AI conversations usually focus on productivity gains, automation, and efficiency. One of AI’s quietly transformative effects gets far less airtime: making the digital world accessible to disabled users and people with diverse abilities. And one of the most notable players emerging from Dublin in this space is DevAlly.
A Dublin AI Story Begins
DevAlly was founded in Dublin in 2024 by Cormac Chisholm (CEO), Patrick Guiney, and Darren Britton. The company’s core insight was straightforward but powerful: accessibility compliance — making digital products usable for disabled users — has traditionally been handled through manual consulting. Months-long audits, expensive reports, and compliance treated as a one-time deliverable rather than an ongoing practice. Because digital products are constantly evolving, this approach simply doesn’t scale.
DevAlly addresses this with a combination of AI, LLMs (large language models), and human expertise. The platform automatically detects accessibility issues in digital products: videos without captions, colour contrasts unsuitable for visually impaired users, keyboard navigation problems, screen reader (assistive technology that reads page content aloud) incompatibilities. More importantly, it runs this testing continuously: every time code is updated or content is added, the system re-scans.
Why Dublin?
For DevAlly, Dublin is more than a place of incorporation; it sits at the heart of the company’s ecosystem advantage. Ireland’s state-backed startup accelerators, including NDRC and Enterprise Ireland, provide early-stage companies with funding, mentorship, and international connections. Universities such as Trinity College and UCD (with notable assistive technology research at Trinity) feed the talent pool the sector needs.
There’s also an important regulatory context: the European Accessibility Act (EAA) — the EU’s accessibility regulation that came into force in 2025 — makes Dublin a natural hub for this work, since Ireland is an EU Member State and an English-speaking entry point to the European market.
Recent Milestones
October 2025: €2M Pre-Seed Funding. DevAlly closed its €2 million pre-seed round led by Belgian fund Miles Ahead Capital. The round included NDRC, Enterprise Ireland, and several European angel investors. The company is using the capital to grow its Dublin-based team from 5 to 15-16 people, particularly across product and engineering roles, and to accelerate its US market expansion.
Slush 100 (2024) — Top 3. DevAlly was named in the top three at Slush 100, one of the world’s most prestigious startup competitions. An exceptional recognition for a Dublin startup so early in its journey.
TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield alumni. The company participated in the Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, gaining visibility on the global tech stage.
Press coverage. Outlets including Fortune Europe, Irish Times, TechCrunch, EU-Startups, and SiliconRepublic have covered the company’s funding round and product extensively.
May 2026 — San Francisco Showcase. Cormac Chisholm is presenting DevAlly at the 500 Global × Enterprise Ireland USA Startup Showcase. 500 Global is one of Silicon Valley’s leading accelerators and venture capital firms; this collaboration with Enterprise Ireland’s USA programme brings 8 Irish startups together with the Bay Area’s investor and operator community. For DevAlly, this represents a concrete step in the transition from European to global market reach, particularly relevant given that the US already has a mature accessibility regulatory framework (the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA).
What’s Next
DevAlly’s roadmap is shaping up along four axes: deepening scalable AI solutions for European Accessibility Act compliance, growing the Dublin-based team, making accessibility a natural part of the product development cycle (compliance built in from the start, not added later), and strategic US market entry — with CEO Cormac Chisholm presenting DevAlly at the 500 Global showcase in the Bay Area in May 2026 as a concrete first step.
What This Means for Dublin AI
DevAlly’s story is particularly valuable for AI Dubliners because it adds a different dimension to the Dublin AI ecosystem. The companies we’ve featured so far — Nuritas (biotech), AI Labs Curriculum Associates (education), Quantexa (financial services) — each represent the AI transformation of a major sector. DevAlly highlights a different vision: AI used ethically, inclusively, and with a human-centred purpose.
Artificial intelligence isn’t only about helping companies move faster and earn more; it can also make the digital world genuinely open to everyone. DevAlly is one of the strongest examples of that vision coming out of Dublin.
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