VC funding for Irish firms fell last year despite global rise

Despite a surge in new deals in the final quarter, venture capital fundraising by Irish companies dropped 18% last year

Co Louth firm XOcean raised securing $118m (€114.5m) to boost its global growth.

Venture capital fundraising by Irish companies dropped 18% last year, despite a surge in new deals in the final quarter.

Data from KPMG shows total venture capital deals declined in 2024, as companies raised $627.75m (€609.1m) across 98 deals, down from the $764.06m (€741.3m) invested across 101 deals in 2023. 

They said the decline reflects the ongoing global funding pressures impacting startup ecosystems worldwide.

However, the Venture Pulse report shows 29 deals closed in Ireland in the fourth quarter, worth $255.16m (€247.6m) — representing a 46% increase on same period in 2023.

The fourth quarter saw several deals raising over $40m each. Nuitée, a Dublin-based travel tech infrastructure start-up, raised $48m (€46.6m) in Series A funding.

Precision Sports Technology, a company focused on providing real-time feedback on exercise techniques, raised €700,000 in pre-seed funding and closed additional funding of €300,000 during the quarter. Bounce Insights, a provider of an AI-powered market research platform, raised $4.5m (€4.4m) in funding.

They said 2025 has also started strongly with several deals announced, including Fire1 raising $120m (€116.4m) to fund trials for devices to monitor heart failure, and XOcean securing $118m (€114.5m) to boost global growth. Anna Scally, a partner at KPMG in Ireland, said: 

A strong end to 2024 and a positive start to 2025 underscore the resilience of Ireland’s innovation ecosystem amidst global funding pressures and show confidence is returning to the market.

“Health, biotech, and fintech are still seeing interest. AI is really starting to attract interest — while the AI deal sizes are quite small here, it’s an area likely to grow significantly over the next year. 

"With the first set of requirements in the EU AI Act going into effect on February 2, 2025, companies will have to factor the provisions of this act into how they develop AI products and services to be rolled out in the European market.”

Global venture capital investment deals rose from $349.4bn across 43,320 deals in 2023 to $368.3bn across 35,684 deals in 2024 despite a multitude of challenges such as global conflicts and geopolitical tensions, and uncertainties associated with a significant number of major elections — including the US presidential election and a protracted IPO drought.