Funding

EIT InnoEnergy, the innovation engine in sustainable energy, has marked yet another milestone year in driving the energy transition forward, with its portfolio of cleantech startups and scaleups closing 56 rounds, raising €4.3 billion.

Deus Robotics, an innovator in warehouse robotic automation, has successfully closed a $3 million seed funding round led by U.Ventures, with participation from 1991 Ventures, SID Venture Partners, Sigma Software Labs, and SD Capital and is now valued at $20 million.

Edinburgh-based investment syndicate, Archangels, led £27.3 million of investment during 2024 in some of Scotland’s best early-stage tech and life science companies.

Astroscale, the UK subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings, D-Orbit, and ClearSpace have jointly secured £690,000 from the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) for a Regulatory Sandbox project to test innovative Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) missions, help the regulators understand these emerging technologies and their implications, and ultimately inform and enable regulation for such novel space activities which are set to boost UK economic growth.

Neurent Medical, the Irish MedTech company at the forefront of treatments for chronic inflammatory sino-nasal diseases, has secured funding from the Claret European Growth Capital Fund III (CEGCF III).

Following a final pitch day in Manchester, where six inspiring entrepreneurs presented their business proposals to the Havas Boost panel (including Sian Gabbidon, winner of The Apprentice 2018), Havas Media Network announces Christina (Tina Rehana) Taylor as the winner of Havas Boost Business.

After a challenging year, many mid-market businesses are looking for growth opportunities in 2025, but they’ll need finance to succeed.

Despite Christmas having a reputation for being a quiet time for fundraising, many founders will continue negotiating rounds over the holiday season.

Transformative freight procurement and management tool Loadar has raised a $4 million seed funding round, led by Frontline Ventures with follow-on participation from existing investor Techstart Ventures. Founder and CEO Ciaran Doherty will use the funds to grow the team headcount and expand to the US, building on the success to date in Europe.

tiun, a fintech helping media providers to attract, engage and convert younger audiences, has announced a $2.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Founderful. The funds will kick-start their efforts to become Europe’s preferred way to pay for online media.

bp Ventures has invested $9 million into Zingbus, leading its Series A funding round. The startup, headquartered in Delhi, has built a tech solutions platform for electric bus operators and their customers travelling between cities. Zingbus’ platform provides front and back end digital infrastructure for bus operators, including pricing, fleet management and route optimisation services, together with a dedicated ticketing marketplace.

TG0, a company reshaping the human-machine interface landscape, has closed a £4.5 million Series B funding round led by NetmindAI with additional support from WP Health.

Raising your first round of funding is often painted as a rite of passage for a startup, the shiny trophy that signals you’re on your way to unicorn status. But here’s the truth that gets glossed over in all the LinkedIn celebration posts: not everyone raises when (or even if) they think they will.

Over 3 million cases of fraud are reported in the UK every year, shockingly it accounts for nearly 40% of all reported crime. To tackle this, financial institutions are turning to AI but AI requires large amounts of data and access to that data is a challenge.

SatVu, a pioneer in climate technology, has secured a €1 million project to reduce its time-to-market and scale up its operations by partnering up with one of the world’s foremost independent energy and commodities trading companies.

Baller League, the 6×6 football league with a rapidly growing fan base, has announced that it has raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by EQT Ventures. This follows an $8 million round closed in Summer 2024.

Embeddable, an award-winning developer tool for building interactive customer-facing analytics directly within software applications, has announced the close of its oversubscribed €6 million seed funding round.

KHP Ventures has launched the Innovations in Mental Health (IMH) Fund, which is dedicated to accelerating technologies with the potential to transform mental health outcomes. Portfolio companies will be supported through a first-of-its-kind delivery partnership with the UK’s largest mental health provider, the South London, and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM).

Startup Maisa confirms it has completed a $5m pre-seed round funded by NFX and Village Global, VCs backed by many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.

The grant landscape has come on leaps and bounds in the last decade. Not only has the UK broadened its horizon to include societal innovation, but it has strengthened its regional focus to help communities and industries across the country.