LinkedIn Top Startups Ireland 2021: The 10 companies on the rise

The 2021 LinkedIn Top Startups list reveals 10 emerging companies where people want to work now in Ireland.

Over the past year and a half, professionals across Ireland have been pushed to reevaluate the way they live and work in the wake of the pandemic. With economic recovery starting to happen at different paces across industries, many professionals are looking for something new, asking themselves: “What’s next?”?

Startups are a natural place to look to for new ideas and innovation. And our 1st annual LinkedIn Top Startups list is the resource to find the startups you should be paying attention to right now, reflecting 10 companies that have continued to attract investment, employees and attention in 2021.?

To put together this year’s rankings, we looked at LinkedIn data across four pillars: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from any global LinkedIn Top Company. In order to be eligible, companies must be 7 years old or younger, have at least 30 employees, be privately held and headquartered in Ireland. (You can learn more about our methodology at the bottom of this article.)

Of course, joining a startup can be a venture bet in and of itself. However, startups can also be great places to gain experience, grow your career and build important skills. Most importantly, this list is meant to be a resource for you. If you feel like a startup is the right fit for your next opportunity, take a look at who you may know at each company, see what jobs are currently open or dig into a LinkedIn Learning course on one of the top skills among employees.

Check out this year’s 10 Top Startups in Ireland and join the conversation using #LinkedInTopStartups.

You can also check out this year's number one Top Startups across Europe.

Headcount: 50 | Headquarters: Dublin | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Java, SQL, Software development | Most common job titles: Mechanical technician, Robotics engineer, Software engineer | What you should know: Manna has been trialling drone delivery in Oranmore, Galway for the past year, striking deals with Tesco and Just Eat to bring groceries and takeaways to consumers. The company got the go-ahead in May to enter the European market after securing $25 million in funding.

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

Headcount: 280 | Headquarters: Dublin | Year founded: 2014 | Most common skills: SQL, Agile Methodologies, JavaScript | Most common job titles: Software engineer, Customer executive, Product manager | What you should know: LetsGetChecked makes home testing kits to help people monitor their health and last year launched Covid-19 tests. The startup, which sells most of its kits into the US, raised $150 million in funding to become a unicorn with a $1 billion valuation this year.

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

Headcount: 40 | Headquarters: Dublin | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Merchandising, Fashion, Social Media Marketing | Most common job titles: Marketing executive, Retail sales assistant, Store manager | What you should know: Throughout the pandemic, athleisure brand Gym+Coffee experienced huge growth when interest in the startup grew as suits were swapped for more comfortable attire. One Direction’s Niall Horan invested at least €250,000 in the company, becoming a minority shareholder at the beginning of the summer.

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

Headcount: 51 | Headquarters: Cork | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: SQL, CSS, JavaScript | Most common job titles: Software engineer, Customer experience manager, Quality assurance engineer | What you should know: Cork-based Workvivo creates software for teams working remotely and first turned heads when Zoom founder Eric Yuan invested €500,000. The firm closed a €14.7 million Series A funding round in 2020 led by Tiger Global Management, which has also backed Stripe.

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

Headcount: 200 | Headquarters: Dublin | Year founded: 2014 | Most common skills: JavaScript, SQL, CSS | Most common job titles: Product engineer, Account executive, Engineering team lead | What you should know: Founded by Connacht Rugby player Conor O’Loughlin, along with Anthony Kelly and Finn Hegarty, Glofox makes software for gym management. Last year, it raised $10 million in funding, bringing its Series A funding round led by Octopus Ventures to $20 million.

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

Headcount: 31 | Headquarters: Kildare | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Forecasting, Sales management, Business development | Most common job titles: Business development manager, Controller, Sales manager | What you should know: The Naked Collective is a carbon-neutral drinks company, founded by industry veteran Niall Phelan and Catherina Butler, and launched during the pandemic. It produces a health-conscious beverage range under the name Mude and non-alcoholic drinks under So Beer. It is currently undergoing a funding round to raise €15 million.

See more about The Naked Collective | See people you may know at The Naked? Collective

Headcount: 51 | Headquarters: Galway | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: SQL, Python, Java | Most common job titles: Insights analyst, Data scientist, Customer success manager | What you should know: The West of Ireland-based company provides real-time data scheduling software for transportation companies. Last year, it announced it would be creating 50 extra jobs in the coming two years, after bagging National Express and GoAhead Group as clients in the UK.

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

Headcount: 136 | Headquarters: Dublin | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: SQL, JavaScript, CSS | Most common job titles: Software engineer, Customer success manager, Marketing executive | What you should know: Founded by brothers Conor and James McCarthy, Just Eat competitor Flipdish creates software for restaurants to provide online food ordering services. Earlier this year, it secured €40 million in funding, led by Tiger Global – the same backer as Workvivo – after experiencing a surge in demand for its services.

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

Headcount: 154 | Headquarters: Limerick | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: SQL, Java, Linux | Most common job titles: Information designer, Project management, Software engineer | What you should know: Teckro provides software that improves the process and transparency of clinical trials for doctors and medical professionals. In 2019, it received $25 million in Series C funding, bringing the overall figure raised by the startup to $43 million. Its Series A funding round was led by Founders Fund, which is an investor in SpaceX and other tech companies.

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

Headcount: 34 | Headquarters: Galway | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Social media marketing, Adobe Photoshop, Shopify | Most common job titles: Marketing executive, Area sales representative, Graphic designer | What you should know: Founded by three dentists – Dr Lisa and Dr Vanessa Creaven, along with Dr Barry Buckley – Spotlight OralCare makes and sells oral hygiene projects such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, and whitening kits. During the summer, it raised €12 million to help the firm break into European and US markets.

See more about Spotlight Oral Care | See people you may know at Spotlight OralCare

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 15%. 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 normalized across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is July, 1 2020 through June 30, 2021.?

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 20% or more of their workforce within the methodology time frame are also ineligible. Minority venture investments that LinkedIn or Microsoft, LinkedIn’s parent company, make in other companies have no impact on a company’s eligibility.?

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. 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 August 2021.

Reported by: Laura Roddy; Editing: Marie Malzac & Siobhan Morrin; Editor-in-chief: Sandrine Chauvin.