💡Web Summit lost a day to the storms

👋 Céad míle fáilte! Some 70,000 people flew to Lisbon for Web Summit this week. Then two storms arrived.

The Irish-founded conference called off its Wednesday programme after Portugal's prime minister said his office had recommended the event's activities be suspended, with the country under a state of alert for storms Bruna and Charles. "Web Summit will of course respect the Government's direction, and accordingly, Day 2 will not take place," ticket holders were told.

The Irish were out in force. Enterprise Ireland brought 28 start-ups, 18 of them looking to raise €30.45m between them, including Otis, which has just signed its first paying customers in the UK and US. That was a week after we counted a record 120 Irish start-ups heading over.

TL;DR:

✈️ Abroad: Michelle Cotter raises €1.4m for Juritas, Brian Long leaves Atlantic Bridge for his own US fund, PulseAI wins FDA clearance, and Xtremepush heads for €40m.

🏠 At home: Revolut starts selling phone plans, Cognition sets up in Dublin, Google takes the DPC to court, Storage Systems sells to Infinity Group, and RunCommerce builds a shop from a photo.

👑 Founder Directory: Derek McGibney has run Cognitive GRC in Hong Kong since leading its 2020 buyout.

💰 Investment tracker: Irish space-tech wins a record €25.3m from ESA, ArrayPatch reaches €3.2m, Shinka closes €1.9m, Setanta Space opens a €2m round, and Roebuck seeks €10m.

🧠 Brain food: Addy Osmani on agents, Bobby Healy on the brick wall, a harder Series A, Griolladh heads to the UK, and AI in the showroom.

Enjoy ☕

LATEST UPDATES
News from abroad ✈️

🇸🇪 Contracts, read as they stand: Michelle Cotter has raised a €1.4m pre-seed round for Juritas, the Stockholm contract intelligence start-up she founded this year. Passion Capital led, with Blackwood, Araya Ventures and Baseline among the backers. Cotter previously held leadership roles at Legora, Revolut and Epidemic Sound. Juritas reads every contract with its amendments and flags what a business is owed, from unclaimed volume discounts to renewals nobody noticed. "Money is then calculated in code, never estimated by the AI," the company says. Read more.

🇺🇸 Brian Long goes solo: The Parthus founder has left Atlantic Bridge, the growth equity firm he co-founded in 2004 and led, to set up his own fund for US technology investments. He stays on as a director of Navitas Semiconductor, valued at $4bn at its IPO, and on the advisory board of SambaNova, recently valued at $11bn. Atlantic Bridge manages €1.4bn across about 120 portfolio companies. One of the founding names of Irish venture is now backing America directly. Read more.

🇺🇸 Belfast clears the FDA: PulseAI has won US FDA 510(k) clearance for its AI model that reads heart rhythms recorded on smartwatches. In a 296-person study published in Heart Rhythm, it cut inconclusive readings by 92% against the Apple Watch's own algorithm while catching more atrial fibrillation. "Our ambition is to match expanded access with improved accuracy," said founder and CEO Dr Alan Kennedy. With 164 million smartwatches sold in 2025, that is a big haystack to sort. Read more.

🇦🇺 From Connacht's front row to €40m: Tommy Kearns played hooker professionally for Connacht. Now the Xtremepush co-founder has launched an office in Melbourne. The Dublin customer-engagement platform is on course for €40m in revenue this year and employs 170 people across London, Milton Keynes, Dublin, New York and now Melbourne, The Currency reports. Kearns calls its AI push "not a pivot, but the next layer". No unicorn headlines, just steady compounding. Read more.

At home 🏠

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🗺️ FOUNDER DIRECTORY
Derek McGibney - Cognitive GRC

- Role: Founder and managing director, Cognitive GRC
- Base: Hong Kong
- Focus: Governance, risk and compliance for financial firms licensed by Hong Kong's SFC
- Stage: Management buyout in 2020, trading in Hong Kong since 2014

Derek McGibney studied at UCD and spent more than two decades in financial services, working for compliance advisers, investment managers and brokers in London, Ireland, New York and Hong Kong.

In 2020 he led the management buyout of Cordium Asia, which had traded in Hong Kong as ACA Compliance Group, and relaunched it as Cognitive GRC. The firm advises brokers, corporate finance houses, hedge funds and private equity managers on Securities and Futures Commission rules, including overseas managers setting up in Asia. He runs it with fellow managing director Beate Ly.

Two more Irish founders new on the map:

🇮🇩 Damien Roche | Irish Tax Hub | Bali. A chartered tax adviser who spent six years in Deloitte Ireland's income tax team, he co-founded a service that files Irish tax returns and refund claims, with fees agreed up front.

🇨🇦 Eoin Coney | Blubooks | Vancouver. His firm handles bookkeeping and sales tax compliance for ecommerce brands selling across borders, on Xero, QuickBooks and A2X.

🍀 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

THE INVESTMENT TRACKER
Who's raising this week 💰

🧠 BRAIN FOOD
5 other things we are snacking on this week

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