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Although the ‘picture is getting better’, there is still a ‘long way to go’, said TechIreland CEO John O’Dea.
In 2024, 48 women-founded Irish start-ups raised a total of €145m, a 46pc rise from the year before. This is according to TechIreland’s 2025 Female Founder Funding Review released in partnership with Fierce, a network of women tech founders.
The report finds that the average size of funding deals more than doubled – from €1.2m in 2023 to €2.9m in 2024 – due to a few very large deals. Although, 2023 was an outlier, recording the lowest amount of funding for women-led start-ups since 2019.
Still, when put into perspective, the value of average deals made by women-led companies in 2024 is only half of the €6m average raise for all Irish tech start-ups that year.
“Female-founded companies in Europe raised over €5.76bn in 2024 – around 12pc of all capital raised. While this marks a decline from 2023, it aligns with the broader market trend,” said Orla Browne, the head of insights at Dealroom.
Moreover, the total number of women-founded companies that raised capital dropped since 2023, reflecting a similar trend seen across Europe.
The report notes that government-backed initiatives such as the National Digital Research Centre(NDRC), the Halo Business Angel Network and Enterprise Ireland’s Pre-Seed Start Fund and High Potential Start-ups play a key role in supporting early-stage start-ups.
However, even with the support, the number of early-stage deals that raised between €100,000 to €3m dropped significantly from 64 in 2023 to 27 in 2024.
Four investments accounted for €85m, the report finds. These are Dr Nora Khaldi’s Nuritas, which raised €38m; Croívalve, co-founded by Dr Lucy O’Keffe, which raised €15m; Galway’s Mbryonics, co-founded by Dr Ruth Mackey, which raised €18m and Luminate Medical, co-founded by Dr Bárbara Oliveira, which raised €15m.
Looking at sectoral divisions, the life sciences and the health-tech sector made up nearly 90pc of the total funding these start-ups received, a funding pattern which also mirrors the overall trend in Europe.
While 10 companies in the enterprise software and eight companies in the artificial intelligence sectors were among the 48 that raised capital in the past year.
Moreover, 10 of the female-founded ventures were third-level spin-outs, raising a total of €42m.
The start-ups that raised funds in 2024 are disproportionately centred around the country’s capital, with more than half of them being Dublin-based. Although, eleven companies from Galway made a dent last year, collectively raised €54m.
“While the picture is getting better, it’s clear we still have a long way to go,” said TechIreland CEO John O’Dea.
“Tech start-ups with even one female founder account for less than 15pc of the total raised by Irish companies and the average funding raised by companies with a woman founder is only half the average for all companies.
“Clearly, doing more to support women tech entrepreneurs is urgently required,” he added.
While Emma Meehan, the founder, CEO and CTO of Precision Sports Technology said that the challenge for early-stage start-ups raising their first round without established connections “cannot be understated”.
“We are delighted to have Precision Sports Technology’s pre-seed round contributing to these figures, but this was after almost three years of building, bootstrapping and making the most out of government supports.”
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