UCD fintech spin-in Assiduous secures €1 million during investment round
16 April 2025
Assiduous co-founders Fergal Meegan and Barry Murphy with Conor O’Donovan, Head of Start-ups at Enterprise Ireland Credit: Leon Farrell, Photocall Ireland
A UCD spin-in aiming to simplify corporate finance for SMEs has secured €1m in funding.
(opens in a new window)Assiduous, a capital markets fintech headquartered at NovaUCD, secured the investment from angel investors, with support from Enterprise Ireland’s High-Potential Start-Up (HPSU) programme.
The funding will be used to bring its now launched AI-enabled Corporate Finance Autopilot, a virtual advisory platform designed to simplify access to capital markets for SMEs, to market and to execute on its product development roadmap through 2025 and 2026.
The company will also use the investment to expand its technical team, and recruit in AI, engineering, and product management.
“Businesses are at a pivotal moment in the application of technology to the provision of professional services,” said Fergal Meegan, Assiduous Chief Executive Officer.
“We are only scratching the surface with the value that can be created for business owners from leveraging AI to do more with less. Assiduous is focused on embedding corporate advisory domain expertise at the application layer to unlock the power of foundation models for many more small and medium sized business owners seeking to contemplate, plan and execute high value corporate actions.”
Operating since 2023, and backed by EIT Digital, Enterprise Ireland and private investors, Assiduous aims to modernise how SMEs prepare for strategic, financing and liquidity transactions by leveraging AI to deliver tailored corporate advisory support to business owners.
Its Corporate Finance Autopilot platform enables SMEs anywhere to be prepared for efficient and credible market engagement, capital raising and strategic transactions.
“Assiduous is an excellent example of a forward-thinking Irish start-up that is using cutting-edge technology to address a massive unmet market need,” said Conor O’Donovan, Head of Start-ups at Enterprise Ireland.
“The company’s growth plans align with Enterprise Ireland’s new five-year strategy Delivering for Ireland, Leading Globally, with a key objective to support and enable SMEs to engage with the start-up ecosystem, to execute financing and strategic transactions and to grow the next generation of Irish multinational corporations.”
Dénes Csiszár, Interim Head of Acceleration and Growth at EIT Digital, added: “We are pleased that we could provide financial support for Assiduous at a formative stage in its evolution.
“We are excited about Assiduous’ prospects to solve some of Europe’s critical strategic and financing challenges for SMEs using the latest artificial intelligence innovations… [and] forward to witnessing Assiduous’ progress in the coming years as a champion for European SMEs and as a shareholder.”
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation)
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
