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

NDRC portfolio company Neuromod Devices announces €10M Series B to continue expansion of tinnitus treatment device in US and European markets. Founded by Dr. Ross O'Neill in 2010, spun out from NUI Maynooth, and supported by NDRC to scale, the Irish medtech is now being used by over 1,500 US-based clinics. Ross comments on the oversubscribed round, led by Fountain Healthcare Partners and Panakes Partners, who are on a mission to make "Neuromod the category creator for tinnitus globally", and reaffirms the opportunties of building and scaling medtech in Ireland; “There’s no better place to start a medical device company than in Ireland, because there is so much expertise. The sector brings billions to the Irish economy each year.” Read on: https://lnkd.in/eyEFHzHh If you're building a scalable medtech and want to accelerate your startup, the NDRC Accelerator can help you get there. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/ef3FV2uK

Superb to see Mark & Patrick taking the US by storm. Great team and big problem that they are tackling. Now let's see how they do splitting the G of a pint of Guinness on stage 😄

Back in 2021, Katie Farrell and Matthew Coffey pitched a digital loyalty card platform to the NDRC Accelerator team, and SQUID was selected to join the startup cohort a months later. Roll on three years, the two-person team has scaled operations to UK and Australia, working with 2,000+ local retailers, in the pockets of over 550,000 SQUID users, and secured a global partnership with Square. Just last week, SQUID launched and smashed its crowdfunding target of €1.4M, with over 1,500 of its pre-registered investors snapping up shares. What’s next? The loyalty platform gears up to launch ‘Wave’ with early investors getting first access. Keep reading: https://lnkd.in/e4F5KuzZ Katie and Matthew learned from globally successful mentors in the NDRC network. This could be you. Applications open for the NDRC Accelerator until March 31. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/e94waHnU

Built to democratise digital accessibility, NDRC Accelerator alum DevAlly's co-founder Cormac Chisholm tells US-based NBC Bay Area that "AI helps ensure no one is left behind" in this week's live interview with Scott McGrew. DevAlly will be joining the "tech powerhouses of Ireland" including fellow NDRC alumni Sulu and Meta-flux at this Thursday's Irish Tech Summit in Silicon Valley, hosted by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to connect with investors, US startup counterparts, and more. Watch the 4-minute interview here: https://lnkd.in/e2T_KV3N Read more on DevAlly's founding journey: https://lnkd.in/eBgZ5CaF

Deeply personal experiences can often trigger a founder to build a startup – think Airbnb, Uber, Pinterest, and Slack. MARC is no different. When Aaron Devitt saw his family struggle through long delays with fixing a heating issue during the winter of 2023, he knew there had to be a better way. That experience drove him to create MARC, an AI-powered platform that automates up to 90% of property management tasks and streamlines communication between tenants, landlords, and contractors. With backing from some of Ireland’s top angel investors - including Jack Pierse, Tom Kennedy & Susan Spence - and as an NDRC Pre-Accelerator alumnus, we’re delighted to welcome Aaron & Sagar Kale, Co-founders of MARC, to the NDRC Accelerator 2025. Explore more about MARC and the 2025 intake: https://lnkd.in/eTJdfnmg Interested in the NDRC Accelerator? Rolling applications open through until March 31st. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/e94waHnU

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