What Irish Startups Really Need: Insights from The Irish Startup Conference 2025

On May 20th, I attended The Irish Startup Conference 2025 — a packed event that brought together over 300 startup founders, CXOs, and investors from across Ireland. The atmosphere was buzzing with optimism, practical advice, and, importantly, real talk about what it takes to grow a business in today’s market.

Founders: Build with Intention

The first panel featured successful Irish entrepreneurs like Karen Clince (Tigers Childcare) and Jac Dunne (Dimply). Their stories hit home for any founder who's ever felt stretched thin. A few of their key takeaways:

• Surround yourself with the right team — especially in areas like finance, strategy, or commercial leadership.

• Ask for help — the Irish business community is more open and generous than many think.

• Don’t fear investment — but do see it as a partnership, not just a transaction.

• Stay aligned with your core values — it helps you choose the right collaborators and stay focused on your long-term vision.

These aren’t just feel-good sentiments. They’re grounded in the hard realities of scaling — and making time to work on the business, not just in it.

Investors: Capital is Out There — But It's Not One-Size-Fits-All

The second panel brought in voices from Enterprise Ireland, Molten Ventures, Endeavor Ireland, Delta Partners, and Sure Valley Ventures. There was no sugar-coating here either:

• Now is a good time to start a business — capital is available, especially for those solving meaningful problems.

• Venture capital isn’t for every business — it’s suited to tech startups with global ambitions and high-return potential.

• Your story matters — clarity, intentionality, and knowing your numbers go further than hype.

• Build long-term relationships — many successful raises come from investors who’ve watched you build over years.

VCs are backing a tiny percentage of the companies they review (Molten Ventures sees 2,000+ deals a year, invests in 12). That doesn’t mean your business isn’t investable — it just means you might need to explore other types of capital.

The BusinessLoans.ie Perspective

This is where BusinessLoans.ie comes in. We help founders and business owners access fast, flexible funding, especially when:

• The business isn’t quite ready for VC — or may never need it

• Traditional banks aren’t an option due to lack of collateral, trading history, or red tape

• Timing is crucial — you need working capital to seize an opportunity, bridge a cash gap, or invest in growth

We work with Irish SMEs every day to provide funding that supports your vision, on your timeline — without the pressure of giving up control or waiting months for a decision.

Whether you’re in e-commerce, services, trades, or tech — if you’ve got a good business and a clear need, we’ll work with you to get it funded.

Final Thoughts

The Irish startup ecosystem is evolving — and the capital landscape is too. Events like this one are a reminder that there’s no one “right” path to growth.

But what’s clear is this: founders need the right support at the right time. Sometimes that comes from a VC, sometimes from a great team — and sometimes from a fast, practical funding partner who understands your reality.

If that sounds like you, we’re here to help. Learn more about how we work at BusinessLoans.ie or get in touch today.

Early-stage Business Loans In Ireland

When your business is getting started you need access to business loans more than at any other time. But it’s at this time when it’s hardest to get. The pandemic hasn’t helped matters either. You don’t have enough history for lenders to make informed decisions to give you longer terms. We often speak to business owners who have gone to the bank and are not getting support or they see the information request and they are reluctant to put in their time and expense of getting the request attended to. Here are a few ways we offer to help.

BANK LOAN APPLICATION SUPPORT

We have a contact in the bank who can help early stage businesses but he wants a business plan, financial projections for the short, medium and long term and a whole lot more. He also wants to know how much of your own funds are committed to the business. The less ‘skin in the game’ you have the more likely it’s a decline. If you can provide what they require you can get up to €120,000 at rates or around 6%. Alternative lenders for early stage businesses will generally have lower paperwork requirements but the rates are higher. If you want the best deal of a bank with the added convenience of getting the hard yards done for you, we have partners who produce business plans and financial modelling with a track record of success in approvals.

Unsecured loans from alternative lenders

We have partners who will offer early-stage businesses unsecured loans. Generally we are talking about having one years set of accounts done before they will look. Then you can expect, instead of around 6% with the bank, a double-digit percentage with the non-banks. One thing to note is you usually won’t have to worry about an early-repayment penalty. So if you can find cheaper finance elsewhere as you get more profitable trading history you can exit the more expensive loan. For unsecured loans from non-banks it’s when you get to two years accounts that rates become more reasonable. They’re graded for risk, A, B, C, D, E etc so your rate could start at 4.75% currently in that situation.

Merchant cash advance

Any business with at least 6 months history, that uses a card machine or a merchant account online such as Stripe or PayPal, can get an easy finance solution based on the volume of monthly sales. The rule of thumb is you can get a quote equivalent to one month’s sales. If you are doing, for example, €50,000 a month you might get a €50,000 offer. At the moment the is especially important for hospitality businesses finding their feet and eCommerce businesses needing advertising and stock.

INvoice Finance

If you’re building up a book of debtors and you need working capital to pay wages, buy materials or just keep the lights on then you can release cash flow trapped in your invoices as soon as they’re issued. The flexible options enable you to get around 80% now, get charged around 1.5% per 30 days and you then get a final settlement when the debtor pays and you exit the short-term arrangement. Usually your debtor is insured so you get extra comfort. If something goes wrong with their business you’ll get a pay out.

Asset Finance

A lot of early-stage business owners who come to us looking for loan quotes want cash loans. But when you drill down you can find a lot of their need is made up of buying assets such as equipment, machines & vehicles. It’s far easier for asset finance companies to approve an early stage business because they retain ownership of the asset until the final payment is made. If something goes wrong with your business they can take it back so that’s an easier lending decision than lending cash unsecured.

There are a host of other business loan quote options that might fit your situation. We’re here to help 7 days from early ‘til late. Call us on 01 55 636 55 or email hello@businessloans.ie.

BusinessLoans.ie - Recent Retail Client Spotlight

We wanted to share the finance journey we’re having with one of our clients, a rural agri-retailer. They began as a startup loan enquiry & our contact in Bank of Ireland was initially able to help them out to get going. Then after six months in business; and transacting a lot using a card machine they had access to another loan based on the volume of sales they were doing. In the next year they got a top-up facility on that. More recently they had filed their second year of accounts with the Companies Registration Office. This milestone with profitable history gave access to a simple unsecured loan at a better rate and they took €50k to develop the business further. We expect to help them with loan quotes again later in 2021.

No matter what stage you’re at, pre-trading, early-stage trading or in business many years, we are happy to assist you with fast finance quotes. The rule of thumb is that rates can be higher when you’re early stage but in time, as you develop the business risk decreases. Depending on your industry there are niche loan quote options that can work too. Talk to us today on 01 55 636 55 or email hello@businessloans.ie