Irish artificial intelligence (AI) companies continue to attract near-record levels of funding from venture capital firms, despite a fall-off in the value and volume of deals in 2026 compared to last year.
New research from Pitchbook, the global private capital markets intelligence firm, found that companies in the Republic’s AI sector have raised an additional €256 million across 75 deals so far this year.
The 2026 figures represent a decline from the record €691.3 million across 107 deals in 2025, the firm said.
It meant that the median deal value has fallen to €1.6 million in 2026 compared with €2.4 million last year. However, this is still above the median for any year before 2025.
Pitchbook said in the report that after a blockbuster year in 2025, the drop-off in 2026 reflects “normalisation rather than retreat”. It said the market was “settling after a banner year for investment” in 2025, in which several large-scale deals exceeding €100 million each were recorded.
The 2025 total includes, for example, Wayflyer’s €161.8 million fundraising round and workflow software platform Tines’ €120.7 million Series C round.
Highlights of 2026 so far include Fonoa’s €94.1 million fundraise to expand its tax compliance automation capabilities. Meanwhile, CameraMatics raised €49 million for its vehicle safety and fleet management software.
Enterprise Ireland, which says it has participated in 392 Irish AI funding rounds since 2020 in nearly two-thirds of Irish AI deals in 2026 to date, published the research on Monday morning in advance of the International AI Summit in Dublin on October 14th.
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The event, which is part of the Republic’s presidency of the EU Council, takes place at the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
“PitchBook’s independent analysis shows the scale of investment now going into Irish AI companies, with almost €1 billion raised since the beginning of 2025,” said Jenny Melia, chief executive of Enterprise Ireland.
“The level of investment reflects the calibre and growing maturity of Irish AI companies, the breadth of sectors they are operating in and the strength of the intellectual property being developed in Ireland.”
Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Niamh Smyth said: “The International AI Summit will focus on how Europe can turn advances in AI into economic value, while building the skills, infrastructure and trusted regulatory environment needed to support adoption and investment.”
Global M&A and fundraising activity has been mixed so far this year. While deals worth a record $2.8 trillion (€2.5 trillion) were agreed in the first half of the year, according to recent data from the London Stock Exchange group, European transaction volumes tumbled 14.2 per cent as the region faced an outsize impact from the Iran war.