A TechIreland report shows that women leading start-ups in Ireland have outshone their European peers in terms of raising investment.

TechIreland, the all-island portal that showcases start-ups and the Irish innovation landscape, has released its Female Founder Funding Review 2026, which tracked investment into women-founded start-ups throughout 2025. 

The report shows that last year, 82 Irish start-ups led by women raised a total of €131m, representing the highest number of women-founded start-ups funded in any given year.

In 2025, 36 such organisations raised between €0.1m and €0.3m compared to only eight in 2024, while 11 companies funded in the range of €1m-€3m raised €18.7m between them in 2025.  

Despite some positive figures, however, the average deal size was shown to have significantly declined. In 2024, the average raise was €3.9m, dropping to €2.3m in 2025, with the report suggesting that this is as a result of an increase in the volume of deals being made.  

The median figure also dropped to just €100k last year, compared to €1.5m in 2024, indicating a widening funding divide between a smaller group of large rounds and a large cohort of very small rounds.

The report does find, however, that even in this landscape, Irish female founders are outshining their European peers in the raising of early-stage funding. 

The report found that while the Dealroom start-up ecosystems portal shows a decline in the number of early-stage rounds for women-founded start-ups, the trend in Ireland represents a nearly two-fold increase in the total number of rounds raised by women-founded start-ups last year. 

TechIreland’s research suggests that angel networks – for example, HBAN and AwakenAngels – as well as early-stage accelerator programmes such as Fierce and NextWave, alongside flagship supports from Enterprise Ireland, play a critical role in building a strong platform for women founders.

The report also highlights a key sectoral influence. Funding into the life sciences and health-tech sectors made up almost 70pc of the total funds raised. This was mirrored in wider Europe, where health remains a top sector among female founders. 

The enterprise software sector also performed well, growing from €10.7m raised by 10 start-ups in 2024 to €30.7m raised by 22 companies in 2025. Other sectors experiencing growth included the agri/food and consumer/e-commerce spaces, while clean-tech and fintech continue to decline.  

Funding was also disproportionate regionally. Similar to previous years, companies in  Dublin dominated the overall figures. More than 90pc of all funding into start-ups established by women was in a Dublin location. The report partially attributed this to the fact that ProVerum, which accounted for nearly half of all funding raised, is a company based in Dublin. 

Commenting on the findings of the report, the chair of TechIreland Brian Caulfield said: “2025 was an interesting year for female founders from a fundraising perspective. On the face of it, the numbers held up pretty well. 

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

Sarah Walker, who oversees start-ups and entrepreneurship at Enterprise Ireland, said: “The headline TechIreland figure, 82 companies raising in 2025, is almost double last year and the highest level of activity since 2017, which is cause for celebration. 

“While the increased number of women-led and co-founded companies raising is encouraging, TechIreland reports total funding levels of €131m in 2025, down from €145m in 2024, reflecting a challenging funding environment.”

Lorraine Curham, the founder of Fierce, added: “For Ireland, the next challenge is what comes after that first cheque. In more mature ecosystems, founders are supported not just by programmes, but by strong networks, investor relationships and ecosystem layers that help companies move from early traction into follow-on capital and scale. Ireland has the pipeline. What it needs next is the infrastructure layer to scale it.”

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