Weekend takeaway: 10 tech stories you need to read right now

16 Jan 2015

Ten nuggets of knowledge to take away this weekend, including NDRC companies raise €37m, iPod father to head up Google Glass, and mobile created 11m jobs worldwide in 2014.

1. NDRC start-ups raised €37m extra investment in 2014 and created 200 jobs

The National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) in Dublin has reported that start-ups in its portfolio raised €37m in follow-on investment during 2014. Employment in these firms stands at 500 people.

This brings to €88m the total amount of investments raised by these companies from angel investors and venture capitalists, giving them an estimated market value of €220m.

Employment in these companies jumped by 200 people in 2014.

NDRC’s methodology is to invest in early stage companies primarily using an accelerator model through its NDRC LaunchPad and NDRC VentureLab investment programmes.

2. Science Foundation Ireland reviews 2014 and outlines plans for this year (video)

Earlier today in Dublin, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) looked back on the highs and not-so-highs of 2014 and announced its plans for 2015.

3. Mobile generated €2.85trn in revenues and 11m jobs in 2014 globally. Wait, what?

Mobile is bigger business than we may have thought, according to a report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) that reveals the industry brought in global revenues of €2.85trn.

4. Why the ‘iPod godfather’ is needed to correct Google’s vision for Glass

Google Glass isn’t gone, but it has retired from the limelight for now as Google regroups and, hopefully, learns a valuable lesson on the difference between building products and developing software.

5. Apple, Google settle Silicon Valley poaching lawsuit for US$415m

Four of Silicon Valley’s largest tech firms have agreed to pay US$415m to a number of former employees who, in an antitrust class action lawsuit, claimed the companies restricted them from changing jobs.

6. China to create €5.5bn venture capital fund for start-ups

China is to set up a government venture capital fund worth 40bn yuan (about €5.5bn) to help back the country’s start-ups in emerging industries.

7. Zimmer in frame to create 250 jobs in Galway over next five years

Musculoskeletal healthcare company Zimmer is looking to expand its workforce to 580 people in Ireland with a €51m investment in a new facility in Co Galway.

8. Demand for IT staff up almost a third as Irish employers look beyond EU to fill roles

Two-thirds of employers in Ireland claim IT roles will be the hardest to fill in 2015, Abrivia’s latest Survey Spotlights report suggests.

9. Look Inside 2015: TripAdvisor’s engineering hub is set to grow (video)

In our employer insights series, Lars Holzman, director of engineering at TripAdvisor Ireland, reveals the jobs the travel website is looking to fill: from graduate engineers to lead and management roles.

10. Dublin inventor’s magic fix for hip fractures gains US patent

Dublin medical-device company X-Bolt Orthopaedics has been granted a US patent for its novel device for fixing hip fractures.

Noodles image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com