The US-based Irish Technology Leadership group announced today  the launch of a venture fund of $100m and is also setting up an Irish tech centre next year in Silicon Valley in California.

In September, the group signed a cooperation agreement with UCD and Trinity College in Dublin and is now participating with two universities in the North to help emerging companies in the IT sector.

The group says the fund will provide a beachhead for those start-ups and enable them to develop and showcase their potential at the heart of the high tech sector.

This morning 12 high-potential technology companies from both sides of the border have been attending workshops in Belfast, where they met the chief executives from the US companies involved in the group.

Established in October 2007, the ITLG is an independent organization comprised of a number of high-level technology leaders in Silicon Valley who are Irish or Irish-American. The Group includes senior executives from some of the Valley’s leading corporations, each of whom are committed to helping Ireland address the challenges of embracing new technology opportunities.

The twelve companies represented at the workshops are:

decaWave (Dublin) is a a fabless semiconductor company which produces a family of standards-compliant, low cost, low power wireless transceivers based on ultrawideband techniques that support highly accurate ranging and high speed communications.

B-Secur (Belfast) is pioneering a wrist-worn tracking device that uses an individual’s unique biometric signals and GPS technology to make it possible to identify not only where a person is but also who the person is.

NTERA (Blackrock, Co. Dublin & Philadelphia, USA) is a developer and supplier of advanced printable electrochromic nanomaterials and systems, enabling low power display and color change features on flexible substrates.

MUZU.TV (Dublin) is an online music video destination site and distribution platform, with the largest legal music video catalogue in the UK and Ireland that is generating a new source of income for the music industry through its global advertising network.

Vertical Wind Energy (Belfast) has developed a vertical axis wind turbine rated at 3kW which is currently being sold into the UK and Irish markets both to commercial customers and consumers.

Dial2Do (Dublin) lets phone users get things done while driving. Drivers can send emails, text messages, reminders and more, hands-free by just dialing a number and speaking.

Locle (Blackrock, Dublin) has developed a range of mobile and web applications that let people find their friends on a map using their mobile phone. The service is integrated with a number of social networks and lets users receive notifications about people and places that are within proximity.

Redmere (Balbriggan, Co. Dublin) is developing chip and cable technologies that enable a new product class of compact active cables for consumer, computing and enterprise applications.

SiSaf (Belfast) is a drug delivery company committed to growth through application of its innovative proprietary technology, Si-SafeT, to a wide range of dermatological products.

Kinometrics (Co. Wicklow) has developed SureWash to reduce the spread of infections, such as MRSA, in hospitals using patented camera technology. SureWash allows healthcare workers to check the quality of their hand wash and records their compliance against the WHO hand hygiene standards.

Sentry Wireless (Dublin) is developing a firewall for SIM cards that can be applied to SMS spam control, child safety, corporate expenditure control and controlling and classifying mobile payments by NFC- (near field communication) enabled credit/debit cards.

Kainos (Belfast) is the largest indigenous high-tech company in Northern Ireland that is developing a near shore ICT campaign to attract innovative FDI business.

The Belfast event delegation included the following representatives from the US:

• Conrad Burke- President & CEO, Innovalight
• Sean Cunningham- Director of Strategic Investments, Intel Capital
• Steve Eichenlaub- Managing Director, Intel Capital
• Johnny Gilmore- CEO, Sling Media, Inc. (USA)
• Carl Guardino - President, Silicon Valley Leadership
• John Hartnett- CEO, G24 Innovations
• David Kirk- Former Senior Vice President, AOL, Cisco, & Entrepreneur
• Tom McEnery- Former Mayor San Jose
• Rory McInerney- Vice President, Intel
• Richard Moran - Partner, Venrock (Rockefeller Family Fund)
• Barry O’Sullivan- SVP & GM, Cisco
• Robert Simon- Managing Director, Saints Capital Dakota
• Brendan Richardson- Irish Technology Capital