From quantum computing to satellite tech, here are some of the many Irish businesses leading the way in cutting-edge technology.

Ireland pushes well above its weight in the world of deep tech, which includes a range of new and cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, next-gen communication networks and robotics – just to name a few.

This month is all about deep tech at SiliconRepublic.com, and in honour of that, we have put together a list of 10 Irish-founded companies making waves in the sector.

Irish-founded, Singapore-based Horizon Quantum began trading on the Nasdaq earlier this year after a merger with special purpose acquisition company dMY Squared Technology Group.

The company founded by Dr Joe Fitzsimons in 2018 builds software infrastructure that aims to empower developers to use quantum computing to solve computational problems.

In June, Horizon announced that it will locate a testbed for its planned second quantum computer in Dublin.

The company said locating the ‘IonQ’ 256-qubit system at its European headquarters would benefit the company and the country, noting “Ireland’s growing quantum ecosystem, strong university network and robust talent pool for deep-tech development, both within the country and across the EU”.

This 2024 University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out has developed a chemical compound and process to recycle minerals from batteries.

Founded by scientists Dr Tony Keene and Dr Steven Ferguson, and mining and processing entrepreneur Clint Zahmel, Licovolt’s patented chemical compound and process can extract critical minerals from spent battery material and black mass at a fraction of the cost and emissions of current methods.

Last year, it secured an undisclosed investment from Davencor Holdings.

UCD spin-out LirOptic has developed a new optical lens technology that it claims “significantly improves” the performance of smartphone cameras.

The start-up was co-founded in 2020 by Prof Dominic Zerulla, Simon Forsyth and optical entrepreneur Joe O’Keeffe, and aims to commercialise the technology developed by Zurella and his team at UCD.

Zerulla is the founding member and principal investigator of the UCD Plasmonics and Ultra-fast NanoOptics group. Last year, the company joined the Luminate NY accelerator programme, where it won the Audience Choice Award at the programme’s final.

This medtech is behind a new type of UV-vis spectrophotometer called Cloudspec that can analyse the chemical composition of liquids in cloudy liquids, something that was previously not possible.

Marama Labs CEO Brendan Darby told SiliconRepublic.com in an interview that their Cloudspec device could set the “new gold standard” for spectroscopy devices.

Last November, it was crowned the ‘most impressive deep-tech pioneer in Europe’ at the Deep Tech Demo Day, run by Silicon Roundabout Ventures and Frontier Deep Tech. Darby co-founded Marama Labs in 2019 with Prof Eric Le Ru and Dr Matthias Meyer. The company is dually based in New Zealand and Ireland.

This life sciences start-up from UCD is working on improving the efficiency of next-generation genetic sequencing. Earlier this year, the emerging company was announced as one of the two inaugural winners of the Irish Genomics Business Plan Competition.

Nax Bioscience is developing an innovative nucleic acid extraction technology, which it is using to create higher input quality that delivers more reliable, cost-effective sequencing results.

The company is supported by the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund and is preparing for spin-out in early 2027 with the support of NovaUCD.

Oscil’s founder Dr Patrick Cronin won the Enterprise Ireland (EI) Big Ideas award last year after contesting in a pitching battle against other pre-spin-out ventures emerging from EI’s Commercialisation Fund.

The company’s platform provides data analytics support for the pharmaceutical and dairy sector, with tools including edge sensing and machine learning to provide real-time control on how powders are processed.

Advanced manufacturing start-up ProvenMetal joined the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator programme earlier this year.

ProvenMetal builds benchtop x-ray systems that use AI to analyse circuit boards, helping identify faults before electronics are deployed in critical applications such as aerospace, medical devices and defence systems.

The San Francisco-based company’s founders say that the technology could help strengthen domestic electronics manufacturing by making quality assurance faster and more reliable.

Setanta Space Systems is a NovaUCD-based company founded in 2025 by a team of engineers with experience in European Space Agency (ESA) missions. It officially launched earlier this year.

In September, the space-tech announced that it is seeking to raise €3m to build out its AI-powered satellite computing technology.

The company is building ‘Danu’, an onboard computer that allows mission designers to tailor processing power, Al acceleration and radiation tolerance depending on need. It is also developing integrated AI models for spacecraft health monitoring, Earth observation analytics and autonomous navigation.

UCD spin-out SiriusXT has created what it calls the “world’s first” commercial, laboratory-based, soft x-ray microscope used for cell and tissue imaging. The SXT-100 microscope, the company says, can help detect early signs of cell changes that could help identify developing diseases.

The company was founded in 2015 by Paul Sheridan, Kenneth Fahy, Fergal O’Reilly and Tony McEnroe.

In an interview with SiliconRepublic.com in 2025, McEnroe said that the company wants to contribute to global health efforts by making soft x-ray microscopy more accessible.

This Dublin-based space-tech raised $11m led by Act Venture Capital and Greencode Ventures to further develop its AI-powered platform used in maritime security.

Ubotica is a frequent collaborator with NASA and the ESA, having previously delivered the first spacecraft to autonomously identify a target ahead and reorient itself to capture it.

Earlier this year it announced a partnership with Texas-based Novi Space to combine its AI platform with Novi’s smart-satellite constellation to process Earth observation data directly onboard satellites.

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