A record number of female founders are raising funds, but the deal size is low
The report shows that women in Ireland, in fundraising, have surpassed their European peers.
TechIreland, the all-island portal showcasing start-ups and the Irish innovation landscape, has released Women Founder Grant Review 2026which tracks investment in women-founded startups through 2025.
The report shows that last year, 82 Irish women-led start-ups raised a total of €131m, marking the highest number of women-led start-ups funded in any year. In comparison in 2025 there were 36 organizations that raised between €0.1m and €0.3m but only eight in 2024. 11 companies raised €18.7m.
Despite this positive figure, the average deal size has been shown to decrease significantly. In 2024, the average increase was €3.9 million, falling to €2.3m in 2025, the report suggests that this is the result of an increase in the number of deals being made.
The average figure also dropped to €100k last year, compared to €1.5m in 2024, indicating that the divide between the small group of large rounds and the large number of very small rounds is widening. The report says, however, that even in this case Irish women founders they outperformed their European peers in raising capital early.
“Although the website Dealroom startup ecosystems shows a decrease in the number of early rounds of female startups, the trend in Ireland represents a doubling of the number of rounds raised by women founders in the last year.
TechIreland’s research suggested that angel networks, for example, HBAN and AwakenAngels, as well as early-stage accelerator programs such as Fierce and NextWave, as well as prominent foundations such as Enterprise Ireland’s PSSF and HPSU, play an important role in building a strong platform for female founders.
The report also highlights the important impact of the industry. Funding in the life sciences and healthcare sectors made up around 70pc of the total funds raised. This was reflected in wider Europe where health remains the top sector among female founders.
The business software sector also performed well, growing from €10.7m raised by 10 startups in 2024, to €30.7m raised by 22 companies in 2025. Other sectors seeing growth include agriculture/food, consumer and e-commerce, while cleantech and fintech continue to decline.
Funding was uneven across regions. Similar to previous years, Dublin companies dominated the overall figures. Over 90pc of all start-up funding by women takes place in the Dublin area. The report says this is because ProVerumwhich accounts for almost half of all money raised, is a Dublin-based company.
Commenting on the report’s findings, TechIreland chairman Brian Caulfield said, “2025 was an exciting year for female founders from a fundraising perspective.
“While it’s encouraging to see so many female-founded companies raising capital, it’s worrying that the market is split in two, with a very small number of companies raising large rounds, and a large number of companies raising very small rounds, led by Enterprise Ireland.
Sarah Walker, who oversees startups and businesses at Enterprise Ireland said, “TechIreland’s headline figure of 82 companies growing by 2025, almost double last year and the highest level of employment since 2017 is cause for celebration.
“While the increasing number of women leading and co-founded companies is encouraging, TechIreland reports a total funding of €131m in 2025, down from €145m in 2024, reflecting a challenging funding environment.”
Lorraine Curham, founder of Fierce added, “In Ireland, the next challenge is what comes after that initial check. In mature ecosystems, founders are not only supported by programs, but by strong networks, investor relationships and ecosystem layers that help companies go from startup to capital and follow-on scales. It has. What you need to scale next is Ireland’s infrastructure.”
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