway firm is expected to use part of the funding proceeds to acquire companies with complementary products so it can broaden the product range it offers to retailers. (February 2015)
