As interest rates are expected to decline, personal savers have been advised to capitalise on the remaining high rates. Which begs the question: is it now time for the population of UK small businesses to follow suit?

Data has shown that female-led startups tend to outperform their male counterparts, triggering a shift in VC funding patterns.

Scotland's premier impact investor, SIS Ventures, has unveiled its first impact report, showcasing the positive effects on people and the environment made by its investee companies.

The year 2023 marked a challenging yet resilient phase for the European tech ecosystem. Facing tough macroeconomic conditions, Europe saw a significant reduction in funding levels, reaching just over half of 2022's levels at $45 billion. Large funding rounds and the creation of new billion-dollar companies slowed down, testing the venture asset class's strength and resilience​​. Startups Magazine looks at the Atomico State of European Tech Report 2023.

The slowdown in venture capital-led tech sector investment hasn’t proven to be a setback for Cloudsmith, a Belfast-headquartered software supply chain management firm, which has announced $11 million (£8.8 million) in Series A2 financing.

Failup Ventures, an emergent venture capital fund operating globally, recently announced the initial closing of €30 million for its new early-stage fund, which has a total size of €50 million. This fund was established by three Finnish entrepreneurs - Jesse Heikkilä, Topias Soininen, and Oscar Andersin.

HumanForest, the parent company of Forest - London’s most affordable and environmentally responsible eBike operator - has raised a £5 million extension to its Series A after securing investment from two venture capital firms and further funding from sustainable finance specialist, Triodos Bank UK. 

When a startup or growth company is looking to raise investment, the choices can seem quite slim.

FundOnion has officially launched its AI-backed business finance comparison site for small business loans.

Lynx, an AI software provider specialising in fraud detection and prevention, announced a €17 million (£15 million) Series A funding round led by Forgepoint Capital, a venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity and digital infrastructure software.

YouLend, a company in global embedded financing, and Plaid, renowned for its data network facilitating consumer banking connectivity, have disclosed in their recent whitepaper that their collaboration has significantly increased SME lending approval rates to 90%.

Securing investments as a startup can take many different routes. The funding process is not a one-size-fits-all process, and needs to be treated as such.

Since the onset of the full-scale invasion by Russia on 24 February 2022, the Kyiv-based venture capital fund u.ventures has committed $4 million to eight Ukrainian startups and one Moldovan startup.

Aikido Security, the developer-first software security app for growing SaaS companies, announces it has raised €5 million in a Seed round co-led by Notion Capital and Connect Ventures; with investment from Inovia Capital Precede Fund I, led by partners Raif Jacobs and former Google CFO Patrick Pichette; as well as an impressive roster of angel investors including Christina Cacioppo, CEO of Vanta.

Glox Therapeutics, a firm creating precision antibiotic therapies from natural bacteriocins, has secured £4.3 million in seed funding.

The Venture Capital Trust Association (VCTA) released a new report, offering insights into the challenges, limitations, and prospects for the UK's most promising scaleups.

Photonic, a company in quantum computing, has successfully secured an investment of $100 million. The funding was contributed by a range of investors including the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), Microsoft Corporation, the UK government's National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), Inovia Capital, and Amadeus Capital Partners. This investment elevates Photonic's total funding to $140 million.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) started its inaugural AWS Women’s Demo Week, a significant global event crafted to assist women-led startups in establishing connections with investors.

According to iwoca's most recent SME Expert Index for Q3 2023, a significant majority of SME finance specialists, amounting to 83%, are of the view that major banks are showing less inclination to finance the United Kingdom's 5.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises.

Fyma, an AI enterprise specialising in the analysis of real-time video feeds, has concluded an investment round, securing $2.1 million. Quadri Ventures spearheaded the round with participation from Second Century Ventures.

Solestial, the space-oriented solar energy enterprise, recently declared it has secured an £849,954 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from NASA.

IBM recently unveiled its intention to establish an Enterprise AI Venture Fund worth $500 million. This fund is poised to support a variety of AI enterprises, from those in their infancy to rapidly expanding startups, all with the aim of propelling generative AI technology and research within the corporate sector.

Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, has launched the Powered by Snowflake Funding Programme, which intends to invest up to $100 million dollars toward the next generation of early-stage startups building Snowflake Native Apps.

Gresham House, a specialist in alternative asset management, has initiated a new limited partnership aimed at facilitating institutional investment in burgeoning companies within the UK and Ireland.

Daytona, the self-hosted platform specialising in "Development Environment Management," has successfully secured £1.6 million in Pre-Seed financing, surpassing its original goal. The investment round drew substantial investments from notable figures in the developer tools domain.

Sustainable Ventures, a UK climate tech cluster, has announced it has secured £3 million in its first fundraising led by Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and other investors to support UK expansion.

Barclays has launched the Demo Directory, a free online service open to UK businesses, regardless of who they bank with, for easy, cheaper and less time-consuming access to capital by connecting them to a network of attested investors.

Employment Hero, one of the world’s largest employment management platforms, has announced a Series F growth round of £131 million to fuel its rapid global expansion, following in the footsteps of Atlassian, Xero and Canva.

There is a staggering $2.5 trillion global trade finance gap that mainly affects SMEs in emerging countries, limiting their ability to access new business opportunities. Helping businesses to bridge this finance gap, supply chain fintech Twinco Capital announced on Tuesday, in the sixth edition of the Valencia Digital Summit (VDS), it has secured an additional €50 million facility with BBVA Spark to accelerate growth.

multifi, a UK startup specialising in finance for small and medium-sized businesses, has secured a substantial capital injection of £10 million from Fasanara Capital, a $4 billion London-based asset manager and technology platform. This initial injection will support the growth of UK businesses that can access a credit facility of up to £200,000 with a fixed monthly access fee of 0.3% and an interest rate of 1.99% per month on used credit.

InterLnkd, the travel industry’s intelligent shopping mall partner, has announced it has raised £1 million in seed funding to accelerate its growth and international expansion.

With a sharp decline in both fundraising amounts and valuations, the current investment landscape is presenting a variety of hurdles for entrepreneurs.

Gero, a biotechnology company focused on ageing and chronic disease, has closed $6M in a Series A extension round, bringing the total funding raised to date to $20M.

Ai Build, the Additive Manufacturing software company, has raised a Series A round of $8.5 million led by IQ Capital, with participation from Nikon as a strategic investor alongside its existing investors including Superseed, ACT Venture Partners, Atlas Ventures (UK) and Seedcamp.

Securing investment is crucial for any SME that has one eye on the future. International growth, team expansion and product launches are all possible when a business has spare capital. Unfortunately, the current economic climate has made it even more of a challenge for smaller businesses to secure funding.

The world of securing investment for startups is a journey filled with ups and downs. For some entrepreneurs, it's a road which leads to success, where their innovative ideas and unwavering determination help them secure investments.

Audoo, the music technology company revolutionising public performance royalties, has secured $5 million investment in its latest funding round, with investors including global music and business icons Elton John and David Furnish, taking its total raised to $22 million.

An automation company powering life sciences labs, has raised $40 million to accelerate its rapid growth and industry presence across the US, UK and EMEA.

Laverock Therapeutics, established in 2021 to commercialise the gene editing-induced gene silencing (GEiGS) platform for all human therapeutic applications, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its seed funding round to £13.5 million.

HyperSpace, the multi-brand entertainment attractions developer that is building entertainment parks and proprietary technology to create the future of physical-to-digital experiences, has announced the closing of a $55 million Series A financing round led by Galaxy Interactive.

Over 10,000 SME owners, self-employed and budding entrepreneurs have applied for a single £25,000 Business Boost grant from insurer Simply Business, as the current economic climate takes a toll on small businesses.

New research from Shojin has found that over half (57%) of UK investors are confident that the worst of the economic turbulence from the past 18 months has now passed.

The visibility and number of successful female founders has come a long way over the past two decades, but the funding gap remains the biggest challenge for women in business and is key to unlocking the UK’s economic potential.

