Beyond the shamrock: The Irish firms making a mark on corporate America

By Aidan McKenna

St Patrick’s Day has always been Ireland’s moment on the world stage, so it’s an excellent time to focus on the scale and growth of Irish companies in the US.

This year, Enterprise Ireland’s programme of over 30 business events across the United States turned the national holiday into a powerful demonstration of Irish commercial ambition.

The scale and symbolism could hardly be greater. On St Patrick’s Day itself, skyscrapers across New York turned green – not just in celebration, but in recognition of the growing weight of Irish enterprise in the American economy.

The top 10 Irish companies in the US employ 125,000 people and our client companies are investing and scaling not only in American innovation hubs, but right across the 50 states.

Last week’s events were both a celebration of that achievement and a signal of more to come.

At the heart of that story is a genuine two-way partnership, and nowhere was that more illustrated than at the Amazon and Enterprise Ireland breakfast event in Washington DC.

Hundreds of Irish companies have embedded themselves in the fabric of corporate America

It brought senior Irish and US business leaders together to showcase a relationship that is reshaping infrastructure on both sides of the Atlantic.

Irish hi-tech construction and engineering firms including CEL Critical Power, H&MV Engineering and Midland Steel are collaborating with Amazon on building data centres in Ireland and the US.

CEL Critical Power has invested $40m to open a 400,000sqft manufacturing plant in Virginia, creating 250 high-skilled jobs with plans to reach 500 employees by 2030, producing modular power systems for AI infrastructure.

This is just one of hundreds of examples of Irish companies embedding themselves into the fabric of corporate America.

Tines, co-headquartered in Boston and Dublin, announced it will create 100 new US jobs over the next 12 months, a 42pc increase in US headcount, as it scales its enterprise automation platform for major clients including Canva, Coinbase and Reddit.

We are seeing huge ambition and expansion by our client companies

In fintech, Fexco announced a multi-million investment in payUnite, its next-generation payments orchestration platform and announced a strategic partnership with PayPal, while TransferMate continues to deepen its footprint in US financial services with new deals announced with Cerdivo and Cadana.

In life sciences and health tech, we are seeing huge ambition and expansion by our client companies.

Supporting this ambition, Enterprise Ireland and Northwell Health – one of the largest and most respected health systems in the US – signed a new strategic alliance aimed at accelerating the commercialisation and scaling of Irish life sciences and medtech companies in the US. ​

Northwell also signed a partnership with Galway-based Neurent Medical, whose Neuromark technology, developed with early support from Enterprise Ireland, has benefited from Northwell’s clinical network as the company scales across the US.

Irish firms have proven themselves to be a vital catalyst for US competitiveness and efficiency, and have made their mark on corporate America.