The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment – working with Enterprise Ireland – invested €27 million in Irish start-ups and supported a total of 161 start-up companies in 2022, with 14 of them in the West.

Investment was provided through Enterprise Ireland’s programmes – High Potential Start-Up (HPSU), Competitive Start Fund (CSF) and Pre-Seed Start Fund.

Start-ups supported by Enterprise Ireland in 2022 included 91 High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) investments – start-up businesses with the potential to create 10 jobs and €1 million in sales within three years of starting up – as well as 44 Pre-Seed Start Fund investments, which inject critical early-stage funding into new businesses.

Exactly half of the companies supported were outside Dublin, and 58 women-led start-up companies were approved investment.

A total of 600 delegates attended the Enterprise Ireland Start-Up Showcase recently in the RDS which brings together the ‘Class of 2022’ Start-Up companies and the wider Start-Up ecosystem including investors, State agencies and Start-Up accelerators.

In addition, and for the first time, the event also played host to technology-based companies who have their roots in state-funded research. In 2022, 24 companies were spun out of third level institutions, supported through the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund Programme.

Speaking at Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Showcase event in the RDS, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary, congratulated the start-up class of 2022 ‘for their achievements to date and for having the ambition to take the brave leap to start a new business’.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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