€1 billion initiative to help Irish businesses scale globally launched

Updated / Sunday, 11 Oct 2026 07:01 Rebekah Brady, the reland Strategic Investment Fund's interim director A new €1 billion investment initiative which aims to help create the next generation of Irish companies of scale has been launched. The new fund will be administered by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) - part of the National Treasury Management Agency - and will run until 2030. The initiative aims to ensure ambitious businesses here have access to capital to grow internationally while maintaining a significant presence in Ireland. It will focus on sectors where Ireland has potential to build globally competitive businesses, including the tech, life sciences, business services, food and other sectors. ISIF has already backed over 500 Irish companies under its Scaling Businesses investment theme, and this initiative expands and accelerates that strategy. Recent direct investments in businesses include Proverum (medical devices), Equal1 (quantum computing), Progress Systems (financial services software) and Cameramatics (fleet management). Launching the new fund, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said it is aimed at helping create the next generation of Irish companies of scale while delivering on its double bottom line mandate to create employment and growth. "Through this announcement ISIF continues to demonstrate its commitment to scaling Irish companies with ISIF having already backed over 500 Irish companies under its Scaling Businesses investment theme," he added. Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke said that ISIF's commitment to a €1 billion investment programme to help scale Irish enterprises to 2030 will help develop the next generation of Irish companies of scale, provide vital capital to the market, and strengthen investor confidence in the potential of Irish businesses. "ISIF has a strong record in this area and is well placed to support our SMEs to scale globally, in close collaboration with Enterprise Ireland," the Minister added. Rebekah Brady, ISIF's Interim Director, said that from its continuous engagement with the market, we know there is a vibrant ecosystem of high-quality, ambitious businesses throughout Ireland that want to grow but need improved access to capital. "Given ISIF's strong track record of supporting Irish businesses both directly and indirectly, including supporting 500 companies to date, we are uniquely positioned to offer a key source of capital to ambitious Irish companies within our double bottom line mandate," she said. "We have the scale, the capacity and the risk appetite to selectively target suitable businesses, with investments throughout the risk spectrum," she added.