TLDR
– VC funding in Irish start-ups and small businesses fell by nearly half in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
– Despite the fall, investment in the last three quarters has held up well against a backdrop of global uncertainty.
In the first quarter of 2024, venture capital funding in Irish SMEs totaled €258.5m, a 48% drop from the previous year. The drop in funding was consistent with the trend seen in the last quarter of 2023. However, seed funding showed resilience with very early-stage Irish SMEs raising a total of €40m in the quarter. Additionally, funding in the €1-3m deal size sector rose by 126%.
International funding into Irish SMEs fell by 57% in the first quarter, highlighting Ireland’s overdependence on unpredictable international investors. The IVCA plans to make a case for allowing Irish pension savers to invest in Irish start-ups under the planned auto enrollment scheme in its pre-Budget submission to the Government.
The top deals in the quarter included Mainstay Medical (€115m), GridBeyond (€52m), Halo Technologies (€18.4m), Mybronics (€17.5m), and Cumulus Neuroscience (€13m). Life sciences attracted the most VC funding followed by envirotech and software.
