Strong growth for Irish tech imports across Australia and New Zealand

Irish eyes are always smiling on St Patrick's Day, and that's certainly the case for Enterprise Ireland and its work supporting companies from the emerald isle in their push for trade in Australia and New Zealand. In a chat with TechDay, Enterprise Ireland director Lydia Rogers says exports to the region are growing strongly, up almost 60% over the past five years with technology playing a crucial role.

Little wonder then, that she's hosting three Irish ministers visiting the region this month as part of a high-level trade delegation.

Enterprise Ireland is the Irish government's trade and innovation agency, helping Irish companies connect, scale and compete globally. While its ultimate goal is job creation in Ireland, the agency supports client companies to expand internationally, creating value at home and in the markets where they invest and trade. It's rough equivalents are Austrade (Australian Trade and Investment Commission) and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

Rogers, based in Sydney and overseeing both Australia and New Zealand from offices in Sydney and Melbourne, explains that the agency's international teams act as "boots on the ground" for Irish firms. But there's a bit more to it, too: "We're a very active VC [venture capitalist], actually the number one in Europe by deal count. And so really that's to support companies at an early stage in terms of their funding and support around innovation, competitiveness, research and development, leadership and capability."

As the number of Irish pubs around both Australia and New Zealand attest (perhaps fuller than usual on 17 March, when Rogers spoke with TechDay), the diaspora is well established in Australasia. With strong cultural ties, there is fertile ground for doing business around technology exported by Irish companies, and indeed, the market there is substantial even if only measured by what they send out into the world; Irish companies supported by Enterprise Ireland increased exports to a record high of €36.75 billion in the last reported year, on track to achieve €50 billion in exports by 2029. Of that, some €483 million of exports arrived here in Australia and New Zealand.

Rogers namechecked several Irish technology companies already achieving traction in the ANZ market. They include FINEOS, a provider of core cloud software systems for life, accident and health insurance providers which completed the largest IPO on the ASX in 2019, financial services and foreign-exchange specialist Fexco, KYC specialist Fenergo and digital-identity provider Daon , case management solution provider Diona, and clinical AI vendor T-Pro. Scratch, in other words, and you'll find plenty of evidence of Irish-originated technology in our backyard, with a high likelihood they're here with a little help from Enterprise Ireland.

Rogers emphasises that her organisation seeks to support companies offering genuinely innovative solutions. "We don't want to be supporting companies that have a 'me too' product or that doesn't offer something unique or innovative," she says. "And while broad, we're very, very strong on the FinTech, financial services, regulatory type, technology."

In a statement alongside the interview, Rogers noted that "Despite the distance from Ireland, every year we see the deep and enduring trade relationship between Ireland and the Australian and New Zealand region grow even stronger. Over 40 Enterprise Ireland companies are involved in a variety of trade events across the region this week which is testament to that growing relationship.

Approximately 300 Enterprise Ireland–supported companies are exporting [to Australia], and 150 to New Zealand. Irish technology and services companies experienced double digit growth last year and we look forward to supporting that continued growth."