Connected newsletter: Goodbye to an Irish tech trailblazer
Connected at the Business Post is your source for the news that matters in technology and innovation, all told from an Irish perspective
Welcome to the final Connected newsletter of the year and many thanks for taking the time out to read it since we started publishing it in April.
It’s been a busy 12 months in terms of tech and over the next week or so on businesspost.ie I’ll be looking back at the past year and to what 2024 may bring. I’ll also be casting an eye on the Irish tech companies I think are most likely to cause a stir next year.
2023 isn’t done yet though. My colleague Donal MacNamee caused quite a stir this week with his exclusive about how Elon Musk’s X has radically stripped back the company’s moderation of abusive material.
Here’s a longer read from Donal on the issue in case you missed it, and here is Minister Catherine Martin discussing how in the wake of the revelations that the “era of self-regulation” by social media platforms “is over”.
Days after our piece went live, the EU took the first formal steps against X over allegedly breaking rules on how it handled illegal content and disinformation, in the first such probe of a major online platform since the bloc’s Digital Services Act came into force this year.
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There was sad news to report this week with the death of Irish tech trailblazer and serial entrepreneur Pat McDonagh, who died. Pat, for those who don’t know, founded both CBT Systems and Riverdeep, two tech companies who found huge success, and who have served as inspiration for countless others who followed in their wake.
Luma Vision, an Irish-German medtech specialising in cardiac imaging solutions, has secured a further $22 million (€20 million) in financing to help it secure FDA approval for its Verafeye platform. We also reported on raises this week by iSchool, Kerno and SymPhysis Medical.
Ripple, the crypto company, has been registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) by the Central Bank of Ireland. It follows firms such as Gemini in securing approval, which will allow it to provide services to individuals and institutions locally.
Staying with fintech, Revolut is on track to generate more than £1.5 billion (€1.7 billion) in revenue for the year as Europe’s most valuable start-up benefits from rising interest rates across the continent.
Adobe walked away from its $20 billion acquisition of start-up Figma on Monday after clashing with regulators in Europe and the UK
Lastly, if you were thinking of buying an Apple Watch for Christmas you best get your skates on. Apple smartwatches are set to be banned from sale after US regulators found some of the company’s best-selling devices violate a number of patent rights.
Talking of Christmas, best wishes for the holiday season and see you in the New Year.
All the best,
Charlie
Open source chip design takes hold in Silicon Valley (Wall Street Journal)
‘Graphene will change the world’: the boss using the ‘supermaterial’ in the global microchip war (The Guardian)
