The government agency responsible for the development and growth of Irish companies in global markets, invested €24 million in Irish start-ups and supported a total of 156 start-up companies in 2023. Investment was provided through Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) and Pre-Seed Start Fund (PSSF) programmes.
Start-ups supported by Enterprise Ireland in 2023 include: 85 High Potential Start-Up’s (HPSU) with high growth potential; and 71 Pre-Seed Start Fund (PSSF) investments which inject critical early-stage funding into new businesses.
26 companies were spun out of third level institutions, 16 of which were supported through the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund Programme. 12 HPSUs emerged from academic research.
55% of the companies supported were outside Dublin and 45 women-led start-up companies were approved investment.
600 delegates attended the Enterprise Ireland Start-Up Day in Dublin Castle recently which brought together the ‘Class of 2023’ Start-Up companies and the wider Start-Up ecosystem including investors, state agencies and start-up accelerators.
For the first time, Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day hosted a ‘big ideas’ pitch element where the top 10 potential spin-outs borne out of Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Funded Research in Irish third level institutions took to the stage to pitch their innovations.
LaNua Medical from UCD, which is developing solutions for problems in embolization took home the overall Big Idea’s award. Its GateKeeper device blocks blood flow to select tissue, while enabling targeted therapeutic delivery with reduced risk of side effects. As part of the award, Dr. Cormac Farrelly and the LaNua Medical team will go on to represent Ireland at the Pegasus Start-Up World Cup in San Francisco later in the year.
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