Funding

British Business Bank commits £15M to Prefequity to back UK small businesses

British Business Bank has announced a new commitment of £15 million to a new separately managed account (SMA) managed by Prefequity LLP.

Exein raises €70M Series C to protect critical infrastructure from attacks

Exein, the embedded IoT cybersecurity company, has raised €70 million in a Series C round. The round was led by Balderton and joined by Supernova and Lakestar, with 33N, United Ventures, and Partech following on from the previous round.

Auriga Space secures $6M to commercialise hypersonic testing

Auriga Space, a company in electromagnetic hypersonic launch technology, has announced $6 million in additional funding in the form of a seed round and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts from the US AFWERX and SpaceWERX, the innovation arms of the US Air Force and Space Force respectively.

Warden AI secures funding to meet demand for AI audits

AI auditing platform Warden AI has announced a new funding round led by the founders of Onfido, the digital identity verification company acquired by Entrust in 2024. The round also includes participation from Playfair, an early-stage VC firm, and will support Warden’s geographic expansion and product development.

cocreatd’s System7 acquired by Vault PLC after just 8 months

cocreatd’s first incubation, System7, an AI automation and development platform for marketing and sales teams, has been acquired by Vault PLC in a seven-figure deal just eight months after it launched.

Exited Unomaly founders raise $3M to launch Opper AI

The team behind Unomaly, the machine learning-based observability platform acquired by LogicMonitor in 2020, has re-emerged with a new mission: to make AI infrastructure as reliable as Stripe is for payments.

Numan raises $60M to lead next-gen of preventative healthcare

Numan, the digital health provider has announced that it has raised $60 million in fresh funding, following another year of exceptional growth.

Cryogenx raises £1.7M seed round to tackle deadly heat stress

Cryogenx has raised a £1.7 million seed funding round to accelerate the development of its breakthrough portable cooling technology. As part of the round, the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, has invested £430,000.

Why investment isn’t always about the numbers

Think of an investment pitch and you think of the numbers. You think of spreadsheets, metrics, margins, and forecasts. But the bigger picture that many businesses are missing is that securing investment is more often than not about emotion. Because, when it comes down to it, investors are just people.

Inntelo AI raises over £500K in pre-seed round

UK-based hospitality technology company Inntelo AI has raised more than £500,000 in a pre-seed funding round to fuel its commercial growth. It follows impressive early traction, with multiple hotels adopting its AI Concierge platform.

Solence raises €1.6M to address PCOS with AI-driven therapeutics

After her personal experience with the condition, a former Ernst Young (EY) corporate lawyer and founder of the successful French PCOS blog Les Natives, has raised €1.6 million in seed funding to help women suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

British Business Bank tackles VC diversity gap with £400M investment
British Business Bank tackles VC diversity gap with £400M investment

British Business Bank has announced a new £400 million Investor Pathways Capital initiative which will support diverse and emerging fund managers across the economy and make it easier for new entrants, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to break into venture capital. The initiative, which will capture the value of a more inclusive investment ecosystem, is expected to launch in 2026.

AmphiStar wins €12.5M funding for clean biosurfactants

Belgian biosurfactants developer AmphiStar has been awarded €12.5 million in funding following the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) latest evaluation round.

What founders should know before raising Series A

Series A doesn’t come easy, and most startups never get there. Fewer than a third of seed-funded startups make it that far, and the numbers drop sharply for female founders. In 2024, just 3.5% of Series A capital went to all-women founding teams, with mixed-gender teams accounting for 21%.

Novenda Technologies raises $6.1M for 3D-printed dental products

As sugar consumption rises and dental visits become increasingly expensive, nearly 3.5 billion people worldwide struggle with oral diseases. The dental industry faces mounting pressure to increase manufacturing efficiency, particularly in markets where centralised manufacturing is becoming the norm.

Agentic AI platform Oraion raises $3.5 million

AI-powered enterprise intelligence and automation platform Oraion has raised $3.5 million in a pre-seed funding round to support product development and accelerate expansion into the US and Latin America. The investment will also enable Oraion to expand its team, with the aim of tripling the workforce to 45 staff focused on engineering, R&D, and go-to-market by the end of 2026.

Arago raises $26M to slash AI energy consumption with photonic chip

Arago, a Paris and Silicon Valley-based deeptech startup pioneering a new class of energy-efficient AI chips powered by light, has raised $26 million in seed funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its photonic processor, codenamed “JEF”.

Biorce raises €5M from Norrsken VC to accelerate drug development with AI

Norrsken VC has invested €5 million in Barcelona-based healthtech startup Biorce, revolutionising clinical trials with AI to bring treatments to patients sooner. The funding comes just seven months after Biorce’s €3.5 million first round in November 2024, led by healthtech specialist YZR Capital and Mustard Seed Maze.

€700K secured for methane-reducing technologies on dairy farms

A fund of €700,000 has been secured to trial next-generation methane-reducing technologies on 10 additional dairy farms in West Cork, expanding the reach of Carbery’s Farm Zero C project – a research and demonstration initiative aiming to create a blueprint for an economically viable, sustainable dairy farming model.

Former Everton and Norwich player Steven Naismith backs ScribePro

Former Everton and Norwich player Steven Naismith has invested a six-figure sum in sportstech platform ScribePro. The ex-footballer is backing the medical app and online portal that logs real-time interactions between athletes and clinicians.