Sunday Independent: Business confidence is high in the US, presenting opportunities for Irish companies across the country. 

President Higgins and Sabina Higgins hosted 200 female entrepreneurs at Áras an Úachtaráin last Friday where he hailed female entrepreneurs as modern-day sufragettes that are owed a debt of gratitude from the nation.

This week, Enterprise Ireland launched the first Fintech Census which aims to accurately map Ireland’s fintech sector for the first time. 

The Government is putting €26.75m into a fund that will help develop an Irish food tech cluster to better connect researchers with industry.

Dublin-based Digit Games Studios has raised an additional $1.5m (€1.2m) from US gaming firm Scopely.

Data science player SalesOptimize has raised €1.1m in a funding round led by Elkstone with participation from Enterprise Ireland.

The Fintech Census initiative is a key action of the Department of Finance’s IFS 2020 Action Plan for 2018, launched by Minister of State for Financial Services and Insurance, Michael D’Arcy TD in January 2018.

Dublin-based same-day delivery business WeBringg is preparing to embark on a €3.5m funding round in order to scale up the company internationally.

The Competitive Start Fund provided ApisProtect with financial and mentoring support that helped the business hit key milestones.

Irish medical software start-up Pharmapod has secured a €1.9 million round of investment to expand its business in Canada.

Patrick J Byrnes of Croom Precision in Limerick has received the prestigious ‘Enterprise Ireland Graduate of Outstanding Innovation Achievement Award'.

This week, Fora profiles Cork-based Over-C as part of its Startup Spotlight series. 

Innovation Zed, an Irish medtech company, today announced the signing of a global partnership and data integration agreement for its family of insulin pen ‘add-on’ devices with UK-based GlucoRx.

The world’s first fully customisable instrument for electrospraying particles supported with prestigious Horizon 2020 win.

Winner of the €3,000 pitch competition, Anna Downes of ShowHouz, pictured at the Fuelling Ambition Roadshow in Roscommon with Lucy Carty, President Network Ireland, Roscommon Branch, Rachael James, Female Entrepreneurship Manager, Enterprise Ireland, and Burga Fullam, RDE Enterprise Ireland.

The European Commission has approved an extension to the Rescue and Restructuring scheme, which will add a further €10m to the fund supporting companies experiencing acute liquidity needs as a result of Brexit.

Warbble co-founders Emmett Gallagher and Greg Furlong had their ‘aha moment’ in 2015 when they came across research that showed that over a million SMEs in the UK lacked basic digital skills.

How former Connacht rugby star Conor O'Loughlin turned tech entrepreneur when his rugby career was cut short by injury. 

Smart refrigeration company, Zeto, will be among Ireland’s first companies to successfully raise multi-million euro investment through an initial coin offering (ICO).  

Tech Ireland's Niamh Bushnell said that funding figures for female-led start-up are high by international standards.