Enterprise Ireland invested more than €28m in 125 Irish start-ups last year, which included 82 high potential start-ups (HPSUs).

The HPSUs were approved for more than €18m in funding, with 24 of these being led by women and 11 emerged from academic research.

The figures come as the state agency kicks off its annual Enterprise Ireland Start-Up Showcase 2022 event at the Aviva Stadium today (7 April), which will see more than 150 entrepreneurs and representatives from early-stage businesses alongside investors, mentors and other members of the broader Irish start-up ecosystem.

Among the start-ups Enterprise Ireland supported last year was medtech start-up Tympany Medical, which develops cutting-edge endoscope products for ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeries and featured on SiliconRepublic.com’s Start-up of the Week series this week.

Enterprise Ireland supported the Galway start-up in a seed investment of €3.5m announced in November last year.

Dublin-based SaaS company Kianda Technologies received a €1.5m investment with support from the state agency in October last year to expand its team and further develop its low-code platform for businesses.

Meanwhile, University College Dublin spin-out quantum computing Equal1 secured a multimillion-euro investment with backing from Enterprise Ireland.

And earlier in the year, Trinity College Dublin spin-out TerminusDB, which creates tools for managing and utilising data, raised €3.6m in a seed funding round with support from the organisation.

Record employment figures

Investment was provided to Irish start-ups last year in the form of equity through Competitive Start Fund and HPSU funding programmes by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, through Enterprise Ireland.

As well as investing more than €28m in start-ups, figures from earlier this year showed that 2021 was also a record year for employment in its client companies.

Companies supported by Enterprise Ireland increased net employment by almost 12,000 in 2021, with the majority (68pc) of these jobs created outside Dublin.

The strongest jobs growth was seen in life sciences (14pc), business services (12pc) and digital technology (10pc).

The employment numbers were revealed along with the agency’s three-year strategy, which said it plans to grow its cohort of high-potential start-ups by 20pc.

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