Funding

Ahead of Armed Forces Day, Start Up Loans and X-Forces Enterprise announce over £4 million worth of loans has been delivered to members of the Armed Forces community since July 2024.

UK Finance has released a new report on the progress made by banks following the introduction of the Disability Finance Code for Entrepreneurship (DFCE) in December 2024, which aims to improve the entrepreneurial landscape for disabled individuals.

Angel Academe, the angel network that has been investing in women leaders for over ten years, has launched the UK’s first female founder focused EIS fund in partnership with fund manager, SyndicateRoom.

biotope by VIB has secured €5 million in the first close of its second fund, marking a major step toward its €9 million target over the next 18 months. The fund will enable biotope to invest €250,000 in up to 30 international early-stage biotech startups.

Spring 2025 marks a turning point for the European venture capital market: the turbulence of previous years is giving way to a search for new points of stability.

Coralogix, a full-stack observability platform provider, has announced a $115 million Series E funding round.

Swedish deeptech company Embedl has raised €5.5 million in a pre-series A funding round from Chalmers Ventures, Fairpoint Capital, SEB Greentech, Spintop Ventures,  and STOAF.

Renow, the Nordic startup modernising how returned and second-hand goods are handled and resold, has raised €1.8 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered recommerce platform across Northern Europe, opening new hubs in Sweden and Norway, and aiming to launch in the Danish and Beneluxian markets.

Orbit Capital is bringing venture debt to Central and Eastern Europe with its Growth Debt II fund. The fund will hold €100 million, allowing technology companies to accelerate further growth. This second fund follows on the success of Growth Debt I, which held €40 million.

The landscape for growth-stage fundraising has fundamentally changed. Today’s Series C and D rounds, typically involving raises of $50–100 million or more, are significantly tougher than in recent years. Investors have become more selective, valuations more restrained, and expectations for business performance far more rigorous.

While innovation and ambition are not bound by gender, the systems that support early-stage business growth too often are. Securing investment is a critical milestone for a startup, but the pathway is often uneven for founders.

Perci Health, the UK’s most comprehensive virtual cancer clinic, has successfully raised a total of £7.7 million funding, after closing a new £3 million round, doubling the original £1.5 million target.

Abacum announces that it has raised a $60 million Series B round led by San Francisco-headquartered Scale Venture Partners.

Work AI leader Glean has announced it raised $150 million in Series F financing, bringing its valuation to $7.2 billion.

Multiverse Computing has developed CompactifAI, a compression technology capable of reducing the size of LLMs (Large Language Models) by up to 95% while maintaining model performance. Having spent 2024 developing the technology and rolling it out to initial customers, the company has announced a €189 million ($215 million) investment round.

OpenTrade has announced it raised an additional $7 million in strategic funding led by Notion Capital and Mercury Fund, with participation from existing investors AlbionVC, a16z crypto, and CMCC Global.

Nova has raised €3.2 million in a funding round led by CDP Venture Capital, through the ServiceTech segment of its Corporate Partners I Fund. The round also saw participation from BY Venture Partners and angel investors from the Doha Tech Angels network.

Q5D has raised $13.5 million in funding to advance its robotic cells that automate product electrification, bringing its total funding to $16.7 million. This new funding includes a $2.6 million grant (£2.0 million) from Innovate UK and a $10.9 million Series A co-led by existing investors, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Chrysalix, and Maven SWIF, with other investment from SOSV, UKI2S, UntroD, and CPI Enterprises.

Mobito, a Brussels-based mobility data analytics platform, has secured €1 million in funding to enhance its technology infrastructure and expand its footprint across Europe.

Northern Gritstone has announced a commitment to invest £1.8 million into Apini, a small molecule drug development programme being advanced by Syncona’s accelerator Slingshot Therapeutics.