Ireland’s leading Venture Capital Investor
Recognised as the leading early-stage venture investor in Ireland, Elkstone offers unique access to top Irish and international investment opportunities. Elkstone’s Venture Fund I is Ireland's largest early-stage venture fund at €100m. Since its launch in April 2022, Fund I has invested in 23 Irish startups, bringing Elkstone’s Irish portfolio to over 40 companies.
Supporting innovation and empowering the next generation of Irish entrepreneurs
Partnering with key institutions like Enterprise Ireland. To date, building on the success of Fund I and its Venture Club, Elkstone has invested in over 70 companies, including three unicorns - fostering innovation and generating strong returns for investors.
Market Leading Deal Access
Our connectivity to the very best Irish dealflow is unmatched. As Ireland largest and most sought after early stage Venture investor, we have unrivalled access to deal opportunities.
Access Strong Venture Returns
Through building a diversified multi sector portfolio in the very best Irish early stage companies.
Support Irish Innovation
Investing in Irish startups helps foster groundbreaking ideas, contributing to the growth of innovative businesses that are tackling and solving important global challenges.
Local Impact
By supporting Ireland’s venture ecosystem, you become part of a thriving community, nurturing local talent, and keeping the top Irish talent at home.
Investment Opportunity
Elkstone Venture Fund II (EIIS Fund)
Elkstone's Venture Fund II enables investors to invest in a diversified portfolio of best-in-class Irish tech enabled companies while availing of up to 30% EIIS tax relief.
Venture Club
Offers exclusive access to direct venture investing with high-growth startups, allowing investors to back innovative companies and diversify their portfolio.
Our Investment Criteria
We are sector agnostic and use five key performance criteria when investing in early-stage companies.
Strength of talent
The single most important factor in a successful company. The talent, passion, drive and ambition of the Founders are crucial factors in our selection process.
Internationally scalable
We seek businesses with the opportunity to expand at scale overseas. Not every business will necessarily become a global player but we expect that every company we invest in should have the potential to be one.
Timing
Knowing when to invest and when to hold is driven by experience and insight. “50% of getting an investment right is timing“. (Fred Wilson – Union Square Ventures). We are always very conscious of this.
Capital light
We look for business models that do not require large amounts of capital to scale. These companies can leverage our capital with speed to achieve exponential sales growth in a dynamic marketplace and generate a strong return on our investment.
Tech-enabled
We do not limit our horizon to technology companies. We typically seek businesses that are digitally enabled, either through internally developed intellectual property or through digital capabilities as key enabler for accessing the marketplace. This focus is central to our investment approach.
Founder Series
Dive deeper into the founders behind Elkstone's Venture Fund I and Elkstone Venture Club portfolio companies.
Portfolio Spotlight
LetsGetChecked
Peter Foley
Founder of LetsGetChecked
Elkstone’s backing empowered LetsGetChecked to scale rapidly, revolutionizing at-home healthcare with global expansion, strategic partnerships, and significant funding milestones.
Portfolio Spotlight
Protex AI
Dan Hobbs & Ciarán O'Mara
Co-founders of Protex AI
Revolutionising Safety Today. Empowering a proactive and preventative safety culture, protecting the industrial workforce, reducing risks, accidents and fatalities.
Portfolio Spotlight
Manna
Bobby Healy
Founder of Manna
Manna Air Delivery is on course to becoming the dominant deep tech company in drone delivery, investing ambitiously in the future.
Portfolio Spotlight
Zerve
Phily Hayes & Jason Hillary
Founders of Zerve
Zerve is on a mission to elevate the impact of data science & AI on the world.
Portfolio Spotlight
Mesh
Brian Byrne, Ralph Casey
& Daimhim Kavanagh
Founders of Mesh
Mesh is an email security and threat management platform built for managed service providers.
Portfolio Spotlight
Flipdish
Conor McCarthy & James McCarthy
Founder of Flipdish
Elkstone’s support helped Flipdish accelerate its growth, expand internationally, and become a leading global provider of digital ordering solutions, culminating in a landmark investment and billion-dollar valuation.
Portfolio Spotlight
SoapBox Labs
Dr. Patricia Scanlon
Founder of SoapBox Labs
As an early investor we enabled SoapBox Labs to scale its world-leading voice AI technology, securing global partnerships and a successful acquisition by a major industry player.
Our Venture Team
Niall McEvoy
Head of Venture
Sarah Bogossian
Venture Partner
Barry Brennan
Venture Partner
Caolfhionn McCarthy
Venture Platform Associate
Dara O'Shea
Senior Venture Investment Associate
Ruth Skehan
Venture Operations
Cillian Sugrue
Venture Associate
Jeremy Debono
Senior Venture Investment Associate
Niall McEvoy
Head of Venture
Sarah Bogossian
Venture Partner
Barry Brennan
Venture Partner
Caolfhionn McCarthy
Venture Platform Associate
Dara O'Shea
Senior Venture Investment Associate
Ruth Skehan
Venture Operations
Cillian Sugrue
Venture Associate
Jeremy Debono
Senior Venture Investment Associate
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