Investment by venture capital firms into Irish technology businesses rose by almost a quarter in the first sixth months of this year.
New data from the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA) shows €963.2m was injected into Irish tech firms, a record first half performance.
According to the IVCA's VenturePulse, €461.5m of that came in the second quarter, a 16% jump on the same period in 2022.
The performance is impressive because 2021 was the first year that Ireland broke the €1bn threshold for venture capital funding in a full year, but in the first half of this year that milestone was nearly reached.
"Ireland well outperformed global trends," commented Denise Sidhu, Chairperson, Irish Venture Capital Association and partner and director of Cork headquartered Kernel Capital.
"VC investment worldwide fell by over 50% in the first half and by almost 50% for the second quarter."
But the numbers were skewed by deals over the €30m mark. Under this threshold, investment actually fell by 52% between April and June, and 16% for the half year.
Also noticeable was that 82% of the money came from international investors during the first half.
"The value of international investment in the first half has risen from 58% of the total last year to over 80% in 2023," Denise Sidhu said.
"As in the case of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), there is a high risk of over dependence on mobile international capital. We need to put in place alternative sources locally."
"The global interest in our best companies shows that we have the technology and talent to create world beaters."
"In my view, the only reason holding us back from creating more tech equivalents of domestic global success stories like Kerrygold or Ryanair is lack of scaling finance."
The IVCA is calling for it to be made easier for FDI firms to invest directly into Irish startups through amended R&D tax credit rules.
Among firms trying to raise €1m, the value of deals for the first six months of the year fell by nearly a third to €14.6m, with the number of deals dropping by 45% to 27.
There was a marked rise in investment in artificial intelligence during the period, with AI among the top three sectors for the first half, raising 9% of the total or €83m.
The leading sector was envirotech which raised 57% or €550.5m, with life sciences second €92.2m.
