💡 How a holiday ended up with €1.2M

PLUS: Liam Fuller incredible Oz story, Stripe snaps up Orum for instant rails & Konversational stakes its claim on 5th Ave

Céad míle fáilte!

There are many things that bind the thousands of wonderful subscribers of Irish Insights, but two stand out: being based abroad and a healthy interest in technology and entrepreneurship.

This week’s news hit those nerves hard in two great stories that caught our eye:

🏠 How Housing Costs Are Exporting Ireland's Future – Economist David McWilliams is waving red flags about a new wave of Irish talent legging it to Australia, thanks to the home-grown housing headache.

🌉 It’s time to build a bridge between Irish startups and diaspora investors – Elkstone’s Alan Merriman reckons it’s high time we weld a proper bridge between Irish startups and the diaspora’s deep pockets.

Have you left Ireland to build something remarkable overseas, or secured backing from an Irish investor abroad?

We’d love to hear your story. Reply to this email or send us a quick DM, and you could be featured in next week’s Dispatch.

Slán for now — and mind yourselves out there.

⏳ Today’s dispatch takes 5 minutes 15 seconds to read. ⏩ Only got 10 seconds? Here’s what matters:

🌍 News From Abroad – Holiday-funded €1.2M AI pre-seed, Konversational’s 5th Ave launch, and Stripe & Sprout on the acquisition hunt.
💸 Investment News – Dublin deal flow still sizzling: Oraion’s €2.9M round tops six fresh raises worth €15M-plus.
🧠 Brain Food – Nine snack-size reads on tariffs, AI solicitors, PayPal jobs, diaspora cash and billionaire manor drama.

One last thing… we recommend that you enjoy today’s edition online 👇

Enjoy ☕

NEWS FROM ABROAD
Irish teen goes to Australia on holiday. Accidentally raises €1.2M

Liam Fuller’s incredible story has gone viral and rightly so

18-year-old Liam Fuller flew to Australia to visit his grandparents — no pitch deck, no investor meetings, just a few cold emails and a hunch.

By the time he flew back to Ireland, his AI startup Source had raised €1.2M pre-seed from Square Peg, Stripe’s ex-CTO David Singleton, and a syndicate of Stripe alumni. Source helps retailers order stock in a few clicks — replacing spreadsheets, emails, and ERPs with something that feels more like Amazon.

Liam built his first Shopify app at 16. This time, he saw the mess in retail procurement, backed himself, and sent a few bold emails. Irish angels gave him the first cheques. Aussie VCs saw the vision. Stripe folks closed the loop. You love to see it.

More stories you need to know 🔍

🇺🇸 Konversational Lands in NYC
Irish-founded Konversational just opened on 5th Ave, bringing their ServiceNow expertise to the US. With €12M in revenue and 40 hires incoming, they’re not easing in — they’re going big.

🇺🇸 Stripe Makes a Power Move with Orum
Stripe has snapped up Orum.io, a U.S. payments API pioneer, to supercharge its real‑time payments stack. The deal gives Stripe easy access to instant rails like RTP, FedNow, ACH, wire, and visa direct — all without direct bank integrations.

🇺🇸 Sprout Social Scoops Up NewsWhip
Chicago-based Sprout Social is shelling out US$55 million cash (plus up to US$10 million in earn-outs) for Dublin-born NewsWhip. The predictive-media whizz kids will slot their Spike AI straight into Sprout’s platform, giving brands a crystal-ball view of what will trend next. Founders Paul Quigley and Andrew Mullaney just proved Irish foresight pays off—nicely.

FUNDRAISING
Oraion raises €2.9M to bring agentic AI to the enterprise world

Dublin-based Oraion raised €2.9 million ($3.5M USD) in July 2025 to supercharge enterprise automation using agentic AI. With backers including Studio VC (NYC), Enterprise Ireland, and angels from OpenAI, YouTube, and Wayflyer, they’re building a platform for real-time insights, predictive analytics, and workflow orchestration — and they’re aiming to conquer Fortune 500s.

📌 Why it stands out:
- Ambition to capture 50% of the enterprise intelligence market
- Agentic AI architecture designed for Fortune 500 scale
- Built in Dublin, expanding to the U.S. and Latin America

This is Irish-built AI that doesn’t just chat — it acts.

Who else has been raisin’ 💸 

🛒  Jarvio.io (Founders: Jake Ryan, Connor Mulholland & JD O’Hea)
€1.5M pre-seed – July 2025
Dublin startup simplifying Amazon storefronts using AI. Funding will power U.S. expansion, hiring, and product development. Already 650+ brands on the waitlist.

🌱 ODOS (Founders: Alejandro Vergara & Cian White)
€680K pre-seed – July 2025
Agri-tech spin-out helping food companies measure and reduce environmental impact. Backed by EI and university support, they're scaling climate-focused tools from Dublin farms to global fields.

📦 Source - (Founder: Liam Fuller)
€1.2M pre-seed – July 2025
Galway-born (now Dublin-based) 18-year-old founder automating retail stock purchasing with agentic AI that plays nice with Excel, email, and ERPs. Backers include Square Peg and Stripe’s ex-CTO. See more detail on this story in the News From Abroad section above.

📣 Solidroad (Founders: Mark Hughes & Patrick Finlay)
$6.5M seed – June 2025
Dublin-based B2B CX platform transforming how enterprise clients manage customer relationships. Funds will boost growth, hiring, and market expansion into North America.

🔋 Licovolt (Founders: Dr. Tony Keene and Dr. Steven Ferguson)
Seed round – June 2025
Battery recycling tech startup based in Dublin, focused on recovering critical minerals from EV batteries. Quiet round, big impact — expect more to come.

Every one of these startups is Irish-founded and Ireland-based, with rounds closed in June or July 2025.

The seed market might be cooling globally — but the Dublin tech scene is still cooking. 🔥

🧠 BRAIN FOOD
Pill Pains, Legal Eagles, and Big Dublin PayDays

Here is your quick serving of Irish Insights-related wins, trends, events, media and resources that we think you’ll enjoy digesting 🍽️

🐣 Trump’s tariff tantrum – Pharma levies could hit 250 per cent, proving once again that trade wars age like warm milk. READ HERE

🤖 Leitrim lawyers meet AI – A hometown startup is using machine smarts to make legal advice as easy as ordering a 99. READ HERE

💼 FDI of the Month – PayPal is adding 125 jobs in Dublin. Fintech’s still sweet on the Liffey, so polish those CVs. READ HERE

🛬 AerCap’s €240k schmooze – The Irish aircraft-leasing giant shelled out $240k lobbying Team Trump on tariffs. Sometimes you have to pay to keep the wheels up.

💳 Fintech fists in the air – ThinkBusiness lines up the Irish startups set to wow wallets in 2026. Spoiler: they’re not shy. READ HERE

📉 Datalex ducks the spotlight – The travel-tech underdog plans to delist and focus on growth. Transparency? Grand, thanks. READ HERE

🏠 Zuck’s manor misfire – Mark Zuckerberg’s bid for Tony O’Reilly’s former pile was politely punted by Virgin Media’s billionaire boss. No room at the inn, Mark. READ HERE

💱 Fexco bags Sainsbury’s FX – Kerry’s finest scoops up the UK grocer’s travel-money arm. Handy if you’re changing quid for kangaroo dollars. READ HERE

Thanks for reading today 😀. Don’t forget to share or forward this email to a friend!

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