Venture capital funding into Irish technology SMEs rose by 8% to €207.9m in the third quarter of 2025, compared to the same period last year, according to the Irish Venture Capital Association Venture Pulse survey, published today in association with William Fry.

Funding for the nine months to end September fell by 10% to €853.4m from €945.3m the previous year. The total number of deals in the same period fell from 153 to 135.

"Third quarter data provided some relief following a dismal second quarter this year when funding fell to €112.6m, its lowest in ten years," commented Caroline Gaynor, chairperson, Irish Venture Capital Association. "Hopefully, we are starting to see some confidence and stability return to the market, but it remains a challenging time for early-stage companies."

She added that following the blow to investor confidence caused by the United States' April 2nd tariff shocks, international investors had started to return to the market. International VC investment into Irish SMEs rose to €146.7 m in the current quarter compared to €69.5m in the second quarter of this year.

She said that bright spots in the overall data were deals in the €1m- €5m range, which accounted for 30 out of the 39 transactions in this quarter. Transactions in the €1-€3m category rose by 35% to €35.6m compared to the same time last year. Deals in the €3-€5m range increased by 18% to €34.7m.

However, funding in the €10m-€30m category fell by two-thirds to €26m while €5-€10m deals dropped by 74% to €13.5m, compared to the same quarter last year. There was better news in the €30m+ category where medtech company, ProVerum raised €62m, and AI machine learning firm, Nory raised €34m.

Sarah-Jane Larkin, director general, IVCA, said that while there was some healthy activity, gaps remained in the third quarter, particularly in seed funding and transactions under €1m, both of which disappointed. Seed or first rounds fell by 30% to €23.4m from €33.5m, compared to the same quarter last year. Seed funding for the first nine months was down 31% to €88.3m from €127.2m last year.

Despite this shortfall, the IVCA director general said: "The process for deploying the Government's €250m Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2025-29 is well underway. We are optimistic that the environment for very early stage Irish companies seeking first round funding will pick up in the first half of next year."

Lifesciences was the most successful sector to date this year, raising funds of €361.6m or 42% of the total in the first nine months. This was followed by Cybersecurity at €136.3m (16%); AI and machine learning €97m (11%); Fintech €92.2m (11%) and Software €66.2m (8%).

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