Tech Ireland 2023 Startup Funding Review

This week saw the publication of Tech Ireland’s latest report - 2023 Startup Funding Review which included a spotlight on Northern Ireland’s startup ecosystem by AwakenHub / AwakenAngels co-founder and Angel Investor of the Year, Mary McKenna.

Despite global challenges, Ireland’s Irish startup community raised €460 million, with 112 companies securing funding - a record high nubmer of companies. However there was an overall decrease in funding raised by 40% in comparison to this period last year. Early stage rounds dropped by 75% in comparison to H1 2021. It is positive to see more money going into the regions with the second best year on record.

Rounds of under €1 million euro decreased from 40 (H1 2021) to 16 which is a worrying picture. Figures for those securing funding for the first time is also down 40% which should not go unnoticed as “We’ll never know how the companies that never get started might have fared in the future” (Brian Caulfield, Scale Ireland).

Women founders ‘showed resilience’ in the market raising €66 million across 16 companies which for the good or the bad is the second best performance in recent years dropping to close to 2020/1 levels.

There is a need more than ever now for robust support for seed and angel investment on the island of Ireland. AwakenAngels is only starting out on its’ journey to democratise angel investing with our women-led angel investment syndicate investing in women foudned businesses. Mary speaks in the report about the dynamic, innovative and outward looking cohort of entrepreneurs growing in Northern Ireland including AwakenHub’s GenoMe Diagnostics.

We strongly advocate as well for continuation of supports for very early stage women founders to ensure that the funnel of talent is found, nurtured and supported through the ecoystem to position them to secure funding into the future. Our SheGenerate accelerator lite programme does just that and applications are open until 5pm on 18 September.

Click here to see the full report from Tech Ireland.