Ranking consistently in a leading spot on Forbe’s ‘Best Countries for Business’ list since 2010, Ireland boasts a vibrant digital sector. Its capital city, Dublin, has become a major tech hub over the past decade – serving as the European base for many multinational IT companies (10 of the top 10 global ICT companies and 9 of the top 10 global software companies have offices in the city).
A vibrant city of 528,000 inhabitants, Dublin benefits from a constant influx of global tech professionals setting up home in ‘Silicon Docks’ – a reference to ‘Silicon Valley’ and the heavy-weight tech companies located in this city-central docklands area.
Not surprisingly, Dublin boasts a growing number of collaborative innovations and initiatives stemming from the city’s hyperconnected and highly skilled workforce. Incubators and accelerators are also fueling new sharing initiatives and platforms.
Take a look at the list below.
Office Sharing / Hackerspaces
BLOCK T – co-working space igniting arts, culture and creative practice.
Co-create – co-working space in central Dublin.
Coworkinn – collaborative, shared, office space.
Digital Hub – flexible and affordable high-spec office space with world-class infrastructure and services.
Fumbally Exchange (FEx) – shared office space and community collaboration.
Hive @Liffey Trust – a place where tech start-ups can work, meet, collaborate, network and learn.
TCube Dublin – a social enterprise co-working space for software, web and mobile tech freelancers, entrepreneurs and start-ups.
TOG Dublin Hackerspace – a supportive hackerspace in the centre of Dublin.
Tribal – early stage venture fund and co-location hub for technology start-ups.
VERSARI Hub – turnkey & flexible solutions to premise & infrastructure needs.
FabLab
WeCreate – make, work, learn, based on the MIT FabLab model.
Mobility
GoCar – an on demand, pay-by-the-hour vehicle rental service that offers a real alternative to ownership.
Cars on Demand – flexible options for long term car hire for periods of 1 – 24 months.
DublinBikes – on demand bike-sharing service throughout the city.
Hailo – connecting taxis to people.
Leap Card – rechargeable card to pay for transport services across trains, busses and tramways.
Uber Dublin – connecting passengers with private cars for hire.
Finance, Banking & Crowdfunding
CurrencyFair – online peer-to-peer currency exchange market place, based in Dublin.
FundIt – an Irish platform for artists with creative ideas to attract funding from friends, fans and followers across the world.
Grid Finance – a peer-to-peer financing platform for Irish businesses and community. organisations, based in Dublin.
iCrowdFund – a crowdfunding platform supporting donation, reward & equity based options in Ireland.
iDonate – online charity fundraising platform.
iFundraise – Irish Club, School Fundraising, Sports Club Donations platform.
LinkedFinance – peer-to-peer lending for SMEs, based in Dublin.
SeedUps – an equity crowdfunding platform for accredited and sophisticated investors.
Arts
Exchange Dublin – a collective arts centre run holding discussions, gigs, visual arts and performance.
Food Sharing
Dublin Food Co-op – Dublin’s member-owned cooperative shop and community – organic wholefoods, dairy, and bakery.
FoodCloud – brings food businesses and charities together to reduce both food waste and food poverty, based in Dublin.
Learning
CoderDojo Dublin – free IT coding clubs for children between 10 – 18 years of age.
LanguageExchange – weekly language exchange matching native speakers with learners.
Mentors – bringing together business owners with successful, experienced mentors.
UniWink – a collaborative online learning platform, helping undergraduate college students boost their grades.
Fashion
FrocknFabulous – making high-end designer dresses accessible to the ‘girl next door’.
RentMyDress – P2P platform for anyone to rent their dress.
SellMyWeddingDress – P2P platform to buy and sell once loved wedding dresses.
Siopaella – a swap boutique and consignment shop for pre-loved designer clothing & accessories.
Starla – Dublin boutique for dress hire and dress sales.
SuitsYou – menswear and suit hire.
Crafts
Etsy – community of Etsy sellers based in Dublin.
Events
iRegister – an online event registration software to create an event website easily and sell tickets online for events in Ireland.
Advice
ThankFrank – a community of savvy shoppers who help others find the best stuff online, no strings attached.
Stuff
BuyandSell.ie – online platform for bringing buyers and sellers together.
The Dealer – buy and sell anything online.
