While bigger funding rounds blossomed, the situation for firms raising under €5m was ‘choppy’. A record €1.48bn was invested into 217 Irish tech SMEs by venture capitalists last year – a 9pc growth from 2023. This is according to the Irish Venture Capital Association’s (IVCA) latest Venture Pulse report, which also noted a record fourth quarter at the end of the year that saw €535m in investment – which is 162pc higher than the same period in 2023. Last month, Dublin-based medtech Fire1 announced that it raised €116m, which made it the largest funding round in Q4, the report stated,…