Private Capital in Northern Ireland 2026

Northern Ireland’s growth story is built on turning strong ideas into strong companies. Investment and university spin-outs are two of the clearest signals of Northern Ireland’s potential.

In 2025, private capital had a strong year in Northern Ireland with £384m invested into businesses, with £190m going into venture and growth capital and £194m into buyouts. At the same time, a stronger spin-out pipeline is emerging from Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University, creating more opportunities to back innovative companies from the earliest stages.

That combination matters because it connects new ideas with long-term backing. When capital meets ambition, businesses can invest in people, productivity and export growth. The evidence in this report shows private capital is already helping to turn Northern Ireland’s strengths in research, engineering and entrepreneurship into firms that can scale.

This support is already showing up in the real economy. Private capital-backed companies are creating jobs and investing for the long term across Northern Ireland. Today, the industry backs 186 businesses and supports almost 47,000 jobs, contributing £3bn of GDP annually. Those headline figures sit behind thousands of day-to-day decisions in firms right across the economy. 

There is still more we can do to unlock private capital’s full potential in Northern Ireland. Policymakers, regulators and industry all have a role to play. We need to make sure that the policy and regulatory environment helps firms make the jump from start-up to scale-up, widens access to skills and talent, and ensures infrastructure supports growth in every part of our United Kingdom.