The increase was driven by several sizeable raises, led by quantum computing firm Equal1 which secured $60m\n<\/p>\n
A total of 19 deals were completed in Ireland in the first quarter of 2026, unchanged from the previous three months, but the overall value climbed from $155.1m at the end of 2025, according to KPMG\u2019s Venture Pulse report.<\/p>\n
The increase was driven by several sizeable raises, led by quantum computing firm Equal1 which secured $60m.<\/p>\n
Financial software companies Evervault and Circit also raised $25m and $22m respectively, while Galway-based Luminate Medical brought in $21m. Energy firm XFuel completed a $20m raise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrish VC fundraising was consistent in Q1\u201926 led by significant fundraising by Equal1, Evervault andCircit,\u201d Gavin Sheehan, partner and deal advisory at KPMG in Ireland, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotwithstanding global challenges towards the end of Q1, VC investment in Ireland showed resilience, with sustained interest mirroring international trends in terms of increased deal sizes and later stage investment with interest in the AI, energy and medtech sectors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Irish performance comes against a backdrop of a sharp global surge in venture capital investment driven largely by artificial intelligence (AI), the report said.<\/p>\n
Global VC funding more than doubled in the quarter, rising from $128.6bn in late 2025 to $330.9bn in Q1 2026.<\/p>\n
A significant portion of that total came from a small number of large transactions. Ten funding rounds raised over $2bn each, contributing over $206bn to the global figure.<\/p>\n
AI companies accounted for the majority of those large deals, including a $122bn raise by OpenAI, alongside funding rounds for Anthropic, xAI and Waymo.<\/p>\n
Investor appetite for AI extended across a broader range of companies, including firms working on data centres, semiconductors and agentic AI, the report said. In Europe, VC investment rose more modestly, increasing from $23.4bn to $25.7bn over the quarter.<\/p>\n
Despite the global surge, KPMG said uncertainty remains a factor for investors heading into the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Geopolitical tensions, higher oil prices and renewed inflation concerns are expected to weigh on market sentiment, particularly in Europe and the US.<\/p>\n
This could keep stock market listings subdued in the near term unless conditions improve.<\/p>\n
AI is expected to remain the dominant area for investment, alongside growing interest in sectors such as defence technology, cyber security and space, the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The increase was driven by several sizeable raises, led by quantum computing firm Equal1 which secured $60m A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,38532],"class_list":["post-422916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-rory-mcginn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}