Start-up money in Ireland: seed funding, investors and tax reliefs

Start-up money: all 14 guides

• Pre-Seed Start Fund

  The Pre-Seed Start Fund is Enterprise Ireland's first investment in a very young company. Pre-seed means the first outside money, before a company...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• High Potential Start-Up funding

  A High Potential Start-Up, or HPSU, is Enterprise Ireland's name for a young company it thinks can sell abroad and grow fast. It invests in these...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• New Frontiers programme

  New Frontiers trains first-time founders at 18 college locations around the country. It is free, it takes no shares in your business, and the...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• Angel investors and HBAN

  A business angel is a wealthy individual who invests their own money in a young company in return for shares. The Halo Business Angel Network, HBAN...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• Seed and venture funds

  A seed or venture fund invests other people's money in young companies in return for shares. The State does not run these funds, but it puts money...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• Crowdfunding in Ireland

  Crowdfunding means raising money online from many people in small amounts. Reward platforms such as Kickstarter let you sell a product before you...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Start-up competitions with cash prizes

  A small number of competitions pay real cash to Irish start-ups and small businesses, from €10,000 up to €150,000. In 2026 most of them opened...

  OpenLocal businesses: some

• Funding for social enterprises

  A social enterprise trades like a business but puts its surplus back into a social or environmental aim. Most of the money on this page is only for...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• EIC Accelerator

  The EIC Accelerator is the European Union's fund for start-ups and small companies with breakthrough technology. It offers a grant of under €2.5...

  OpenLocal businesses: no

• NDRC and the national accelerator

  NDRC is the State-backed accelerator for tech start-ups, run by Dogpatch Labs. Its €100,000 investment is closed to new applications and its contract...

  ChangingLocal businesses: no

• Raising money with tax relief (EII and SCI)

  If people buy new shares in your company, the Employment Investment Incentive (EII, often still called EIIS) can give them back up to 50% of what...

  ChangingLocal businesses: some

• Start-Up Refunds for Entrepreneurs (SURE)

  If you leave a job to start your own company and put your own money into it, SURE can refund income tax you paid over the previous six years. It only...

  ChangingLocal businesses: some

• Corporation tax relief for new companies

  A new company can reduce the corporation tax on its trading profits for its first five years of trading. The relief is capped at the employer PRSI...

  ChangingLocal businesses: some

• Competitive Start Fund (closed)

  The Competitive Start Fund was Enterprise Ireland's investment of up to €50,000 in very young start-ups, awarded through competitions. The last call...

  ClosedLocal businesses: no