New figures from the Irish Venture Capital Association show that while some fiscal recovery has taken place, Ireland’s indigenous tech sector is still recovering from the effects of Trump’s tariffs
IVCA chairperson Caroline Gaynor
Tech funding has fallen by 10pc in Ireland in 2025, new industry figures show.
According to the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA), which records the data in association with William Fry, cash raised by tech and live science firms here fell from €945m in the first nine months of last year to €853m for the same period in 2025.
This is despite venture funding being slightly higher in the third quarter – up 8pc to €208m – than Q3 2024.
The total number of venture capital tech deals done so far fell from 153 in 2024 to 135 in 2025, the IVCA figures show.
“Third quarter data provided some relief following a dismal second quarter this year when funding fell to €112.6m, its lowest in 10 years,” said Caroline Gaynor, chairperson of the IVCA.
“Hopefully we are starting to see some confidence and stability return to the market, but it remains a challenging time for early-stage companies.”
However, Ms Gaynor said that international investors had started to return to the market after the “blow” to investor confidence caused by tariff shocks imposed by the US this year.
International venture investment into Irish SMEs rose to €147m in the current quarter compared to €70m in the second quarter of this year.
Deals valued between €1m and €5m made up 30 out of the 39 transactions in this quarter, according to the IVCA figures. Transactions valued between €1m and €3m rose by 35pc to €36m compared to the same time last year, while deals in the €3m to €5m range increased by 18pc to €35m.
However, medium-sized funding rounds fell significantly in the third quarter, with cash deals in the €10m to €30m category declining by two thirds to €26m while €5m to €10m deals dropped by 74pc to €13.5m compared to the same quarter last year.
Quarterly seed funding, or first rounds, valued at under €1m fell by 30pc to €23m from €34m last year. Seed funding for the first nine months was down 31pc to €88m from €127m in 2024.
High-value rounds of over €30m did better, with medtech company ProVerum raising €62m and AI machine learning firm Nory raising €34m.
Life sciences was the most successful sector to date this year, raising funds of €362m, equating to 42pc of the total cash haul in the first nine months.
This was followed by cybersecurity at €136m (16pc), AI and machine learning (€97m), fintech (€92m) and software (€66m).
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