Sprive, the UK’s only independent mortgage overpayment app, has successfully closed a £5.5 million funding round led by Ascension, with participation from Channel4Ventures, the broadcaster’s consumer investment arm, Velocity Capital, and Two Magnolias.

Onstage (previously known as Focal), the hub for early-stage fundraising, has new data showing the top traits VCs look for in founders when investing. Although youth entrepreneurship remains strong, with 60% of European Gen Zs planning to start a business in the next 3-5 years, founders who were serial entrepreneurs or had prior product or investment experience were more likely to attract VC attention than those who didn’t.

IXI, the company on a mission to change how the world sees with the first autofocus glasses, has raised $36.5 million in Series A funding.

Vinted Group, the parent company behind Europe’s well-known C2C second-hand marketplace, Vinted, has opened a new chapter in its growth story with the launch of Vinted Ventures. This is a dedicated investment arm backing the next generation of startups to accelerate re-commerce and reshape consumer behaviours in favour of second-hand.

Finbogo, a digital platform designed to streamline public access to private healthcare practitioners, has secured significant investment to lead a new, digitally driven era within private healthcare.

A new report from Swoop Funding has uncovered a striking gender disparity in UK business debt.

Arondite, a British company building AI to transform how defence organisations safely deliver “human-machine” teaming at scale, has secured over $12 million in funding from leading global investors.

Ask any doctor what's keeping them from delivering better care, and paperwork will top the list. Despite billions invested in healthcare technology, 80% of clinical data remains trapped in unstructured reports, and 70% of patients don't return to the same facility for follow-ups.

Duna's platform for compliant business identity helps large enterprises like Plaid, Bol, Moss, Sequra, and Brand New Day Bank to grow their customer base while adhering to increasing regulation like AMLD5/6, PSD2/3, DAC7, and DORA.

Lightsonic, a software company using fibre optic sensing technology, has raised €3.3 million in a seed investment round to develop intelligent monitoring solutions that enhance sustainability, resilience, and security in water utilities and critical infrastructure. The investment was led by Maki.vc, with participation from RAISEVentures and Sondo.

StackOne – the AI-powered platform fuelling the future of enterprise AI agents and SaaS integrations – has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by GV (Google Ventures). Workday Ventures, XTX Ventures, existing investors Episode 1 and Playfair, and angels from OpenAI, Deepmind, Microsoft, and Mulesoft also participated.

Parloa, an innovator in Agentic AI for customer experience, has announced it has secured $120 million in Series C funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $1 billion. Durable Capital Partners, Altimeter Capital, and General Catalyst are leading this round with participation from EQT Ventures, RPT Capital, Senovo, and Mosaic Ventures.

Nia – the AI platform building the next generation of autonomous engineering agents – has raised an $850,000 pre-seed round led by LocalGlobe, with participation from No Label Ventures, Andrena Ventures, Ventures Together, Eurasian Hub Ventures, and Artificial Societies (YC W25).

CryoCloud announces it has closed a €2 million seed funding round led by specialist healthcare transformation VC firm Nina Capital, with participation from Value Creation Capital, ROM Utrecht, and Utrecht Health Seed Fund. 

Loxa, a UK-based insurtech firm focused on revolutionising product protection, has successfully raised £125,000 through Angel Investment Network (AIN) as part of a £1.69 million seed round.

Doubleword, the self-hosted inference platform for enterprises, has announced a $12 million Series A led by Dawn Capital.

Fintech alternative lending platform for digital founders, Juice, has announced that it has raised £25 million in funding to support its aim to democratise finance by providing SME founders with capital and confidence to achieve growth ambitions.

QV Bioelectronics, developer of a first-in-class implanted Electric Field Therapy (EFT) device for brain tumours, has been awarded a £1.26 million grant under the highly competitive Biomedical Catalyst programme.

In recent years, many startup founders have witnessed a continued downturn in venture capital funding. What they may not have realised, however, is that in its place alternative funding and credit markets have begun to enter the mainstream.

David Fisher, Senior Investment Director at IW Capital discusses the 4 key criteria to consider when it comes to Intellectual Property (IP).