Irish companies raise €61 million in VC funding

Eleven companies in the Republic raised $68 million (€60.8 million) in venture capital (VC) funding in the first three months of the year, with the value of deals having fallen sharply compared with both the same period last year and the last quarter of 2018, according to KPMG.

Irish companies raised almost $300 million in VC financing in the first quarter of 2018 and about $225 million in the final three months of the year.

"The pattern of venture investing in Ireland can be quite volatile quarter to quarter and can be heavily influenced by one or two large fundraisings," said Anna Scally, a partner and head of technology and media and fintech at KPMG in Ireland.

“Expectations are that the numbers will rebound significantly in second quarter 2019.”

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The figures are contained in a wider KPMG report on venture capital activity internationally in the first quarter, which found that overall VC investment dropped to $53 billion globally from a record high of US$71 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, due to a decline in Chinese investment, among other factors.

In Europe, VC investment saw mixed results, potentially influenced by ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and associated challenges with Brexit, according to KPMG.

In the first three months of the year, Galway-based medtech company Atlantic Therapeutics closed a $32 million fundraising, which was led by a number of international funds with local fund Atlantic Bridge Ventures, through its China-Ireland Growth Tech Fund, participating.

Galway-based medtechs Perfuze and Enterasense raised $3.4 million and $1.16 million, respectively. Dublin- and Boston-based digital health company HealthBeacon also secured $12 million in a fundraising round.

Other companies that raised funds included CroíValve, a spinout from Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, which raised $3.7 million, and e-commerce technology company, ChannelSight, which raised $10 million.