Guidelines

Checklist of Information Needed by EI for Application

To formally apply for iHPSU funding please send all the items listed in the table below by email to . Please consult with your Development Advisor before formally submitting.
(For all documents, softcopy versions are preferred.)

Item / Detail
Audited Accounts (If applicable) / The latest signed audited accounts including notes.
Latest Management Accounts / Most recent P&L and Balance Sheet
Capitalisation Table / The current fully diluted share capital table for the company
Group structure (If applicable) / A diagram outlining the companies in the group, showing the shareholding of each company, and the relationship between them. For group companies, consolidated accounts will be required.
Full financial projections / This should include 3 years P&L, Balance Sheet and CashFlow projections. All figures should correspond with the most recent management accounts. Please include a detailed sales pipeline.
Projected Cash Flows / Monthly detailed cash flows covering the next 24 months
iHPSU application form / This document—including the declaration on the next page
Financial Data Sheet / This is an Excel document that shows your financial projections in EI’s format (this is for consistency and to allow for the calculation of value for money measures using an embedded economic model).
Organisation Chart / A diagram showing the roles and key management of the company now and again in 24 months
Team Bios/CVs / Please provide Promoter/Key employee CVs

EnterpriseIreland will not release any information received as part of this application without the consent of the applicant, except as may be required by law, including the Freedom of Information Acts, and as set out below.

Any personal information which you provide to EnterpriseIreland will be obtained and processed in compliance with the Data Protection Acts.

The information in this application form will be used by EnterpriseIreland in the processing of your application and for ongoing administrative purposes between you and EnterpriseIreland. EnterpriseIreland reserves the right to share the information outlined in this application with consultants engaged for the purpose of assisting EnterpriseIreland in its assessment and processing of the application. All such consultants are subject to obligations of strict confidentiality.

Checklist of Information Needed by EI for Due Diligence

The documents below will be required prior to the proposal going to the committee. Please consult with your Development Advisor before formally submitting. (For all documents, softcopy versions are preferred.)Enterprise-Ireland may seek additional information depending onissues that are specific to an individual company application.

Team Bios/CVs / Please provide Promoter/Key employee CVs
Employment / Payroll Schedule (section 9
of this application form) / Schedule of existing employees and projected employees. This should include job category, salary level and timing for recruitment for the next 24 months
Investor details / Copy of the term sheet from the proposed investors, and short profile of the investor or hyperlink to their website
Customer interviews / In due course, the DA will require contact details for customer interviews and/or details of experts in the industry.

Please note that as part of the technical due diligence process, you will be asked for more detailed project planning information on the key tasks, the resources required to implement the plan, the project organisation and project development & management processes.You may also be asked for a short (one paragraph) CV of the key R&D personnel.

  1. Company Details

Registered Company Name:
Company Registration No:
Date of Incorporation
Date of hiring first employee (only required
if the company has been incorporated for
more than five years).
Business Address:
Website:
Telephone No:
Contact Name:
Contact Title:
Contact Email:
EI Development Advisor:
Principal Business of the Applicant :

Company History

Give a brief outline of the company's history. Highlight key milestones achieved, such as paying customersor technical milestones reached. (5 lines max.)

  1. Founders / Management Team
  2. Key members

Give details on the key member of the founding team. Highlight skills and experiences directly relevant to this market opportunity. Also detail if any members of the founding team have been involved in start-ups before. Finally please paste Hyperlinks to the Linkedin (or equivalent) profiles of key team members.

2.2Recruitment

What areas of skill and experience will you need to add to the team to really take advantage of this opportunity? Who will be your first key hire after the funding around? If you require specialised staff, outline challenges in finding them. How will you meet these challenges?

2.3Advisors/Mentors

Provide details on any Advisors/Directors/Mentors currently working with the team, particularly those with experience developing start-ups, or contacts that will be useful when approaching prospective customers.

  1. The Opportunity
  2. Customer Problem

What are the customer problems your solution addresses? How are the customers currently addressing these problems? Please give examples of customers that have encountered these problems (10 lines max, ideally including links to relevant content).

3.2Company Solution

Outline the key features of your product/service as they relate to customer problems—please avoid using technical termswhere possible. (Max 5 lines—please include all product images and diagrams as an appendix to the application.)

3.3Market Validation

Do you have a finished, customer-ready offer? If so, have any potential customers tested or paid for it? If the company is pre-sales, please, briefly outline how you have validated the market opportunity. (10 lines max.)

3.4Compliance Requirement

Is your product/service subject to quality, regulatory or environmental compliance standards? If so, please provide details.

  1. The Market
  2. Market Overview

What size is the overall target market for your solution? How big is the segment of the market that you can reasonably expect to reach and support? How fast is the market growing? (10 lines max—if you have estimated or extrapolated the market please explain your methodology).

4.2Factors Driving Change

Outline your understanding of the key issues driving change in the market? Why can a start-up succeed in this market? Why now? (10 lines max—provide links to market research that supports your conclusions.)

4.3International Markets

How do you plan to sell to and support international customers?Are you already in contact with international customers? If so, who? Please list key geographic markets that you plan to target first.

