👋 Céad míle fáilte! Sadly, this week Ireland lost one of it’s all time great entrepreneurs, John Purdy. The man who built Ergo and Fenergo, two of our greatest ever success stories, was taken at the age of 63 just a day after he completed the sale of Ergo.
Countless members of Ireland’s entreprenuerial community have paid tribute to Purdy and told stories of how he helped them on their journey.
For those of you who are not aware of John Purdy’s incredible story, I highly recommend you listen to Gary Fox’s excellent interview with him on The Entrpreneur Experiment.
As always, we have some huge news across the globe about Irish founders who are blazing the trail. But let’s make sure to remember one of the original trailblazers in John Purdy, who paved the way for so many more to come after him.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
Today’s action-packed edition is a 3-minute, 15-second read. ⏩ In a rush? Here's the quick 15 second rundown:
🇨🇴 Founder Focus: John Oliver Coffey is bridging the gap between Latin American tech talent and global firms through a high-touch nearshoring model for staffing and software development.
✈️ Abroad: Irish-founded Raylo raises £30m ahead of a US launch, Galway’s Orreco makes a power move in women’s sport, and Bobby Healy’s Manna passes 250,000 drone deliveries.
🏠 Home: XFuel bags $20m for low-carbon fuel, Theradep raises €10m for next-gen implants, and Origina commits to 350 new jobs in Ireland.
🌶️ Hot Job: Revenue Performance Operations Analyst at Wayflyer. London (Remote-Friendly).
Enjoy ☕
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LATEST UPDATES
News from abroad ✈️
Olympic Gold Medalist, Jessica Ennis
🇬🇧 Irish-founded Raylo is on a serious charge. The consumer electronics subscription startup has just raised £30m (€35m) from heavyweights Citi and NatWest, pushing its valuation to £150m as it gears up for a US launch later this year. Founded in 2019 by Irish duo Karl Gilbert and Richard Fulton (alongside Jinden Badesha), Raylo lets customers lease phones, laptops and more via a subscription model that’s cheaper, greener and a bit smarter than the old way. With AI-driven risk models, big-name partners like Apple, Dyson and now LG, and £180m raised to date, this is another Irish-backed scale-up quietly getting its ducks in a row before going stateside. Not bad going at all.
🏃Galway-founded Orreco is making a serious play in women’s sport. The AI-driven performance science company has acquired Jennis, the women’s health platform co-founded by Olympic legend Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, to build what it calls the most advanced women’s performance ecosystem in the world. By combining Orreco’s AI, FitrWoman, Jennis IP and elite computer vision tech from DDSA, it’s tackling a long-ignored gap in elite sport, women’s physiology. Fresh off a $4m raise backed by Enterprise Ireland and Mark Cuban, and already trusted by Olympic medallists and the USWNT, this is Irish sports-tech swinging big on the global stage.
🚁Bobby Healy is flying out of Ireland: Drone delivery startup Manna has now surpassed 250,000 deliveries, including more than 60,000 flights in Dublin 15 alone. Following regulatory approval, the rollout of quieter propellers has sharply reduced local complaints, while the Irish-founded company continues to scale operations across Ireland, the UK and the US ahead of a big international push in 2026.
🇳🇿 Irish fintech startup Furthr has expanded into New Zealand: Brian O’Farrell is bringing his card-linked shopping offers to Kiwi bank cards and banking apps via multiple banking partners. With dozens of local merchants already signed up, it’s another strong international step as the platform scales beyond Europe.
🇩🇰 I get why they madde this decision: Danish insights startup GetWhy has added Irish tech heavyweight Donnchadh Casey to its board. The former Qualtrics CCO and ex-CEO of Calypso brings serious scale-up experience as GetWhy gears up for its next phase of growth.
At home 🏠
Big raise for Dublin-based climate tech startup XFuel this week closing a $20m Series A to roll out its first commercial-scale low-carbon fuel plants. Backed by USV, SOSV and new strategic heavyweights like NYK Line, the company is turning waste into drop-in fuel that works with today’s engines – and cuts emissions now, not someday.
Clonmel-based Theradep is applying plasma coating tech to make medical implants perform better inside the body. Founded by Irish trio Liam O’Neill, John O’Donoghue and Pat Burt, the medtech startup has raised €10m and is gearing up for its first product launch.
