bp ventures has invested €7.5 million in the Service4Charger GmbH, a Berlin-based provider for the planning, installation, operation and maintenance of EV charging infrastructure.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of the AWS Global Fintech Accelerator programme.

Upfront Diagnostics, a healthcare company focused on discovering novel biomarkers that can be applied to medical diagnosis, has announced a seed funding round of £1.6 million. The investment was led by APEX Ventures’ Medical Fund, following grant funding from SBRI Healthcare in partnership with Stroke Association, for Upfront Diagnostic’s patented blood-based diagnostic LVOne.

Dexory has secured $19 million in Series A funding led by European VC firm Atomico, with participation from existing investors Lakestar, Kindred, Capnamic, and Maersk Growth, the investment arm of the global logistics and container shipping company, Maersk. As part of this investment Atomico Partner Ben Blume will join Dexory’s board of directors.

Algorithmiq, a scaleup developing quantum algorithms to solve the most complex issues in life sciences, has raised $15 million. The Series A round was led by Inventure VC, one of the most experienced Nordic venture funds.

Getting funding to scale a business in 2023 is certainly more of a challenge than it has been in more recent years. This does not mean that it is not possible.

Over 90% of mid-sized UK businesses are facing challenges accessing funding and financing amidst the wave of interest hikes by the Bank of England, according to research from BDO.

IQ Capital, the London-based deep tech venture capital firm, continues to strengthen its senior team with the promotion of two new partners. Archie Muirhead and Alex Wilson join existing general partners Kerry Baldwin, Max Bautin, Simon Hirtzel and Ed Stacey. 

DREST announces that it raised £15M of funding to continue the genre defining development of its new product proposition, DREST Game 2.0.

Valuing any business can be a complicated and often inexact procedure, but arriving at a valuation for an early-stage business is so much more difficult. 

The venture capital funding winter has gripped the Fintech startup ecosystem for a year now. But as temperatures in Europe rise, a new season is around the corner for commercially sound businesses too. 

As the UK’s biggest bank for business, NatWest understands that SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy and that the company has a responsibility to help them build back better.

The goal of this blog is to help business owners who are starting their own businesses understand how to calculate profits and losses in a new business. This understanding will help them make sound decisions about what to do with their new business, and it will also save them time and money in the long run.

European cybertech startup Filigran, founded in France in October 2022, has raised €5 million in seed funding that will be used to accelerate product development and drive international growth.

When considering raising equity finance, most early-stage businesses would often have to turn to angel investors or crowdfunding as was explained in last week’s article. 

We had an idea, and we knew the idea was good - but neither of us had ever run a company or raised funding before. Still, the mobile advertising industry was screaming for innovation, and we were convinced that we could bring that innovation.

Every week at Digital Catapult we meet several early-stage companies who come to our FutureScope investment team office for support with their venture capital (VC) fundraising plans.

Gen Z is a generation which values entrepreneurship and is eager to make its mark on the world. According to a recent report from GlobalWebIndex, 74% of Gen Z’ers want to start their own business, and 62% believe they will do so in the next five years.

Ask any early-stage business owner and they will tell you that getting funding to scale can be tough. Very tough. All will tell you that it takes much more time and effort and takes much longer to complete than they had expected. And all will tell you that raising finance is a massive distraction from actually running and growing the business.

TympaHealth has raised $23M in Series A funding, led by Octopus Ventures, to expand access to its tech-enabled hearing assessment and diagnostic solution.

I wish there was a cure to all the stress and anxiety entrepreneurs feel during fund-raising season. The truth is we all know the entrepreneurial journey can be an emotional rollercoaster and funding season is another level of pressure and emotional drain.

Skarper, the London-based start-up backed by Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy, has secured an additional £4 million in funding. This is the second funding round in less than 12 months for the business, bringing the total amount invested to £8 million, supporting the acceleration and scaling of Skarper’s route to market.

Canopey, an online marketplace for environmentally sustainable and eco-conscious brands, has secured investment from two leading technology executives.

A pioneering programme which aims to open up valuable public sector contracts to SMEs has just been launched by Deloitte Digital and small business support platform Enterprise Nation. 