DoneDeal – Ireland’s biggest classified site.
eBay Ireland – the world’s largest maerkeplace.
FlogIt – buy and sell, swap used goods, exchange goods.
Freebies Ireland – free stuff and alternative media website.
Gumtree – sell, swap and buy anything.
Hire Here – hire anything you need for your DIY projects.
JWHire – hire anything you need for building and DIY projects.
TrovIt – swap second-hand and bargain items.
Yep – trade anything and save money.
Travel
Experiences
FabFoodTrails – follow Dublin’s fabulous tasting trail to discover bakeries, food halls, street markets, cheesemongers, delicatessens and other speciality shops.
Ingenious Ireland – fun science focused tours of Dublin in the Summer – discover Irish ideas and inventions that changed the world.
Shiroube – insider tours of Dublin in almost any language.
Vayable – many novel ways to visit Dublin, from a photo-lovers tour to a haunted history walking tour on Vayable.
Lodging
Airbnb Dublin – more than 2,000 Dublin listings on Airbnb – and a selection of unique places in Ireland.
Home Exchange – 180 homes homes in Dublin.
Home for Exchange – 27 homes in Dublin.
HomeStay – 63 homes within 4 miles of the city center.
Roomorama – Dublin short term rentals, Dublin accommodation and vacation rentals.
Sustainable Living
Eco-Village Cloughjordan – a sustainable development 2 hours outside Dublin with 114 homes, 16 live/work units, and an enterprise centre to provide workspace and services to facilitate the growth of eco entrepreneurship.
On-demand services
CleanMyHome – matching people who need their house cleaned to self-emplyed cleaners.
MinderFinders – babysitting club to provide trusted childcare outside crèche hours.
B2B collaboration
Car Trawler – partnership for online travel brands and ground transportation companies worldwide.
Smile Exchange – free service for businesses that encourages exchanging of resources.
Accelerators
DCU Propeller – joint venture between Dublin City University and the Ryan Family (Ryanair).
DogPatch Labs – housing startups focused on scaling from seed to series A and beyond.
Female Propeller Programme for High Flyers – an accelerator programme for female led startups.
Health XL – a collaboration between some of the largest healthcare corporations in the world
LaunchBox.ie –Trinity College’s Summer student incubator.
NDRC LaunchPad – Microsoft Ventures’ partner accelerator – a member of Startup Federation.
NDRC VentureLab – Ireland’s dedicated science-ventures accelerator.
Scalefront – building new businesses to target specific market opportunities.
UStart – Dublin City University’s student entrepreneur accelerator.
Wayra – Telefónica’s global start-up accelerator.
Incubators
DIT Hothouse – Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at Dublin Institute of Technology
Guinness Enterprise Center – a network of entrepreneurs, high growth companies, investors and support agencies.
Invent Centre DCU – Dublin City University’s Innovation and Enterprise Centre
NCI Business Incubation Centre – National College of Ireland’s incubation centre
NOVA UCD – excellence in research and innovation at University College Dublin.
LINC – Institute of Technology’s learning and Incubation center.
Trinity Technology and Enterprise Campus – Trinity College Dublin’s incubation and development centre.
Inventorium – working with start-ups to make innovative ideas into profitable ones.
Start-Up Programmes
The Innovation Academy – develop a new kind of PhD graduate, with a thorough understanding of how innovation can convert knowledge into products, services and policies for economic, social and cultural benefit.
New Frontiers – an Enterprise Ireland programme aimed at supporting the establishment and growth of technology or knowledge intensive ventures that have the potential to trade internationally and create employment in Ireland.
Dublin Business Innovation Center BIC – a public-private business support organization working with state agencies and private sector investors to support entrepreneurs.
StartUp weekend Dublin – a weekend to build skills, meet incredible people, and launch successful startups.
Research and Education
INSPIRE – Integrated NanoScience Platform for Ireland – INSPIRE exists to foster, facilitate and ultimately ensure collaboration and partnership between top ranking Irish and international scientists and engineers in nanoscience research and education.
Multinational Tech & Internet EMEA/EU Headquarter Offices
Airbnb
Apple
Dropbox
eBay
Etsy
Facebook
Google
LinkedIn
Oracle
PayPal
Twitter
Udemy
Yahoo EMEA Ltd.
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