UnicornQuest: Bridging the Investment Gap for High-Potential Startups in the West, North West and…

WestBIC is an Enterprise Ireland partner providing hands-on startup support, funding readiness and investment preparation for early-stage founders in the west of Ireland.

UnicornQuest: Bridging the Investment Gap for High-Potential Startups in the West, North West and Midlands

At the UnicornQuest project’s Semester 7 Interregional Learning Workshop on 27 July 2026, James Donlon presented an update on behalf of Irish partners WestBIC and the Western Development Commission, outlining how project learnings are shaping future enterprise supports in the West of Ireland.

The missing link

Ireland offers strong supports at both ends of the startup journey: early-stage grants and incubation for new founders, and experienced investors for those approaching investment readiness. But UnicornQuest revealed a gap in between — many high-potential startups lack structured support during the critical growth phase, slowing their progress towards investment.

European learning, local action

WestBIC and Western Development Commission drew inspiration from partner good practices, especially Founded.in (Netherlands), whose milestone-based methodology helps startups stay focused while building investor confidence. Similar lessons came from Start-up REAKTOR (Romania) and Raise Up (Italy). The takeaway: introduce a milestone-driven investment readiness framework for Irish startups.

This is already happening. With Enterprise Ireland, WestBIC and other IrishBICs have launched two programmes: Prep4Seed (investor-focused mentoring and milestone planning) and Pre-Seed+ (validating commercial opportunities on the way to investment readiness).

Adapting the policy path

The original plan was to embed this framework in the West Regional Enterprise Plan, but national restructuring means that plan won’t be finalised during UnicornQuest’s lifetime. Instead, WestBIC is building the milestone-driven model directly into its own strategy as the region’s accredited EU-BIC — explicitly crediting UnicornQuest and Founded.in as inspirations. The strategy has backing from Board stakeholders including Enterprise Ireland, Western Development Commission, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Galway Chamber, University of Galway and ATU, and WestBIC will align with the national BIC network on shared targets.

Why it works

Investors welcome milestone-based programmes because they add transparency and credibility, rather than relying solely on founders’ self-reported progress. Universities help startups hit technical milestones in research and prototyping.

Lotte Duursma (Business Development Friesland) added that milestones must stay realistic, with mentors helping founders celebrate progress and stay motivated through setbacks.

Looking ahead

Though the policy route changed, the goal hasn’t: by building milestone-driven support into its own strategy, WestBIC is turning UnicornQuest’s learnings into a lasting, investor-focused pathway — a clear example of interregional cooperation driving real regional change.