Securing investment for your scaleup is a major step, signalling new growth and potential for your business. While the prospect of taking the exhilarating step of financing your scaleup is exciting, the challenge of winning over investors remains critical. In the current climate, it can be difficult to compete with other startups and businesses for investor trust.

Resourcify, the waste-management and recycling platform, has raised €14 million Series A funding, signalling confidence in its business model of reducing companies’ waste and promoting a circular economy.

It’s become almost de rigueur to see entrepreneurs talk about landing an angel investor, their latest funding round or a crowdfunding campaign. Modern businesses have more financing opportunities open to them than ever before, but this can leave a lot of would-be entrepreneurs thinking the only way to success is through outside investment.

Startup founders come from a variety of diverse backgrounds and experiences, yet the majority of VC funding is consistently being awarded to white male founders. This is Venture Capital funding’s biggest issue, and it’s harming and discouraging founders from diverse backgrounds.

Financial wellbeing startup Mintago has closed a $4.75 million funding round to further enhance its platform and accelerate its growth across the UK.

A contraction in VC funding and non-existent IPO market will stimulate an M&A resurgence for growth-stage European deep tech companies, according to Oliver Warren, Associate at DAI Magister.

DKK Partners, a Frontier Markets FinTech company which specialises in emerging markets (EM) and foreign exchange (FX) liquidity has announced the successful closing of their pre-seed funding raise, totalling £3 million, prior to Series B set to take place at the beginning of 2024.

Securing funds in the early stages is often challenging for startups. Hundreds of startups are on a similar journey. In a bustling ecosystem of software technology where SaaS startups are sprouting, it can be tough to seek venture capital, get a loan, find angel investors, or even bootstrap.

Turquoise, the UK merchant bank specialising in energy, environment and efficiency, has announced a follow-on investment by Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2) in SKOOT ECO GROUP. This forms part of a £1.1 million capital raising round for the startup which will fuel SKOOT’s growth as it also announces its first one million trees planted.

A government backed loan scheme created to help entrepreneurs start and scale up their business has now provided over £1 billion of funding to over 100,000 businesses.

Simply Business, one of the UK’s largest providers of small business insurance, has launched its annual Business Boost competition, which will award a £25,000 cash prize to the winner.

DRUID, a global player in conversational AI technology, has announced its successful $30 million Series B led by TQ Ventures, with participation from new investors Smedvig Capital, Endeavor, and Verve Ventures, and existing investors GapMinder, Hoxton Ventures and Karma Ventures.

"Gaining entry into an accelerator's funding program requires startups to possess a combination of qualities, which collectively reveal a business that has the potential to thrive in a competitive and rapidly changing business landscape," writes Dr Yousef Alhammadi, Executive Director of The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA).

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are finding it increasingly hard to access funding from high street banks, new data from fintech firm iwoca reveals.

Xero, the global small business platform, has opened applications for its inaugural Xero Beautiful Business Fund, designed to celebrate small businesses and help accelerate their growth. The initiative is now open for submissions with more than £360,000 in funding available globally.

The Venture Capital Trust Association (VCTA) has published new data gathered from over 600 early-stage companies that have benefited from VCT funding, which shows that deployment of capital into early-stage startups grew 8% year-on-year to £664 million, proving resilient in context of wider UK venture capital funding, which fell by almost a quarter (23%) in 2022.

Everest Assets Group (EAG) has launched a £5 million growth fund to empower a new generation of cybersecurity and IT scaleups.

In times of economic uncertainty, female-led businesses can be particularly vulnerable. A lack of awareness of the funding options available and a reluctance to take on debt, coupled with the impact of the lending gap, makes it harder for female founders to secure funding to increase working capital or seek growth in turbulent times.

Big tech was back in fashion for investors in Q2, according to the latest analysis from smart money app Plum.

Simply Business, one of the UK’s largest providers of small business insurance, has announced the launch of its annual Business Boost competition, which will award a £25,000 cash prize to the winner.

