Dogpatch Labs

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Dogpatch Labs has been recognised in the Top 20 of Europe's Leading Start-up Hubs 2025 list and ranked number 1 in Ireland! Out of 150 start-up hubs across 38 European countries, the ranking was based on alumni success, expert evaluations, and overall track record. (Published by Financial Times, Sifted and Statista). A massive THANK YOU to all the founders and alumni members who took part in the survey. Your insightful feedback has played a pivotal role in highlighting our efforts and the results we've achieved together. We also want to extend our gratitude to all of our ecosystem partners. Your support and collaboration have been instrumental in creating an environment where startups can truly thrive. And, of course, a huge comhghairdeas to all of our team who have helped to shape Dogpatch Labs over the last decade. Your relentless drive and passion are at the very heart of our success! https://lnkd.in/euWdtQAn

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from NYC ☘️🗽🇺🇸 Delighted to have hosted Dogpatch Labs, NDRC & Founder Labs in the Google offices in NYC. Huge thank you to the incredible Joe Gorman and Lorraine E. Curham for hosting 40+ startups in NYC for St. Patrick’s week and honoured to be part of the launch event. We covered all of our incredible Google Cloud offerings for Early Stage Startups. I was also joined by the wonderful Jean O'Connor and Sinéad Considine.

That’s a wrap on Shamrocks & Startups! What a night! A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at Dogpatch Labs for an evening filled with storytelling, music, and plenty of craic. From the pub quiz to the live tunes (and, of course, the pizza & pints), it was a reminder that the real magic of Dogpatch is the people who make this community special. These moments of connection, celebration, and shared experience are what make Dogpatch more than just a space—it’s a home for innovators, founders, and changemakers who support and inspire each other. Don’t miss out on the next one! Become a member and be part of the Dogpatch community: https://lnkd.in/e9YN3hnV Sláinte!

This week, we hosted an exclusive session on Scaling Smart: The Fintech Founder’s guide to UK expansion, bringing together fintech founders, industry experts, and scaling leaders. A huge thank you to Innovate Finance, Hogan Lovells, Enterprise Ireland, and Keeper Solutions for sharing their insights and to everyone who joined the conversation at Dogpatch Labs. Key Takeaways: - Navigating UK Expansion: Understanding the fintech landscape, compliance hurdles, and strategic partnerships is crucial for success. - Legal Foundations Matter: Proactively tackling regulatory requirements and IP considerations can accelerate market entry. - EI Supports for Fintechs: Enterprise Ireland offers valuable resources to help fintechs scale internationally. - Strategic GTM Execution: Fintechs need the right tech, marketing, and partnerships to stand out in a competitive market. Missed out? Follow us or become a Dogpatch Labs member to get access to future fintech-focused events and exclusive networking opportunities. https://lnkd.in/e9YN3hnV Janine Hirt | Michael Thomas | Hogan Lovells | Anna-Marie Turley | Emma Wilson | David Power | Chris Davis

As Ireland's leading startup hub, we connect startups with many pan-European and Irish investors such as Earlybird Venture Capital, Balderton Capital, Cherry Ventures, Frontline Ventures, Sure Valley Ventures, Act Venture Capital, Atlantic Bridge, MiddleGame Ventures, and Elkstone, providing direct access to Ireland's thriving innovation economy. "We spend a lot of time physically in Dogpatch, attending events, mentoring startups that are going through various programmes, and engaging with the principals. For us, it’s an incredible source of deal flow,” says Amy Neale, General Partner at Delta Partners Ltd. "Dogpatch Labs provides so much more than office space,” says Conor Moules, Barespace.io co-founder and CEO. “From the CEO perspective, to have other CEOs around you doing something similar that you can kind of spark off is valuable.” Thank you for including us in the write-up Nick Huber, Financial Times. Link to full article: https://lnkd.in/eWRtFk28

Today we were delighted to host our very first initiative in Ireland at Dogpatch Labs in Dublin in partnership with Hogan Lovells and with the support of Keeper Solutions 🇮🇪 It was fantastic to meet so many FinTech companies and hear from a brilliant panel on guiding FinTech founders to the UK 🇬🇧 The event brought together industry leaders and experts with great conversations around FinTech innovation and growth 🚀 The panel included our CEO Janine Hirt, members Michael Thomas from Hogan Lovells and Chris Davis from Kyndryl, sponsors Emma Wilson from Keeper Solutions, Anna-Marie Turley from Enterprise Ireland with the moderation of David Power from Dogpatch Labs. Earlier in the day we were also hosted by Hogan Lovells at their roundtable event on the regulatory impacts of working between the two ecosystems, including around AI. Thank you to everyone who made today possible especially Eimear O'Brien Eoin O Connor Sharon Lewis Paps Andrews Stephen Edward Walsh Emma Wilson Peter Cunnane We look forward to seeing as many of you both in Dublin and the UK soon 🇮🇪 🇬🇧 🔗 Learn More About Our International Programme https://lnkd.in/d6x2zVZW #FinTech #VoiceOfFinTech #IFGS2025

