# Top 40 Social Media Startup Investors in Ireland in June 2026

## Act Venture Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 6
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence

Technology-focused, investing capital and expertise to fuel growth in the most promising ideas and companies. Raised c.€600m across multiple funds and invest from seed to growth.We look for companies with potentially cutting-edge, category-defining businesses in markets including application software, IT infrastructure, communications, Internetand mobile. We help founders create and scale businesses globally. We work as a small team with diverse strengths accessing a community of over 200 founders. The teams and companies we back scale their investor base as they scale their business execution and ambition. We work closely with them in this process. Over the past 25 years have built a broad network of US and European investors and founders that share our vision and approach.Act is based in Dublin, Ireland.Our most recent funds are supported by the European Investment Fund.

## AIB Seed Capital Fund
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 4
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Medical

The AIB Seed Capital Fund was established in 2007 to provide venture capital for companies at the seed and early stages of development across a range of sectors throughout the Republic of Ireland. The Fund was established under the Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital Programme 2007-2012.The Fund has a total of €30m under managementwith AIB and Enterprise Ireland both committing €15m. It is managed by experienced managers with extensive expertise in making seed and early stage investments, adding value and facilitating business success.The Fund managers are empowered to make seed investments of up to approximately €500,000. Furthermore, the Fund has the capacity to make investments in later rounds to support the continued growth of investee companies.The Fund will be managed by Enterprise Equity Venture Capital and the Dublin Business Innovation Centre. This unique partnership brings together extensive regional and investment expertise.Enterprise Equity will evaluate and manage all investments outside the city and county of Dublin, as well as investments that require in excess of €250,000 from the fund within the city and county of Dublin.Dublin Business Innovation Centre (DBIC) will evaluate and manage all investments within the city and county of Dublin when the initial investment amount required from the Fund does not exceed €250,000.

## Shane Naughton
- Type: Angel
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: SaaS, Software, Apps

Shane Naughton - Founding Partner and Board of Directors @ On The Stage

## Enterprise Ireland
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Health Care

Enterprise Ireland is the government agency responsible for the development and funding of the indigenous business sector. Their mission is to accelerate the development of companies to achieve strong positions in global markets resulting in increased national and regional prosperity. 

It was founded in 1998 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

## Peter O'Grady Walshe
- Type: Angel
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Video, Publishing, Social Media

Peter O'Grady Walshe - Chairman @ VideoElephant

## Meridian Growth Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Insurance, Digital Media

Meridian Growth Capital Ltd: Leading PE firm. Explore investments: Elecon, Blis, loveholidays, StorMagic, NewsWhip. Learn more from case studies.

## The Associated Press
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: News, SaaS, Video

Discover a world of unbiased journalism, in-depth analysis, and real-time updates from every corner of the globe.

## NDRC
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Convertible Note
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce

NDRC builds high-impact new ventures. By providing the people, time, space and investment needed at the earliest stages of dedicated commercialisation work, NDRC is creating companies worthy of commercial investment and with the ability to scale. The NDRC team has the breadth of knowledge and expertise in technology and markets. NDRC worksside-by-side with researchers, entrepreneurs and venture teams to turn great ideas into successful new ventures.By the end of 2014, NDRC’s portfolio of startup ventures had secured a cumulative €88m in follow-on investment from commercial investors, with a combined market capitalisation of approx. €220m.

## Tom Kennedy
- Type: Angel
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Travel, Software, Video

Tom Kennedy is the Founder of Hostelworld. Tom Kennedy attended Technological University Dublin.

## Hal Philipp
- Type: Angel
- Location: Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: News, SaaS, Big Data

Hal Philipp - Principal Partner @ Meridian Growth Capital

## Social Starts
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence

Social Starts is a $60M+ venture capital partnership with a uniquely data-driven approach to investing in moment-of-inception and Series A financing rounds.

## Furthr
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Software, Web Development, Mobile

Dublin Business Innovation Centre (DBIC) was established in 1988 with private, public, educational and EU support.

## Tribal.vc
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Analytics

Tribal.vc is a leading Venture Capital firm investing in the next generation of transformative companies.

