TechIreland today releases its Female Founder Funding Review 2025 that tracks investment into women-founded startups. CLICK HERE to download. The report was sponsored by AWS and released in partnership with Fierce (the network of women tech founders).

The report shows that last year, 48 Irish women-founded startups fundraised a total of €145m. The overall amount of funding raised by women founders is making a recovery from 2023, which was the lowest since 2019.

Deal size also increased significantly, with the average raise growing to €2.9m in 2024 from €1.2m in 2023. However, that was still only half the €6m average raise for all Irish tech startups last year. The number of women-founded companies that raised capital last year dropped compared to 2023, reflecting a global trend – last year women-founded companies raising capital across Europe dropped significantly.

Early Stages

In 2024, there were 27 reported deals of female-led companies raising between €0.1m and €3m, compared to 64 in 2023. As usual, some rounds were undisclosed. Startups raising €1m – €3m remained steady, with 14 companies raising €26m. Angel networks including AwakenAngels and HBAN helped female founders and government-backed initiatives such as NDRC, Founders Accelerator, HBAN, and Enterprise Ireland’s PSSF and HPSU are playing a key role in early-stage funding.

Large Outliers

As in previous years, while the number of companies raising investment dropped compared to the previous year, the total amount of funding increased due to a small number of very large deals.  Four investments accounted for  €85m or 60% of the funding for women founded startups. Deals include Dublin’s Nuritas (€38m) and Croivalve (€15m), Galway’s MBRYONICS (€18m) and Luminate Medical (€15m).

Interestingly, 1 in 4 of the Female Founded Startups, was a Third-Level Spinout, Collectively the 10 spinouts raised €42m. State supports such as European Innovation Council’s funding and Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund play a crucial role in funding  deep tech innovation.

Sectoral Focus

Reflecting the strength of our Life Science and Healthtech sector, funding into these segments made up nearly 90% of the €145m invested. This trend mirrors what we see across Europe, where health remains a top sector for female founders. Investment into Enterprise Software, another strong Irish sector, grew significantly with €11m raised by 10 companies in 2024 compared to 9 raising €3m in 2023. Eight of the 48 women led startups are working on Artificial Intelligence solutions. Overall funding levels into EdTech grew from €0.1m (2023) to €1.6m (2024) and Agri/Food from €1.2m (2023) to €3.5m (2024), while CleanTech remained steady at €2.7m. Fintech continues its downward trend, falling from €72 million (2022) to €4million (2023) to €2m (2024).

Regional Spread

In terms of regional spread, as usual, over half of all Female Founders Funding went to companies in Dublin. However, eleven companies in Galway collectively raised €54 Million – all Life Sciences companies.  And of the 10 spinouts that raised money in 2024, 6 are from Galway. Five Cork-based Female Founded Startups raised €4m.

Responding to the report;

Chief Executive of TechIreland, John O’Dea said, “This is TechIreland’s seventh report on Irish Women Founder funding and support.  While the picture is getting better, it’s clear we still have a long way to go.  Tech startups with even one female founder account for less than 15% of the total raised by Irish companies and the average funding raised by companies with a woman founder is only half the average for all companies.  Clearly, doing more to support women tech entrepreneurs is urgently required.’’ 

Further comments on the report’s findings:

  • Aine Mulloy, Account Manager, Startups at Amazon Web Services said, ‘‘For female founders, it’s clear that 2024 was hard won, with €145M raised across 48 companies. While this represents over a 50% increase on 2023, it’s clear that some large outliers inflated the total. Early stage funding continues to dwindle. Female founders are delivering growth on a shoestring, imagine what they could do with a full suite of supports.”
  • Conor O’Donovan, Head of Startups & Entrepreneurship at Enterprise Ireland said, ‘‘TechIreland’s data shows that female founders are attracting larger investments over recent years and we need to continue to build on this. Despite the gains made in recent years, there is more to be done to encourage more women to participate across all stages of our startup ecosystem.’’
  • Lorraine Curham, Head of Ops @NDRC with Dogpatch Labs, Founder of Fierce said, ‘‘Ireland has the potential to become a launchpad for early-stage, women-led startups – attracting global investment as they scale. However, achieving this requires more early-stage funding and sectoral diversification.”
  • Emma Meehan, Founder, CEO & CTO of Precision Sports Technology said: “The challenge cannot be understated for early-stage founders raising their first round without an established network. We are delighted to have Precision Sports Technology’s pre-seed round contributing to these figures, but this was after almost three years of building, bootstrapping and making the most out of government supports. These government supports are where I feel Ireland truly shines, and we wouldn’t be where we are without them.”
  • Orla Browne, Head of Insights at Dealroom said; ‘‘Female-founded companies in Europe raised over €5.76 billion in 2024 – around 12% of all capital raised. While this marks a decline from 2023, it aligns with the broader market trend. Collectively, women-led businesses contribute over €4.5 billion in enterprise value to the Irish ecosystem, with nearly half of this value coming from companies established in the last decade.
  • Susan Kelly, Operations Director at ICT Skillnet said; “Despite a challenging funding landscape, female-founded startups in Ireland continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience and innovation. While overall investment figures have fluctuated, female-led businesses remain a critical force in Ireland’s tech ecosystem, employing thousands of skilled professionals and driving advancements in key industries.

Please find the report here. More press information, email: sree@techireland.org