Michael Culligan

Michael Culligan is the Chief Executive Officer of Furthr, the Dublin-based startup-support and investment organisation established in 1988 as Dublin Business Innovation Centre (Dublin BIC) and rebranded as Furthr on 1 July 2022. He stepped up to the CEO role from general manager, taking the helm of an umbrella organisation that today encompasses Furthr's venture capital arm (Furthr VC), the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN), and the Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) incubator. Over its 34-plus-year history the organisation has supported more than 500 companies, with roughly 80% of Furthr-assisted companies going on to secure third-party finance, and it has delivered over 100,000 hours of pro bono expert consulting.

Culligan is a specialist in the seed capital and business angel arenas. According to the organisation, he has personally supported 50+ startup companies to raise more than €25M via Dublin BIC and HBAN, and the broader organisation has managed over €100M of direct investment into more than 350 companies through HBAN, the AIB Seed Capital Fund and earlier seed funds. He brings direct international business experience across London, China, Japan, mainland Europe and North America, which he has applied to help Irish companies expand globally.

On the academic side, Culligan holds a degree in Applied Physics & Electronics from NUI Galway (NUIG) and is a first-class MBA graduate of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. He has also lectured on Business Strategy for the Smurfit MBA programme at UCD.

Note: While Culligan leads the organisation, Furthr VC's day-to-day investment decisions are run by its managing partners (Richard Watson and Colm O'Sullivan) and investment team; his personal investment activity centres on the seed/business-angel side via HBAN and Dublin BIC/Furthr's seed funds.

• Backs highly ambitious, "born-global" Irish startups intended to scale into global markets from an early stage.
• Concentrates on B2B SaaS / software and medtech (Class I and II medical devices) — the two pillars of the Furthr VC portfolio (reported as ~18 software businesses and ~6 medtech businesses).
• Operates across the seed-to-Series A range: early business-angel and seed capital (via HBAN and Dublin BIC/Furthr seed funds) plus institutional VC cheques of up to ~€650K initial and up to ~€3M with follow-on.
• Emphasises mentorship, connections and pro bono expertise alongside capital — Culligan frames the mission as "accelerating, funding, and connecting the start-ups and innovators," helping founders "go further and achieve success faster."
• Looks for founders who do their homework on investors — the Furthr VC team's stated advice is "don't just spray and pray," favouring founders who target the right backers deliberately.