12-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Celebrating the ambition, drive and resilience of Enterprise Ireland's ‘Class of 2024' start-ups
The strong pipeline of innovative start-ups that have been emerging from our vibrant ecosystem are critical to Ireland's economic future, and last week Enterprise Ireland was proud to celebrate the 'Class of 2024' at our annual 'Start-Up Day Conference'.
Enterprise Ireland invested €27.6m in Irish start-ups and supported a total of 157 start-up companies in Ireland last year, through its High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) and Pre-Seed Start Fund (PSSF) programmes.
The conference, held on Wednesday in Dublin's Aviva Stadium celebrated the ambition, drive and resilience of Enterprise Ireland's start-up 'Class of 2024'.
The event welcomed over 600 delegates, which included investors and representatives from government departments, start-up accelerators and the 157 start-ups who received funding from Enterprise Ireland in 2024.
These included 90 high-potential start-ups (HPSUs) – start-ups with the potential to create 10 jobs and turnover of at least €1m within three years of being founded. And 13 of these HPSUs emerged from academic research.
Also among the start-ups receiving investment from Enterprise Ireland in 2024 were 69 start-ups which received investment from the Pre-Seed Start Fund (PSSF). Sixty-three of the start-ups supported in 2024 are outside Dublin, while close to a third are led by female founders.
Of the 'Class of 2024', 25 were spun out of third-level institutions and 34 were supported through the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund Programme. And at the 2025 Start-up Day Conference, many of these (pre) spin-out ventures got to pitch their concepts and compete to win the Big Ideas Award, and to get the opportunity to participate in the prestigious Venture Connectivity Program at UC Berkeley in California.
Patrick Cronin, of University of Limerick, was presented with the Big Idea's Award for the spin-out Oscil, an Enterprise Ireland commercialisation funded project, an innovative deep-tech technology operating at the intersection of Edge-AI and powder processing. It will initially target the pharma and dairy sectors.
Oscil has developed a proprietary, ATEX-compliant sensor and edge-AI solution that enables real-time, in-line analysis of powder flow – addressing critical issues like sensor-fouling, yield-loss, and process downtime.
A key objective in our new strategy 'Delivering for Ireland, Leading Globally (2025-2029)' is to Accelerate Sustainable Irish Business, so that in time, exporting Irish companies will become the main driver of the economy.
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During this five-year strategy, we aim to support 1,000 new start-ups, and Enterprise Ireland is also undertaking a dedicated consultation process, engaging with the start-up ecosystem to understand their views on the supports available for early-stage companies in Ireland.
Partnership and collaboration is pivotal for supporting early-stage businesses and founders, and Enterprise Ireland is committed to working with the entire enterprise ecosystem as strong collaboration will support Ireland's start-up community and future economy by building a world-class start-up nation.
By supporting and strengthening our pipeline of early-stage companies with the potential to scale internationally, it will help to further Ireland's position as a global leader in entrepreneurship and innovation.
To learn more about how Enterprise Ireland supports emerging entrepreneurs,see
