Image: © MDMASUD/Stock.adobe.com
Despite years of uncertainty, Irish start-ups remain resilient, with a staggering €651m in funding in the first two months of 2025. Now, according to Mark O’Toole, its time the Government stepped up their game.
Despite challenges, the level of funding raised by Irish tech start-ups showcases the resilience and self-sufficiency that used to be celebrated hallmarks of entrepreneurs.
According to data from TechIreland, the country’s leading hub for tech industry insights, Irish start-ups have already raised €651m in the first two months of 2025. That figure already far surpasses the total first-quarter funding rounds tracked in 2024 (€167m) and 2023 (€202m).
The latest buzzword, ‘broligarchy,’ may have seeped into the public lexicon, but the trite hustle culture once glorified by the start-up industry in the last decade already feels outdated. In contrast, Irish entrepreneurs have taken the best lessons from that era – embracing greater ambition and a sharper international focus – while leaving behind its more self-congratulatory and toxic excesses.
They’re lean, hyper-focused on mission and creating meaningful products while monastically eschewing distractions to company growth. Namely, they are more ambitious and internationally focussed than ever before – market leaders in a variety of complex fields.
From AI-powered pathology and cybersecurity automation to sustainable marine robotics and next-gen healthcare solutions, Irish start-ups are making a tangible global impact. Among some of the recent funding rounds, LetsGetChecked is revolutionising at-home diagnostics, Deciphex is tackling pathology backlogs with AI, and Xocean is mapping the world’s oceans with zero-emission autonomous vessels.
Meanwhile, Protex AI is redefining workplace safety through vision analytics, Tines is automating cybersecurity at scale through AI, and Coroflo is bringing data-driven insights to breastfeeding. Mobility Mojo, a Dublin-based accessibility assessment platform, is making travel and hospitality more inclusive, while Jentic, an AI middleware start-up, is optimising enterprise AI integration across industries.
Globally, Ireland was an outlier in the recent spate of elections where some commentators celebrated the “centre holding”. But as much as a swing to populism in the US might give way to radical recklessness in policy, the new Irish Government shouldn’t see their success give way to stagnation and complacency.
A lack of urgency
Despite this year’s strong start, frustration among tech leaders is mounting over the state’s lack of urgency in addressing structural issues needed to build a thriving indigenous economy that can compete with Ireland’s dominant FDI sector.
The Department of Finance’s first Economic Insights report of the year reinforced these concerns, warning that the “highly concentrated nature” of FDI leaves Ireland “exposed to sector and/or firm-specific shocks,” while also highlighting that “Irish SMEs continue to lag behind international peers despite robust macroeconomic growth and elevated savings”.
This is further reflected in Ireland’s mid-table mediocrity ranking in Index Ventures’ latest ‘Not Optional’ report last October, which highlights the need for better stock option rules and employee ownership policies to attract top talent and support scaling start-ups globally.
A month later Atomico’s State of European Tech report observed that “despite a robust local start-up ecosystem, pension funds in the UK and Ireland allocate just 0.007pc of [assets under management] to VC. It appears that pension fund allocation to venture is close to a rounding error.
This isn’t solely an Irish problem. In Mario Draghi’s striking and vaunted report on European competitiveness last year, he warned that that without action, Europe faces the ‘slow agony’ of stagnation and decline
Now is the time for action in Europe and Ireland. EU Commissioner Michael McGrath’s engagement has already earned praise from European advocacy groups for his leadership in tackling regulatory fragmentation, including the 28th Regime, a pan-European framework to simplify cross-border business.
At home, that same leadership, urgency, and ambition must be reflected by policymakers to support Ireland’s thriving start-up ecosystem – one that has demonstrated resilience and dynamism through the uncertainty of the pandemic and the subsequent tech downturn.
Former Minister for Enterprise Mary Harney famously quipped that Ireland was a lot closer to Boston than to Berlin, but Ireland, traditionally one of the most pro-enterprise Eurozone countries, doesn’t necessarily need to mimic US president Donald Trump’s ‘winner takes all’ approach to tech when inspiration for a more focused vision that could yield significant results for us can be found in our closest EU neighbours.
Since taking office, French president Emmanuel Macron has transformed France’s start-up and tech ecosystem through a combination of investment, policy reform and infrastructure development. His administration launched the France 2030 plan, committing significant investment to deep tech, AI and green energy, while also reforming taxation to attract venture capital and private investment.
The creation of Station F, Europe’s largest start-up hub, has helped cultivate homegrown innovation, while strategic AI funding and relaxed regulatory barriers have made France a global leader in AI. This environment has enabled the rise of Mistral AI, now possibly Europe’s most significant start-up, and solidified France as a player in the global tech race.
A good place to start would be by engaging directly with local entrepreneurs – those who have already built, scaled and navigated the challenges of growing a business internationally. They are, by nature, deeply committed to the country’s success and simply want to see the state match their own competitiveness.
Indigenous tech advocacy group Scale Ireland has done trojan work in pushing start-up issues onto the legislative agenda, while Patrick Walsh, founder of Dogpatch Labs, has long been at the heart of Ireland’s start-up ecosystem.
Some of Ireland’s most promising early-stage companies that have garnered international attention have their roots in Dogpatch, underscoring its role as a key launchpad for innovation.
These include accessibility platform Devally, salon software start-up Barespace, AI-powered platform for drug discovery Meta-Flux, user-generated gaming company Jamango and many more.
For these companies to scale faster and for Ireland to build a more resilient, self-sufficient economy in uncertain times, policymakers should start by listening, because some of the solutions to our biggest economic challenges might already be in the room.
By Mark O’Toole
Mark O’Toole is a tech communications consultant with 15 years’ experience having previously worked as the former head of Europe at 150Bond, chief strategy officer Beachhut PR and head of press at Web Summit.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
