IDA Ireland

Great to join a panel discussion on international expansion and building global startups at the StartUp Grind Conference recently in Redwood City. I shared perspectives on why Ireland continues to work as a strong launchpad into EMEA for US companies, alongside practical advice on scaling globally. Thanks to my fellow panellists - Tiffine Wang, Ken Yoshida, and Nurasyl Serik and thanks for the photo Tiffine! IDA Ireland

Great to join a panel discussion on international expansion and building global startups at the StartUp Grind Conference recently in Redwood City. I shared perspectives on why Ireland continues to work as a strong launchpad into EMEA for US companies, alongside practical advice on scaling globally. Thanks to my fellow panellists - Tiffine Wang , Ken Yoshida , and Nurasyl Serik and thanks for the photo Tiffine! IDA Ireland

We were delighted to host Keychain and their partners at our Dublin offices. Many thanks to Oisin Hanrahan , Alan Metcalfe , Becca Beatty , and the Keychain team for bringing such an interesting group together with insightful discussions. We heard from Denis Curran talk about IDA Ireland and Sheelagh Daly discuss Enterprise Ireland . ☘️

Great to be part of the second annual Irish Tech Summit at the Computer History Museum on St. Patrick's Day 🇮🇪🇺🇸 I had the pleasure of MC’ing the event alongside Martha O'Byrne-O'Reilly from Enterprise Ireland and moderating a panel on Scaling Teams in Europe with an excellent group of leaders - Linda Rogers from Dolby Laboratories, Gareth K. from OpenAI and Brennan O'Donnell from Frontline Ventures. A few takeaways: -Europe remains one of the most strategic regions globally for talent and scaling -Navigating regulation is complex—but increasingly a competitive advantage when done right -The depth of technical talent across Ireland and wider Europe continues to impress Events like this really highlight the strength of the Irish–US tech corridor and the growing ambition of companies building across both markets. Thanks to everyone who joined and contributed to such a great discussion. #IrishTech #Scaling #Europe #AI #Startups #Ireland #SiliconValley IDA Ireland Ivan Houlihan

🍀 Irish Tech Summit | St. Patrick’s Day 2026 The IDA Ireland West Coast Team are delighted to be partnering with Enterprise Ireland to host the Irish Tech Summit on March 17th, 2026, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. This St. Patrick’s Day event brings together the Irish and Silicon Valley tech ecosystem — founders, investors, and business leaders — for an evening of startup pitches, expert discussion, networking, and celebration. We’re proud to feature three expert panel discussions with leaders across technology, policy, and scale: Success in the US • Kathryn Kearney, Founder, Evergreen EdTech Consulting • Siobhán Mc Feeney, SVP Technology, Target • Dr. Nora K., Founder & CEO, Nuritas Navigating Regulation in the EU • Kalinda Raina, Chief Privacy Officer, Airbnb • Gerard de Graaf, Senior EU Envoy for Digital, EU Office in San Francisco • Kelly N. Diep, Head of Corporate Legal & Compliance, Harvey • Doug McMahon, Partner, McCann FitzGerald LLP 🌍 Scaling Teams in Europe • Ivan Houlihan, Head of Western U.S., IDA Ireland • Linda Rogers, Chief People Officer, Dolby Laboratories • Gareth K., Strategic Initiatives, OpenAI • Brennan O'Donnell O’Donnell, Partner, Frontline Ventures We’ll also hear pitches from an outstanding group of Irish companies, showcasing the depth and breadth of innovation emerging from Ireland today: • Jentic – Enterprise agent enablement platform • MBRYONICS – Space‑based photonics infrastructure • Jarvio – E‑commerce workflow automation platform • Disseqt AI – AI governance for enterprises • Ahoy AI – CRM platform for B2B teams • EVERYANGLE – Retail intelligence using computer vision • Paygentic – Intelligent billing and payments platform • EstateMin – Digital estate and asset management • DANU – Enterprise decision intelligence platform Huge thanks to our Enterprise Ireland colleagues Killian McMahon and Martha O'Byrne-O'Reilly, for their partnership and collaboration throughout. Thanks also to the wider IDA Palo Alto team, including Ivan Houlihan, Tara O'Mahony, Doireann Mooney, Ciara Mullarkey, Mairead Fanning and Catherine Kelly, for all the work behind the scenes in bringing this event together. ☘️ Registration is open and capacity is limited — I’d encourage you to register soon while space remains available. 👉 Register here: https://luma.com/iuz8t9fs

Sharing my latest peice in GeekWire: As AI companies expand into Europe, the question isn't just why Europe - it's where? In this article, I explore why global AI leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic are choosing Ireland as their EMEA base - from deep talent across engineering, legal and GTM to regulatory alignment and speed to scale. At IDA Ireland, we're seeing this shift firsthand.

It was great to join Silicon Valley Bank and Gaingels last week for the “State of the Markets H2 2025” briefing in San Francisco. SVB’s Eli Oftedal and Carta’s Peter Walker shared a fascinating, data-driven look at how venture sentiment, growth dynamics, and the AI wave are reshaping the innovation economy. A few key takeaways stood out: 💡 From boom to equilibrium – after the highs of 2021 and the correction that followed, the market is settling into a more sustainable rhythm where efficiency and profitability now matter as much as growth. 🤖 AI’s outsized impact – the top five US AI unicorns (OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Scale AI, and xAI) now represent over $500 billion in private value — more than all dot-com IPOs at their peak. 📊 Yet despite the hype, AI companies aren’t yet more efficient — median revenue per employee and profit margins remain roughly in line with or below non-AI peers. For IDA Ireland, these trends reinforce what we’re seeing across the Atlantic: strong demand for European expansion among next-generation tech firms, continued interest in Ireland for AI R&D and data infrastructure, and a growing focus on sustainable, long-term business models. Always valuable to hear first-hand insights from SVB and Carta’s data teams — and to connect them to the wider transatlantic ecosystem we work with every day. #SVB #Gaingels #Carta #IDAIreland #VentureCapital #AI #InnovationEconomy #TechTrends #TransatlanticGrowth #WhyIreland IDA Ireland