The funding rounds come as a Scale Ireland survey shows that start-ups still feel raising funds in Ireland is a huge challenge.
The Irish start-up ecosystem had a busy start to the year, with many announcing significant funding rounds. Chief among the raises is quantum start-up Equal1, which announced a $60m round to help with wider deployment of Ireland’s first homegrown quantum processing unit.
But a recent Scale Ireland survey found that businesses still feel raising funds is a huge challenge in the country. The finding is also in line with a 2025 Government report which found that Irish scale-up enterprises would face a €1.1bn gap in equity financing over three to five years.
Needless to say, financing start-ups is a daunting task. Here’s 10 across the island that managed to succeed.
Aerska
Emerging from stealth last October with a seed round of $21m, this Irish RNA biotech announced its second raise earlier this month.
The $39m Series A round was led by EQT Dementia Fund and Age1, with participation from Iaso Ventures and other existing investors, and takes its total raise to $60m.
Aerska is developing medicines that use RNA interference (RNAi), an approach that can silence harmful genes linked to brain diseases. It has developed ‘brain shuttles’ to deliver RNAi to fight diseases in the central nervous system.
AICertified
This Dublin-based edtech announced a €1m raise in January, led by Oyster Capital with support from Enterprise Ireland.
AICertified, a training platform on AI-related courses, was founded just last year by Ian Dodson, the co-founder of Digital Marketing Institute. Dodson wants his new business to set a “single reliable standard, provide an outcome-driven path and certify skills in a way employers and students can trust”.
The investment is intended to accelerate product development, grow AICertified’s team from eight to 15 and scale the company’s learning platform ahead of its first course, which launched this month.
Circit
Dublin-based fintech Circit secured $22m in growth equity this month to continue scaling its financial auditing and verification platform. The round was led by New York’s Ten Coves Capital, with participation from Aquiline and MiddleGame Ventures.
Founded in 2017, Circit offers audit confirmation, data validation and client collaboration services by directly connecting auditors with banks, financial institutions and other relevant parties through secure networks.
The new funding will be used for product innovation, network connectivity and team expansion, especially in the US. Circit was named in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 list for 2025.
Equal1
This Dublin-based quantum start-up made waves last year with the launch of Ireland’s first home-grown quantum processing unit, Bell-1. And this January, it announced a $60m round to help deploy Bell-1 to high-performance computing centres, including to the European Space Agency’s Phi-lab in Italy.
The funding round was led by Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, with participation from Atlantic Bridge, the European Innovation Council Fund, Matterwave Ventures, Enterprise Ireland, Elkstone and TNO Ventures.
The funding will also enable Equal1 to advance its roadmap towards “millions” of on-chip qubits, scale manufacturing and grow its team.
Eolas
Belfast’s Eolas Medical raised $12m in Series A funding in January to scale its existing AI functionality within the UK’s National Health Service and continue international expansion.
The 2019-founded company said its AI search platform aims to provide frontline healthcare professionals with knowledge tools supporting clinical safety, adherence and productivity via a dedicated AI-powered platform. The platform is already used at more than 400 clinical sites in the UK.
Eolas founder and CEO Dr Declan Kelly said: “Eolas has always been about solving a very practical problem: giving healthcare professionals fast, reliable access to the knowledge they need, when they need it.”
Linda AI
Dually-based in London and Dublin, this health-tech announced a €2.6m pre-seed raise in February to scale its agentic AI platform catering to dental practices.
Co-founded by Irish sisters India and Portia Healy O’Connor along with Lucio Tudisco, Linda AI’s platform aims to avoid lost bookings and wastage of capacity at dental practices by providing a voice AI agent to deal with patients on the phone even when a reception desk may be busy or closed.
Its AI agents integrate with existing practice management and communication systems to complete administrative tasks like appointment scheduling and rescheduling, confirmations, and patient follow-ups, working alongside front-desk teams while automating workflows through voice, text and system integrations when capacity is constrained.
Luna
Based out of Dublin, Luna is the creator of AI safety camera hardware for bicycles and motorcycles. It announced a €1.5m late seed round in January, led by cycling-focused VC firm Fundracer Capital and EIT Urban Mobility, with additional support from Enterprise Ireland, with plans to bring its hardware to market.
Luna takes inspiration from aspects of ‘advanced driver assistance systems’ – embedded computer vision technology in vehicles such as cars that make them safer to drive – and infuses them into AI-powered advanced assistance systems for bicycles and motorcycles.
Luna – which was in founded in 2020 at Dublin City University – said it plans to use this latest raise to accelerate to market as a full system provider, widening its commercial scope.
Neurent Medical
The Galway medtech led by Brian Shields closed a €62.5m Series C financing round in February for its Neuromark medical device that treats chronic rhinitis.
MVM Partners led the funding round, with participation from Sofinnova Partners, EQT Life Sciences, Atlantic Bridge, Fountain Healthcare Partners and Enterprise Ireland.
Neuromark employs the company’s proprietary Impedance Controlled Radiofrequency technology to target the overactive posterior nasal nerves that drive the symptoms of chronic rhinitis, which affects millions worldwide.
Shields said that the new investment will allow it to expand patient access, enable further evidence generation across broader populations and support the continued development of its pipeline offerings.
Overpath
2025-founded Dublin start-up Overpath raised €1.6m in late January – in a round led by Elkstone – to further develop its AI sales execution platform for revenue teams. AI-focused investor Sure Valley Ventures also participated in the funding round.
Overpath said it is building a new layer in the revenue stack focused on sales execution, which spans sales enablement, revenue operations and coaching software. The platform analyses live deal behaviour across systems, and attempts to identify execution gaps early.
The platform is powered by a domain-specific sales language AI model trained on real behaviour, deal methodologies and execution patterns used by high-performing teams, according to the company,
TeamFeePay
Also in January, Belfast-based sports technology start-up TeamFeePay announced the closing of a £9m equity funding round to help expand its coaching services platform into new markets and fuel a recruitment drive.
Founded in 2021, the start-up has developed a software platform that helps football coaches and clubs plan fixtures, training sessions and events, as well as track attendance and manage administrative tasks.
The platform has nearly 300,000 users and supports more than 1,500 clubs. The new funding is expected to help growth in the UK, enable further expansion into Europe and fund new product development.
YFM Equity Partners led the funding round with a £4.5m investment, Investment Fund for Northern Ireland funnelled £3m, and Techstart contributed £800,000.
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