LinkedIn Top Startups 2022: The 10 Irish companies on the rise

The 2022 LinkedIn Top Startups list reveals 10 emerging Irish companies gaining attention. Backed by unique LinkedIn data measuring different elements of growth and demand, the list includes companies such as Wayflyer, Workvivo and Flipdish, and others that you should be paying attention to.?

Starting and growing a company has always been tough, but it’s especially so right now. As the working world navigates widespread inflation and economic uncertainty, it’s getting more challenging for young companies to get investment and grow quickly.

But while it’s a difficult moment, some argue that innovative ideas are born in times of uncertainty. Operating under constrained resources and limited capital can push young companies to prioritise assets and values, and adapt quickly.

Our second annual LinkedIn Top Startups list is the resource to find the startups to pay attention to right now, featuring 10 Irish companies that are rising to the challenges of the moment and continuing to innovate and gain attention in 2022To compile the list, we looked at LinkedIn data across four pillars: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement within the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. (You can learn more about our methodology and eligibility requirements at the bottom of this article.)

This list is ultimately meant to be a resource for jobseekers excited by the opportunity to innovate, solve big problems and grow their skills. If joining a startup is the right fit for you, check out which roles, functions and skills are in demand at each company —? and click on them to find the associated LinkedIn Learning courses to study up. If you see a company that sparks your interest, take a look at who you may know and turn on job alerts to stay on top of future opportunities.

Here are this year’s LinkedIn Top Startups in Ireland — and join the conversation using #linkedintopstartups.

Full-time headcount: 470 | Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Communication, Business Management | Largest job functions: Finance, Marketing, Engineering| What they do: Wayflyer helps e-commerce companies access working capital, improve cash flow and drive sales using financing and analytic solutions. The firm became Ireland's sixth unicorn in 2022 when it raised €153m, bringing its total valuation to €1.6bn. Headquartered in Dublin, Wayflyer expanded into Spain, the Netherlands and the US in 2021. Since being founded in 2019, the company has provided over €512m in funding to e-commerce businesses.?

See jobs at Wayflyer | See people you may know at Wayflyer

Full-time headcount: 123 | Headquarters: Cork, Ireland ?| Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Web Development, Digital Literacy, Leadership | Largest job functions: Engineering, Customer Success and Support, Sales, Art and Design, Information Technology | What they do: Workvivo's digital platform is designed to facilitate remote work by connecting employees with their teams wherever they are working. Its software is used by one million employees at companies including Amazon and AIB. Workvivo raised €22.5m in Series B funding in 2022 after opening offices in Dublin, London and Boston. It has grown 150% year-on-year since being founded in 2019.?

See jobs at Workvivo | See people you may know at Workvivo

Full-time headcount: 254 | Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Web Development, Business Management | Largest Job Functions: Engineering, Customer Success and Support, Marketing, Sales, Information Technology | What they do: Ireland's fifth tech unicorn, Flipdish allows restaurants to bypass third-party take-away food providers, such as UberEats and Deliveroo, by building their own online ordering websites and apps. It raised €102 million in 2022, bringing its value to €1.27bn and has opened offices in the US, Spain, Germany and the UK.

See jobs at Flipdish | See people you may know at Flipdish

Full-time headcount: 58 | Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Leadership, Communication | Largest job functions: Sales, Marketing, Operations, Business Development, Media and Communication | What they do: Gym+Coffee is a Dublin-based athleisure-wear brand focused on sustainability and the fitness community. Describing its physical stores as Clubhouses, the carbon-neutral firm encourages customers to socialise and attend events. Since 2017, Gym+Coffee has expanded to the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. With revenues of €20m in 2021, it raised €17m in 2022 to expand across the UK and Germany.

See more about Gym+Coffee | See people you may know at Gym+Coffee

Full-time headcount: 145 | Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Web Development | Largest job functions: Sales, Engineering, Human Resources | What they do: Tines have become a go-to platform for security teams, allowing them to create automated workflows to increase efficiency and productivity. The company has struck deals with the likes of OpenTable, Coinbase, Box and Canva. In 2021, Tines raised €26 million in B Series funding, taking the company’s total value to €307 million and allowing them to enter the US market, opening an office in Boston.