## Julien Nguyen
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Internet, Social Media, Music

Julien Nguyen has 30 years of operational, entrepreneurial and early stage investment experience.Prior to NanoDimension, Julien was a Managing Director at Applied Materials Ventures and Concept Ventures. Julien led investments in companies such as Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN), M-Stream (acq’d by Broadcom), Devicescape, Grandis (acq’d by Samsung),Takumi (acq’d by Sagantec), Envis (acq’d by Magma), with co-investors including August Capital, Benchmark, Kleiner Perkins, Matrix Partners, Sevin Rosen, Sigma Partners. Prior to his venture capital activities, Julien founded or was part of the founding team for four startups: Ezlogin (acquired by 724 Solutions), Novita Communications (acquired by Planetweb), E-Motions (acquired by Sigma Designs), Radius (IPO). He holds 21 patents issued in the US.Julien received his postgraduate degree from Telecom Paris (France) and his Master of Science from Ecole Polytechnique (France).

## Tom Preston-Werner
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Developer Tools

Steve Jang is an individual investor.

## Harper Reed
- Type: Angel
- Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: Communities, Social Media, Online Portals

Harper Reed is the CEO of General Galactic Corporation. He previously worked at Braintree as the Head of Commerce. He attended Cornell College.

## Flight Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Mobile

Flight Ventures is the first fund that was built by leveraging AngelList syndicates. They operate some of the top syndicates on AngelList, as well as the Flight Ventures Expansion fund (offline). Flight Ventures includes 25 partners with exceptional operational and entrepreneurial accolades, all whom actively engage with our portfolio companies.

## Western Development Commission
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Health Care, Medical Device, Biotechnology

Supporting communities to grow, investing in businesses to scale and planning for the future of the western region.

## Angus McMillian
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Focus: News, SaaS, Big Data

Angus McMillian

## Sam Perry
- Type: Angel
- Location: Menlo Park, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Convertible Note
- Focus: Social Media, Apps, News

Sam Perry - President @ Ascendance Ventures

## Barry Lunn
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Sensor, Software, Aerospace

Barry Lunn, the founder and CEO of Provizio (previously founder and CEO of Arralis) takes a design led approach to tech entrepreneurship. Barry’s approach to solving difficult technology problems is as much artistic as it is actual physics.

## Tony Smurfit
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Publishing, Video, Privacy

Tony Smurfit is the Founder & CEO of Smurfit Kappa.

## Scott Chacon
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Health Care

Scott Chacon is based out of Berlin, Germany, and is the Founder and CEO of GitButler. Scott previously worked at Chatterbug as a CEO. Scott Chacon attended UC San Diego.

## Kumar Malavalli
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Software, Enterprise Software, Internet

Kumar Malavalli is the co-author and driving force behind Fibre Channel, an evolutionary technology that enabled the development of production-class storage area networks (SAN's). Co-founder and former CTO of Brocade Communications; Currently Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of InMage Systems.In February 2003, Kumar was inducted into theSilicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame for his contributions to technology. He also received the Gene Milligan Award for Effective Committee Management from the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) for chairing an INCITS committee that developed 17 standards in the area of Storage Area Networks. In 2012 the Computer History Museum published his work on Fibre Channel standards in the T11 Accredited Standards Committee.Kumar's philanthropy in the field of education extends from digital learning centers in rural India to American institutions of higher education. He has established the Kumar Malavalli Endowed Chair in Storage Systems Research at University of California Santa Cruz, co-founded the Indus Scholastic Management Services and serves as a trustee of the Indus International Schools.He currently invests in and mentors numerous startups in US, Canada and India, served as a member of the Board of Directors of The Indus Entrepreneurs Silicon Valley Chapter (TiE), and is a trustee of the American India Foundation (AIF). In 2012, Kumar became a trustee of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

## John Corcoran
- Type: Angel
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A
- Focus: Video, Publishing, Social Media

Dublin-based John Corcoran (89) co-founded the hugely successful Paddy Power chain of bookmakers in 1988 along with David Power and Stewart Kenny. At a time when big brands were taking over the market, the three men joined their three independent chains to become a force to be reckoned with. Corcoran remains a shareholder in Paddy Power Betfair,although he has sold off tranches for 'estate planning' purposes in recent years. John died in June 2019.

## Per Brilioth
- Type: Angel
- Location: Stockholm, Stockholms Lan, Sweden
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series B, Seed
- Focus: Apps, Software, Transportation

Per Brilioth - CEO @ VNV Global

## IT-Farm
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Medical

IT-Farm is a venture capital firm which specializes in seed, start-up, and early stage companies. It primarily invests in mobile, big-data, connected car, IoT, OTT service, Helth care, Bio Tech and other IT industries. The firm actively invests in SF bay area and Japan, as well as other geometries including Asia and Europe. We support portfoliocompanies, especially on the partnership with Japanese enterprises.

