NDRC

Today NDRC celebrates three years of helping build a thriving startup ecosystem in Ireland - supporting thousands of founders and hundreds of companies. Some of the highlights so far? 🌟 €56m raised by NDRC startups 🌟 €180m raised by the entire portfolio 🌟 650+ new jobs created in Ireland 🌟 30% women-led or co-led investments We’re also proud to announce a 2-year contract extension to continue supporting entrepreneurs and their ambition to make Ireland the best place in Europe to build a startup company, with thanks to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. This has been a collective effort powered by partner hubs Dogpatch Labs (Dublin), PorterShed (Galway), RDI Hub (Kerry) and Republic of Work (Cork), and supported by an invaluable network of passionate ecosystem builders at home and on an international scale, from VCs to corporate partners, to universities, mentors and speakers. This wouldn’t be possible without each one of you. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eh96cv2a

Why should you join the NDRC Accelerator? 150+ seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts. Mentors who have built, scaled and exited businesses across Ireland and globally. Join the NDRC Accelerator and grow your business with help from the best! Past NDRC Accelerator mentors include Ann Hunt, who built and successfully exited her fintech company, Chasing Returns, to Nasdaq-listed StoneX; Maria McMenamin, known for her background in technology sales at tech giants like Salesforce and Stripe; and Michelle Fogarty, co-founder of PepTalk and a former head of HR for scaling companies in Ireland, including Twitter and Blizzard Entertainment. Learn from seasoned mentors and scale your startup. NDRC Accelerator applications are open until March 31st. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/e94waHnU

The summer of 2023 changed young engineer Ryan Morrissey’s life. An 8-week stint in the Patch youth accelerator, where he co-founded Induct (the latest startup in NDRC Accelerator 2025 intake), sparked an entrepreneurial passion to build. Two years later, Ryan is fully immersed in software at UL’s prestigious Immersive Software Engineering course, building a new startup idea Kepri Solar, which he hacked at a recent NDRC Startup Sprint (and took home first prize for!), and is now validating on the NDRC Pre-Accelerator. How did he get here? Ryan calls the #StartupSprint a “game-changer” where his cofounders got first-hand structure, guidance, and mentors who “gave us the belief that we were on the right track.” Have you a startup idea brewing? Join the Startup Sprint in Limerick’s Engine Hubs this March 29th with RDI Hub. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dxYejCqR

Today TechIreland released its Female Founders & Funders 2025 Report, in partnership with Fierce Tech Founders at Dogpatch Labs, and sponsored by AWS. Representing Dogpatch Labs and NDRC at today’s launch was Lorraine E. Curham, who leads up Fierce - an initiative to support globally ambitious women tech founders to scale. What three insights can startups take away from this report? 1. Funding for women-led startups in Ireland is up, but the number of overall deals being made is down.  2. Notably, just 4 out of 46 investments accounted for 60% of total funding in 2024 for women (co)founded startups. Many of the later-stage rounds were led by non-Irish investors (UK and US). In contrast, earlier-stage investment rounds tend to be led by Irish investors.  3. Out of the €142m invested in 2024, €122m went to life sciences and health tech (including the top four above). The remaining 20m was split between six other sectors. Download the full report: https://lnkd.in/epAHBJVJ Did you miss today’s launch? We’ve got some great advice from today’s panellists of founders, investors and ecosystem builders: Chirp’s founder Rena Maycock highlights the power of the network, “Do not underestimate the power of other founders. Ask for introductions but be clear what you’re asking for,” while Peri's founder Heidi Davis who was Enterprise Ireland’s Founder of the Year 2024 shares VC tips: “Get investors that are good for your cap table, don’t always focus on gender, but think about the balance as it may actually help you!” Tech journalist Elaine Burke, host of the new For Tech’s Sake podcast, illustrates how instrumental your comms are: “Become the best storyteller in the room. Most successful founders are brilliant at storytelling.” Red Flags from an investor's perspective? Andreea Wade, exited founder and now partner at Delta Partners Ltd., weighs in: “Founders that don’t have depth of talking through the space they are in. I like founders who give me details. Look at every single slide of your pitch deck; what questions could you be asked?“ A well-known name in the Irish tech ecosystem DC Cahalane, Venture Partner at Sure Valley Ventures talks about identifying what your startup is solving: “I want to feel the pain in the problem, you will not stop until this problem is solved. Do your research on the VC/investor. Is this an area that they want to actively invest in? Avoid wasting their time or your time by blasting investors hoping they’ll invest in your solution.” Ireland has the potential to become a launchpad for early-stage, women-led startups - attracting global investment as they scale. However, achieving this requires more early-stage funding and sectoral diversification. What are your thoughts? Share below in the comments. Áine Mulloy | Ed O'Riordan |Sarah Walker | Sree (Sreekanth Nagabhushana) | John O'Dea

