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Irish photovoltaic energy startup Amarenco's €300M ($321.5M) funding round from Arjun Infrastructure Partners completed in Mar. 2023 singlehandedly helped push the Irish VC funding in Q1 2023 to record levels. Per Irish Venture Capital Association's (IVCA) latest Venture Pulse report, Irish startups raised €502M ($557M) in VC funding in Q1 2023, up 32% from the same period last year when Irish startups secured €380M ($407M). Last year, funding remained above €300M ($321M) in the first three quarters before dipping below to €244M ($261M) in the last quarter of 2022. Without Amarenco's funding round, the total for this quarter would have been in line with the preceding quarter. Despite the surge in Q1, funding for the remaining year is expected to remain subdued, in line with the global VC funding slump. VC funding for the region remained robust in the recent quarter, helping it defy the global VC funding pullback trend. In the first three months of the year, global VC funding dropped by 56% YoY reaching $76B, half than Q1 2022's tally of $162B. IVCA's chairperson Leo Hamill said, "While Amarenco boosted the figures, if you exclude deals above €30M in the first quarter of 2023 and 2022, this year still saw a rise of 70% to over €200M for the first three months, which reflects well in view of global headwinds across the sector." Per IVCA, deal sizes increased significantly for all funding rounds larger than €3M ($3.2M). However, deal values of round sizes smaller than €3M ($3.2M) declined. Deal values of rounds priced between €1M ($1.07M) and €3M ($3.2M) dropped by two-thirds to €10M ($10.72M). Deal values of rounds smaller than €1M ($1.07M) dropped by 28% to €6.4M ($6.86M). Overall, seed-stage VC funding dropped to €7.5M ($8.04M). Nearly 40% of the total VC funding invested in startups was provided by foreign investors. VC funding provided by foreign investors increased by 210% in funding rounds smaller than €30M ($32.15M). "In the context of a global slowdown in VC investment, the high level of international funding secured by Irish companies clearly demonstrates a strong appetite for innovative indigenous enterprises which reflects their high quality and realistic valuations," said IVCA's director general Sarah-Jane Larkin.
Majority of the funding, or 66% of the total, was deployed into environmental tech startups, followed by 11% into the life sciences sector. Fintech and cybersecurity accounted for 5% and 2% of the deals, respectively. Other sectors, including consumer goods, sports, marine sciences, and nanotechnology, account for the remaining 16% of the funding. Besides Amarenco, other notable startups that closed funding rounds in the recent quarter were medtech startup Fire1 and environmental tech startup Supernode, raising €27.3M ($29.6M) and €16M ($17.1M), respectively. Assure Hedge, Astatine, and Neuromod raised €15M ($16M) each. In the quarter, 21 Irish startups nabbed between €5M ($5.36M) and €30M ($32.15M) in venture funding. |
