Hoxton

Ventures, a European micro-cap venture capital fund, has launched a new €6 million early-stage venture capital fund for Irish firms, in partnership with

Enterprise Ireland

.

Hoxton Ventures, which has $40 million (€32.5 million) in total venture capital funding, was founded by Hussein Kanji, who formerly worked with Accel and Microsoft, and Rob Kniaz, formerly of Fidelity Ventures and Google.

Irish serial technology entrepreneur Dylan Collins and Vijay Pandurangan, a former senior engineer at Google who sold his start-up, Mitro, to Twitter, are also both venture partners with the London-based firm.

"Ireland has become a leading place for large technology companies entering the European market, and we think it has the seeds of innovation to build exceptional companies," Mr Kniaz said. "We want to find companies that can scale and potentially become $1 billion companies."

Mr Collins, who runs SuperAwesome, a children’s advertising network, said the fund was focused on technology start-ups in areas such as cloud computing, online ad technology, digital media and gaming.

Julie Sinnamon, chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, said: "Enterprise Ireland is delighted to commit €2.5 million to the first closing of Hoxton's Irish Sub Fund. The Hoxton team clearly have a deep understanding of what is required to accelerate web companies to market. "

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said: "This fund increases the availability of funding for ambitious businesses that can achieve the export growth levels and create the jobs the country needs."