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Irish Venture Capital Association
Caption: Caroline Gaynor, chairperson, Irish Venture Capital Association. Photo: Fennell Photography.
News Release
Venture capital funding into Irish SMEs recovered to €207.9m in third quarter – IVCA
Dublin: 2:00PM (14:00 hrs), Sunday, 16th November, 2025 – Venture capital funding into Irish technology SMEs rose by 8% to €207.9m in the third quarter 2025, compared to the same period last year, according to the Irish Venture Capital Association Venture Pulse survey, published today in association with William Fry.
Funding for the nine months to end September fell by 10% to €853.4m from €945.3m the previous year. The total number of deals in the same period fell from 153 to 135.
“Third quarter data provided some relief following a dismal second quarter this year when funding fell to €112.6m, its lowest in ten years,” commented Caroline Gaynor, chairperson, Irish Venture Capital Association. “Hopefully we are starting to see some confidence and stability return to the market, but it remains a challenging time for early stage companies.”
She added that following the blow to investor confidence caused by the United States’ April 2nd tariff shocks, international investors had started to return to the market. International VC investment into Irish SMEs rose to €146.7 m in the current quarter compared to €69.5m in the second quarter of this year.
She said that bright spots in the overall data were deals in the €1m-€5m range which accounted for 30 out of the 39 transactions in this quarter. Transactions in the €1-€3m category rose by 35% to €35.6m compared to the same time last year. Deals in the €3-€5m range increased by 18% to €34.7m.
However, funding in the €10m-€30m category fell by two thirds to €26m while €5-€10m deals dropped by 74% to €13.5m, compared to the same quarter last year. There was better news in the €30m+ category where medtech company, ProVerum raised €62m, and AI machine learning firm, Nory raised €34m.
Sarah-Jane Larkin, director general, IVCA, said that while there was some healthy activity, gaps remained in the third quarter, particularly in seed funding and transactions under €1m, both of which disappointed. Seed or first rounds fell by 30% to €23.4m from €33.5m, compared to the same quarter last year. Seed funding for the first nine months was down 31% to €88.3m from €127.2m last year.
Despite this shortfall the IVCA director general said: “The process for deploying the Government’s €250m Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2025-29 is well under way. We are optimistic that the environment for very early stage Irish companies seeking first round funding will pick up in the first half of next year.”
Lifesciences was the most successful sector to date this year, raising funds of €361.6m or 42% of the total in the first nine months. This was followed by Cybersecurity at €136.3m (16%); AI and machine learning €97m (11%); Fintech €92.2m (11%) and Software €66.2m (8%).
Press queries to:
Sarah-Jane Larkin, director general, IVCA, Email: sjlarkin@ivca.ie;
Mob: 087 320 9209 or
Ronnie Simpson, Simpson Consulting, Email: ronnie@simpsonconsulting.ie;
Mob: 086 855 9410
Note to editors – how the VenturePulse survey is compiled
The Irish Venture Capital Association VenturePulse survey is recognised by the VC industry and by government and international bodies, including the OECD,
as the definitive and most up to date source of fundraising activity in Ireland. It is the only provider of Ireland VC funding statistics which publishes its source data or actual deals.
The data covers equity funds raised by Irish SMEs and other SMEs headquartered on the island of Ireland from a wide variety of investors. We do not include debt, venture debt, grants, or other non-equity forms of funding.
This research is the result of the latest detailed information supplied internally by members of the Irish Venture Capital Association and from published information where IVCA members were not involved. A list of the funding rounds that comprise the source data for the total will be available on the IVCA website (www.ivca.ie).
About the Irish Venture Capital Association (www.ivca.ie)
The Irish Venture Capital Association is the representative organisation for venture capital and private equity firms on the island of Ireland.
An independent DCU report released in January 2020 found that VC backed Irish companies create more jobs, exports and R&D investment than other SMEs.
Venture capital supports the state’s investment through its agencies’ Enterprise Ireland and Irish Strategic Investment Fund and gears up funding through the Seed & Venture Capital Programme by almost 16 times.
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