Female-led Irish start-ups raised €230m in funding last year, more than double the €105m raised in 2020, according to a report issued by TechIreland for International Women's Day.
The research shows that 55 tech start-ups and small businesses with a female founder or co-founded raised a total of €230m through venture capital, grants equity finance and angel investments,
The total represents an increase of 120% from 2020 when female founders at Irish start-ups and scale-up companies raised €105m, breaking the €100m barrier for the first time despite an international down turn in venture capitalist funding for female founders amid the pandemic.
Imbalance remains within the investor community, however, with only 20% of partners and 30% in mid-level teams at Irish venture capitalist firms being female, and just 13% of investment in Irish tech goes to female-led companies
"From an investor’s perspective, and for Ireland, better performance means more wealth and employment," John O'Dea, chief executive of TechIreland, said. "These are great results, but they are not grounds for complacency - females-led tech businesses still only get 13% of the investment into Irish tech. We can and must do better than this."
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Sarah Jane Larkin of the Irish Venture Capital Association added: "We can be confident that the investment climate for female founded companies in Ireland is improving. However, none of us can be happy with a world where women secure only 13% of all funding, and we must now focus on efforts to accelerate the funding of female founded start-ups."
The 470 female-founded companies tracked by TechIreland represent 16% of start-ups and scale-ups on the island of Ireland, and of the 311 companies that raised funding last year, 18% were female founded.
Eight companies raised more than €10m each, representing 70% of the total raised by female-founded firms last year as well as a major increase in the number of female-led firms raising eight-figure sums from just two in 2020.
Female-founded companies still raise less than average amounts of funding, however, with an average investment of €4.1m comparing to the overall average of €5.3m, and the report also shows a drop in the number of early stage rounds between €100,000 and €1m despite support by Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Startup Funding and the Competitive Startup Funding.
"Back in 2011 only 7% of Enterprise Ireland backed High Potential Startups included a woman founder. By putting a spotlight on this and providing capability and funding supports specifically targeting women, this has now tripled to over 21%," Sheelah Daly of Enterprise Ireland said.
Health sciences, and specifically life sciences, remains the top sector for funding among female fundings, accounting for €117m or more than half of the total, while enterprise solutions tops the charts in terms of volume of companies receiving funding at 35% of 19 out of 55 companies.
Jennifer McMahon of Seroba Life Sciences said the €117m figure was representative of "great strides" being made, but that "female founders face challenges in accessing capital, and in closing the confidence gap.
"We need more female led start-ups and various initiatives have created a nurturing environment for founders to ‘start’."
Sectors such as CleanTech and FinTech recorded marginal increases in investment activity, whereas others like AgriTech, Education and Consumer products saw a marginal decline, TechIreland said.
Dublin-based companies accounted for two-thirds of funding (66%) for female-founded companies, receiving some €152m, up from 46% of funding in 2020, but there were some significant investments in female-led firms in Galway and Mayo. Northern Irish companies represent less than 1% of total funding raised, down from 4% in 2020.
(Pic: Getty Images)