See jobs at Tines | See people you may know at Tines

Full-time headcount: 192 | Headquarters: Louth, Ireland | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Procurement | Largest job functions: Operations, Engineering, Human Resources | What they do: XOCEAN uses uncrewed surface vessels to collect ocean data for surveyors, companies, agencies, universities and researchers, helping to reduce carbon emissions in the offshore industry. XOCEAN has offices in Ireland, the UK, Australia, Canada, the US and Norway and works with energy companies such as BP and Equinor. XOCEAN is now valued at over €100m.

See jobs at XOcean | See people you may know at XOcean

Full-time headcount: 105 | Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Communication, Business Management| Largest job functions: Engineering, Operations, Information Technology | What they do: Manna Drone Delivery is the world’s first B2B drone delivery ‘as-a-service’ platform. Based in Dublin, they have signed up companies such as Samsung and Tesco as partners. They plan to expand into the US market later this year, following over 100,000 delivery flights in Ireland and an injection of €30m in funding.?

See jobs at Manna Drone Delivery | See people you may know at Manna Drone Delivery

Full-time headcount: 97 | Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Business Management, Digital Marketing, Communication | Largest job functions: Sales, Operations, Marketing, Finance, Engineering | What they do: This Dublin-based customer-loyalty company provides a platform for businesses to send physical and digital gifts at scale to people around the world. Following successful partnerships with Airbnb, Spotify and Peloton, &Open raised €26 million in Series A funding this year. With employees in Ireland, Britain and the US, it is active in more than 120 countries.

See jobs at &Open | See people you may know at &Open

Full-time headcount: 668 | Headquarters: Waterford, Ireland | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Sales Operations, Communication | Largest job functions: Sales, Operations | What they do: Tegus, whose EMEA headquarters is in Waterford, provides a platform for investors to get fast access to company and industry insights. At the end of 2021, Tegus raised €92m in Series B funding. By 2022, over 2,000 investors had joined Tegus’s network.

See more about Tegus | See people you may know at Tegus

Full-time headcount: 68 | Headquarters: Galway, Ireland | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Communication, Manufacturing Operations, Research | Largest job functions: Engineering, Operations | What they do: ICS Medical Devices is a catheter design and manufacturing company. The company, based in Galway, has an extensive network of clients across Ireland, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US. In the autumn of 2022, ICS Medical Devices will move into a new 16,000 sq ft manufacturing facility to support its recent growth. The extension will add general manufacturing space, as well as a customer innovation centre.

See jobs at ICS Medical Devices | See people you may know at ICS Medical Devices

You can also check out the Top Startups in Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the UAE, the UK and the U.S.

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Methodology

LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over methodology time frame, which must be a minimum of 10%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from any global LinkedIn Top Company, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalised across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is 1 July 2021 through 30 June 2022.?

To be eligible, companies must be fully independent, privately held, have 30 or more full-time employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, venture capital firms, law firms, management and IT consulting firms, nonprofits and philanthropy, accelerators and government-owned entities. Startups who have laid off 10% or more of their workforce within the methodology time frame are also ineligible.?

About company insights

*Company insights were sourced from LinkedIn Talent Insights. Data reflects aggregated public member data from active LinkedIn profiles in the relevant country and includes full-time employee profiles associated with the company on LinkedIn. All data points are measured among hires in the last year. We exclude members who identify as part-time or contractors. Headcounts are provided by the companies directly, unless otherwise noted with an asterisk. Those headcounts are based on LinkedIn data. The insights reflect data as of July 2022. Skills data was derived from measuring the most frequent skills among a company’s employees. Most common job titles represent the occupations that are most common within each company. Largest job function measures the function area most prevalent within each company.?

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Reported by: Orlando Crowcroft, Polly Dennison, Jennifer Ryan

Methodology and insights by: LinkedIn Economic Graph team

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Honoree companies: 1. Wayflyer | 2. Workvivo | 3. Flipdish | 4. Gym+Coffee? | 5. Tines | 6. XOCEAN? | 7. Manna Drone Delivery | 8. &Open | 9. Tegus? | 10. ICS Medical Devices