Full coverage: Start-ups

As Covid-19 filled hospitals and kept other patients at home, a digital health revolution has given the medical industry a much-needed upgrade – and created opportunities for Irish medtech companies.

Ciaran Lee, the co-founder of Intercom, one of Ireland’s first technology unicorns, is leaving the company. He tells Tom Lyons why and recalls an incredible journey over the past decade.

Mark Hughes was on the multinational fast track. Then he left his job to launch Gradguide, which helps graduates get the mentorship they need and tech employers the talent they want. He talks about his journey and reveals how he convinced Terry Clune to back his vision.

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.