{"id":81803,"date":"2026-02-09T02:50:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T05:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/890623230"},"modified":"2026-02-09T02:50:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T05:50:52","slug":"ai-black-hole-in-us-leads-to-big-slump-in-funding-for-irish-tech-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/ai-black-hole-in-us-leads-to-big-slump-in-funding-for-irish-tech-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"AI black hole in US leads to big slump in funding for Irish tech firms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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According to the \u201c\u00adVenturePulse\u201d report by the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA), funding for the last three months of 2025 was down by 46pc to \u20ac291m.<\/p>\n

On an annual basis, the figure fell by 23pc to \u20ac1.1bn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fourth quarter saw a 71pc retreat from the Irish market by international investors from \u20ac470m to \u20ac132m,\u201d IVCA chairwoman Caroline Gaynor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be due to an \u2018America first\u2019 focus, negativity from across the Atlantic about Europe and the impact of a weakening dollar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah-Jane Larkin, director general of the IVCA, said the dominant pull of AI start-ups in the US was also a factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother reason for the decrease in international funding may be that US investors may be overly focused on local AI opportunities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n

Unicorn status is being achieved by early stage start-ups in generative AI in the US much quicker than in the past<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Data from the funding analysis platform Pitchbook shows that in 2025, over half of all start-up venture funding was into AI firms and that 80pc of that was in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of money being invested there [into AI] is sucking up a lot of venture capital,\u201d Ms Larkin said.<\/p>\n

\u201dUnicorn status is being achieved by early stage start-ups in generative AI in the US much quicker than in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Larkin said that the decline in overseas funding in 2025 is reflected in the 33pc fall in larger deals in the \u20ac30m-plus category to \u20ac541m. In the fourth quarter, this category fell by 69pc to \u20ac111m.<\/p>\n

Funding in the \u20ac10m-\u20ac30m range for the range for the year overall also fell, by 14pc to \u20ac269.4m.<\/p>\n

The IVCA data shows that funding in the \u20ac3m-\u20ac5m category rose by 39pc to \u20ac114m. There was a small decline (3pc) in the \u20ac1m-to-\u20ac3m range to \u20ac102m.<\/p>\n

Seed funding, or first rounds raised by SMEs, dropped by 5pc to \u20ac141m, the report found.<\/p>\n

Life-science companies attracted most funding in 2025 in Ireland, raising \u20ac461m, or 40pc of the total. This was followed by software with \u20ac156m (14pc), cyber security with \u20ac136m (12pc), AI and machine learning with \u20ac104m (9pc) and fintech with \u20ac96m (8pc).<\/p>\n

In all, 186 deals were completed in 2025, down from 217 deals in 2024, a fall of 14pc.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the \u00e2\u0080\u009c\u00c2\u00adVenturePulse\u00e2\u0080\u009d report by the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA), funding for the last three months of 2025 was down by 46pc to \u00e2\u0082\u00ac291m. On an annual basis, the figure fell by 23pc to \u00e2\u0082\u00ac1.1bn. \u00e2\u0080\u009cThe fourth quarter saw a 71pc retreat from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}