The Synergy Centre, http://www.synergycentre.ie/index.php, holds a monthly series of thought-sparking breakfasts at IIT (Institute of Technology Tallaght).  Its May topic was looking at raising finance from an investee and investor perspective. There were 2 speakers, see profiles below.

Zamano, http://www.zamano.com/,  is already established as a successful Irish software provider – turnover already in the region of €40m in less than 10 years.  Zamano is an excellent model for any start-up IT entrepreneur or the more mature company looking to achieve the next level of expansion and growth.

4th Level Ventures, http://www.4thlevelventures.ie/aboutus.html,  is a specialist Venture Capital fund focused on commercializing technology from research through 3rd level institutions.  The presentation below is Drew O’ Sullivan’s, Investment Manager at 4th Level.  The criteria to acquire funding from 4th Level is vigorous and extraordinarily demanding.  That’s not to say that start-ups with less ambitious plans or market opportunity will not be successful.  The presentation only reflects the criteria for 4th Level Ventures funding.  They have had quite a few successes already.

Investor Perspective: Drew O’Sullivan, Investment Mgr, 4th Level Ventures
Drew is a former Manager of the Genesis Enterprise Platform Programme in Cork and has worked in Nova UCD as Project Manager. Drew joined 4th Level Ventures in 2007 Where he works with technology based businesses with high potential for growth on finance and fundraising, new product introduction and IP protection, business models, team development and export market entry.

Investee Perspective: Colm Saunders, Finance Director, zamano
Colm qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, and then worked in Corporate Finance for Charterhouse in London and NCB in Dublin. While at NCB Colm raised over €75m in funding for high growth companies. Colm became General Manager for Spectel Inc. based in Boston, which grew quickly to become the audio conferencing market leader, and was then sold to Avaya Inc for $100m. Colm led the integration of Spectel into Avaya, and became Director of Strategy and Operations before joining the Board of zamano plc in October 2007 as CFO. While at zamano, Colm has put in place €15M in debt funding, completed two acquisitions and the Company’s EBITDA has grown by 100%.