Full coverage: Start-ups

Carbon Collect is the brainchild of Irish entrepreneurs and former oil executives. It has now secured US government backing to tackle greenhouse gases with its “mechanical trees”.

From a standing start four years ago, Irish gifting platform &Open now works with some of the world’s biggest companies and has just closed a major funding round. CEO Jonathan Legge explains how its founders pivoted towards success after spotting an opportunity in the market.

Four years ago, former pilot Peter Jenkinson and his co-founders redeveloped the tech business they had first created two decades before. The overhaul worked and it now has over 400 customers and revenues of €2 million. This is how he did it.

Four years ago, Dr Fiona Edwards Murphy went straight from her studies to founding a connected beehive start-up, ApisProtect. Last month, she featured on Forbes’s 30 under 30 list. After launching in the US in the middle of the pandemic, her product is now launching on the European market.

From the interpretation of satellite data to software assisting astronauts on SpaceX flights, Irish companies are increasingly present in orbit. Beyond the thrill of space exploration, its exacting standards propel these technology businesses towards new markets.

ECI Energy was spun out of an established family business on the northside of Dublin. Acutrace is a six-year-old prop-tech company tackling inefficiencies in commercial buildings. The two firms have just tied the knot.

With Unilever Ventures, Jan Harley backed billion-euro businesses including Instacart and Gousto. He talks about a career in venture capital, the future of groceries, AI and why he went full-time with the fast-growing Irish start-up Buymie.

Ten years ago, Dublin student Ronan McGovern left for MIT on a Fulbright scholarship. He has just returned to Ireland after selling his start-up to a leading engineering multinational.

Established as a small-scale insect farming experiment five years ago, the agri-tech startup now ships biofertiliser by the pallet and has just hired its first chief financial officer.

Deirdre McGettrick thought her past life working in banking would eventually lead her to a CFO or CEO role, but she never expected to create her own business. Her love of interior design made her re-think this career path and she now runs the UK’s largest home furnishing and comparison website, Ufurnish.com.