Image: © (JLco) Julia Amaral /Stock.adobe.com
Until then, operations will continue as usual, the State-backed start-up accelerator said.
The National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) – the country’s national start-up accelerator has announced that it will close operations in November 2025.
Operational since 2006, the NDRC, administered by the Department of the Environment, Climate, and Communications (DECC), is a Government initiative to invest in early-stage digital enterprises and start-ups.
However, the DECC, following consultation with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and Enterprise Ireland, concluded that the “enterprise ecosystem has evolved significantly since NDRC’s inception” and decided not to procure a new service contract for the start-up accelerator.
The final NDRC contract worth €17m was awarded in 2020 to a network of regional innovation hubs that included the Dublin-based Dogpatch Labs, PorterShed in Galway, Republic of Work in Cork and RDI Hub in Kerry.
The network, which holds the contract until 2025, also has backing from UK regional accelerator Ignite, which provides international support and knowledge sharing, as well as Google for Startups, which opened its own global network partner programmes to NDRC participants.
According to the State-back accelerator, it has helped portfolio companies raise €500m since its inception, of which, more than €200m was secured in the last four years alone. Moreover, portfolio companies have created 650 jobs over the past three years.
The organisation said that the contract awarded to Dogpatch Labs and other regional hubs in 2020 was initially only meant to last for three years, however, following a “strong performance review”, it was extended by an additional two years.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Malaika Judd, a Dutch-American angel investor and entrepreneur would become the national accelerator’s last managing director.
Yesterday, DevA11y, a part of the latest NDRC cohort for its accelerator programme made it to the final at Slush 100.
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