Irish start

Some 319 Irish start-ups raised a total of €992m last year, TechIreland's latest Irish Startup Funding Review has found.

Annual funding for Irish start-ups has settled in the €900m to €1bn range following 2021's record high, and the 2025 total represents just a €14m increase from the previous year.

The number of companies securing funding also rose slightly from 307 in 2024.

Early-stage activity was notably strong, primarily due to Enterprise Ireland's Pre-Seed Start Fund and High-Potential Start-Up supports, with a record 211 companies raising up to €1m.

The number of rounds worth €1m-5m increased to 58, but rounds of €5m-30m declined to pre-2019 levels, and large growth rounds of €30m or more were relatively stable.

The data also shows there is an ongoing challenge in scaling to Series A and beyond, where momentum continues to lag.

As in previous years, a small number of large outliers skewed the total figure. The top four companies, LetsGetChecked (€150m), XOCEAN (€115m), Tines (€114m), and ProVerum (€73m), accounted for nearly half (46%) of all funding raised.

Furthermore, the majority of large rounds were concentrated in the first quarteras 69 companies raised a combined €616m, a record high for any quarter over the past 10 years.

In the remaining three quarters, fundraising activity cooled and just €376m was raised by 250 start-ups in the final nine months of the year.

Life sciences retained its position as the strongest-funded sector in Ireland during 2025, accounting for more than half of total funding. Major rounds included LetsGetChecked, ProVerum, Deciphex and Perfuze.

Enterprise software and fintech followed as the second and third strongest sectors, both performing better than in the previous two years.

Several of the year’s largest rounds reflected Ireland’s growing reputation in deep tech, AI, medtech, and robotics.

Enterprise Ireland also notes growing momentum in AI-enabled solutions, with 99 of its supported startups in 2025 incorporating AI as a central part of their product or service.

The report also found a sharp decline in energy/cleantech funding, falling from €328m in 2024 to €41m in 2025, reflecting a slowdown in large capital-intensive rounds within the sector.

Dublin companies raised €667.5m or around 67% of total investment, and fundraising activity outside Dublin (€210.1m) was strongest in Galway, Louth, Cork, Wicklow and Antrim.

Northern Ireland companies raised more than €114m, with funding concentrated in Antrim, making 2025 the third consecutive year that start-up funding in Northern Ireland has shown strong growth.

Female-founded firms made up 15% of total funding in value terms, raising €146m across 92 companies.

“2025 was very much a curate’s egg. It was good in parts, mainly in Q1, when 69 Irish companies raised a total of €616m," said Brian Caulfield, chair of TechIreland.

"That was the best quarter for fundraising in Ireland for 10 years. Unfortunately, the rest of the year saw a return to weakness with just €376m raised by 250 companies across the rest of the year.

"Once again, just four outliers represented almost half of all funding (46%). More widely, the pattern of Irish companies being underfunded relative to international competitors remains a worry.”