1. You’ve been with Taoglas for more than 20 years now. Can you tell us a bit about your background and the events that led you to co-found the company?
After obtaining degrees in physics and mathematics, I moved into sales and business development in international freight, mostly working with electronics manufacturers — that’s where my journey into technology really began. Then, in 2003, while working in Taiwan, I met my co-founder Ronan Quinlan. We saw a clear gap in the market; there just weren’t many options for customers to use custom antennas. They were using antennas designed for consumer electronics or automotive, which were not always easy to integrate and hence didn’t have optimal performance.
We launched in 2004 with one product and a strong belief that high-performance antennas and expert engineering support would be key as wireless technologies took off. I moved back to Ireland to set up global operations, while Ronan stayed in Taiwan to manage manufacturing. That global setup helped us scale quickly. Today, we support over 25,000 customers across more than 100 countries — and we’re still growing.
2. Your website states that Taoglas began with a single GPS antenna in 2004. What was the unmet need in the market that motivated you to found the company? What did you envision as your differentiator?
At the time, antennas were often overlooked or treated as an afterthought in product development, but the reality is that if the RF side doesn’t work correctly, the whole product can fall short. We saw that engineers needed better hardware and better support to hit performance targets and get through certification smoothly. We aimed to make the antenna side of things more predictable and easier to manage so our customers could get to market faster and with more confidence. From the beginning, the combination of high-quality components with real hands-on RF engineering expertise was what set us apart. We quickly became our customers' antenna and RF design partner, not just a component supplier. We also help them with selection, integration, testing and certification.
3. Over the years, the company has experienced substantial growth. You put out more than 200 new products a year. Can you tell our readers about the Taoglas product portfolio? What portion of your portfolio is still devoted to antennas, and how has this portfolio evolved and expanded since the company’s founding?
Antennas are still very much at the heart of what we do, and we follow the 80/20 rule as usual (80 percent of our sales and our parts are antennas), particularly for cellular and GNSS, but we’ve grown the portfolio to meet the broader needs of our customers. We now offer over 2,000 SKUs, including embedded and external antennas, RF cable assemblies, connectors, audio modules and Ethernet magnetics. We’ve also built up our testing, certification and custom design services. In 2024 alone, we launched over 300 new products, including the award-winning Inception “patch-in-a-patch” GNSS antenna and our Invisible Antennas, which are ideal for applications where space or aesthetics are important.
4. Can you describe your design and manufacturing process for our readers? What differentiates the Taoglas products?
We’ve built an integrated global model — with R&D, in-house prototyping capabilities, antenna test labs, reliability testing equipment and manufacturing across Ireland, the U.S., Vietnam, Taiwan and India. That setup allows us to work closely with customers wherever they are and turn around custom designs quickly, often in a few weeks. We’re very focused on reliability, speed and ease of integration. What sets us apart is our support of the whole device design process — from antenna selection to final device certification — with engineering teams who understand the practical realities our customers face. We also provide smart design tools to support faster development. Our AntennaXpert™ platform is a good example — it helps customers simulate different antenna layouts and combinations, see expected performance and get expert feedback quickly. It’s especially useful early in the design cycle, helping engineers make better decisions upfront and avoid surprises later regarding certification or performance tuning.
5. How about your market focus? What segments are you most focused on? Do you anticipate that your market focus will change in the future?
We’re focused on three main verticals: transportation, mobility and infrastructure and IoT. Transportation remains our most significant segment, covering everything from fleet tracking and V2X to electric vehicles. These applications often need multi-band, multi-antenna solutions in compact, rugged form factors. Mobility & infrastructure is growing quickly too — especially in public safety, utilities and EV charging. In these cases, performance and durability are key, but aesthetics matter too. That’s where products like our Invisible Antenna™ series are making a real impact. In general IoT, we support connected health, industrial automation and smart agriculture. Our antennas are already in use in medical devices, off-grid solar systems and GNSS-based surveying tools. Looking ahead, we see strong growth in satellite IoT, autonomous systems and AI-driven edge devices — applications where space, power and reliability are critical. We’re well-positioned to support those evolving needs with both standard and custom solutions.
6. Taoglas is a privately held company with a relatively large geographic footprint. Can you provide readers with an overview of some of the Taoglas key metrics?
We now have over 310 employees across eight global sites, including RF design centres in San Diego, Enniscorthy, Tainan and Ahmedabad. More than 70 members of our staff are engineers focused on antennas and RF. We operate ten RF test chambers worldwide and ship to over 100 countries. Our logistics hubs in Ireland, Vietnam, Taiwan, India and California mean we can support fast delivery and localised service. We also work with a broad network of global distribution partners and ecosystem partners, including chipset vendors, test labs and IoT solution providers. These relationships help ensure interoperability, faster certification and broader access to our technology. In 2024, we reached around $80 million in revenue, and we’re on track for $100 million in 2026.
7. About two years ago, Taoglas was acquired by a private equity firm. How has that helped shape the Taoglas growth trajectory?
The investment from Graham Partners has helped us scale further while keeping our customer-first approach intact. It’s given us the resources to expand our engineering teams, open new facilities and invest in tools and platforms like AntennaXpert. It’s also helped us remain agile during supply chain disruptions. We’ve stayed profitable and kept delivering for our customers, all while continuing to grow. It has also added efficiency to our processes and made us more competitive as a company and antenna solutions provider.
8. What is your vision for the future of Taoglas? Where are you devoting your development resources, and what products and markets are you most excited about to support this vision?
Our goal is to keep simplifying wireless integration for customers, no matter how complex their systems become. That means continuing to innovate in embedded and combination antennas, improving isolation and efficiency and shrinking form factors wherever we can. We’re also investing in new materials, transparent and flexible antenna designs and expanded capabilities in AntennaXpert. We want to help our customers build smarter, more connected products — faster and more reliably than ever.
9. Can you describe the culture at Taoglas? What message do you want to get across to customers and employees, and what does the company do to enable that corporate culture?
Our culture is grounded in delivering peace of mind both for our customers and for each other. We’ve worked hard to build a team that’s collaborative, curious and focused on solving real-world challenges. Whether we’re helping a customer meet a tight deadline or supporting a colleague across time zones, there’s a strong sense of shared purpose across the business. We put a lot of emphasis on knowledge sharing and continuous learning. In 2024, we expanded our internal training and mentorship programmes to better connect engineering teams across regions, ensuring a consistent customer experience no matter where a product is designed or tested. We also value accountability and agility. Our teams are empowered to make decisions, move fast and adapt while building long-term relationships with customers and partners. That comes through in everything from our 24 hour response goals to how we support products well beyond launch. Customers often tell us that working with Taoglas feels more like having a partner than a supplier. That’s exactly what we strive for: a culture rooted in trust, innovation and getting things done together.
10. What else would you like our readers to know about Taoglas?
We’re here to support engineers building the next generation of connected devices — whether it’s for space, cities, vehicles, farms or hospitals. We’ve seen a lot of change over the past two decades, but our focus has stayed the same: helping customers get the RF part right, so the rest of their system works exactly as it should.