Irish entrepreneurs call for scale-up fund to rival Burnham’s £1 billion pension fund project

Irish entrepreneurs and investors are pressing their government to replicate the UK's pension fund deployment model by mobilizing domestic pension capital for scale-up companies. The call comes as the UK moves forward with its own initiative: major British pension providers have joined forces to establish a Scale-up Fund exceeding £1 billion, with the explicit aim of backing next-generation high-growth businesses in science and technology sectors. Andy Burnham, the UK Chancellor, has framed the pension fund scheme as central to a broader "reindustrialization" strategy for Britain, enabling savers' pension assets to be deployed into fast-growing start-ups that require capital to expand operations and commercialize new technologies.

The Irish funding gap is material. Scale Ireland, the advocacy organization for the country's tech ecosystem, has quantified a €1.1 billion scaling funding gap that constrains the growth trajectory of Irish companies. At Scale Ireland's Autumn Gathering, founders and investors collectively called for specific policy interventions: greater participation by Irish pension funds in scale-up investment, capital gains tax reform to incentivize growth investment, and enhanced government procurement policies favoring domestic innovators.

The timing of Ireland's push aligns with Budget 2027 preparations, indicating that entrepreneurs view pension fund reform as achievable within the upcoming fiscal cycle. By positioning the UK's £1 billion initiative as a proven model—rather than aspirational policy—Irish stakeholders are building a concrete case for regulatory and policy change that would unlock domestic capital currently constrained by existing pension investment mandates or risk allocation frameworks.