1. What is the state of the market for Irish companies seeking to raise capital? Have any significant shifts taken place in the past 12 months?
The capital raising environment for Irish businesses has improved over the past 12 months, supported by lower interest rates, increased investor activity and a greater availability of both equity and debt capital. There are more funding options than ever before, with Private equity funds, growth investors and alternative lenders actively seeking investment opportunities in the Irish market. But for many Irish companies access to funding is not easy!
One of the main reasons for this is that funders remain selective - focusing on scaling businesses with strong management teams, clear growth strategies, resilient earnings and robust financial reporting. This can be challenging for some SMEs that are not “investor-ready” or don’t fully understand the funding landscape.
Overall, market sentiment is more positive than a year ago, with well-prepared established companies continuing to attract capital but there is still a gap in the market to help scaling and early stage companies.
2. What sectors are seeing the biggest activity right now?
The most active sectors in Ireland currently are financial services, technology/software, healthcare and health/life sciences, and infrastructure-related businesses. Financial services continues to see significant consolidation activity, particularly in insurance, wealth management and professional services, while technology remains attractive due to strong demand for software, AI and digital transformation capabilities.
Healthcare continues to benefit from demographic trends, increased healthcare spending and ongoing consolidation across areas such as medical services, diagnostics and care provision.
Infrastructure and building services businesses are also attracting strong interest, supported by the National Development Plan committing over €275bn investment in housing, energy transition and national infrastructure projects.
3. What's the single biggest obstacle Irish companies face when trying to raise capital today?
For most Irish companies, the single biggest obstacle today is not the availability of capital, but access to the right capital at the right valuation. For many SME’s the key challenge is identifying the right funders for their funding requirement and then ensuring they are “investor ready”.
Capital remains available across banks, private equity and alternative lenders, but many providers are focussed on certain types of capital and specific sectors.
Companies need to get the right advice at an early stage to ensure they understand their options and the time it takes to raise the capital. All funders are undertaking deeper diligence and placing greater emphasis on earnings quality, management capability and a credible growth plan.
4. Will Budget 2027 impact any of this?
A recent report commissioned by the Department of Enterprise highlighted a funding gap of more than €1bn for scaling Irish companies over the next three to five years. There is a lot of discussion on how to unlock Irish pension savings into venture capital and scaling funds.
ISIF has already invested in more than 500 Irish companies, and Budget 2027 is expected to introduce a new Savings and Investment Scheme aimed at encouraging more Irish savers to invest. Industry groups are also calling for capital gains tax reform, amendments to EIIS and the KEEP scheme to better support scaling businesses.
5. What about the Ireland for Finance strategy, recently launched?
The updated Ireland for Finance Vision 2030 strategy aims to boost funding access through 3 key areas (i) Modernising the Limited Partnership Act 1907 to unlock private credit, venture capital, and private equity for SMEs and infrastructure. (ii) Enterprise Ireland will strengthen startup funding hubs and (iii) update the legislation to enable digital fund tokenisation for alternative capital raising.
Content published in The Irish Times Corporate Finance Special Report.
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