News

Ryan Academy Propeller Fund ranked 7th in Europe

TDCU Ryan Academy's Propeller Fund has been ranked 7th in Europe in a recent independent study of accelerator programmes. The study was put together by Italy-based venture capitalist Gianluca Dettori and Marco Ciccolini in conjunction with Aziz Gilani from DFJ Mercury. It was commissioned by the Kauffman Fellows Program, working in partnership with Tech Cocktail and the Kellogg School of Management.

Propeller is funded by Irelandia, the investment arm of the Ryan Family and managed by the DCU Ryan Academy, based in Citywest. The programme is mentor-led and offers three months incubation space, a range of free services and €30,000 investment per company in return for a 6.5% equity stake.

The findings showed that three of the top eight funds, NDRC, Propeller and Startupbootcamp, are based in Ireland.

The report was based on a set of scores; incubators could potentially score 25 percentage points if they had qualified financing events (companies that were funded after completing the program), 50 percentage points for successful companies coming out of an accelerator, and 25 points on program characteristics (seed money levels, equity stake for the accelerator, and the size of the alumni base). The rankings were supplemented by interviews with Venture Capital firms, investors and past accelerator participants.

Ann Horan, CEO of the DCU Ryan Academy was delighted with this recognition of its Propeller Fund. "The ranking is an endorsement of the programme itself as well as the excellent work undertaken by our team of expert mentors and programme sponsors. The quality of the companies on our recent programme was confirmed at our Demo Day on 6th May, where investors indicated their intention in investing in at least five of the companies. The application process for our next round of funding will commence in September."

For further information on the Ryan Academy's Propeller Fund, visit our website at www.ryanacademy.ie