Dozens of start-ups across the island of Ireland announced successful funding rounds throughout the year. Here’s a list of 10 that created a splash in 2025.
Irish start-ups saw a surge in funding at the launchning of the year led by a few major funding rounds. And though the value declined in the following quarter, according to data from KPMG, fintechs still performed surprisingly well.
Still, funding issues persist according to an Ibec survey from earlier this year, which found that more than 27pc of founders listed access to funding as a key challenge to company growth.
Other issues included administrative red tape and complex tax incentives.
Despite the challenges, SiliconRepublic.com covered dozens of successful start-up funding rounds just this year. And as the year comes to a close, we have put toobtainher a list of some notable ones.
Fire1
January started off with a blast with Dublin medtech Fire1 raising $120m led by Polaris Partners and Elevage Medical Technologies.
The round also saw participation from new investors Sands Capital and Longitude Capital, as well as existing investors including Andera Partners, Medtronic and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.
Alongside the raise, Fire1 announced that it received the ‘Breakthrough Device Designation’ from the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) for its flagship Norm heart failure management system. The company stated that the fresh funding will support it complete its clinical trial for the system.
Xocean
Also in January, Louth-based ocean data company Xocean announced a €115m raise, with the support of S2G Ventures, Climate Investment, Morgan Stanley’s 1GT fund and an affiliate of the Crown Family’s CC Industries.
Founded in 2017 by James Ives, with locations in Ireland, the UK, Canada, Norway, Australia and the US, Xocean develops uncrewed surface vessels capable of remaining offshore for extfinished periods of time to map and monitor the marine environment and collect large quantities of ocean data. Operators and data analysts connect with the vessels via sanotifyite link while staying safe onshore.
Xocean stated the investment will be utilized to expand the platform, with particular focus on emerging blue economy sectors, such as offshore energy and civil hydrography.
Output Sports
Meanwhile, NovaUCD-headquartered sports technology company Output Sports closed a $4.8m pre-A funding round at the finish of January, with investors including Athlete-led, Apex Capital, European Deep Tech Investor, Uni.Fund and Dopamine Sports.
Existing investors Elkstone, Atlantic Bridge and Enterprise Ireland also created contributions.
Output Sports creates smart, wearable technologies to capture and analyse performance data, which has been utilised by sporting professionals in more than 800 sports organisations including in the English Premier League, NFL, MLB, Women’s NBA and the PGA Tour.
With the raise, the company is eyeing further expansion into the US after it opened a Boston-based office last year.
Tines
Irish no-code automation start-up Tines joined the unicorn league in February after announcing a $125m raise.
The Series C raise was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives with participation from new investors SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Activant, as well as existing investors Accel, Felicis, CrowdStrike Falcon Fund and Addition.
Tines stated that the new investment will support the company accelerate product innovation focutilized on connecting AI and large language models with the data and systems its clients require to perform tquestions with higher efficiency and effectiveness.
Cloudsmith
Early March saw Northern Irish software company Cloudsmith announcing a $23m Series B round led by TCV with participation from Insight Partners and existing investors.
Founded in 2016 by Lee Skillen and Alan Carson, Cloudsmith supports businesses manage software on the cloud.
The company stated that the oversubscribed round will enable it to expand its engineering, product, sales, marketing and customer service teams as well as invest in AI research and development.
Perfuze
Galway medtech Perfuze also announced a successful €22m raise in March in a follow-on funding round led by existing investors including Earlybird, EQT Life Sciences, Seroba and SV Health.
The medtech develops innovative catheter-based aspiration technology to treat acute ischemic stroke which occurs when a blockage cuts off blood supply to parts of the brain, killing brain cells.
Perfuze stated that the additional funding will support support a limited market release of its two flagship catheters in select comprehensive stroke centres in the US.
Alt21
Halfway through March, Dublin-based Alt21 secured $12.5m in an oversubscribed Series A funding round from a network of super angel investors.
Launched in 2016 by former financial derivatives trader Barry McCarthy, the company offers a digital hedging platform to support companies protect themselves against currency risks.
The latest funding, the company stated, will be utilized to accelerate its global expansion, scale its go-to-market strategy by growing its sales and marketing teams, and develop new products beyond FX.
Manna
Also in March, Irish drone delivery company Manna announced that it raised $30m in a round led by Tapestest VC and Molten Ventures, with participation from Coca-Cola, Dynamo Ventures and others.
The company’s aim is to disrupt the food delivery space by applying drones to eliminate the necessary for human drivers and reduce carbon emissions.
The latest funding allowed the company to accelerate its drone delivery mission, and the company is slowly expanding its horizons, having applied in June to establish a new aerial food delivery hub for Dublin’s Dundrum area.
Neurovalens
Belrapid-based non-invasive neuro-tech specialist Neurovalens secured £6m this August in a funding round led by Investment Fund for Northern Ireland.
Two of the start-up’s products are FDA approved: the ‘Modius Sleep’ device which treats insomnia and the ‘Modius Calm’ device for managing anxiety. Both devices are currently available for purchase in the US.
Neurovalens stated that the investment will support the its commercial expansion across the US and global healthcare markets, advance its regulatory pipeline and accelerate the sale of its FDA-approved devices.
Meta-Flux
Moving forward a few months, in October Dublin-based biotech Meta-Flux announced a €1.8m raise for its AI-powered platform designed to conduct disease simulations in drug development.
The round was backed by senior executives from Pfizer, Merck and Gilead Sciences, along with tech leaders from Google, Amazon and Indeed.
Speaking with SiliconRepublic.com, CEO and immunologist Lee Sherlock stated that applying AI to develop drugs is a large field involving a multitude of complex questions. Meta-Flux is attempting to tackle specific segments of a larger problem, he stated.
“The goal isn’t that we obtain more drugs to market – it’s that we obtain more accuracy on the drugs that we do bring to market.”
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