Irish tech funding falls 18pc in 2024 as bosses warn of new isolationist US policies

This has underperformed global venture funding, which is down by under 4pc for the same period.

The updated tally shows that cash raised by Irish tech SMEs in the third quarter was €193m, 1pc up on the same three months a year ago.

Of that €193m, almost half — €85m — was funding from outside Ireland.

"However, the potential for an isolationist leaning incoming administration in the White House to implement policies that could be negative for Ireland emphasises the need for us to take these indigenous companies to the next level and grow our own tech champions rather than rely on less committed overseas investment," said Gerry Maguire, chairperson of the Irish Venture Capital Association.

The number of deals in the quarter rose by 55pc, to 59.

The biggest deals this quarter included the medtech company, Neurent Medical (€18.2m), the renewable energy firm, Circal (€15m), the electric and solar installation provider, ePower (€15m), the medical device company, Luminate (€13.9m) and the medtech firm, Loci Orthopaedics (€13.8m).

There were no deals valued at over €30m during the quarter.

So far in 2024, life sciences has seen most funding in Ireland with 42pc (€392.8m), followed by envirotech (13pc), regtech (10pc), fintech (9pc) and software (9pc).

However, in the third quarter, artificial intelligence was the third highest sector, raising 11pc.

"A positive feature of the third quarter is that the number of deals rose by 55pc to 59," said Mr Maguire.

"While there were no rounds in the €30m-plus range, this was compensated for by an increase in deals under €10m, including seed funding."

According to the IVCA figures, deals in the €3m to €5m range rose by 52pc to €29m. Meanwhile, rounds valued at between €1m and €3m grew by 16pc to €26m while deals valued at under €1m rose by nearly a third to €9m. Seed funding, or first rounds raised by SMEs, more than doubled to €33.5m.

"These underlying trends reflect a buoyant ecosystem in Ireland for early-stage companies, many of which are involved in cutting edge technologies such as AI, cyber security, quantum computing, medtech and envirotech," said Mr Maguire.

The director general of the IVCA, Sarah-Jane Larkin, said there remains a problem with the structural nature of funding systems in Ireland.

"Access to public capital for VCs through the likes of Enterprise Ireland and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in Ireland, as well as the European Investment Fund in Europe, has never been better," she said.

"However, there is now a severe shortage of matching private capital in Ireland from investors such as pension funds, family offices and corporates. Government policy can have a significant impact in fixing this, as is happening in the UK, and in several EU countries such as Denmark and France."

The IVCA figures were prepared in association with William Fry.