Four quarter results for the VentureOne/Ernst & Young Quarterly European Venture Capital Report 2004 show the number of "early stage" deals for Ireland up on 2003 – with 15 of 42 deals in 2004 attributed to seed and first round fundings compared to 12 of 45 the previous year.

A European venture capital survey undertaken by Ernst & Young and VentureOne has found that, for the fourth quarter of 2003, European venture capital deal flow was increased by 7%, with a total of €855m invested in 249 financings in Q4 2003, compared to 233 financings and €871m raised in Q3 2003.

VENTURE capital investment in Irish companies has collapsed 50% year-on-year according to a pan-European survey, which shows the greatest problems in the software sector.