Sponsors
Northern Bank is delighted to be principal sponsor of this important conference, which comes at a challenging time for businesses across the island.
Entrepreneurship and innovative thinking are crucial to the competitiveness and sustainability of our economy but that entrepreneurial spirit must be matched by a positive, prudent attitude to the provision of funding.
At Northern Bank we issued nearly £500 million in business lending over the past year - positive proof of our commitment to helping local businesses compete and win in a difficult economic environment. Naturally, our proactive attitude and appetite remain the same this year and we welcome this opportunity to engage positively with those SMEs we can help propel to even greater success in 2010.
Kernel is one of Ireland's largest and most active venture capital funds. The firm has a portfolio of investee companies across, technology, life science and general industry. Kernel Capital and our associate Life Science Investment firm Seroba Kernel have €190m under management spread across multiple Funds including:
- BANK OF IRELAND KERNEL CAPITAL FUND I
- BANK OF IRELAND KERNEL CAPITAL FUND II
- BANK OF IRELAND VENTURE CAPITAL FUND
- SEROBA KERNEL LIFE SCIENCES FUND
- BANK OF IRELAND SEED AND EARLY STAGE EQUITY FUND
We target opportunities in the €100k to €5m range. The Kernel team have been instrumental in numerous corporate finance and IP licensing transactions totalling several hundred million Euros and are named inventors on over thirty patents. Our Executive Team have been published in leading scientific journals and have presented regularly at international conferences. Kernel Capital funds have received investment from Enterprise Ireland under the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2000 - 2006 and 2007 - 2012, our Strategic Partner Bank of Ireland and some of Ireland's leading pension fund managers.
Crescent Capital is a Belfast based fund manager which invests in Northern Ireland based companies operating in the information technology, life sciences and manufacturing sectors. Crescent currently manages two funds totaling £36.5m; Hambro Northern Ireland Ventures LP (established in 1995) and Crescent Capital II LP, established in 2004.
Crescent invests between £250k and £1.5m initially, with up to £2.25m invested per company over all rounds. Larger transactions and follow-on funding rounds are undertaken in conjunction with other venture funds, often as a result of syndicated deals led by Crescent. Investments are in the form of equity and both majority and minority positions are considered. Returns are sought from capital appreciation rather than dividend yield.
Crescent invests primarily in early stage and development stage technology companies in Northern Ireland. A clear marketing and/or technological advantage should be identifiable. Crescent is seeking management teams with good track records which are prepared to commit their own capital to transactions. We would expect to exit investments within five to seven years.
Tughans is one of Northern Ireland's leading corporate law firms, specialising in venture capital transactions and mergers and acquisitions. We have advised local companies from early stage venture capital investment to final exit (and all the growth stages in between) for the past 25 years. As a result of the experiences gained in this field our aim is to add real value to companies through all stages of their development. We believe venture capital funding is vital for the development of our companies in Northern Ireland, and in turn our economy, and we are delighted to co-sponsor today's event.