Startups are crucial to the long-term health and prosperity of the UK economy by creating wealth, jobs, and revenues to the exchequer. In the last financial year, over 750,000 startups were registered.

Loopin has raised £1.6 million in seed funding from high-net worth individuals and angel investors.

A group of leading UK venture capital investors have been confirmed as speakers for a novel upcoming event series which aims to tackle the problem surrounding founders and their ability to access the right funding.

Neuromod Devices has successfully closed a €30 million financing to further commercialise its tinnitus treatment device, Lenire.

Xilva, a global platform for investments in regenerative forests, announced it has raised $1.8 million in a pre-seed round from Brainforest, Bloomsbury Natural Capital, Insurtech.vc and a group of international angel investors. The funds will be used to further develop technological solutions and scale marketing and operations.

GoJoe, the first social fitness app for work and play, has announced its most recent investment of £1.2 million, led by Superbet Ventures.

Investing in Britain’s most promising young businesses has become increasingly popular, resulting in record years for venture capital fundraising.

Recently, Google unveiled a new fund of $4 million to support Black entrepreneurs across the EMEA region.

N1 fintech fund invested in SteadyPay, a British progressive lending platform with a Co-founder from Ukraine. European venture funds such as Ascension, The Future Fund, and others have already invested in this fintech.

Given that we might have officially entered a recession by the time you read this article, and with other global economies also on the brink of recession, when I think about the issues that women in tech are facing, raising funds in this climate seems high up on the agenda.

For a lot of founders, startups and scale-ups, funding is going to be a key priority. Yet many UK startups are unaware of the types of funding that can be secured from across the channel. This article will help to explain about European R&D Grant Funding opportunities and how UK-based businesses can access them. Let’s jump right in.

The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub has opened a new round of applications for its Regional Talent Engines programme to support entrepreneurial mid-late career engineers with an innovative concept to bring to market.

Today Foundamental, the global early-stage construction-tech investor, can announce that it has closed its second Fund II, taking its total AUM to over $150m.

As part of the EU's space policy, the European Union is developing two major space programmes: the Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and the Copernicus Earth observation system

Apheris, the platform for creating collaborative data ecosystems, has raised €8.7m to further develop its unique technology and build on its growing list of customers and partners, including BASF, Boston Consulting Group, BMW Group and JLABS, Johnson & Johnson’s innovation division. The platform enables organizations to extract value from each other’s decentralized data sets in a way that helps them overcome regulatory, technical, and commercial challenges because the data never moves from the owner’s secure environment. 

Samir Parkash, interim CEO of UKEF, has today announced that Virgin Money is the latest financial institution to be onboarded onto the General Export Facility (GEF), opening up access to financial support to their business customers.

constellr, a space data and services company building the world’s first globally scalable crop water monitoring system to help ensure global food security, today announces $10M in seed funding. Lakestar and VSquared co-led the financing round, with participation from early and new supporters FTTF, IQT, Amathaon Capital, Natural Ventures, EIT Food, OHB Venture Capital, Next Humanity, and Seraphim. With this investment, constellr will develop its first two satellites, conclude its existing pilot programs and develop its processing platform. 

If you're like most startup founders, you're always on the lookout for ways to fund your business. Several options are available to help you finance your business growth, whether you need seed money to get started or need ways to finance expansion. In this post, you will discover some of the most common funding options for startups, including traditional options like angel investors and government grants, as well as some more innovative options.

With many experts predicting that the UK economy is on course to enter a recession before the end of the year, research from ForrestBrown, the UK’s leading R&D tax credit consultancy, has found that businesses will turn to innovation to weather the economic downturn.

Silveray, an X-ray technology spin-out from the University of Surrey, has raised £2.2M in a seed funding round led by the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S). ACF Investors, R42 Group, UK Future Tech Investment (UKFTI), InnovateUK, Cambridge Angels, and SyndicateRoom’s Access fund were also involved in the funding round. 

As interest rates increase and tech stock multiples come down, accessing growth capital is becoming more expensive for startup founders.

Cello’s pioneering product, backed by byFounders, TinyVC, Possible Ventures, and Notion Capital enables SaaS businesses to make word-of-mouth their
most valuable growth channel.

