In short
VC investment in Ireland rose sharply during Q2’26, totalling $342.2 million across 20 deals compared to $212.3 million raised across 19 deals in the previous quarter. This represents a 61% increase, as reported by the latest quarterly KPMG Venture Pulse report.
The majority of fundraising this quarter has flowed to software businesses. While a couple of more established start-ups have raised significant later stage funding, there are a variety of AI-native applications raising smaller seed rounds as they seek to develop solutions across niche verticals.
Partner, Head of Private Equity
Ireland continues to see VC investors focusing on profitability
VC investment in Ireland during Q2’26 was quite consistent with levels seen in recent quarters as VC investors continued to focus on start-ups with clear paths to profitability.
The largest deals of the quarter included $110 million secured by Fonoa, the Dublin-based AI tax operating system for global businesses; $50 million raised by Manna, a drone aerial delivery operator; and $56 million secured by CameraMatics, an AI-powered video telematics and fleet intelligence platform.
AI enabled businesses attracted significant attention, primarily in the software space with Fonoa and CameraMatics raising relatively significant funding in the quarter.
More broadly, many AI start-ups in Ireland have focused on developing industry and vertical AI solutions in order to take advantage of specific niche opportunities rather than on horizontal offerings. This has led to a prevalence of relatively small seed raises compared to what has been seen in the AI sector regionally and globally.
The uptick in investment during Q2’26 continues to be driven in large part by international investors, which is a clear validation of the quality and strength of innovative Irish start-ups, however it does present a challenge in the predictability of capital flows.
We note recent recommendations by the Irish Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (IVCA) to broaden the available capital base, potentially through the deployment of institutional capital held in pension funds and other long-term domestic investors.
The global picture
The global venture capital (VC) market saw $227.4 billion in investment across 8,440 deals in Q2’26, making it the second-best quarter on record despite continuing geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic uncertainties.
With six-months remaining, annual global VC investment is already at a five-year high of $560.4 billion, second only to the record $750.9 billion seen in 2021 according to the Q2’26 edition of Venture Pulse from KPMG Private Enterprise.
The record-pace of global VC investment reflects a continued surge in late-stage deals as VC investors continued to place very large bets on AI companies; US-based Anthropic attracted the largest deal ($65 billion) of Q2’26, followed by US-based Prometheus ($12 billion) and China-based DeepSeek ($7.4 billion). Global corporate venture capital (CVC) investment also was on a record pace, accounting for $149.1 billion in investment during the quarter.
On a regional basis, the Americas attracted $150.0 billion across 3,999 deals, well above historical norms. Of this total, the US accounted for $144.9 billion across 3,644 deals. Asia attracted the second highest level of VC investment globally, with $50.8 billion across 2,676 deals. Notably, this was Asia’s fifth consecutive quarter of growth and its strongest quarter since Q4’21.
Much of Asia’s increase was fuelled by a resurgence in VC investment in China, which attracted $35.1 billion in Q2’26 as it continued to recover after several years of challenging market conditions. VC investment in Europe remained stable at $25.6 billion across 1,636 deals.
Q2’26 global exit value ($1.9 trillion) shattered the previous record, driven by SpaceX’s $75 billion IPO exit – $85.7 billion after greenshoe options were exercised.
European VC investment remains strong despite lower deal volume
In Q2’26, Europe saw $25.6 billion in VC investment across 1,636 deals. While investment was slightly shy of the $26.0 billion recorded in Q1’26, it remained well above historical averages and represented one of the region’s strongest quarterly investment totals in several years.
Deal activity, however, fell from 2,433 in Q1’26 to 1,636 in Q2’26, highlighting the continued preference of VC investors to focus their capital on a small number of high-quality transactions than on a broad spread of investments.
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For further information on Venture Pulse or Pulse of FinTech please contact Gavin Sheehan.
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