Dublin-based Origina is creating 350 new jobs as it scales its independent software support business globally, with Ireland locked in as its future growth hub. The founder-led company, which hit €90m in contract revenue last year, says the expansion could deliver up to €28m annually for the Irish economy.
Belfast-based Fusion Antibodies has raised £1.4m to speed up commercialisation of its OptiMAL antibody platform after a strong market reception. The Queen’s University Belfast spin-out is now pushing into North America as it gears up for its next growth phase.
Dublin-based accessibility startup PRM Assist has raised €500k from Enterprise Ireland and serial investor Paul McKeon to fuel international expansion. Already live in 15 airports, the team is scaling its tech and hiring as it works to make air travel far more accessible for passengers with reduced mobility.
🧐 FOUNDER FOCUS
"Offshoring is Broken" - John Oliver Coffey’s high-touch Latin Amercian solution for global tech
The move: “While everyone else was heading to London or New York, I took a sharp left turn. In 2007, I landed in Cali, Colombia. I came for family, but I stayed because I saw a goldmine of untapped talent where others only saw risk.”
Living abroad: “There is zero Irish community in Cali, I think there are three of us. Colombia is rural, it's jungle, it's modern, it's cosmopolitan. We have electric cars, we have neo banks, we have sourdough.”
The Model: “The ‘offshore’ model is broken. We use ‘Nearshoring.’ By staying in the same time zones as the US, we eliminate the communication black hole. You aren't just buying code; you’re buying real-time collaboration with world-class engineers.”
Debunking myths: “I still talk to people who think Latin America is just siestas and sombreros. Meanwhile, Amazon, Google, and NVIDIA have been here for a decade. The engineers here are building AI and ML products that are on par with anything in California.”
Social Impact: “When I turned 50, I invested in Viche. It’s an artisan spirit made by Afro-Colombian women in the jungle.”
The Diaspora: “I’m not a flag-waver, but I treasure the identity. I still watch Munster rugby and Tipp hurling from the tropics.”
Advice: “Don’t go soft on the soft skills. You can find coding talent anywhere, but if a hire can’t communicate or lacks integrity, they will break your culture. Skills are cheap; fit is everything.”
👉 FULL STORY: John Oliver Coffey - Founder of NetMidas
💼 IRISH INSIGHTS JOB BOARD
What Irish firms are hiring?
Full-Stack Developer (AI, Node.js, React, Java) at Parlai. Australia (Remote-Friendly). You’ll build and scale the real-time systems powering secure video, voice, and messaging for high-stakes enterprise and government clients. Own the full lifecycle of a complex communications stack while integrating AI-driven moderation to keep critical conversations flowing.
Revenue Performance Operations Analyst at Wayflyer. London (Remote-Friendly). You'll own revenue performance as a system, not a set of reports. Design, build, and continuously improve the models, data flows, and automations that power forecasting, planning, and execution.
Senior Implementation Project Manager at Intercom. San Franciso. (On-Site). Your primary focus will be to ensure the successful onboarding, installation, and integration of Intercom for multiple customers while driving customer satisfaction and product adoption.
Software Engineer III (AI) at WorkHuman. Dublin (Remote-Friendly). You will work on the Conversations product which offers a continuous performance development solution with a full spectrum of feedback, check-ins, priorities and reflections to develop the talent of any team.
Hiring? Post a job for free
🧠 BRAIN FOOD
5 other things we are snacking on this week
Last week, we mentioned Nory’s CEO, Conor Sheridan, sparked a discussion about EU Inc and it’s big launch. This week the Business Post asked him to expand on it.
One of Ireland’s very best entrepreneurs and journalists, Mark Little, was on The Big Tech Show with The Independent’s Adrian Weckler. Mind blowing as always!
The Financial Times have thrown some cold water on the whole “AI has completely disrupted the job market” narrative.
Can’t say I’ve watched it but this article about the Belfast man behind the animation in K-Pop Demon Hunters was fantastic.
Slightly late to this, but Charlie vs Garret, a book by Eoin O’Malley about Charlie Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald’s rivalry is a must read for any Irish politics nerds!
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