Prewave, the AI platform that helps businesses predict, find, understand and categorise the risks affecting their suppliers, has raised €11m in Series A funding. The round was co-led by KOMPAS and Ventech, who renewed its support after the company’s Seed round, with participation from early-stage investors aws Gründerfonds, IST cube, seed + speed, Segnalita, Speedinvest and Working Capital Fund. The investment follows a strong year for Prewave with ten-fold revenue growth over the last ten months, a team that has tripled in size and an impressive roster of clients including ABinBev, AUDI, BMW, Porsche, PWC, Toyota and Zurich Insurance.

Alarm bells are ringing. We’re heading for another financial crisis. Geopolitical tensions and fluctuating markets have led to a soaring cost of living in Ireland, a threat of recession, and a slowdown in investment. Early-stage investors have pivoted from the bull run of 2020 and 2021 to a bearish approach to funding in 2022.  

Latana, an AI-Powered brand tracking and consumer insights platform, has raised a €36M Series B equity and debt financing to scale its SaaS offering, which provides companies with consumer data and key insights to help track brand and campaign performance.

At any stage of business, choosing the right investor can be one of the hardest and complex decisions you can ever make. This individual will more than likely not just contribute financially but often operationally meaning choosing the wrong person could be detrimental to your business.

The UK’s Research and Development (R&D) tax relief scheme incentivises businesses to spend money on innovation. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can receive a payable cash credit up to 33% of their eligible R&D spending which presents a strong opportunity for startups to reduce the cost of overcoming scientific or technological problems.

It’s not for nothing that the tech ecosystem can resemble an extreme sport at times.

If you want to scale your early-stage business, and to grow it quickly, then it is quite possible that you will need to raise investment by selling part of your business to new investors. This is done by the business issuing new shares which has the impact of leaving the original shareholders owning the same number of shares that they did, but a smaller percentage of the total.

‘Debt’ is a loaded word in the world of business that has few positive connotations. It smacks of always playing catch-up, constantly being on the back foot and receiving calls from financial institutions that are polite but firm and extremely insistent that money is owed and that the calls won’t stop until it’s paid back along with any interest owed.

UK inflation has risen to 10.1% in July, the first time it's hit double digits in 40 years, according to the ONS – up from 9.4% in June. Driven by rising costs in energy, food, and fuel, this has resulted in a drastic drop in funding and valuations across the startup arena, with a report from Tech Nation revealing that 50% of earlier-stage startups were struggling to scale beyond the seed and pre-seed stages.

The ‘war for talent’ is only intensifying, meaning every perk counts. If you weren’t offering your remote/hybrid team members an attractive home office package before, you should seriously consider doing so now.

Aerospace Xelerated has announced that its call for applications is open.

It has been said that ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’. But in reality, when a recession is looming and the business environment gets even tougher than normal, many more businesses, especially early-stage businesses, will fail.

If you're thinking of starting a small business, it won't do you good if you don't know how to keep track of your money. Bookkeeping involves more than just maintaining receipts; it includes preparing financial statements and taxes. In this quick-start guide, we'll introduce you to bookkeeping tips so you can get started in the right direction.

The front pages of the newspapers tell us that the economy is on a precipice. Interest rates are rising, inflation is at a 40-year high, and many report that venture capital is pulling back.

One in three UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs) say their survival is dependent on accessing finance by the end of the year, new research from NerdWallet has revealed.  

AWS is launching a one-of-its-kind programme that gives more women founders the support they need to accelerate their businesses. 

Sainsbury’s partners with Williams Advanced Engineering and gives green light to sustainable startups with £5m investment

More than a quarter of SMEs believe that debt funding is more widely available to male-owned businesses than female, according to research conducted by independent asset manager BOOST&Co.

When starting your own business, there are hundreds of things to think about and it can seem like the list of expenses is never-ending. From operational costs, to the cost of overheads, employing staff and getting your company’s name out there, there are many costs that need to be paid. However, if you are savvy, there are certain areas where you might be able to cut costs and keep your business more cost-efficient and today we hear from some industry leaders to get their thoughts.

