Record number of Irish female-founded startups raise funding in 2025, but mid-sized rounds decline

TechIreland’s latest Female Founder Funding Review 2026 reports a record number of Irish female-founded startups raising investment in 2025, even as the market shows signs of tightening capital availability and a widening gap between early-stage and scaling rounds.

According to the report, 82 Irish startups with female founders secured a combined €131 million in funding during 2025, the highest number of companies funded in any year to date. However, total capital raised declined slightly from €145 million in 2024, reflecting broader pressures across the venture market.

The figures point to an increasingly polarised funding landscape. Average deal size fell sharply from €3.9 million in 2024 to €2.3 million in 2025, while the median funding round dropped dramatically from €1.5 million to just €100,000. This suggests that while more companies are accessing early-stage capital, fewer are progressing into larger seed or Series A rounds.

Brian Caulfield, Chair of TechIreland, said the figures highlight a structural issue in the market.

“While it’s encouraging to see so many female-founded companies raising capital, it’s a concern that the market has bifurcated, with a very small number of companies raising large rounds and a very large number raising very small rounds,” he said. “The mid-market of seed and Series A raises is being hollowed out.”

Surge in early-stage activity

Much of the increase in deal activity occurred at the earliest stages of startup development. In 2025, 36 companies raised between €100,000 and €300,000, compared with just eight in 2024.

This growth reflects strong early-stage support infrastructure in Ireland, including Enterprise Ireland programmes such as the Pre-Seed Start Fund (PSSF) and High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) supports, alongside angel networks such as HBAN and AwakenAngels and accelerator programmes like Fierce and NextWave.

Sarah Walker, Head of Startups and Entrepreneurship at Enterprise Ireland, noted that the number of women-led companies raising funding in 2025 was the highest since 2017.

“The headline TechIreland figure – 82 companies raising in 2025 – is almost double last year and is cause for celebration,” she said. “However, total funding levels declined slightly, reflecting a challenging funding environment.”

Large outlier shapes overall funding

Despite the high number of funded startups, overall investment was heavily influenced by a single major transaction.

Dublin-based medtech company ProVerum raised €72.7 million in 2025, accounting for more than half of the total funding reported for female-founded startups that year.

Other notable funding rounds included Lative (€6.4 million), Novus Diagnostics (€4.6 million), &Open (€4.5 million) and Mobility Mojo (€4.3 million).

Lorraine Curham, founder of the Fierce accelerator programme, said Ireland now faces the challenge of supporting startups beyond the earliest stages.

“For Ireland, the next challenge is what comes after that first cheque,” she said. “Ireland has the pipeline. What it needs next is the infrastructure layer to scale it.”

Sector trends

The report shows that life sciences and healthtech remain the dominant sectors for female-founded startups in Ireland. Together they accounted for almost 70 percent of the €131 million raised in 2025, driven largely by ProVerum’s funding round.

Enterprise software also recorded strong growth, with 22 companies raising €30.7 million in 2025 compared with €10.7 million raised by 10 companies in 2024. Funding in agri-food and consumer/e-commerce also grew modestly, while cleantech investment declined and fintech continued a sharp multi-year drop.

Regional imbalance persists

Geographically, the data highlights a significant concentration of funding in Dublin. Startups based in the capital accounted for around 91 percent of all funding raised by female founders in 2025.

While 37 percent of female-founded startups are located outside Dublin, companies in the regions received just over 9 percent of total investment, a sharp drop from approximately 30 percent in 2024.

Ríona Ní Ghriallais, co-founder and CTO of ProVerum, said the findings show that the pipeline of female founders is growing but structural issues remain.

“The report encouragingly tells us that early-stage funding access is improving,” she said. “However, the concentration of capital in a small number of later-stage deals and the persistent geographic imbalance remain key challenges.”

Implications for Ireland’s innovation ecosystem

Female-founded tech companies in Ireland now employ more than 6,000 people, according to the report, highlighting the sector’s growing contribution to the national innovation economy.

For Ireland’s wider startup ecosystem – including sectors such as construction technology, climate technology and urban innovation – the report highlights a familiar structural challenge: strong early-stage activity, but insufficient capital and support mechanisms to help companies scale.

For emerging sectors connected to the built environment, including proptech, climate solutions and infrastructure innovation, the availability of scaling capital and stronger regional investment networks will likely play a decisive role in determining whether promising startups can grow into globally competitive companies.