U2 band members spend money on Irish tech fund hoping to lift $112 million

David Howell Evans, often called the “the Edge” and Adam Clayton, from the rock band U2, are backing a brand new expertise fund in Eire, which is aiming to lift 100 million euros ($112 million). 

A spokesman for Dublin-based VentureWave Capital, the funding agency behind the fund, confirmed lead guitarist “the Edge” and bassist Clayton had been each buyers.

The fund, “Affect Eire,” acquired between roughly 20 million euros and 30 million euros within the first spherical of fundraising, which launched in September 2019 and closed in Could 2020. The second spherical of fundraising is now underway. 

It is going to spend money on corporations from Eire producing world “expertise for good.” Extra particularly, it’ll goal cloud-based expertise corporations in sectors comparable to training, healthcare, meals and agriculture in addition to vitality and the surroundings. 

Affect Eire will spend money on as much as 15 “high-growth potential and scaling Irish corporations,” placing between 1 million euros and 25 million euros into every of these companies. 

The fund shall be a mix of personal fairness and enterprise capital investments. 

In accordance with Pitchbook, whereas each are subsets of the non-public market, enterprise capital tends to spend money on startups and different younger tech-focused corporations through a minority stake. 

In the meantime, non-public fairness typically funds extra mature corporations in conventional industries, usually to take a majority stake in these companies. 

VentureWave Capital mentioned the fund is the primary Irish signatory of the World Financial institution’s Worldwide Finance Company’s “Working Ideas for Affect Measurement,” which gauges the social good thing about the investments. 

Affect Eire can even spend money on “profit-driven” corporations advancing the United Nation’s Sustainable Growth Objectives. 

Former Irish chief Enda Kenny is chair of the fund’s world advisory council.