There’s no doubt that Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the most exciting developments in digital advertising for a long time. Clever, catchy, shareable lenses and AR filters can propel brands into people’s consciousness as users engage with fun creatives and then share their creations with friends and family. 

Kuberno, the global legal entity management SaaS provider, has closed on an additional £6 million of financing from Nasdaq Ventures and Barclays, concluding its Series A round with £9.5 million of total capital raised.

Finnish biotech scaleup Enifer has filed for Novel Food authorisation from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for its mycoprotein PEKILO – marking a major milestone in the company’s mission to bring an innovative and eco-friendly protein to the European food market.

Lucanet, a global provider of end-to-end CFO software solutions, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of Causal, a key innovator in the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) market. This acquisition strengthens Lucanet’s market position by expanding the range of core solutions in its CFO Solution Platform to include Extended Planning and Analysis (xP&A).

Neara, the AI-powered predictive modelling platform for critical infrastructure, has announced a €28 million Series C funding round. The round was anchored by a consortium led by EQT (a global investment organisation), with participation from Partners Group (one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry), and Square Peg Capital (one of the company’s earliest investors), with additional support from existing investors Skip Capital and Prosus Ventures.

Well done on raising investments, but what's next? Making investment news go viral can be a powerful way to enhance a company's visibility and attract further interest from customers and investors alike. TechCrunch found that startups with robust media engagement achieve approximately 30% more market traction than their competitors. Stepan Burov, Co-Founder of 8bitPR Agency, will explore strategies to enhance your business profile by leveraging investment announcements.

3D animation software company Swoove Studios has closed a $7.5 million seed funding round led by European angel investors.

Open access publishing startup DeSci Labs has won the Best Automation & Data Innovation – Organisation prize at this year’s Lab Awards, held at Lab Innovations 2024. The award recognises the innovation behind DeSci Publish, the world’s first open science publishing infrastructure based on Web3 technology.

Verax AI, a developer of enterprise-grade software solutions that provide visibility and control of AI in production, announced today that it secured $7.6 million in seed funding led by TQ Ventures and with participation from Concept Ventures, Cardumen Capital, Seedcamp, InMotion Ventures, and XTX Ventures. 

Emidat, the provider of environmental data solutions for the construction industry, has announced a €4 million seed funding round led by General Catalyst. This funding will enable Emidat to support the construction industry to reduce the environmental footprint of the whole built world, starting with a revolution in the labelling of every single building material.

Lola Cars has become a major stakeholder in PACETEQ, one of the automotive industry’s foremost data technology and software companies. The investment sees Lola gain access to knowledge and expertise critical to the brand’s ambitions to re-establish itself as a world leader in sustainable engineering and motorsport.

The Sustainability Analytics platform GaiaLens, has launched its new on-demand sustainability reporting product for ESG analysts today. Offering a flexible, monthly subscription-based model, analysts can now access fully automated reporting for all major sustainability frameworks at the click of a button.

On the 30th October, the long awaited Autumn Budget was delivered by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves.

Invoice finance company Stenn has released new findings highlighting that US SMBs are cash-strapped heading into the festive period, betting big on the holiday season to top up reserves that are running dry.

Ahead of the Chancellor’s Budget announcement, the CIPD is calling on the government to increase apprenticeship opportunities for young people, encourage innovation, and improve labour market enforcement.