Funding

Let’s talk about money. More specifically, let’s talk about why women struggle to secure it for their businesses.

VISARUN.AI, an AI-powered visa-as-a-service platform, has raised $700,000 in pre-seed funding from Swiss and UAE-based angel investors with extensive experience in e-commerce and trading. The investment will fuel the company’s platform development, sales team expansion, and strategic market penetration initiatives.

Northcote Equity, a newly established private equity firm, has announced the first and final close of its maiden fund, ‘Northcote Fund I’, at its hard cap of £160 million, only 16 weeks after launching the fundraise.

MacroCycle Technologies – the startup using upcycling tech to cut the costs, energy, and carbon demands of the $700 billion plastic waste industry – has announced it has raised $6.5 million in seed funding.

Niqolas Bassano, the fitness apparel technology startup, has launched its Angel Investment Round, which went live on 20th January 2025, offering investors the opportunity to join a brand that is redefining activewear through innovation, sustainability, and smart textiles.

In its very first days, the new US administration has confirmed its intentions to draw back on some of the key environmental commitments made by the previous government. President Donald Trump immediately signed to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, to end “the electric vehicle mandate,” and to increase oil and gas extraction in order to tackle an energy shortage.

With global supply chains facing mounting pressures and costs continuing to rise, manufacturing is at a critical juncture. Industries like aerospace, automotive, and construction face long lead times and high costs for large-format components, relying heavily on fragmented supply chains and labour-intensive processes. Manufacturing automation business SAEKI announced a $6.7 million funding round to address these challenges through its innovative approach to digital manufacturing.

Payroll and HR company Deel has announced that new anchor investors, including General Catalyst and a sovereign investor, have purchased close to $300 million in Deel secondaries from early investors in the company. These investments signal not only Deel’s momentum, but also the long-term vision investors see in the company.

Drip Water, the UK’s premier lifestyle water brand founded by British TV chef and musician Big Zuu, announces a strategic equity investment from Raya Holding. The £4 million investment will support the brand’s expansion across the Middle East, bringing its valuation to £100 million.

Fimple, a provider of flexible, cloud-native core banking software, has raised $12 million in its Series A funding round. The investment, led by DN Capital and Smartfin, saw continued participation from existing investors, including Albaraka Portfolio and Tera Portfolio.

iplicit, the cloud accounting software platform purpose-built for the UK mid-market, has announced a £25 million investment from technology growth investor One Peak. This new investment marks iplicit’s first external institutional funding round and will be used to significantly accelerate iplicit’s product development and fuel its exponential growth.

NatWest Group has made a minority investment in Serene, an early-stage AI platform dedicated to tackling financial vulnerability. Through real-time customer insights driven by AI and behavioural science, the platform detects early signs of financial distress and predicts risks to help financial institutions deliver personalised, timely support at scale.

Puma Growth Partners has led a $4.3 million investment into legal and financial technology specialist, Semeris.

Intryc, the platform transforming customer support quality assurance (QA) through AI-powered automation, has announced a $3.1 million seed funding round. The oversubscribed round saw participation from General Catalyst and scouts from Sequoia, alongside existing investors Episode 1 and 500 Emerging Europe, bringing the company’s total funding to $4.2 million. The announcement follows the company’s successful completion of Y Combinator’s Summer 2024 cohort.

The GSMA, in partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has launched the GSMA Innovation Fund for Impactful AI, to empower small and growing enterprises in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) across Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.

MintNeuro, a startup working in scalable, low-power semiconductor technology for minimally-invasive neural implant applications, has announced that it is the recipient of three major funding awards from the UK government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) in collaboration with leading institutions.

Recently, competition in the AI sector has been heating up, and it has now been reported that OpenAI is in talks of raising a new funding round of around $40 billion, which would lift the AI company’s valuation to as high as $340 billion.

Blackfinch Ventures, part of the Blackfinch Group, has invested £300,000 in Adia Thermal, a UK startup transforming the heat pump market with its innovative retrofit technology. The investment reflects Blackfinch’s focus on supporting companies that drive meaningful progress in the energy transition while delivering strong potential returns for investors.

BGF deployed £489 million in 2024, introducing 47 businesses into its diverse portfolio of 360 companies.

Smartify, the visitor engagement platform, has successfully raised £1.5 million to bring new technologies to the arts and culture sector and continue expanding its international presence.