Scale Ireland presses case for scaling Irish tech as Simon Harris targets global success

Ireland’s scale-up challenge, Scale Ireland review

Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris told founders and investors at Scale Ireland’s Annual Autumn Gathering that Ireland’s next economic ambition must be to become exceptionally good at growing global companies of its own.

A packed gathering in Ballsbridge

There was standing room only at Scale Ireland’s Annual Autumn Gathering on 3rd of September at Avolon’s headquarters in Ballsbridge, bringing together founders, investors and others from across Ireland’s indigenous technology ecosystem.

Scale Ireland CEO Martina Fitzgerald and Chair Brian Caulfield co-chaired and facilitated the gathering, guiding the discussion across the founder and investment panels and the wider policy issues facing Irish start-ups and scale-ups.

Coming just weeks before Budget 2027, the gathering focused on a question that increasingly matters for Irish enterprise policy: Ireland has built a strong environment for starting technology businesses, but can enough of them make the much more difficult journey to international scale?

Scale Ireland represents an ecosystem it estimates now includes 2,099 Irish start-ups and scale-ups, employing 45,652 people, 51% of them outside Dublin. Its latest State of Start-ups Survey, based on 209 founders and CEOs, identifies access to funding as the sector’s biggest concern.

From attracting global companies to growing them

Simon Harris put the challenge clearly when he outlined an ambition for Ireland to produce more companies capable of scaling and competing internationally.

“Ireland has become exceptionally good at attracting global companies,” he said. “But our next economic ambition has to be to become exceptionally good at growing global companies of our own.”

His ambition is for companies which “start here in Ireland”, scale here and compete internationally while retaining their base in Ireland.

Simon Harris was also careful not to frame this as a choice between indigenous enterprise and FDI. Ireland needs both, he argued, with a larger base of globally successful Irish companies adding resilience to the economy.

Ireland’s aviation leasing lesson

It was significant that Simon Harris made the comments at Avolon’s offices. He pointed to Ireland’s aircraft leasing industry as an example of what can be achieved.

Ireland does not manufacture commercial aircraft, yet has succeeded in developing a globally important industry, something Simon Harris attributed to the ambition and expertise that allowed Irish businesses to compete internationally.

“This didn’t happen by accident,” Harris said. It happened because people had “the ambition, had the expertise, but also had the confidence to build businesses that could compete with the very best in the world.”

The comparison was particularly relevant to a discussion about whether Ireland can produce substantially more internationally competitive indigenous technology companies.

Making the jump from start-up to scale-up

Capital remains central to that challenge, particularly when companies move beyond early-stage funding and need substantially greater investment to compete internationally.

“We’ve made real progress in building early-stage funding, and we have a pretty good ecosystem here in Ireland,” Simon Harris said.

The difficulty comes when a company has proven its product, acquired customers and demonstrated international potential, but now requires serious capital to compete globally.

“We need more businesses to be able to make that jump from the Irish startup to the international scale-up,” he said.

Enterprise Ireland’s scaling strategy includes a target of developing 150 large Irish companies employing more than 250 people each, while its latest Seed and Venture Capital Scheme represents a €250 million State commitment.

Could 1% of pension investment make a difference?

One of the more interesting policy interventions came from Scale Ireland Chair Brian Caulfield, who suggested that directing even 1% of Irish pension fund investment towards indigenous technology could have a substantial impact on the capital available to scaling companies.

It reflects a wider Scale Ireland objective of encouraging pension funds and other institutional investors to invest in scaling equity funds.

The issue becomes particularly important as successful Irish companies move beyond early-stage investment and require much larger amounts of capital to grow internationally.

Capital is only part of the challenge

The founder panel featured Fabien Peyaud of Herdwatch, Ríona Ní Ghriallais, co-founder and CTO of ProVerum, and Fergal O’Connor, founder and CEO of Buymedia.

The investor perspective came from Rebekah Brady, Director, Future Ireland Funds at ISIF, and John O’Sullivan, General Partner at ACT Venture Capital.

Talent was another recurring issue. Simon Harris noted that a scaling company employing 20 or 30 people can find itself competing for the same person as a global corporation employing 100,000.

“You can’t always compete on salary,” he said. That makes the ability to give talented employees a genuine stake in the success of a growing company particularly important.

Can Irish start-ups sell to the State?

Government procurement was another practical issue raised during the discussions, particularly the ability of smaller Irish companies and start-ups to compete for public contracts.

Fergal O’Connor of Buymedia raised the question of how the tender process works for Irish businesses and start-ups. If Government wants indigenous technology companies to scale, the ability of those businesses to compete for public contracts is another part of the environment in which they operate.

This is different from providing grants or investment. Winning public-sector business can provide companies with customers, revenue and reference clients as they seek to grow.

From research to commercialisation

The discussions also demonstrated some of the different routes by which Irish technology businesses develop, including the journey from university research to commercialisation.

ProVerum, for example, emerged from research at Trinity College Dublin and has progressed towards commercialising its medical technology internationally, illustrating the journey from university research through product development and towards scaling a business.

Herdwatch provided another perspective on building and financing an Irish technology company with international ambitions.

A broad technology ecosystem

The breadth of Ireland’s technology and business ecosystem was reflected in the attendance, which included Fintan Finnan of CueX10, Leyla Karaha of Catalyst Noir, Fiona Doyle of Agile Executives, Colin Keogh of ICP, Deirdre McCarthy of AllSkills Education, William Fogarty of Maples Group, Simon Boucher of Global Innovators and Dorothy Creaven of Jentic.

What was striking at the gathering was the generally positive mood. The challenges around capital, talent, taxation and scaling are well understood, this was an industry gathering characterised by optimism.

Engagement with Government

Scale Ireland’s engagement with Government was evident at the gathering, with many of the issues it has raised around capital, taxation and scaling reflected in Simon Harris’s address.

Harris stopped short of announcing measures ahead of Budget 2027, but acknowledged that Government needs to work more closely with scaling businesses.

“Businesses don’t simply want another scheme,” he said. “They want schemes that work.”

Companies want simplicity, certainty and “a tax system that recognises the reality of scaling a modern company”, he added.

The question of how Ireland helps more indigenous companies scale, Harris told the gathering, is now firmly part of Government thinking.

Ireland’s success in attracting international investment remains an enormous economic asset. The challenge highlighted at Scale Ireland’s gathering is how to build alongside it a stronger base of Irish-founded companies capable of scaling from here and becoming global businesses themselves.

About Billy Linehan

Billy Linehan is a freelance writer and business adviser covering innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, and a regular contributor to Irish Tech News. An experienced business mentor, he works with start-ups, business owners and SMEs on strategy, growth and business development.

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