First equity deal announced for £70m Investment Fund for Northern Ireland
A data solutions company which hails Northern Ireland as a global centre of excellence when it comes to the talent of engineers has received £750,000 funding from the Investment Fund for Northern Ireland’s equity arm.
The investment round into Belfast headquartered, INQDATA was led by Clarendon Fund Managers, with the company also receiving investment from new investors, Iona Star Capital and Techstart Ventures. In total, the round generated £2.5m for INQDATA.
INQDATA is a fully managed data solutions provider, focused on scalable, high performance data ingest, infrastructure management, storage, preparation and data access for market data across capital markets.
For every dollar spent on financial market data, financial services organisations spend up to eight times more processing, storing and transforming it, before its ready to be used.
INQDATA CEO, Theodore Voegt said the company’s data-made-easy cloud-based solution has the power to be transformative for financial institutions and hedge funds around the world.
He said: “To maintain a competitive edge, it is a strategic imperative for firms to adopt a modern technology stack that fosters business growth. Our high-performance, cost-effective market data-as-a-service solution allows firms to accelerate time-to-value and reduce their total cost of ownership.
“We are proud of our deep Northern Ireland roots and really see Belfast and Newry as global centres of excellence. While our sales teams will be based in London, which is where our clients mostly are, we will certainly have a strong foothold in Northern Ireland.
“This investment marks a tipping point for us, and we feel very privileged to have the backing and support of the Investment Fund for Northern Ireland through Clarendon Fund Managers, Iona Star Capital and Techstart Ventures”.
Clarendon Fund Managers investment director, Brian Cummings said it was pleasing to be able to support a company which has such incredible potential. He said: “INQDATA’s technology is a game-changer for both financial data vendors, as it makes their data sets more easily accessible, while also transforming how financial institutions not only accelerate time-to-insights to find an edge but also reduce data management costs.
“Supporting innovative companies like this is exactly what the Investment Fund for Northern Ireland was created for, and I am delighted to be working with the team at INQDATA and seeing where this exciting journey leads to.”
British Business Bank director, Nations and Regions Investment Funds, Mark Sterritt said: “INQDATA has all the ingredients to be a great success. They have a team of experts who have come together with the aim of solving a real issue for the industry.
“I have no doubt this is just the start of INQDATA’s success story and it really is pleasing that the Investment Fund for Northern Ireland has been able to support them at this important stage in their development.
“I’m excited to see a really strong pipeline of deals starting to come through the fund, both in terms of equity and debt finance and I would encourage other businesses to get in touch with our fund managers to see how they can help your growth.”
The £70m Investment Fund for Northern Ireland offers a range of commercial finance options including debt finance and equity investment to support businesses from all sectors in Northern Ireland and at different growth stages.
Clarendon Fund Managers provides equity stakes in businesses up to £5m while Whiterock manages the debt fund, offering loans of £25,000 up to £2m.
