Aachen-based startup IonKraft GmbH, a spin-off of RWTH Aachen University, has successfully closed a first equity financing round of €3.5 million. The round was co-led by M Ventures (the strategic investment fund of Merck) and TechVision Fund and joined by High-Tech-Gruenderfonds.
Bev Hurley CBE, Executive Chair of YTKO and previously CEO for 25 years, has been recognised for her Outstanding Contribution to Economic Development at the Institute of Economic Development (IED) Annual Awards 2024.
The rise in AI adoption by companies encourages the hiring of more managers – rather than fewer – relative to other positions, to supervise the implementation of this new technology. That’s according to a working paper co-authored by IESE Business School professors Mireia Giné, Sampsa Samila, and José Azar that analyses 375 million US job vacancies over more than a decade.
Gendo, the AI platform which transforms how architects and designers bring ideas and sketches to life, has raised a £4.3 million seed round. This comes less than four months after the company emerged from beta and announced their pre-seed raise of £855k.
Lineage, the large global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT, has announced the winner of its pioneering initiative, the Food Chain Innovation Challenge London. After a full day of pitching at the Science Museum to an esteemed judging panel, Mimica, the brand behind dynamic food expiry labels, was crowned regional champion and walked away with the $5,000 prize.
Airbound, a drone technology startup, has announced a $1.7 million seed round led by Lightspeed to build the world’s most efficient delivery drone. With its proprietary blended wing body tailsitter design, called TRT, Airbound aims to transform logistics, reducing delivery costs by two orders of magnitude compared to traditional options.
Cornwall’s flourishing tech ecosystem took centre stage last month at the highly anticipated Cornwall Slush’D 2024, showcasing the region’s most innovative startups and highlighting Tech Cornwall’s strengthened commitment to supporting early-stage businesses.
Virgin Media O2 Business and Cebr have published a new report, ‘The economic and social benefits of digitalisation’, revealing the significant growth potential UK businesses have left untapped. The report highlights that if all British-based firms had increased their digital technology usage in 2021, the economy could have seen a staggering £111 billion boost in turnover by 2023.
What an event! The 50th edition of The Business Show has come to a close, marking a milestone in the event’s history. This year’s show brought together over 750 exhibitors, 350 expert-led seminars, and thousands of attendees under one roof, delivering two days packed with inspiration, innovation, and actionable insights for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Atlas.co has announced its $2 million pre-seed funding round led by climate-focused VC fund Pale Blue Dot, high-profile investors Ben Lang (early employee and ex-community lead at Notion), and Andreas Klinger (ex-CTO and founding team at Product Hunt).
Bower, the AI-driven waste sorting app helping users correctly recycle everyday waste, and VARTA, the European battery manufacturer, have announced their new AI-powered scanning feature, which allows consumer batteries to be immediately recognised and sorted for recycling without the need of a barcode.
Tenity, the global fintech innovation ecosystem and early-stage VC, releases its third Climate Fintech Report. Drawing on data from 750 startups worldwide, the report highlights the subsector’s resilience to economic challenges and its leading position in gender equality in venture funding, with female-founded or led companies achieving funding parity at pre-Series B rounds.
Revolver Therapeutics is pleased to announce its new funding is from UK Innovation Science and Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, and from o2h Ventures to progress its transcription factor inhibitors.
DeepL, the global Language AI company, has announced the launch of its first voice translation solution DeepL Voice, with the first two products unveiled: Voice for Meetings and Voice for Conversations. DeepL Voice makes it possible to conduct virtual meetings across several languages as well as real-time translation for in-person conversations.
A newly released report has named London the number one city in Europe and number three globally for life sciences, behind Boston and New York, and ahead of Amsterdam, Munich, Paris, San Francisco, and Singapore.
Sage Foundation, the social impact arm of Sage, the accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) firm, has launched a new, three-year partnership with Village Capital to support 165 impact-creating startups across Europe, UK, and the US.
In a strategic move set to reshape the industrial Augmented Reality (AR) landscape, Almer Technologies has announced its acquisition by RealWear, a company in wearable computing for industrial applications. This strategic acquisition, financially backed by TeamViewer marks a significant leap forward in the mission to empower frontline workers worldwide with cutting-edge AR technology.
Bitsight has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cybersixgill, a global cyber threat intelligence (CTI) data provider. Together, Bitsight and Cybersixgill will provide unmatched visibility into an organisation’s external attack surface, supply chain, and the threats targeting it. As a result, security leaders can proactively identify, prioritise, and mitigate risk across their first and third party environments.
Future Planet Capital is working with NatWest Cushon, with a view to the Cushon Master Trust potentially making an investment in the British Co-Investment Fund (BCF). Any future investment will be subject to commercial terms, due diligence, and Trustee approval. If approved, NatWest Cushon’s participation would signify a major step forward, creating new avenues for British pension funds to access high-growth, private technology companies at scale.
AshGrove Capital an independent pan-European specialty lender, has announced the final close of AshGrove Specialty Lending Fund II at the hard cap of €650 million, surpassing its target of €500 million.
