Funding

Genie AI, an AI legal editor, has raised £13.3 million in Series A funding, led by GV (Google Ventures), and joined by Khosla Ventures (early investors in OpenAI), taking its total raised to over £15 million. Previous to this round, Genie AI received one of the UK Government’s largest grants for a startup, and seed funding led by Connect Ventures.

Dryad Networks, a startup working in ultra-early wildfire detection technology, has announced a major financial boost to advance its wildfire prevention solutions. The company has been awarded a €3.8 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), via Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB), to accelerate the development of its revolutionary wildfire suppression project, codenamed “Florian.”

adCAPTCHA, a newly launched security verification platform, has secured £1 million in funding to combat the growing challenge of automated bots and cyber fraud.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the global football legend, has made a significant investment in Bioniq, a startup known for its personalised nutritional solutions based on blood biomarker data. Founded in 2019, Bioniq has now reached a total valuation of $82 million.

Zip, the AI-driven procurement orchestration platform, has secured $190 million in Series D funding, with BOND leading the round. This substantial investment ranks among the largest in the enterprise SaaS space this year, boosting Zip’s valuation to $2.2 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2023. New investors DST Global, Adams Street, and Alkeon joined the round, alongside returning backers Y Combinator and CRV.

Authologic, a global digital identity verification platform, has raised $8.2 million in its Series A funding round, led by European VC firm OpenOcean. YCombinator, Peak Capital, and SMOK VC also contributed, backing Authologic’s mission to modernise KYC and AML processes with secure e-ID solutions. Traditional KYC systems that rely on document images are becoming outdated, as AI-generated fake documents make these methods increasingly vulnerable to fraud, identity theft, and compliance issues. Authologic’s platform offers a more secure approach, addressing the flaws in legacy verification systems.

Drax Group has partnered with Smart Green Shipping to advance the use of wind-assisted technology in decarbonising the shipping sector. The project centres on Smart Green Shipping’s ‘FastRig’ wingsail, which aims to cut fuel consumption and emissions by up to 30% annually.

Munich energy startup, PIONIERKRAFT, has secured a significant investment in its Series A funding round, amounting to a high seven-figure sum. The round was led by First Imagine!, a European venture capital firm committed to sustainable innovation.

Oriole Networks, the company pioneering the use of light to power Large Language Model (LLM) training with significantly reduced energy consumption, has secured an additional $22 million in funding from leading investors. The round, led by Plural, saw reinvestments from existing backers including UCL Technology Fund, XTX Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, and Dorilton Ventures.

Blecon has announced a $4.6M seed funding round, advancing its mission to unlock the full potential of Bluetooth Low Energy for IoT Connectivity.

dottxt, an emerging platform designed to enhance interactions with large language models (LLMs), has successfully raised $11.9 million across its Pre-Seed and Seed funding rounds, all within just over seven months.

Zerve, a platform designed for data science and AI development, announced a seed round of $7.6 million, led by Paladin Capital Group. Other backers included existing investor Elkstone and notable angel investors like Rob Hickey, former Executive Vice President of Engineering at DataRobot.

autone, the AI-powered platform helping retailers transform their business through optimal inventory management, has raised a $17 million Series A funding round led by General Catalyst.

eBay has announced the global expansion of its Circular Fashion Fund (CFF), aimed at helping fashion startups scale circular solutions across the entire lifecycle – from production to disposal, including rental and repair services. Applications for the fund are now open and will close on 15th November 2024. Eligible startups and small businesses can apply via eBay’s website.

Belgian biotech startup AmphiStar, known for its sustainable surfactant innovations, has been awarded a €2 million non-dilutive grant from SPRIN-D, the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation. This brings the company’s total funding for the year to €10 million.

Where You At (WYA), a female-founded app that enhances nightlife safety using indoor mapping and offline mesh technology to help users stay connected in crowded venues, has raised significant funding which has helped it make a huge impact in a short space of time.

INSHUR, a global embedded insurance provider for the on-demand economy, has secured $19 million in its latest funding round. This round was led by Viola Growth, with contributions from MS&AD Ventures and existing backers, bringing INSHUR’s total funding to $78.5 million.

Mountside Ventures, Europe’s pioneering accelerator and early-stage advisory firm, has announced their inaugural VC accelerator programme to empower emerging VC managers, The Emerging VC Manager Programme.

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s active growth capital investor, has completed a £6 million investment into Signify Research, a specialist health tech market intelligence provider.

Siloton, the Bristol-based health technology startup, has secured £860,000 to progress the commercial roll-out of its eye imaging chip technology, which could help address the UK’s most common cause of sight loss.