“From that moment on, we made sure that everything was machine-discoverable, machine-payable, machine-useful.” Adapt or Die: Sulu’s startup co-founder on Agentic Economy. Susan O’Neill, one half of the payment infrastructure for agentic software - Sulu, shares her thoughts on evolving for this new agentic world. Supported in NDRC Accelerator 24H2, Sulu’s pivot to focus on AI agents as primary consumers was a “pivotal moment” for the company. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g5VGwPds NDRC Accelerator applications are open until March 31st. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/e94waHnU

Are you a tech startup founder looking to scale your startup without giving up equity too soon? The NDRC Accelerator offers a founder-friendly investment through an uncapped SAFE note. This means you get the financial flexibility you need to scale without diluting your ownership prematurely. Want to scale your tech startup? NDRC Accelerator applications are open until March 31st. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/e94waHnU

A real honour to be invited back to the University of Limerick yesterday. As part of IF@UL, I spoke to 500 students about my own entrepreneurial journey - along with my work at the NDRC and RDI Hub. I was blown away by the 4 other incredible speakers: Alannah Pardy, David Pollard, Caren Schwannauer & Ben Sheehan - truly inspiring work by you all. A massive thanks to Roisin Lyons, PhD for running yet another wonderful event. The bright, vibrant energy that I feel in UL is a real testament to Roisin’s inspiring input. And another big thanks to John O'Donnell for the amazing photos here. How John could capture so many brilliant angles, in such a short space of time, is astounding. Finally, a huge thanks to the wonderful students of UL - their input and engagement was superb all day. The future is bright @UL :)

Deeptech power players are saying ‘The Robotics Era’ is coming, others keeping a close eye on financial trends and how IPO resurgance and VC initiatives will affect deeptech and startups. Of course, agentic AI is at the top of everyone’s mind. But what does it really take to commercialise deeptech? Find out at the upcoming NDRC Masterclass ‘From Lab to Launch’ on March 12, and hear from two experts in the deeptech field: *Hillary Cronin, Strategic Research Funding at Munster Technological University, and a former Chief Innovation Officer at deeptech Metabolomic Diagnostics, specialising in biomarker-based diagnostic solutions for complex diseases. * Waleed Faisal, leads up ArrayPatch Ltd as Founder and Chief Exec, which he spun out from University College Cork. ArrayPatch has raised more than €1.5 million in non-dilutive funding to date, with Dr. Faisal awarded €738k by Enterprise Ireland to develop a medicated ‘band-aid’ to treat fungal infections. Both of our Masterclass speakers understand what it takes to scale ideas, into prototypes, spin our commercial research, and make a deeptech company commercially viable. Want to learn from them? Register Now: https://lnkd.in/eugjKqBc Republic of Work | Eshna Gogia | Dogpatch Labs | RDI Hub | PorterShed

The first NDRC Pre-Accelerator cohort of 2025 has landed. Busy building platforms to monitor marine biodiversity, leverage factory-floor intelligence, yield solar energy benefits, as well as apps and AI-driven systems in edtech, cleantech, and security—We’ve even got a marketplace for synth enthusiasts! Already in their second week of validating their startup ideas, this cohort’s early-stage entrepreneurs got access to exclusive firesides with founders from scaling startups at Kreoh, Precision Sports Technology, CozmoTec, Little Red Edu, DX Compliance, and Director of Stobbs Europe, a leader in IP. A huge thanks to these founders with that “give-back” mentality for sharing the do’s (and don’ts) of startup life. Get to know the Pre-Accelerator Spring cohort: https://lnkd.in/eg5TK-Pq This NDRC Pre-Accelerator is led by Republic of Work, collaborating with Dogpatch Labs, RDI Hub, and PorterShed. AirPV | CúramApp | GreenGuard Tech | planufacture | YouMon | Avalon AI | Innerpeas | TrainerBro | Tuarity| WaveQuery | AI4Energy | Cassan Earth | Dezzi | Professional Profile Analytics | Solaris | Ailtire | AIMA | Examinaite | Fyltr | Synths.com

Some builders are destined to be founders, and Tianyi Wang, founder of Row5, is one of them! During his extensive career as an engineer, building for world-renowned tech companies like WebSummit, Flipdish, WayFlyer, and many more, Tianyi noticed a recurring challenge: businesses struggle to utilise large data scattered across different platforms properly. Welcome Tianyi to the NDRC Accelerator, the third startup in the 2025 intake! We’re proud to back you as Founder of Row5 - solving ‘scattered data’ with AI-powered, unified search capabilities. Enabling businesses to retrieve information more efficiently, eliminating data silos and boosting productivity & customer insights. Find out more about these tech startups: https://lnkd.in/eTJdfnmg Interested in the NDRC Accelerator? Rolling applications open through until March 31st. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/e94waHnU