Think of an investment pitch and you think of the numbers. You think of spreadsheets, metrics, margins, and forecasts. But the bigger picture that many businesses are missing is that securing investment is more often than not about emotion. Because, when it comes down to it, investors are just people.

UK-based hospitality technology company Inntelo AI has raised more than £500,000 in a pre-seed funding round to fuel its commercial growth. It follows impressive early traction, with multiple hotels adopting its AI Concierge platform.

After her personal experience with the condition, a former Ernst Young (EY) corporate lawyer and founder of the successful French PCOS blog Les Natives, has raised €1.6 million in seed funding to help women suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

British Business Bank has announced a new £400 million Investor Pathways Capital initiative which will support diverse and emerging fund managers across the economy and make it easier for new entrants, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to break into venture capital. The initiative, which will capture the value of a more inclusive investment ecosystem, is expected to launch in 2026.  

Belgian biosurfactants developer AmphiStar has been awarded €12.5 million in funding following the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) latest evaluation round.

Series A doesn’t come easy, and most startups never get there. Fewer than a third of seed-funded startups make it that far, and the numbers drop sharply for female founders. In 2024, just 3.5% of Series A capital went to all-women founding teams, with mixed-gender teams accounting for 21%.

As sugar consumption rises and dental visits become increasingly expensive, nearly 3.5 billion people worldwide struggle with oral diseases. The dental industry faces mounting pressure to increase manufacturing efficiency, particularly in markets where centralised manufacturing is becoming the norm.

AI-powered enterprise intelligence and automation platform Oraion has raised $3.5 million in a pre-seed funding round to support product development and accelerate expansion into the US and Latin America. The investment will also enable Oraion to expand its team, with the aim of tripling the workforce to 45 staff focused on engineering, R&D, and go-to-market by the end of 2026.

XPANCEO, a deeptech startup that is focused on redefining computing through smart contact lenses, has confirmed the close of its $250 million Series A funding round, pushing its valuation to $1.35 billion and marking its entry into unicorn territory.

Belfast-based digital health technology company Cumulus Neuroscience has successfully closed a £3.25 million equity funding round that will be used to scale up its commercial operations.

Helsinki-based e-mobility tech startup, Donut Lab, continues its remarkable journey with a busy and productive first half to 2025.

Arago, a Paris and Silicon Valley-based deeptech startup pioneering a new class of energy-efficient AI chips powered by light, has raised $26 million in seed funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its photonic processor, codenamed “JEF”.

Norrsken VC has invested €5 million in Barcelona-based healthtech startup Biorce, revolutionising clinical trials with AI to bring treatments to patients sooner. The funding comes just seven months after Biorce’s €3.5 million first round in November 2024, led by healthtech specialist YZR Capital and Mustard Seed Maze.

A fund of €700,000 has been secured to trial next-generation methane-reducing technologies on 10 additional dairy farms in West Cork, expanding the reach of Carbery’s Farm Zero C project – a research and demonstration initiative aiming to create a blueprint for an economically viable, sustainable dairy farming model.

Former Everton and Norwich player Steven Naismith has invested a six-figure sum in sportstech platform ScribePro. The ex-footballer is backing the medical app and online portal that logs real-time interactions between athletes and clinicians.

The AI startup ecosystem is growing, in part helped by the technology maturing and the models improving, contributing to an explosion in funding.

upLYFT, a startup in the smart technology sector, is excited to announce the successful completion of a £500,000 investment through the Deepbridge Capital UK Innovation Seed Fund, alongside TIME Interconnect (HK) Limited.

At Zubr Capital, a growth-stage investment fund focused on supporting ambitious tech companies, we typically back three to five companies each year during the Series A or Series B stages. That doesn’t mean there aren't hundreds of impressive founders with compelling ideas out there – only that few truly align with the investment approach and long-term partnership model we’ve developed.

London-based Zango has raised $4.8 million in a round led by Nexus Venture Partners. Other participants in the round include South Park Commons, Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, Alan Morgan, former head of Financial Services at McKinsey (EMEA), Mark Ransford, Notion Capital, No Label Ventures, and Start Ventures.

Laverock Therapeutics, a gene control company powering the development of disease-responsive advanced therapies, announces the expansion of its seed funding round, taking the total raised to more than £20 million.