SIMPLE.IE IS confident of raising as much as €2 million in its latest Green BES (Business Expansion Scheme) Fund, according to managing director Elliot Griffin.

This is the fourth time the company has offered such a fund and he said he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of investors already showing an interest despite the economic conditions.

Mr Griffin said they had waited until after the Budget before approaching previous investors and many they had spoken to were keen to get involved again.

“We’ve been so apprehensive with the general market out there that we only recently started calling our investors,” he said. “Quite a few of them are quite keen to go back in and have been very supportive, which is great.”

Applications for the fund opened earlier this week and will close on December 31st, 2010. Mr Griffin said this tight schedule worked best for the company as it gave them funds which could be used over the course of the following year.

Companies that received investment from previous funds spoke at the launch of this latest round, including Dublin-based company EFT, which develops software to help monitor energy usage.

“We’ve helped fund EFT’s expansion into the UK and US and it’s good to be able to see that happening and see them moving up,” said Mr Griffin.

Other companies that have also had investment from the scheme include Cool Power Products, which makes domestic wind turbines and solar panels more efficient.

At the launch Mr Griffin said the previous funds had generated returns averaging 25 per centand added that in 2010 they had seen about 50 projects and were to invest in about five. He expected the number of projects they see would increase in 2011 due to the changes made to the BES initiative during the Budget.

“What it will mean is that there are more companies coming to the table and greater demand for the money,” he said. “A company can continually raise BES money long after it’s into its growth phase and quite a mature business could now raise money up to €10 million. It will broaden the thing out and give investors a lot more choice.”

While the Simple.ie fund is environmentally orientated Griffin argued that the investors behind it were far from “tree huggers” and were motivated purely by the business rationale. The fact that the company has specialised in this way did help its reputation, however, as it has become so familiar with the sector in recent years.

“Like any industry, green tech has its own peculiarities and we have built up a familiarity with the language of the sector,” he said.