Venture capital funding for Irish small and medium sized firms grew, but only just, during the third quarter of the year.
In total €192.5m was injected into businesses, up a mere 1% compared to the same period last year.
However, overall funding is down 18% over the first nine months of the year at €945.3m versus the January to September period of 2023.
The situation here compares to a global fall of 15% in the third quarter and a 3.7% dip in the first nine months.
"A positive feature of the third quarter is that the number of deals rose by 55% to 59," said Gerry Maguire, chairperson of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA), which produced the Venture Pulse survey along with William Fry.
"While there were no rounds in the €30m plus range, this was compensated for by an increase in deals under €10m, including seed funding."
"These underlying trends reflect a buoyant ecosystem in Ireland for early-stage companies, many of which are involved in cutting edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cyber Security, Quantum Computing, MedTech and Envirotech."
But the IVCA added that Ireland could be facing a deterioration in the funding environment if the incoming Trump administration in the US adopts an isolationist stance.
It said this meant that there needs to be a focus on moving Irish firms need to "the next level" so that they are not reliant on overseas money.
Among the biggest deals in the third quarter were medtech company Neurent Medical which secured €18.2m, renewable energy firm Circal which got €15m and EV and solar installation provider ePower, which drew down €15m.
There were no deals over €30m in the quarter.
But the IVCA said deals in the €3-€5m range rose by 52% to €29m, while €1m-€3m rounds grew by 16% to €26m.
Deals under €1m rose by nearly a third to €9m and seed funding more than doubled to €33.5m.
42% of the total raised went to life sciences, with envirotech getting 13% and regtech securing 10%.
Ahead of the general election here, Sarah-Jane Larkin, director general of the IVCA, said small business provisions in a number of party manifestos which emphasise the need for scaling up funding were welcome.
"Access to public capital for VCs through the likes of Enterprise Ireland and Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in Ireland and 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."
