Search Results for 'WDC Investment Fund'

A unique fund set up 20 years ago to invest public money in West of Ireland-based businesses has generated a return of almost two-and-a-half times its original value and helped provide Ireland’s economy with a €3.3 billion boost, new research has revealed.

Galway and the west of Ireland have become a hotbed for entrepreneurial activity in recent years. In fact, you may not know it but the word “entrepreneur” was coined by an Irishman from the Wild Atlantic Way. Richard Cantillon, born in the coastal town of Ballyheigue, County Kerry, came up with the first known definition of an entrepreneur in the business sense in his French book “Essai”. He defined entrepreneurs as “non-fixed income earners who pay known costs of production but earn uncertain incomes, due to the speculative nature of pandering to an unknown demand for their product”. Would you believe that Cantillon’s definition is from 1730, nearly three hundred years ago? It could have been written just yesterday.

Three companies from the WDC Investment Fund’s portfolio companies have secured €6.7 million in funding from the first round of the Government’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). Another two companies have received awards in the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Competition.