Nearly eight in ten brokers (77%) believe that high street banks are scaling back their willingness to fund small and medium-sized businesses, according to iwoca’s latest Q1 2024 SME Expert Index.

Abound, a fintech offering affordable loans, has announced its new financing round. The new funding follows the startup’s continued growth, with Abound reaching profitability in April 2024, just three years after launch.

Three in ten SME finance experts (28%) report that the most requested loan amount at the start of 2024 was over £100,000, 56% higher than the same period last year, according to iwoca’s Q1 2024 SME Expert Index.

Swiipr, a travel paytech company transforming the airline industry’s outdated and inefficient disruption payments systems, has secured £6 million in Series A funding, led by Octopus Ventures, to help drive the company’s next phase of growth.

Vizcab, a SaaS platform that calculates the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to reduce the carbon impact of construction projects, has raised an additional €4.5 million in Series A funding, bringing their total round to €9 million. The funding will support its rapid growth and expand its operations into new international markets.

Inspeq AI, a full-stack AI Ops platform, has secured $1.1 million in funding, led by Sure Valley Ventures.

European venture firm Rialto, has publicly announced its first fund, established by AVM Gestioni SGR Spa, has secured funding for more than €55 million and is more than halfway deployed, with eight investments to date already completed.

Eneryield, one of Chalmers Ventures’ portfolio companies, has successfully closed a seed funding round with investment from technology leaders in electrification and automation, ABB and Chalmers Ventures.

Orca AI, the AI-based operational platform for ships, has raised $23 million in new funding, led by OCV Partners and Mizmaa Ventures, taking its total raised to nearly $40 million.

Northstar Ventures invested £300,000 in Polybox to support the development of its innovative AI marketing technology and team expansion.

Finnish mycoprotein company Enifer announced the completion of a funding package to start constructing a unique food-grade mycoprotein factory in Kirkkonummi, Finland.

NEC X, the Silicon Valley innovation accelerator backed by NEC’s advanced technologies, announced a new investment in Verdi Expeditions, the world’s first scalable platform for farm automation and personalised plant healthcare.

Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor specialising in software and digitally-driven businesses, made a £6.3 million investment into data governance leader ActiveNav and cyber incident solutions provider Actfore, two divisions of Data Discovery Solutions (DDS).

Nory, the AI-powered operating system for hospitality businesses, secured $16 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel, bringing its total raised to $25 million, following a 400% revenue growth in 2023. Existing investors Cavalry, Playfair, Samaipata, and Triplepoint also participated in the round.

KARRI, a startup developing a smart walkie-talkie for children, has raised £775,000 in pre-seed funding.

Cellugy, a Danish industrial biotechnology startup, has raised €4.9M in seed funding to scale up production of its EcoFLEXY dry cellulose product to industrial volumes. The round was led by Germany’s ICIG Ventures and Denmark’s Unconventional Ventures, with new US-based investor Joyance Partners joining, along with existing investors PSV DeepTech, The Footprint Firm, and EIFO.

Zen Educate, an online marketplace connecting schools with top substitute teachers and teaching assistants, has closed a $37 million Series B funding round.

Life science startup Limula has announced it has raised £5.4 million to advance its solution for automating cell therapy manufacturing.

Artisan AI, a startup developing AI employees and software for enterprise companies, raised $7.3 million in a round led by Oliver Jung, an early investor in Airbnb, Rippling, and Revolut.

New data from the Venture Capital Trust Association (VCTA) showed that its members invested £505 million in early-stage companies across the UK during 2023.