Ireland sees VC investment pick up in Q4’24 and confidence returning in 2025

In 2024, VC investment in Ireland remained stable despite the challenging funding environment. According to the latest KPMG Venture Pulse report, VC investment picked up in Q4, with 29 deals closing in the quarter worth $255.16 million, compared to 26 deals worth $174.76 million for the same period last year, representing a 46 per cent increase.

Despite the strong performance in Q4, total VC investment in Irish companies for 2024 reached $627.75 million across 98 deals, an 18 per cent decline from the $764.06 million invested across 101 deals in 2023. The decline reflects the ongoing global funding pressures impacting startup ecosystems worldwide.

Notwithstanding, global VC investment rose from $349.4 billion across 43,320 deals in 2023 to $368.3 billion across 35,684 deals in 2024 despite a multitude of challenges, including global conflicts and geopolitical tensions, uncertainties associated with a significant number of major elections—including the US presidential election in Q4’24 – and a protracted IPO drought.

The Irish market in Q4’24

Q4 ended strongly with several deals raising over $40 million each – Nuitée, a Dublin-based travel tech infrastructure startup, raised $48 million in Series A funding. Dublin-based Nuritas, a company specialising in AI-powered peptide discovery, secured $42 million in Series C funding round.

VC investors continued to show interest in various sectors, from mature areas like health and biotech and fintech to emerging areas like AI applications. While interest in AI was relatively high, deals in Ireland primarily occurred at the earliest deal stages during Q4’24.

For example, Precision Sports Technology, who won the KPMG Global Tech Innovator (GTI) Ireland final in 2024, is a company focused on providing real-time feedback on exercise techniques—raised €700k in pre-seed funding and closed additional funding of €300k during the quarter. Bounce Insights, a KPMG GTI finalist in 2024 and Dublin-based provider of an AI-powered market research platform, raised $4.5 million in funding.

Commenting on VC activity in Ireland, Anna Scally, EMA Region Head of Technology, Media & Telecoms and Partner, KPMG in Ireland, said:

“A strong end to 2024 and a positive start to 2025 underscore the resilience of Ireland’s innovation ecosystem amidst global funding pressures and show confidence is returning to the market. Health, biotech and fintech are still seeing interest. AI is really starting to attract interest—while the AI deal sizes are quite small here, it’s an area likely to grow significantly over the next year. With the first set of requirements in the EU AI Act going into effect on February 2, 2025, companies will have to factor the provisions of this Act into how they develop AI products and services to be rolled out in the European market.”

Trends to watch in 2025

January 2025 has already seen several deals announced including Fire1 raising $120 million to fund trials for device to monitor heart failure patients and XOcean securing $118 million to boost global growth. With a positive start to 2025 already underway, Ireland’s innovation ecosystem remains well-positioned to capitalise on emerging opportunities in the year ahead.

2024—Key Highlights

—  Global VC investment rose from $349.4 billion in 2023 to $368.3 billion in 2024, while deal volume dropped to a seven-year low of 35,685 deals.

—  VC investment rose from $173 billion to $221.7 billion between 2023 and 2024 in the Americas—including from $162.2 billion to $209 billion in the US—while Europe saw a dip from $67.6 billion to $62.4 billion; the Asia-Pacific region saw

—  VC investment fall to a nine-year low of $78.8 billion in 2024.

—  Global CVC-participating investment rose from $177.9 billion in 2023 to $185.1 billion in 2024.

—  CVC-participating investment in the Americas rose from $89.6 billion in 2023 to $112.8 billion in 204—including from $84.7 billion to $107.5 billion in the US, while it dropped from $32.5 billion to $30.3 billion in Europe, and from $53.3 billion to $39.5 billion in the Asia-Pacific region.

—  The median deal sizes for Series B, C, and D+ deals rose substantially in both the Americas and Europe, with the median deal sizes of D+ deals rising the most dramatically—from $55 million to $100 million in the Americas and from $59.6 million to $80 million in Europe.

—  IPO exit value dropped to a seven-year low of $134.6 billion globally.

Q4’24 highlights

—  Global investment rose from $84.5 billion across 8,586 deals in Q3’24 to a ten-quarter high of $108.6 billion across 7,022 deals in Q4’24.

—  The Americas saw $78.7 billion in VC investment, including $74.6 billion in the US, during Q4’24.

—  Europe attracted $15.6 billion in VC investment in Q4’24—the first time it surpassed the Asia-Pacific region, which saw just $12.8 billion in investment during the quarter.

—  Deal volume across the regions remained incredibly low, with 3,178 deals in the Americas—the lowest since Q3’17—1,977 in the Asia-Pacific region—the lowest quarter in at least ten-years—and 1,671 in Europe—the lowest since Q3’16.

—  Global corporate VC-participating investment rose from $40.4 billion in Q3’24 to $51.9 billion in Q4’24, driven by an increase in the Americas from $22.3 billion to $37.2 billion. Europe also saw CVC investment rise from $6.9 billion to $7.2 billion, while it fell from $10.8 billion to $7 billion in the Asia-Pacific region.