These are tough times for many businesses. Rapid inflation and so rising input costs. Rising interest rates leading to increased financial costs. Squeezed consumers buying less and making it difficult to pass on increased costs by increasing prices. Add to this, recession, and global supply chain issues, and for many it is the perfect storm conspiring to undermine business.

Disparity from HR, eagle eye investors who are aware of the issue and startups with big goals and small bank accounts have all compounded into a tech recruitment issue causing much debate in the industry.

The payments world is complex and packed with innovative payment providers and technologies that cater to every customer’s need. This multitude of providers shows the increasing innovation in this sector. Equally, it makes it challenging to navigate the payments ecosystem and find the right providers for the right markets. 

Let’s face it, in the startup and VC world, every day can bring a new set of challenges. This is why many of us are drawn to the industry in the first place – it’s a high stakes space where mere ideas can turn into multi-billion global businesses, amassing considerable wealth for both entrepreneurs and their investors.

You are convinced that your novel and amazing business idea is going to change the world. So what do you do next to get it off and running? In the autumn of 2021, we raised a £300k pre-seed round for FoodLama from some notable angels who had exited their ventures to companies like Snap and Twitter, as well as someone on the board of Kraft Heinz. This is an attempt at describing what we learnt before, during and after that journey.

Launching a business is not easy. As a young entrepreneur, you have to focus on different areas. Although your primary responsibilities include empowering and scaling a business, you must focus on equity. Equity management becomes critical when considering investors for funding your business.

When it comes to the topic of 'Money' people feel a ton of emotions. Some feel sadness, anxiety, depression. Others get excited and see it as an opportunity to make the world a better place, to travel and to take care of their loved ones.

Being different is no bad thing. But it can be scary – and also pretty unpopular. This is especially true for purpose-led businesses where you may be trying to solve a problem for an underserved community, whether that’s people of a certain gender, sexuality, ethnic background, socioeconomic status, or another underrepresented group.

It’s an irony for small businesses that when it comes to finance, the more they need it, the less there is. With interest rates up for a fourth consecutive time in May and inflation forecast to be as high as 10% by the end of 2022 – a 40-year high – the economic outlook is highly uncertain. Traditional lenders are nervous and wary of increasing lending to SMEs, which already saw their debt rise by a quarter during the pandemic, and it’s no longer just struggling businesses that have a hard time securing funding.

Getting the backing of a Venture Capital Fund (VC) is often a key milestone for any growing business, it is, therefore, important to strategise both your preparation and approach.
 

Over the last few weeks, we have had the opportunity to speak with tens of startup founders and investors as part of our Private Beta launch for Truealpha.

Despite a record $330bn fundraising total, female founders in the US secured a mere 2.3% of venture capital in 2021 according to Bloomberg, the second consecutive year of decline and the smallest share since 2016. Amazingly, that figure is more than double the proportion of venture capital going to female-founded businesses in Europe which sits at just 1.1%.

Knowledge is power. This well-known phrase is often underplayed in the business arena, with the adage ‘cash is king’ taking primacy. While cash is, of course, fundamental to business, knowledge can often elevate a business to the next level – something I’ve come across at Connectd with a number of startups. 

Few numbers matter more to a founder than their company’s valuation. This is a fairly universal truth. But if you asked a focus group of founders which employees they valued the most, you’d probably get a few different answers.

Challau, the metaverse platform which enables users without a VR headset or high-end computer to enter immersive 3D environments, has raised a pre-seed round from 7percent Ventures, whose team first backed Oculus VR.

Fundraising is full time job, there is so much time and effort that goes into raising money, but it is worth it. We all know what the stats and figures show that there is a massive gender disparity when it comes to funding, and therefore although being a tough job – it’s even harder for women.

FourJaw, whose manufacturing data analytics platform is unlocking five-fold increases in shopfloor productivity, has secured a second round of angel investment and Innovate UK funding worth £1m, to accelerate its growth and support high-value-added manufacturers across the country. 

