Enterprise Ireland’s supports to help start-ups weather Covid-19

From the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was clear that restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus would result in significant disruption to business.

As businesses were forced to shutter to protect the public, we began to gain a better understanding of the consequences that companies could face in the coming months. But for start-ups and SMEs, without years’ worth of cash reserves built up, things looked particularly uncertain.

During the crisis, Enterprise Ireland stepped up to the plate to support these young, innovative businesses with both mentorship and financial assistance. Jenny Melia, manager of high potential start-ups (HPSUs) at Enterprise Ireland explained the supports that the agency has been offering to start-ups and SMEs in recent weeks.

Support from Enterprise Ireland

Melia explained that it is still “early days”, so naturally uncertainty remains, however Enterprise Ireland has seen new opportunities come out of the crisis for some start-ups based in Ireland. In particular, opportunities have arisen in healthcare, life sciences and remote work technology companies.

“Then we have clients who were doing really well, for example, in something like the travel-tech sector for the last couple of years,” Melia said. “We find that life is changing for them now.”

Melia explained that the first priority to assist companies through the crisis was to help businesses stabilise. There are phased supports to help companies stabilise, get its new financial plans in place and understand what’s happening in different sectors and what the potential implications of those changes could be.

The second support is focused on helping start-ups and SMEs to “reset.” Melia said that some companies will need to refocus their innovation agenda, while others will have to change their competitiveness agenda. Enterprise Ireland has also supported businesses as they have made the decisions to pivot into entirely new sectors to improve their chances of survival.

“The really important piece is once companies have stabilised, is to ensure that they’re well-placed to grow when the new opportunities arise,” Melia explained.

“We know there will be opportunities because when we look back at our companies that went through 2009, 2010, and so on, and came through it and have been growing quite strongly since. It’s important that we look at where the opportunities are and make sure the company is really well-positioned to capitalise on them on an international stage.”

How can you access support?

Melia explained that the best starting point is the Enterprise Ireland website, where businesses can check out the agency’s response to Covid-19 and the specific activities and funds that have been introduced to help companies deal with the crisis.

She said that there’s also information on supports for different sized businesses, for instance, start-ups and SMEs and their unique needs, whether that’s related to their innovation agendas or their overseas agenda.

“That will help companies filter what’s relevant to them,” Melia said. “We also have our Enterprise Ireland newsletter that is sent to clients and those who subscribe, regularly. In that we capture a really interesting mix of stories from clients directly, in terms of what they’re seeing and hearing on the ground.”

Melia said that funding information and non-financial assistance is regularly covered in the Enterprise Ireland newsletter, which can be subscribed to here.