Innovation centres helped start-ups to access €34m in funding

Irish Business Innovation Centres provide support to early-stage companies applying to Enterprise Ireland for funding

Larry O'Donoghue, AxisBIC; Rosemary Ward, Propelor BIC; Martin Murray, Furthr; and John Brennan, WestBIC. Start-ups around the country supported by Irish BICs received €34m in funding in 2025. Picture. John Allen

Business Innovation Centres (BICs) helped start-ups in Ireland to access €34m in Enterprise Ireland funding in 2025, according to a report published on Thursday. 

The Irish BICs Annual Report for 2025 showed that 110 start-ups received funding, including €26.5m in Enterprise Ireland Innovative High Potential Start-Up (iHPSU) funding and €7.5m in Pre-Seed Start Fund (PSSF) funding.

Irish BICs provide support to early-stage companies applying to Enterprise Ireland for funding. The four BICs are AxisBIC - covering Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick; Furthr - covering Cavan, Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, and Wicklow; Propelor - covering Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford, and Wexford; and WestBIC - covering Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon.

“For the founders of highly-innovative start-up and scale-up enterprises, the pace of change has never been so fast, the level of disruption has never been so great. Technological, geopolitical, financial, and social change are impacting every aspect of what you do," said Irish BICS chair Martin Murray. "In this environment, even successful serial entrepreneurs require guidance, mentoring, and support. The Irish BICs have been providing that support for almost 40 years.”

The annual report findings were released ahead of this year’s Dublin Tech Summit taking place in the RDS on Wednesday May 27 and Thursday May 28, where the Irish BICs will have a presence at the Accelerate Hub, an dedicated on-site support space to connect entrepreneurs with advisors, mentors, and service providers, while the Accelerate Stage will look at topics facing founders in 2026, including funding, scaling sustainably, navigating markets, and accelerating growth.