Athlone to host major regional start-up event
A major regional start up summit is to be held in Athlone at the end of March.
Scale Ireland, with the support of Google, along with Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), Enterprise Ireland, Bord na Móna, Atlantic Bridge, Research Ireland and Technological University of the Shannon has announced plans for the event.
It will feature regional-based start-ups and scaling companies including Zinkworks, Mersus Technologies, GreyScout, IDASO and Scopey.
The summit will focus on the potential and the challenges facing start-ups and scaling companies around the country.
Organisers have yet to announce the venue or date for the Athlone event.
There are currently more than 2,000 indigenous tech start-up and scaling companies, employing more than 45,000 people in Ireland. For each job in a start-up, five more are created in the wider economy.
Ahead of the Summit, Scale Ireland has launched its fourth State of Start-ups Survey 2025 to get the views of founders and CEOs on the key issues affecting them and the overall state of the sector.
These include the availability of capital, potential of AI, staffing and skill needs as well as regulatory issues.
A record 340 CEOs/Founders responded to last year’s survey - making it the biggest of its kind for the Irish tech sector. This year’s survey also focuses on diversity, increasing awareness of sustainability and student internships.
The survey's results will be published to coincide with the Regional Start-up Summit.
Scale Ireland is collaborating on the Summit with Dr Liam Brown, Vice President, Research, Development and Innovation and his team at The Technological University of the Shannon.
The CEO of Scale Ireland, Martina Fitzgerald, said: “Our fourth Regional Start-up Summit is very timely with the formation of a new Government. Given the significant global changes taking place, the new government needs to ensure that regional innovation and entrepreneurship are prioritised. We need to ensure the indigenous tech sector is further supported as a driver of our future economic growth’.
The Chair of Scale Ireland, Brian Caulfield, stated: “It is essential that we get the feedback of founders across the country on the key issues and challenges that they are facing. Our Regional Start-up Summit and State of Start-up Survey will ensure that there is a greater understanding of the potential of the sector, as well as the challenges facing entrepreneurs. Given the current environment, we have also included further questions on AI this year, while access to capital is expected to remain a key concern as well as better supports for employee share ownership”.
Vanessa Hartley, VP, EMEA Large Customer Sales and Head of Google, Ireland, Google, said: “We are delighted to partner again with Scale Ireland. The Regional Start-up Summit is an important event to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing this sector in Ireland. We know that Artificial Intelligence has the potential to drive transformative economic growth, with generative AI alone projected to contribute up to €45 billion to Ireland’s GDP over the next decade. Google is committed to supporting Ireland’s thriving start-up ecosystem as it harnesses the power of AI to create jobs, foster innovation, and strengthen communities.’’
This is Scale Ireland’s fourth Regional Start-up Summit. In 2024, then Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney launched the Summit in Limerick. In 2023, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar launched the second Regional Start-up Summit in Galway.
While then Taoiseach Micheál Martin launched the first Scale Ireland Regional Start-up Summit event in Cork in 2022 with founders and key stakeholders, along with then Ministers Michael McGrath and Simon Harris giving keynote addresses.