Up to 1,500 new jobs will be created over the next three years by start-up companies backed by Enterprise Ireland. The announcement was made at an event to announce details of the new start-up businesses to which Enterprise Ireland directly committed investment and supported in 2014. The impact of these new start-ups is felt throughout the country and across a wide range of business sectors including engineering, software and services, medical devices and pharmaceuticals, cleantech, food and consumer products. The 1,500 new jobs will be created by 102 high potential start-up companies. A high potential start-up is defined as a company that is based on technological innovation, likely to achieve significant growth in three years (sales of €1m per annum and employment of 10), export oriented and led by an experienced team. In addition, 81 new early stage businesses were supported under the Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund in 2014, which injects critical early stage funding into new businesses. Overall, 20 engineering and cleantech companies were supported, 11 high performance start-up companies and a further nine benefitted from the Competitive Start Fund. An impressive 43 new female-led start-ups were supported, the highest number ever. Enterprise Ireland expanded its ambitious programme to drive an increase in the number of new businesses being established by female entrepreneurs in 2014.  New initiatives during the year included the development of a dedicated female accelerator programme and the launch of Enterprise Ireland’s first peer-to-peer online networking platform for female-led companies. Speaking at the announcement, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Minister Richard Bruton said the Government are “constantly reviewing the needs of entrepreneurs and businesses and developing new initiatives to assist new start-ups, including extra resources to support companies in overseas markets and a new network of Local Enterprise Offices to support more start-ups”. “The companies supported by Enterprise Ireland under its High Potential Start-Ups programme and Competitive Start Funds are key to our plans. These are the new ambitious promoters that will go on to become part of the growing number of internationally trading Irish companies that each year are increasing Irish exports and creating new Irish jobs – with some ultimately developing into the large employer Irish multinationals of the future,” he concluded.