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TL;DR:
✈️ Abroad: healthStay launches across three continents, Limelight calls time on the sponsored post, Kota cracks Europe's top 10 fastest growers, and Ireland firms up as an AI hub for US finance.
🏠 At home: Cloudsmith banks $72M in Belfast, Vodafone drops €360M on Ireland, MongoDB brings 200 jobs to Cork, plus a world-first in renewable energy (featuring a Cavan pub!)
👑 Founder: Berlin based Ian Hannigan and his start-up Try Formation uses spatial technology to help fast-moving frontline teams optimise how they work across physical sites.
🧠 Brain food: Ireland's FDI model needs a rewrite, a founder job spec that hurts because it's true, and why we need startups not startup theatre.
Enjoy ☕
LATEST UPDATES
News from abroad ✈️
healthStay founders Sean and Ruairí
🇺🇸🇨🇦🇸🇦 healthStay global launch: Irish-founded healthStay, the medical tourism platform built by Sean Conaty and Ruairí Tubrid, is now operational in the USA, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. The duo from Meath and Wexford launched in 2023, became the first Irish company accepted into the UAE's flagship accelerator, and have partnered with institutions including King's College Hospital London Dubai. Three new markets in a single announcement is a statement of intent from a team that clearly is not interested in doing things gradually. Read more
🇺🇸 Limelight's data kills the sponsored post: David Walsh, the Irish founder running B2B influencer platform Limelight out of LA, dropped some striking numbers this week. Across 9.5 million data points and thousands of brand partne rships, the flat-fee sponsored post is finished. Brands in 2026 want 90-day retainers, multi-channel distribution, and performance upside tied to real business metrics: pipeline influenced, meetings booked, SQLs generated. Walsh calls it "infrastructure, not sponsorship." The companies that figure this out first will own a channel their competitors cannot replicate. Read more
🇪🇺 Kota hits #6 fastest-growing in Europe: Dublin employee benefits platform Kota has landed at #6 on the Scaling Europe 50, recording 1,406% growth since its 2022 founding. Built by Luke Mackey, Patrick O'Boyle, and Deepak Baliga, Kota has raised $22.5M from Eurazeo, Northzone, and EQT Ventures to create a single platform for European employee benefits: health insurance, pensions, everything in between. Twenty-three employees. Three years old. Already outpacing most of the continent. Read more
🇺🇸 Ireland doubles down as AI hub for US firms: Ireland now tops the IMF Skill Readiness Index for AI workforces, and American companies are paying attention. Equifax opened an AI Innovation Lab in Wexford. Canto expanded in Cork. Anthropic and OpenAI are scaling their European headquarters in Dublin. Writing in Global Atlanta, IDA Ireland's Siobhán Hanley outlines why Ireland's 35% R&D tax credit, English-speaking talent, and EU market access make it the natural base for US firms building AI capabilities in Europe. The pipeline shows no sign of slowing. Read more
At home 🏠
Limerick firm GKinetic will power a Cavan pub using a world-first floating river turbine generating 70,000 kWh annually.
Cloudsmith in Belfast raised $72M in Series C funding for its AI software supply chain platform, bringing its total to $124M.
Vodafone Ireland announced a €360M investment and a new St Stephen's Green headquarters, backing over 2,000 employees.
MongoDB is creating 200 jobs in Cork as part of a €74M expansion of its Irish operations, supported by IDA Ireland.
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🗺️ FOUNDER DIRECTORY
Ian Hannigan - Try Foundation
- Role: Founder, Try Formation
- Base: Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪
- Focus: Spatial tech for frontline teams
- Founded: 2020
Ian Hannigan builds tools for people who don't sit at desks. His company, Try Formation, uses spatial technology to help fast-moving frontline teams optimise how they work across physical sites. Founded in Berlin in 2020 and bootstrapped with a three-person team, Formation already counts the Bundeswehr, Bosch, and the Cyber Innovation Hub among its customers.
This isn't Hannigan's first time building something from scratch. Before Formation, he created FluidUI, the world's first dedicated mobile app prototyping tool. Fluid Software grew to serve hundreds of thousands of UX designers across 120 countries, with clients including Google, Siemens, and T-Mobile. His background in industrial design and game design shows: he thinks in spatial terms, building interfaces and workflows that map to the real world.
A mentor with Techstars in Germany and Italy, and an alum of SAP Venture Studio, Hannigan has planted deep roots in the German tech scene while keeping his Irish perspective sharp.
🍀 The Global Irish Founder Directory | The Irish diaspora is building the future in every corner of the world. Are you on the map? Join the Directory | Explore the Map
🧠 BRAIN FOOD
5 other things we are snacking on this week
DC Cahalane on why Ireland's FDI strategy worked but cannot power what comes next.
This satirical founder job spec by Joe Lennon is a decade old and still painfully accurate.
Joe Lennon again: Ireland needs more great startups, not more startup theatre.
UCD student builds GoEire, a real-time Irish transit app that makes TFI Live look ancient.
Ireland's solar sector generated 1GW for the first time last Friday, delivering 34.4% of the Republic's electricity at midday.
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