🦄 Unicorns a rarity no more
February saw another new Irish unicorn, a new Irish fund, and high level analysis and positivity about the Irish ecosystem
Welcome to the tenth edition of “The Land of Saints, Scholars, and Techies”!
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The Stories
The quickest Unicorn yet 🦄 February began with the announcement of a sixth unicorn in the Irish ecosystem as Wayflyer became the fastest Irish company to reach the valuation having only been established in 2019. The e-commerce financing platform flew to the valuation with a Series B of $150m led by DST Global and QED Investors. I previously mentioned Wayflyer as a Unicorn in waiting and the Currency has been covering their rise excellently in these pieces 1, 2, 3, and 4.
New Govt Fund 💸 The government launched a new €90-million fund for Irish startups in February. The Irish Innovation Seed Fund Programme will invest in several underlying venture funds with a focus on early-stage investment in areas that have traditionally struggled to access funding. It will act as a fund of funds and aim to enable 45 companies to go global while retaining their main operations in Ireland.
Intercom Mafia 🧍🧍 You may have heard of the Paypal mafia and the slew of companies that have emerged from the group. With the growing number of Irish unicorns, we can start to think about our equivalent group emerging with the necessary capital, experience, and skills to build their own companies. Intercom may be providing the first example of this with companies like Gradguide, Vidu, Unflow, Equals, and more. This trickle-down from successful start-ups and exits is key to building a robust ecosystem and will be interesting to watch in the coming years.
First Fridays 📆 One of the leading Irish start-up events returns in March as Dogpatch labs in conjunction with partners relaunches First Fridays. The event will combine mentoring, fireside and topical chats as well as look to create networking opportunities for attendees and mentors. The rise of virtual is giving significant scope to the event to reach even more and look to create synergies within the start-up ecosystem. March’s event takes place on the 4th March with a great lineup of speakers. I will be attending and am looking forward to it all.
Tech powering up 🚀 Sean Keyes had an interesting piece in the Currency discussing how the Irish tech ecosystem is enjoying a golden period with the arrival of new unicorns and other positive tailwinds. This is something echoed in other pieces in the Independent, RTE, and Frontline Ventures/ Finn Murphy. Already Des Traynor’s hope for two more unicorns has been reached and I expect there to be more and Ireland to begin thinking about its first decacorn.
Funding growing 🤑 Venture capital funding for Irish technology start-ups and SMEs reached a record €1.3 billion in 2021 an increase of more than 40% on 2020. This was mostly driven by some large deals into new unicorns and scaling companies. However, we still saw Seed funding grow by 60pc in 2021 to €131m from €82m the previous year. While there are ongoing complaints and doubts about access to capital for start-ups we can see the money is there but the structures and ease of doing business may need more work.
Startups to watch 👀 Silicon Republic published another preview of start-ups to watch with little overlap to other profiles. Companies mentioned included Strikepay, Dataships, Vyra, Trustap, Novus Diagnostics, Volograms, Plantquest, Vidu, Stimul.ai, Altada, Venari Medical, xWave technologies, Nexalus, and Galenband. It will be exciting to see how these companies grow and if they show up over the course of the year.
City Attractiveness 🏙️ Irish cities placed well in a new report benchmarking the most promising investment destinations across Europe. Dublin placed 4th overall behind London, Amsterdam, and Paris while Cork, Limerick, Shannon, and Galway all placed highly in their categories. Positive signs for the capital and island as a whole in placing so highly amongst 350 European cities and regions.
Startup Nation ☘️ I included some pieces from Patrick Walsh in last month’s edition but wanted to share another piece from early in February. I think it nicely sums up the need for Ireland to pivot from rather than abandon our FDI strategy and give focus to developing as a start-up nation with an ambition to be the best in the world (Plus he linked it to sport so I was sold).
Jobs 👔 February was a quieter month for new job announcements despite the recruitment market being extremely hot right now. Talent is always a challenge but in 2022 it seems to be even more so
If there are any roles/ job announcements you would like me to share in the next edition feel free to reach out.
Coming Soon…
Filter Keep an eye on your inbox for the first company profile from The Land. This month, I spoke with Stephen Keenan who is the founder of Filter. Filter is a company focused on helping people suffering from chronic illnesses through access to ongoing data and a targeted support community. They have run a number of betas and are now taking part in the NDRC as they look to prove PMF and scale. We had a great conversation about the company and offering, their ambitions for the future, and the Irish start-up ecosystem as a whole.
Stephen reached out to me as a subscriber and I would love to connect with others so do feel free to message me.
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My Story and The Land’s Background
👋 To quickly introduce myself to anyone new … My name is Seán. I am in my late 20s, I was born and raised largely in Dublin so apologies if my capital bias may sometimes show up. I work in a start-up within the tech industry and believe that the Irish market and ecosystem is a dynamic one for such a small country.
With COVID and too much time on my hands, I decided to create this newsletter to capture the biggest stories and provide some commentary and thoughts of my own. My aim is to provide value to my readers by curating and commenting on what I believe to be the most compelling stories so you can stay informed with one quick email.
Thank you for taking some time out of your busy lives to read!
💬 Contact me: thelandsst@gmail.com
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Cheers,
Seán