Investment in NI tech companies hit record in 2022

Investment in Northern Ireland’s technology companies reached £139 million last year, an all-time high and triple the level from three years ago as more companies turned to venture capital investment to support their growth plans, new data showed.

The annual NI Deal Tracker report from Catalyst also found the number of deals - 89 in locally based innovation and growth stage companies - surpassed the previous record.

The £139 million total was a 29 per cent increase on 2021, when 68 deals were completed. In 2019, a total of £44.4 million was invested in tech companies in the region.

“In light of a fall in venture capital investment in the UK market overall, the increase in venture capital investment into Northern Ireland companies is very welcome. When we analyse the underlying data, we can see the cause of this increase has been the emergence of a cluster of growth companies which are redefining the aspirations for innovation companies within NI,” said Kieran Dalton, head of scaling at Catalyst.

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“Raising venture capital investment is always a challenge, however, as more seed companies in NI continue to ‘graduate’ into growth and venture stages they can be confident that external investors are increasingly available to support their needs.”

On average, the investments were £1.6 million per company, an increase of £100,000 on the average amount in 2021, with 20 deals between £1 million and £5 million and 10 with a value of more than £5 million. Five deals were worth more than £10 million.

The majority of the money came from outside Northern Ireland, with funds such as Google Ventures, Barclays, Clean Growth Fund, ExSight Ventures, Visionary Ventures and SignalFire making investments over the year.

The full deal tracker report will be released next month.

“These figures show that Northern Ireland companies continue to attract increasing amounts of international investment, even at a time when venture capital activity globally has fallen. The rise is testament to the quality of founders, startups, scaleups and the strong local ecosystem that now exists here,” said Steve Orr, chief executive of Catalyst.

“Given the slowdown and ongoing pressures facing the venture capital market, which have been exacerbated in recent days by the uncertainty created by the rescue of the sector’s major banking player, Silicon Valley Bank, it will become increasingly important for local startups that global investors are aware this is a region and an economy that has a strong track record of producing innovative companies with high growth potential.”