Today TechIreland released its Female Founders & Funders 2025 Report, in partnership with Fierce Tech Founders at Dogpatch Labs, and sponsored by AWS. Representing Dogpatch Labs and NDRC at today’s launch was Lorraine E. Curham, who leads up Fierce - an initiative to support globally ambitious women tech founders to scale. What three insights can startups take away from this report? 1. Funding for women-led startups in Ireland is up, but the number of overall deals being made is down.  2. Notably, just 4 out of 46 investments accounted for 60% of total funding in 2024 for women (co)founded startups. Many of the later-stage rounds were led by non-Irish investors (UK and US). In contrast, earlier-stage investment rounds tend to be led by Irish investors.  3. Out of the €142m invested in 2024, €122m went to life sciences and health tech (including the top four above). The remaining 20m was split between six other sectors. Download the full report: https://lnkd.in/epAHBJVJ Did you miss today’s launch? We’ve got some great advice from today’s panellists of founders, investors and ecosystem builders: Chirp’s founder Rena Maycock highlights the power of the network, “Do not underestimate the power of other founders. Ask for introductions but be clear what you’re asking for,” while Peri's founder Heidi Davis who was Enterprise Ireland’s Founder of the Year 2024 shares VC tips: “Get investors that are good for your cap table, don’t always focus on gender, but think about the balance as it may actually help you!” Tech journalist Elaine Burke, host of the new For Tech’s Sake podcast, illustrates how instrumental your comms are: “Become the best storyteller in the room. Most successful founders are brilliant at storytelling.” Red Flags from an investor's perspective? Andreea Wade, exited founder and now partner at Delta Partners Ltd., weighs in: “Founders that don’t have depth of talking through the space they are in. I like founders who give me details. Look at every single slide of your pitch deck; what questions could you be asked?“ A well-known name in the Irish tech ecosystem DC Cahalane, Venture Partner at Sure Valley Ventures talks about identifying what your startup is solving: “I want to feel the pain in the problem, you will not stop until this problem is solved. Do your research on the VC/investor. Is this an area that they want to actively invest in? Avoid wasting their time or your time by blasting investors hoping they’ll invest in your solution.” Ireland has the potential to become a launchpad for early-stage, women-led startups - attracting global investment as they scale. However, achieving this requires more early-stage funding and sectoral diversification. What are your thoughts? Share below in the comments. Áine Mulloy | Ed O'Riordan |Sarah Walker | Sree (Sreekanth Nagabhushana) | John O'Dea

Major milestones unveiled for Ireland’s investment landscape at InterTradeIreland's Venture Capital Conference 2025: *HBAN Angels' Remarkable Impact: In the last 18 months, HBAN Angels have invested over €25 million directly in more than 80 companies from across the island of Ireland. This has unlocked other significant investments. *A Record-Breaking Year for Venture Capital: InterTradeIreland's CEO, Margaret Hearty, highlighted that “2024 was a landmark year for venture capital investment, reaching an all-time high of €1.48 billion. Just to put that into perspective, 10 years ago, venture capital investments stood at 400 million. So, in a decade, that figure has quadrupled, and hopefully, this growth will continue.” *Startup Founders Optimism & Growth: According to TechIreland, startup founders are more optimistic about fundraising in 2025 than they were last year, with 80% of startups expecting revenue growth and 69% expecting to expand their teams. Peter Burke, Minister from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, spoke before departing to introduce Enterprise Ireland's new five-year strategy, and emphasised that an "All-Island Economy is a key priority for the Irish Government. We are backing up those who are brave to take that decision to establish their own idea and businesses. We want to vindicate the amount of time and effort that they put into that." Niamh Sterling, HBAN's All-Island Director, also noted, "With a network of 1000 angel investors, HBAN offers unparalleled support for both new and seasoned investors to access high-potential deal flow, world-class education, knowledge capital and a powerful peer-to-peer network. We're here to help.” More on this: https://lnkd.in/dZEqsiTT

Panel Discussion with Andreea Wade, General Partner with Delta Partners Ltd., at the InterTradeIreland's Venture Capital Conference 2025: “Founders provides a place for the most exceptional people to build startups quickly. We bring people together, 50% technical and 50% commercial or domain experts. We engineer the serendipity of getting the right people together at the right time, and they’re all ready to build startups now,” says Jane Dillon, Director of Founders at Dogpatch Labs. Glitch, a startup that enables businesses to launch, manage, and optimise Google Ads in minutes, was one of the most promising startups to emerge from Founders last year. Aisling Browne, CEO and Co-Founder, talked about meeting her Co-Founder, Kingsley Kelly, CTO: “We had a diversity of skill sets and we figured out a solution to a problem that played to both of our strengths.” “They were the right people to build the solution, but they would have never met had it not been for the Founders program,” adds Jack Cantillon, Founders Entrepreneur in Residence. Have you experienced the power of bringing the right people together at the right time? We’d love to hear your stories below

HBAN is delighted to announce that HBAN Angels have invested €25 million into 82 high-potential startups since April 2023. Over 290 new angel investors have joined as new members to expand the all-island network. In addition to facilitating investments for these startups, examples including SQUID, GreyScout, and Vertigenius™️, HBAN added a deeper layer to the network, launching Tech Operators angel network comprising 30 multinational executives. 34% of the companies that received investments in this period were led or co-led by women, highlighting the HBAN network’s championing of diversity. All-Island Director Niamh Sterling comments on HBAN’s continued success, “Angel investors recognise the benefits of joining HBAN’s network for its unparalleled support in offering both new and seasoned investors access to high-potential deal flow, world-class education, knowledge capital and a powerful peer-to-peer network.” Read the full piece in Business Post: https://lnkd.in/eqM9BED7 HBAN is operated by a consortium led by Dogpatch Labs, including Ormeau Labs in Belfast, PorterShed in Galway, RDI Hub in Kerry, and Republic of Work in Cork. Enterprise Ireland | InterTradeIreland | SimpleStudy | TeamFeePay | Wiistream | Precision Sports Technology | Needi | Frontier Academy | CroiValve | OncoAssure Ltd | Gasgon Medical | NeuroBell | X-Bolt Orthopedics | Endowave