4.4Competition

Who are your key competitors (list with hyperlinks)? Outline the findings of your Competitor analysis, who is your most significant competitor, what are their strengths? Who could become a key competitor? Will the basis and intensity of competition in your industry change over time? (Min 10 Lines)

4.5Competitive Advantage

Why is your offer better? Why is it difficult for someone to duplicate? How do you plan to compete in this market? (Price, Product features, Operational excellence, Customer Intimacy etc...). How sustainable is your competitive advantage or is it a temporary head start? (Min 10 Lines)

  1. Route to Market
  2. Route to Market

Outline your route to market? Will you have any channel partners/distributors? If you have secured distribution channels, please provide details and describe the various margins that will be paid and to whom? (10 lines max.)

5.2Marketing Strategy

How do you plan to raise awareness about your solution with customers? Outline key marketing activities—include incurred/projected expenditure for core marketing initiatives (where applicable).

5.3Revenue Model

What sort of revenue model do you plan to use? How will you make money?

5.4Online Traction

For high volume Internet/SaaS business models, describe your achieved website traffic and user growth rates for the past three months, with a particular focus on paying users

5.5Sales Pipeline

Note: Enterprise-Ireland will seek additional sales pipeline information as part of its due diligence and will also request an introduction to key potential/actual customers.

Customer / Customer
(name, role) / Stage of negotiation* / When do you expect initial revenues? / Potential
Value (€’000)**

*For example—prospect, quote, shortlisted, contracted etc.
**If revenues are recurring please indicate the relevant time period e.g. annum, per month, lifetime value etc.

5.6Operations

Briefly and clearly describe your production/development process. Distinguish between activities the company conducts itself and work likely to be outsourced. If you require specialised staff, outline challenges in finding them. How will you meet these challenges?

5.7Research and Development

Describe the 3 key technical milestones that you plan to achieve, and indicate when you expect to achieve them what you see as the key risk associated with achieving them.

Milestone / Details / Key Risk / Target Date

5.8Commercial Milestones

Describe the 3 key Commercial milestones (Customers, Funding etc…) that you plan to achieve, and indicate when you expect to achieve them what you see as the key risk associated with achieving them.

Milestone / Details / Key Risk / Target Date

5.9Intellectual Property (IP) — Patents, Domain names, etc.

Describe any IP that contributes to the company’s unique selling point / competitive advantage. Detail how the company has access to this IP (i.e. the company owns the IP, the company licences the IP etc,).

Note: Any promoter owned IP must be assigned to the company prior to Enterprise-Ireland investment.

  1. Risk Factors
  2. Key Challenges

Highlight the key Risks the business is likely to encounter in the next 12 months and outline your strategies to mitigate their impact—focus on risks that would have the most significant impact on the company and/or have the highest probability of occurring.

Examples of key risks could include:

  • Product Risk – Will the product perform as projected?
  • Market Risk – Will market value product as projected? What if sales take longer to achieve?
  • What if competitors respond aggressively to your market entry?
  • What if changes to the market environment such as legislation or social trends, impact negatively on the opportunity?
  • If the opportunity is as large as anticipated, can the current organisation/ team scale to meet demand?

Key Risk / Detail / How will you try to mitigate it?
  1. Finance
  2. Current Company Ownership

Name / Source of investment* / Amount invested (€) / Date of investment / Type of
Shareholding / Percent
Ownership

*e.g. founder, private angel investor, VC, etc.

Note: A full (and fully diluted) Cap table will be required before a submission can be made to the EI Committee; any group structure will also need to be detailed (see checklist on the opening page for details

7.2Existing Debt Funding

Apart from the proposed equity investment (detailed in section 7.8), please outline any other sources of existing debt finance e.g. bank loans, overdrafts, shareholders/director loans, leases, invoice discounting etc.

Provider / Original Facility Amount / Term / Security

7.3New Equity/Debt Funding

Please provide detail on the current status of discussions around any proposed new equity investment (amounts in €’000). If any of the proposed funding has already been drawn down please clearly indicate below.

Investor/Lender Name / Key Contact / When do you expect a decision? / Actual/ Potential Investment / Amount drawn down / Amount spent to date

If any of these discussions have progressed to terms sheet stage below please outline the key terms and include the round valuation if agreed. Copies of agreed and signed terms sheets will be required as part of EI’s Due Diligence process.

7.4Amount of aid sought from EI

Please provide detail on the requested amount of aid sought (amounts in €’000).

Form of aid(Equity or Grant) / Amount (€’000) / Total cost of business plan / Percentage support (Amount of aid / cost of business plan)

EU regulation stipulates that this section (7.4) must be completed in full. EI will return applications that are incomplete. Please consult with your Development Advisor if you require assistance in completing.

7.5Funding Strategy

What are your funding plans? Which key milestones are linked to your funding plan e.g. technical milestones, regulatory compliance, customer traction, reaching breakeven etc...What sorts of contingencies are included in your funding plans?

7.6Subsequent Funding Rounds

Will the business need further equity after this round to get to profit? If so, provide details. If not, please forecast when, and at what level of sales (unit/volume), breakeven occurs?