Flow Your Money (Flow), the money management app for freelancers and consumers has raised a €3.5m seed investment round led by Eleven Ventures. The round was joined by RockSalt, the venture arm of SaltPay, as well as Silverflow co-founder Robert Kraal (former COO Adyen), Hristo Borisov (founder and CEO of Payhawk), Marnix van der Ploeg (Booking.com) and Travel Health Group’s owner Arnoud Aalbersberg. The investment will enable Flow to scale up its platform, which makes it possible to automatically distribute incoming and outgoing money flows, taking the step towards 'self-driving money': smart, fully autonomous money management. Flow now also can expedite European expansion plans as it sets out to become the largest player in this fast-growth market. 

These days, entrepreneurs and business owners are actively dealing with a dynamic economy and this presents a unique problem for them. It means that they need to look for ways to raise enough capital for financing their business startup. But raising capital is not so easy and you have to be well aware of what you are stepping into before you start seeing any results.

The £12.09 million Digital Growth Grant will help tech start-ups and scale-ups tackle the challenges facing small firms and open up access to skills training and advice.

It has often been said that cash is king. This does not of course mean cash itself, but the phrase refers to a company’s cash flow and how it manages the flows of payments into and out of the business. Ultimately, turnover, and even profitability, are secondary in importance to cash flow.

European deeptech is enjoying a bit of a moment. Startups working in deeptech - translating new knowledge into tangible technology to address significant business and societal needs - account for close to a quarter of the continent’s startup ecosystem. And in 2021, that ecosystem invested a record $100B of capital.

Fumopay, known as ‘fumo’ is on a mission to demonstrate that technology innovation within the banking and financial services sector can have a direct impact on the lives of our young generation to help them become financially savvy, in a somewhat desperate attempt to help people avoid unnecessary personal debt.

– Amcor, who develop and produce responsible packaging solutions, announced the launch of Amcor Lift-Off, an open-call initiative aimed at supporting seed stage startups that are focused on innovative packaging solutions and related technologies. Amcor Lift-Off offers these startups a chance to secure an investment of $250,000, as well as operational guidance, to take their ideas to the next level.

Economies around the world are in the throes of sky-high inflation. Interest rates are creeping up. There is a historic crisis in Europe, energy prices are rocketing, and supply chains are clogged. It’s a scary time to start a business. 

R&D is a valuable relief the UK government offers in order to incentivise businesses to innovate and enhance productivity. The scheme is widely underutilised and over the course of several budgets the Chancellor of the Exchequer has sought to widen the scope for claiming this relief.  The most recent changes he made will be implemented from April 2023.

International Women’s Day may have taken place a few weeks ago on the 8th of March, but that doesn’t mean the conversation has to stop there. It is so important that although we highlight this day and all it stands for, we take this further and action all these thoughts and ideas.

Of all the areas of starting and scaling a business that most founders are unsure of it is raising finance. For some, the questions are more basic, whilst for others the questions can be more detailed. Perhaps two of the reasons why there are always so many questions about raising finance is that it is so important for the future growth of the business and indeed that it is such a complex area.

Research and development (R&D) tax relief was introduced by the government in the year 2000 to encourage UK company investment into innovative projects. Serving as a lucrative tax incentive, the scheme is open to any UK company that’s registered for Corporation Tax, regardless of size or sector. However, there’s still a widely held and outdated assumption that R&D only happens in science labs or ‘techie companies’ which simply isn’t the case.

Chargebacks are a thorn in the side of merchants across all verticals. Here we take a look into the root causes of chargebacks, and how you can best defend your business against potential losses.

Wednesday 9th March sees the launch of the latest iteration of the UK Government G-Cloud.

International Women’s Day shines a light on the amazing work of women across multiple industries. However, it also serves as an important reminder that a lack of diversity remains an ongoing issue, especially within the venture capital industry.

AQRU, an incubator specialising in decentralised finance (DeFi), announced that it has acquired Bison Exchange UAB (Bison), a blockchain technology company registered in Lithuania, for a cash consideration of €30,000.

I always say that numbers speak for themselves. So it’s doubtful that these numbers will surprise female founders anywhere. Pitchbook data from earlier this year showed that, despite record levels of capital invested in Europe, female founders received just 0.7% of the total funding - €400m (about $473m). The picture isn’t much more encouraging in the US; last year, female-only founded companies garnered 2.2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups.