Ann O’Dea

Dublin

CEO and Co-Founder at Silicon Republic

CEO, cofounder, @siliconrepublic but these tweets are all mine. About to leave here for good. Meet me here: https://t.co/dQ6NtQdzBP

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Articles

Scale Ireland: Attracting private capital still major challenge for start-ups

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

In its fourth annual survey, Scale Ireland found that funding remained the number one concern amongst founders and CEOs, and 88pc are deploying AI. Now in its fourth year, Scale Ireland’s 2025 State of Start-ups Survey found that for the fourth year, funding remained by far the biggest concern for Founders and CEOs, with over 80pc of respondents saying it is “difficult” or “very difficult” to attract capital.
Chips restrictions to China cloud strong AMD results

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

AMD results showed a strong quarter one, with revenues up 36pc year-on-year, but were overshadowed by a warning on sales losses due to new China export restrictions. US semiconductor giant and Nvidia’s biggest AI chip rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has become the latest US tech player to announce strong results for the first quarter but add a cautionary note regarding quarter two, due to the current tariffs and export restrictions to China.
Meta awarded $168m in court win against spyware firm NSO

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

In a legal battle that has been fought out in the courts for over five years, Meta has been awarded $168m in damages and costs from Israeli spyware firm NSO Group. Meta detected and stopped an attack by spyware developer NSO against WhatsApp and its users six years ago via its Pegasus software, and quickly began legal proceedings against NSO Group.
PorterShed aims to eschew hype with new AI accelerator

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

Galway’s PorterShed launches new AI accelerator targeting pure AI start-ups and innovation teams nationwide. Galway’s PorterShed has launched its new AI accelerator, AI, Venture Forge, a 12-week programme which it says aims to bring Ireland’s AI-first startups and corporate innovation teams towards real commercial traction and investor readiness. “The noise around AI is deafening, however, very few companies are truly innovating at a deep technical level,” said Mary Rodgers, CEO of PorterShed.
Scientists urged Choose Europe as US targets NSF, NIH funding

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

US scientists and researchers seemed the likely target of the €5m funding boost announced by Ursula von der Leyen at the Choose Europe for Science event in Paris.
Fivetran to acquire Census to bolster platform for the AI era

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

Fivetran has signed an agreement to acquire Reverse ETL company Census, in order to deliver “the first end-to-end data movement platform for the AI era”. California-based Fivetran is a leading global player in data movement, with its EMEA headquarters in Ireland. It’s client list includes major brands like OpenAI, LVMH, Pfizer, Verizon, and Spotify, with whom it works to centralise data from SaaS applications, databases, files and other sources into cloud destinations, including data lakes.
Spotify tests new Apple App Store guidelines after court ruling

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

In a note to developers last night Apple confirmed it had updated its App Store guidelines for its US storefront after a scathing court ruling yesterday. After a federal judge in California yesterday referred Apple for possible criminal prosecution for failure to comply with a 2021 ruling saying it must open its App Store fully for third party payments, Apple has indeed made those updates, although it says it will appeal the ruling.
Apple results good but shares down as $900m tariff costs loom

1 week ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

While Apple reported decent quarterly results, its shares dropped as concerns on tariffs, court rulings and AI progress dominated. Apple reported good results last night after markets closed, with quarterly revenue of $95.4bn, up 5pc year on year, and quarterly diluted earnings per share of $1.65, up 8pc year on year, with services seeing strong progress. However, the US tariffs threat saw the iPhone giant budget an extra $900m costs minimum for next quarter.
Irish fintech Pipit Global acquired by Quenta

2 weeks ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

Irish B2B cross border payments platform Pipit has been acquired by global payments company Quenta. Global payments company Quenta has acquired B2B cross-border payments platform Pipit Global, the Irish-founded fintech that today operates in over 45 countries. The company was born out of the founders’ own pain points with cross-border payments when moving across countries.
Belfast's Amply raises $1.75m for AI drug discovery

2 weeks ago | siliconrepublic.com | Ann O’Dea

Biotech start-up Amply aims to develop innovative medicines using its AI-driven drug discovery platform. The Belfast-based company Amply is using its own AI-driven drug discovery engine to fight aggressive cancers, such as triple-negative breast cancer, and drug-resistant pathogens, which threaten to make current antibiotics ineffective against infections.