7.7Finance Officer / Function

Who is primarily responsible for the financial function in the company? What experience with start-ups do they have? How frequently are Management Accounts prepared?

7.8Directors’ Remuneration

Provide details of all remuneration currently paid to Directors/Shareholders (salary, pension, bonuses, rent, royalty payments, patent income, dividends, shares, loan repayments etc.)? Are there plans to change these payments following this funding round?

7.9Share Redemptions

Are there any planned share redemptions or loan repayments following this funding round? If applicable, detail any BES/EIIS funding redemption amounts and dates.

  1. Supporting Documentation
  2. Outline to the EI Investment Committee the reasons why Enterprise-Ireland should support your application

If successful, what sort of company will this be in five years? How many people will it employ? What types of activities will be conducted in Ireland?Specifically please address how this support will provide an incentive to one of the following – increase in size of project; increase in scope of project; increase in spend on project; increase in speed of completion of project

8.2What would be the impact of not receiving financial support from Enterprise-Ireland?

  1. Supporting Documentation
  2. Employment Forecasts

In the table below, detail the number of new employees that will behired over the next three years if this business is a success and provide information on the positions to be created—insertmore rows if required. Both the number of staff and their total salaries should correlate to the cashflow and Financial Data Sheet (if applicable) being submitted as part of this application.

Irish staff by role / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 / Salary (€’000) / Basic Salary* / Total Salaries**
Total / Total
International staff / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 / Salary (€’000) / Basic Salary* / Total Salaries**
Total / Total

* Basic salary is average gross basic salary excluding Employer’s PRSI, bonuses and overtime

**is the basic salary x total number of recruits.

9.2Financial Projections

Complete the table below if your application does not require an EI Financial Data Sheet, please consult with your Development Advisor to confirm this. The figures in the table should correlate to your existing accounts and the cashflows being submitted as part of this application.

Items/Period / Base Year-2 / Base Year-1 / Base Year* / Current Year / Base Year+2 / Base Year+3
Financial year
end date
Sales
(€000s)
Exports
(€000s)
Gross Profit
(€000s)
R&D Spend
(€000s)
Net Profit
(€000s)
S’holder Funds (€000s)
Closing cash at Bank (€000s)
Total Employment
(# FTEs)
Employment Irish based (as above)
Employment R&D Irish Based

Base year is the last complete financial year unless 10 months have passed in the current year, in which case base year is the current year

9.3Declaration by the Authorised Officer

An Authorised Officer of the Company or the Promoter should complete the declaration.

To be considered as an Innovative HPSU under current legislation, Companies must be a Small Enterprise (A), be in business for less than five years (B) and satisfy one of the three conditions belowC, D or E.

If conditions C, D or E are not met but the company still meets the “Small Enterprise” condition, and has been incorporated less than 5 years then they will be a considered as a Non-Innovative HPSU

I confirm that: (Place ‘X’ in appropriate box)
Yes / No
A) The Company is a Small Enterprise (as per EU definition)
B) The date of incorporation is less than 5 years from the date of application
C) The company intends to develop products, services or processes that are technologically new or substantially improved compared to the state of the art in its industry in the EU, which carry a risk of technological or industrial failure.
D) The company’s R&D expenses 10% of the total operating costs in at least one of the three years preceding this application.
E) The company’s R&D expenses will exceed 10%of total operating expenses in the current financial year (for start-ups with no financial history).
Tax clearance:
Does the company hold a valid tax clearance certificate or tax clearance access number?
If yes, until what date is it valid. Company must be tax compliant on date of investment
BES/EIS/Seed Capital relief declaration:
Has the company received a BES/EIS investment in the last 3 years?
Has the company/founder received Seed Capital Relief in the last 3 years?
Type / Source / Amount / Date
De Minimis Aid Declaration:
Place ‘X’ in appropriate box / Yes / No
Has the company received De Minimis Aid in the last three years
Note: a false declaration by a company/group in regard to the threshold of €200,000 being exceeded could later result in the aid being recovered with interest. For more details please see here.
If yes, please detail the De Minimis Aid received in the last three years:
Type / Amount / Date
Declaration on double funding / Yes / No
I confirm that the company has not sought and will not seek aid from any other state agency in respect of this expenditure.
Declaration on EU directive
The Company represents and warrants that it is not directly or indirectly, by way of funding or shareholding, covered by Articles 1 and 2 of the European Council decision, (2014/145/CFSP) of 17 March 2014, and subsequent Regulations (960/2014, 1290/2014 and 833/2014) concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. See for further information.
Authorised company/promoter signature
I confirm that I have discussed this application with my Enterprise-Ireland Development Advisor and that all information and declarations are true and accurate. (Applications that have not been discussed with an Enterprise-Ireland Development Adviser may not be processed.) Below please enter the name of the person submitting this application on behalf of the company. This person should be a promoter or the company’s Authorised Officer and must be an employee of the company.
Name of Company’s Authorised Officer/Promoter:
Position in the Company:
Date Completed:

Note: All questions must be answered, declaration signed and dated otherwise the application will be deemed incomplete.