cleanroom and containment solutions firm ClearSphere<\/a>, which provides solutions across the pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare, and industrial sectors.<\/p>\nBGF\u2019s \u20ac6m investment will enable the company to accelerate its growth strategy into markets in Northern Ireland and Britain.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearSphere is well placed to capture increasing demand across its core markets. Our investment reflects our confidence in its ability to continue this momentum and expand its delivery of best-in-class solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cork digital transformation firm Granite Digital also secured a $10m (\u20ac8.6m) investment from BGF to fund its international expansion, with a particular focus on the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cGranite is a prime example of the kind of high-performing, founder-led business BGF looks to support,\u201d said Higgins. \u201cFrom its roots in Cork, the company has built a strong reputation for delivering digital excellence across Ireland and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
While 2025 was a landmark year for the firm, he sees further deals in 2026: \u201cBased on the pipeline, we would be positive in our outlook for the rest of this year. Our approach goes beyond funding, it is about long-term partnership, strategic support, and giving founders the confidence to scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to BGF, Higgins spent several years in leveraged finance, corporate banking and restructuring at AIB, before working at MML Capital Partners and, more recently, as an investment director at BMS Finance, providing direct lending to Irish SMEs.<\/p>\n
Looking to the future, he sees the continued growth of Cork and its hinterland as fertile territory for BGF investment across a variety of sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a really solid base of indigenous well-established businesses across technology, healthcare and business services, and a lot of that driven by FDI, in terms of servicing those companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of those companies have grown steadily over the years, and are now looking to scale internationally \u2014 which is where we can help them. We have our UK network, but also a franchise further afield in the US, Australia and Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of companies come to us to take the next step off the island of Ireland, which is a journey we can absolutely help them with.\u201d<\/p>\n
BGF takes an equity stake of typically 10% to 40%, with founders retaining control and ownership of their company.<\/p>\n
Investing without fixed exit deadlines, BGF offers a more flexible timeline than traditional private equity, allowing companies to focus on long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n
Investments include a mix of equity and loan notes tailored to the specific needs of the business, with the capacity to provide additional capital to support further growth, acquisitions, or new opportunities after the initial investment.<\/p>\n
In terms of what industries might be more attractive than others, he says it is more a case of being \u2018sector agnostic\u2019 for BGF: \u201cThat is very much what I like about my job \u2014 each day can be focused on a different company in a different industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look right across the spectrum, and are open to all sectors. That\u2019s down to the scale of our wider portfolio and the number of sectors where we have developed deep pockets of specialism in and hence an ability to add real value \u2014 that\u2019s a huge differentiator for BGF \u2014 we are multi-sector specialists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, the criteria we look for are ambitious SMEs that are looking to grow and scale \u2014 but also with our model looking to retain control. If you\u2019re thinking about BGF, you are maybe thinking of taking some cash off the table now, take a partner on to support \u2014 but ultimately you\u2019re playing to a bigger day out anywhere from three to six years down the line. That is the kind of entrepreneur that we want to back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Background: BGF is a major capital investor supporting the growth of Irish SMEs through long-term, minority equity investment.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,4257,61,60],"class_list":["post-456876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}