Female Founder Funding Review (TechIreland)

Summary

• Female founders raised a total of €131 million across 82 companies.p.4
• The average amount raised dropped from €3.9 million to €2.3 million, mainly because of many small Pre Seed Start Fund rounds.p.4
• One company, ProVerum, raised €72.7 million, 56% of the total raised.p.4
• Dublin dominated, raising almost 91% of the total.p.5
• Early-stage rounds rose to 36 from 8 the year before.p.8
• While 37% of companies are based outside Dublin, they received only around 9% of the total funding.p.15

Key insights

1. The median amount raised dropped from €1.5 million to just €0.1 million, showing a market split between a few large rounds and many very small ones.p.4
2. Funding fell slightly from €145 million, but 48 companies raising has grown to 82 companies.p.15
3. Sectorally, Enterprise Solutions now represents over 23% of the amount raised by female founders.p.5
4. Life science and healthtech startups made up 67% of the total, driven by the ProVerum outlier.p.16
5. Female-founded tech companies employ over 6,000 skilled workers.p.6
6. Enterprise Ireland plans a €100m Scaling Fund to address the capital shortage at the scaling stage.p.8
7. Europe saw capital raised of €7.5B and 1,376 deals, its highest levels in three years.p.11