KPMG has published its Venture Pulse Q1’22 report, tracking venture capital (VC) investment activity around the world. The figures show that Irish companies raised $401 million in venture capital investment across 25 deals in the first quarter of 2022 – the highest value of investment ever recorded in a first quarter.
The strong start to 2022 follows a record year in 2021, where 287 VC deals involving Irish companies closed with a combined value of $1.87 billion.
Activity levels in Ireland differ significantly from the global picture, where VC investment dropped from a high of $191.9 billion across 10,775 deals in Q4’21 to $144.8 billion across 9,349 deals in Q1’22, as geopolitical and economic factors combined to create uncertainty in the market.
The top 5 deals closed in Q1’22 in Ireland include:
- E-commerce funding startup Wayflyer – $150 million
- Digital food-ordering platform and tech unicorn Flipdish – $96 million
- Dublin-based cleantech company Exergyn – $35 million
- Galway-based medtech company Perfuze – $25.5 million
- Galway-based cancer research company ONK Therapeutics – $21.5 million
The funding rounds for Wayflyer and Flipdish earned both companies coveted unicorn status. Other notable deals included a $20 million raise by Atlantic Therapeutics for its Innovo medtech product; a $15 million raise by UCD spinout company PlasmaBound; an $11 million raise by Cork-based security start-up Getvisibility and a $9 million raise by a medtech start-up CroíValve.
Commenting on VC activity in Ireland during Q1’22, Anna Scally, Partner and Fintech Lead at KPMG in Ireland said, “venture capital activity in Ireland seems to so far have evaded the shocks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising inflation and interest rates, turbulence in the global capital markets and ongoing supply chain challenges. In 2020 and 2021 in Ireland, second quarter activity far surpassed that of the first quarters, and it will be interesting to see will this trend continue, or will ongoing uncertainty see VC investors holding back.”
“While my outlook for VC investment in the near-term is cautious, I’m blown away by how well many of these Irish companies are scaling, with Wayflyer achieving unicorn status in just 2 and a half years and Flipdish achieving the same status in January of this year. The concentration of Irish medtechs securing investment is also notable, with Irish companies developing some of the world’s most cutting-edge technologies to support a range of medical conditions. Another encouraging sign in the market here is JP Morgan Chase’s plan to acquire Ireland-based technology company Global Shares for $730 million, in a deal expected to close in the second half of 2022.”
Source: KPMG Ireland
