THE COLLAPSE in property values is making it easier to sell technology investments to wealthy individuals, according to the head of a new cross-Border body set up to encourage angel investing.

Angel investors are individuals who support early-stage companies not yet ready to source venture capital funding. They are common in Silicon Valley but still relatively rare in Ireland.

Diane Roberts, a former Enterprise Ireland executive who is heading up the new Halo Business Angel Network, says “technology investing looks an awful lot less risky now than a few years ago”.

Halo, a joint initiative of InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland, will act as an umbrella group for local business angel networks.

Angel networks have been established by the Business Innovation Centres in Dublin, Cork, the southeast, the west and at the Northern Ireland Science Park.

Roberts, who worked for Enterprise Ireland on the US west coast, says angel investing is part of the culture of Silicon Valley, while Ireland’s “is traditionally a grant-based culture”.

Since Halo was established earlier this year, Roberts has been meeting technology entrepreneurs who have successfully sold previous ventures and so have cash to invest in promising new ones.

“We are not competing head to head with property, which will come back in time, but we are saying to people, why not have a mixed portfolio of investments,” she adds.

An angel investor typically becomes an adviser or board member of their investments. Roberts says Halo hopes to announce a number of successful investments for member companies before the end of the year.

Halo is focusing on investments of more than €250,000.