TechIreland survey shows start-up funding dropped by more than a third in 2023
Funding into Irish startups dropped to €847 million in 2023, down from €1.6 billion in 2021 and €1.3 billion in 2022, according to TechIreland’s Startup Funding Review. The drop in funding was mainly due to a decrease in later stage rounds, which rely more on foreign investors.
A record 403 tech companies on the island of Ireland were funded last year, however their the number of deals over €5 million dropped to 28 from 48.
The top 10 investments comprised less than 45% of the total, a big reduction on previous years. Cork-based Everseen raised €65 million, followed by Belfast’s Weev and Dublin’s Ocuco each raising €60 million.
Four companies from outside Dublin featured in the top 10, which include Tipperary’s Shorla Oncology (which raised €32 million) and Vivasure Medical from Galway (€30 million).
Cleantech investments topped the sector table for the first time in 2023, surpassing healthtech, fintech and enterprise solutions.
Regions outside Dublin accounted for less than 30% of the funding raised, a drop on previous years. While the number of start-ups increased from 127 to 147 last year, the total raised fell to €222 million from €502 million in 2022.
Tech companies with a woman founder raised €93 million in 2023, a drop from the previous years’ record of €230 million. However, Ireland still ranked first in Europe for supporting women-founders with the highest number of investments per capita.
TechIreland chief executive John O’Dea, said: “The Irish start-up ecosystem has great supports for early stage tech. Significant work is being done by Enterprise Ireland, LEOs, NDRC and HBAN to build a strong pipeline. But we also need to focus on developing home-growth funds that can support larger scaling companies.”
Brian Caulfield, Chair at Scale Ireland, added: “There is a dearth of later stage funding. Many international investors want to write cheques that are at least €10 million or even €20 million. That leaves a significant equity gap in the Irish market for rounds in the range of €3-€10 million. Fixing that will be crucial to further progress for the Irish startup ecosystem.
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