Scale Ireland Survey Shows Funding and Staffing are Biggest Issues Facing Irish Start-ups

Access to finance and the retention and recruitment of staff are the biggest challenges facing Irish start-ups, according to the findings of Scale Ireland’s first State of Start-ups Survey.

The survey was launched to gauge the sentiment of entrepreneurs in the sector on key issues including the economy, employment, taxation, state supports and incentives, skills, gender, and sustainability.

Two hundred and thirty start-up founders and CEOs contributed to the survey, which also found that the vast majority of those who responded had not applied for key state schemes including the Employment Incentive Investment Scheme, R&D Tax Credits or the KEEP share option scheme.

Most of the founders also indicated that their company did not have a sustainability or climate action plan.

The State of Start-ups Survey will form the backdrop for Scale Ireland’s first Regional Start-up Summit, which will be launched today (28th January) by An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and will include some of the country’s leading start-ups including Fenergo and Teamwork.

Ministers Michael McGrath and Simon Harris are also addressing the summit, which is taking place online from Cork and is supported by Microsoft for Startups.

Responding to the survey findings, the CEO of Scale Ireland, Martina Fitzgerald said: “This survey highlights the challenges facing indigenous tech start-ups. At a time when the sector is experiencing significant growth, it should not be held back.

“The ambition and momentum of start-ups must now be matched by increased state support. With this support, indigenous start-ups will create more employment and grow globally’’.

The Chair of Scale Ireland, Brian Caulfield, added: “We now have further evidence of the challenges facing founders to retain staff. It is becoming more difficult, with four out of ten founders that contributed to our survey, losing staff over the last twelve months.

“This is a pressing issue, that needs to be urgently addressed. It is also critical that we examine why many founders are not availing of state incentive schemes. We have to ensure they are user-friendly’.

The General Manager of Microsoft Ireland, Anne Sheehan said: “This survey has provided very important insights for stakeholders across all sectors to better understand the key challenges facing the start-up community in Ireland.

“We need to nurture the ecosystems and form partnerships to create the best financial and policy supports, skills programmes and technology solutions to support Irish start-ups to secure and grow their businesses.

“This will ultimately ensure we develop the environment for the next  generation of start-ups to succeed in the Irish economy”

There are currently more than 2,000 indigenous tech start-up and scale-up companies, employing more than 47,000 people in Ireland.

For each additional job created by a start-up, five additional jobs are created in the wider economy. There are 188 start-ups in Cork, 151 in Galway and 87 in Limerick, with clusters of start-up and scale-up companies in counties Clare, Kerry, Kildare, Louth and Waterford.

The leading Irish venture capital firm, Atlantic Bridge, the Irish executive recruitment firm Hadfield Green and the Cork digital hub, Republic of Work are also supporting the Regional Start-up Summit.