By Business & Finance 
Ged Nash TD, Minister of State for Business and Employment
Ireland’s Startup Gathering programme kicks off today in the Google Foundry, with over 400 events taking place in locations throughout Ireland during the week in one of the largest start-up events in the world.
The aim of Ireland’s Startup Gathering Week is to advance Ireland’s start-up hubs as well as highlighting the country’s vibrant start-up sector to global entrepreneurs, innovators and research and development teams.
To attract overseas entrepreneurs, Enterprise Ireland has established a dedicated €500,000 start-up fund in conjunction with the Startup Gathering for international start-ups to locate in Ireland.
Minister Ged Nash, said: “The next week is a fantastic opportunity for those who are thinking of starting a business, those who want to scale their business or others who might want to invest in start-ups to come together, be inspired by each other and share new ideas during the 400 events taking place. I have championed the idea of the Startup Gathering from the outset and am very pleased to see such an array of events right across the country celebrating our start-up ecosystem and, more importantly examining how Ireland can truly become a start-up hub, to rival any other country globally. I would encourage any entrepreneurs or those with an entrepreneurial spirit to get involved and support the Startup Gathering.”
Eoin Costello, co-founder, Startup Ireland, added: “Over the next five days, each of the Startup Gathering cities will host a Startup Island 2020 Forum, bringing all of the players in the start-up ecosystem together to discuss the big ideas that will turn their location into a start-up hub. We are thrilled to have over 400 start-up gatherings taking place throughout Ireland this week. We believe Ireland has all of the vital ingredients to move up the rankings of global start-up hubs. Startup Gathering is about driving real change across the start-up sector, creating bigger and better networks, connections and collaborations with all of the players across the entrepreneurship spectrum – the start-up leaders, investors, Government, research centres, universities, large corporates, and multi-nationals – to work collectively to build on Ireland’s strengths, and work towards the shared goal of Ireland becoming a world-class start-up hub by 2020.”
Startup Gathering Week initiative led by not-for-profit organisation Startup Ireland with the support of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and sponsored by Bank of Ireland.