## ZenStone Venture Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Santa Clara, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: FinTech, Real Estate, Financial Services

Introduction of the investment thesis of ZenStone Venture Capital: Investing in passionate founders with extraordinatry vision and execution at post seed and early venture stages.

## Paddy Bolger
- Type: Angel
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Video, Publishing, Social Media

Paddy Bolger - Chief Financial Officer @ CWSI

## Jim Mullins
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Focus: News, SaaS, Big Data

Jim Mullins

## Matthew Le Merle
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: iOS, Apps, Local

Matthew Le Merle is a Managing Partner of Keiretsu Capital and Fifth Era (www.fifthera.com). Matthew was formerly the Co-President of Keiretsu Forum in San Francisco and is an expert on digitization having advised leading technology companies including eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft and PayPal on how to drive and benefit from emerging digital valuepropositions.

## Ray Nolan
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Apps, News, Software

Ray Nolan - Non-Exec Chair @ XSellco

## Eamon Leonard
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Apps, Software, Messaging

Eamon is a veteran of 20 years developing and building products, leading teams, and creating communities.Over the years he has: built and sold a company, built and failed to sell a company, made angel investments, hosted numerous conferences, organised hundreds of meetups, and brought thousands of people together to collaborate and do goodthings.As of June 2019, he's working on Boundless: making it easy for businesses to employ people in other countries and be compliant with tax and employment law.

## Jon Staenberg
- Type: Angel
- Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Legal

Jon Staenberg has been working with venture backed companies for more than a decade, and has participated in over 100 deals. In this capacity he has started his own company, worked full-time in other companies, and consulted to over 50 startups. He is one of the most experienced venture capitalists in the Pacific Northwest, having raised two fundstotaling over $100 million. After working in the marketing area at Microsoft for six years, he joined Virtual i-O as VP of Sales & Marketing. During the last eight years, he has been engaged in business planning, business development, financial planning and fundraising, recruiting and mergers and acquisitions work for a variety of Silicon Valley and Seattle-based startups.Jon serves on the boards of Class.com and Micropath, and is on the advisory boards of New Vine Logistics, Vista Broadband, Prime Advantage, Time Domain, Atlantes.com, OneName, Syncronex, and uReach.com.Jon graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, where he received his B.S., M.A., and M.B.A. While at Stanford, he started and ran two successful companies.Jon grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and is a hardcore Nebraska Cornhusker fan. In his spare time he collects sports ticket stubs.

## Gaingels
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence

Gaingels is a venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies and $70M in deployed investment capital todate. The Gaingels network also actively supports its portfolio in identifying and recruiting diverse talent to their C-suite and board leadership teams and fosters a vibrant global community of industry leaders, investors, operators, and entrepreneurs who share a common goal for positive social change through business and successful investments.

## Armando Biondi
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: SaaS, Software, Big Data

Armando Biondi currently works as the Co-Founder and CEO for Breadcrumbs.io. He previously worked at Hootsuite as the global head of growth operations.

## Prabhu Goel
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series C, Seed, Angel
- Focus: Software, Enterprise Software, Information Technology

Prabhu began his career by joining IBM’s EDA organization at East Fishkill where he was involved with many developments in the area of chip test automation. At IBM he developed the Podem algorithm and other technologies that earned him 4 patents and several awards. He left in 1981 to join Wang Labs where he was exposed to the commercial EDAindustry. He left Wang in 1982 to start Gateway Design Automation – the company that delivered the now industry standard Verilog-XL to the market. In 1989 he sold Gateway to Cadence and continued at Cadence for 2 more years. He left Cadence to become a private venture capitalist. Since 1992, he has been an investor and a Director in a number of private companies. In 1996 he sold one of his companies, Frontline Design Automation, to Avant Corporation for a second venture success. Several of his present investments are in the EDA industry. Prabhu completed his graduate studies from Carnegie Mellon.

## Vertical Venture Partners
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Menlo Park, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Series B, Seed
- Focus: Software, Biotechnology, Health Care

Vertical Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in enterprise technology companies that target vertical markets.

## Colin Wiel
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: iOS, Communities, Location Based Services

Colin Wiel is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Mynd. He attended the University of California, Berkeley.

## Barry Pitcher
- Type: Angel
- Location: Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Video, Publishing, Social Media

Barry Pitcher

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co