A number of Irish entrepreneurs have made the latest Forbes 30 Under 30 list, spanning everything from artificial intelligence to beauty products.
Forbes writers and editors source candidates for the list by combing through thousands of online submissions, as well as tapping industry sources and list alumni for recommendations.
Candidates are evaluated by Forbes staff and a panel of independent, expert judges on a variety of factors, including but not limited to funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness and potential.
Everyone who makes the list must be 29 or younger as of December 31st, 2025.
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Éanna Hardwicke
In 2024, the Cork-based actor followed best actor awards from the Royal Television Society and the Irish Academy for his performance in the BBC’s The Sixth Commandment with a Bafta nomination that placed him among the industry’s most exciting leading men.
He won his second Irish Academy Award in 2026 for his portrayal of Roy Keane in Saipan, a film chronicling the infamous 2002 World Cup spat. Since his breakout in Normal People (2020), Hardwicke has moved from roles in A Very Royal Scandal to the stage at the National Theatre.
Áine Kennedy
In 2022, Áine Kennedy invested her $12,000 house deposit to launch The Smooth Company from her bedroom. Leveraging eight years of beauty industry experience and a degree in entrepreneurship, she used TikTok to generate more than 150 million organic views.
The Smooth Company’s hair-taming products are now sold in 92 countries and stocked by big retailers, including Brown Thomas, De Bijenkorf and H&M.
Kennedy won the Future Leader award at this year’s Irish Times Business Awards and the emerging category at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards in November.
Áine Murphy
Áine Murphy is the creator behind Young Irish Budgeter, an educational and personal finance brand tackling the gender wealth gap. By creating content specifically for women without finance backgrounds, Murphy has generated more than 250,000 Instagram followers and 23,000 on TikTok.
Her more than 400 posts – on topics from credit interest rates to investing – reach hundreds of thousands organically each month.
Inspired to counter women’s historic financial exclusion – like women needing male co-signers for mortgages until 50 years ago – Murphy’s perspective ensures clear, accessible content for all learners.
Her financial goal-setting tool has helped more than 2,500 users, while her upcoming financial literacy platform already has 2,000 on the wait-list.
Hazel Doupe
Hazel Doupe is an actor quickly building a reputation across film, television and theatre, with standout roles including the title character in the 2024 film Kathleen Is Here.
She won the Ifta for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Marian Price in the Disney+/Hulu series Say Nothing and was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2022.
Her credits also include the horror film You Are Not My Mother, which earned her two Ifta nominations, and the upcoming Apple TV+ series The Wanted Man, where she stars opposite Hugh Laurie and Thandiwe Newton.
Laura Murphy
Laura Murphy founded Oatco in 2024, an energy brand aiming to redefine food-to-go through oat-based products, including Super Bites and Overnight Oats.
In just over a year, the brand has reached more than 250,000 people, secured listings with more than 800 stockists, and partnered Tesco, Aldi, and Google’s European headquarters, generating more than $930,000 in revenue in 2025.
Oatco introduced the UK’s first single-serve resealable high-protein overnight oat pouch, and in 2025 secured investment offers from three dragons on Dragons’ Den.
Jack Cregan
Jack Cregan is the founder of Paymend, a Dublin-based revenue recovery platform that helps businesses convert failed card payments into completed sales by acting as merchant of record and assuming transaction risk.
In 2025, the bootstrapped company recovered $53 million in failed payments with a 25-person team across six countries. Before Paymend, Cregan cofounded Rebills, a payment orchestration company acquired for $10 million in 2024.
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Donnacha Fitzgerald
Engineering biology is currently a massive guessing game. Our bodies are run by complex genetic networks, yet scientists still rely on slow, expensive trial and error to find the unique combinations of genes that must be turned on or off to cure disease or repair a cell.
Donnacha Fitzgerald’s Origenity cuts through the chaos by using AI to build new cells with desired traits and precisely steer the genome. “The goal is to make engineering in biology more like design,” says Fitzgerald.
Currently, he is designing tougher T-cells that resist exhaustion during cancer therapy. The company is supported by Emergent Ventures, Fifty Years and Boost VC and is finalising a $3 million funding round.
Billy O’Hora
Billy O’Hora is the youngest director of partnerships ever at the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men’s professional tennis.
He works across 58 tournaments in 29 markets, overseeing $100 million in annual partnership revenue, with a portfolio that includes Emirates, PIF, Rolex, Lacoste, Infosys and Stella Artois.
O’Hora says he has led efforts to apply data science to Tour finances – a framework the organisation adopted in 2025, resulting in increased average renewal value, improved pricing consistency and accelerated deal-making.
He previously held a similar role at Chelsea FC, working on global partnerships with brands like Nike, Hilton, Unilever and MSC Cruises.
Aghogho Okpara
After being rejected from medical school five times before gaining admission, Aghogho Okpara saw that access often outweighs ability.
She shared her experience online, engaging more than 400,000 people, and founded Achieve with Aghogho, a social impact organisation supporting students from underserved backgrounds worldwide.
In its first year, the organisation engaged with more than 5,000 young people across more than 45 countries and hosted Ireland’s first student empowerment conference in August 2025.
Rachel Beatty
One challenge for medical implants like insulin pumps is that the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks them, creating scar tissue that can cause devices to fail.
In a collaboration with researchers at MIT, Beatty solved this by developing a first-of-its-kind implant that can detect immune attacks and adjust to overcome them.