UK-based bio-tech business Clean Food Group has announced a further £2.3 million in funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its sustainable oils and fats technology. International investment has come from industrial food specialists Doehler Group and Alianza Team as the global food industry looks to invest in healthier and more sustainable food choices for future generations.

Sourcing finance for growth plans is a huge part of running a startup. There are many stages and steps involved in getting a brand-new business off the ground. From that initial inspiration, to developing a sound concept, planning, staffing, marketing, and launching. But hard cash underpins everything a startup founder does and can dream of doing.

Pockit – the financial super app for low-income and underserved communities – has raised $10 million in a growth round led by Puma Private Equity, with participation from The North East Development Capital Fund, managed by Maven Capital Partners and supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

Savvy investors around the world are using the ‘summer markets’ period to consider rebalancing their portfolios and, speaking in a recent social media post, the CEO and Founder of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations said this summer he’s investing in three key areas.

NGP Capital, the global venture capital firm, has announced the results of its deep dive into the DACH startup ecosystem investment landscape. Comparing data from the beginning of Q1 (January) 2020 up to the end of Q2 (June) 2023, NGP Capital’s analysed over 3905 companies and 5644 funding rounds from across Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein, to show the latest trends in startup fundraising, dealmaking, and exits from across the region.

The Government has launched the Research Ventures Catalyst fund, injecting £50 million to bolster cutting-edge research in tech and science.

Running a business is a time-consuming endeavour but it brings great opportunities for you. From building a business for sale or having a business that can fund your desired lifestyle.

I used to honestly believe I’d missed the lesson in which someone explained the jargon on a payslip. After all, we wouldn’t drive for the first time without someone explaining how to turn the car on.

Starting a business is a challenging undertaking but even more so in today's economic climate. However, with adversity comes innovation. For founders and entrepreneurs, engaging with technology that is disrupting the rigidity of the finance sector can be the path to success.

UK-based HR startup, Zelt has announced it has raised $3.5M in seed funding in a round co-led by Episode 1 Ventures and Village Global, with participation from a number of high-profile angels including Charlie Songhurst, Mandeep Singh, Felix Leuschner and Daniel Hegarty.

KaarTech, a global digital transformation consulting company specialising in SAP and S/4 HANA implementation, has raised $30 million from A91 Partners, an investment firm headquartered in Mumbai. Gautam Mago and Kaushik Anand from A91 Partners will join the Board of KaarTech.

Hello Neighbour, a UK full-service property lettings and management company powered by technology, has announced the completion of a £2.5 million Series A round, with a majority stake from Surebind. Backed by private and institutional investors, the latest raise brings total funding amounts to £4.8 million.

Thunes, the global B2B payment infrastructure platform, has announced the addition of three prominent investors – Visa, EDBI, and Endeavor Catalyst – to its Series C funding round, supporting its mission to address the inefficiencies of moving money internationally and create a next-generation payment system that is secure, instant and transparent.

Raising capital during an economic downturn can be a challenging endeavour, as the fear of dilution and the need for financial stability become paramount. Attempting to raise during a downturn presents various hurdles including longer timelines, risk-averse investors, and downward shifts in the company valuation.

I will not be the first to tell you how things are for startups. The rising interest and inflation rates and the turbulent geopolitical situation are pressing, and the business environment cannot help but feel it already.

Debt funding can be a crucial form of growth financing for start-ups and scale-ups, many founders do not consider it as an option when raising capital. Yet with the right product – and often when combined with equity investment – debt funding can help supercharge a promising company’s growth opportunities, taking them from startup to a market leader.

GET Protocol, the NFT ticketing innovator, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round to ensure continuity and is poised to significantly disrupt the ticketing industry.

The Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) has opened applications for the 2024 cohort of its award-winning TechX Accelerator programme. Clean energy startups from around the world can now apply for a place on the programme and a share of the £1.2 million grant funding available (up to £100,000 for each startup).

Outverse, the community platform for modern SaaS companies, has announced that it has raised $6 million in a seed round led by Wing VC. Also participating in the round are Notion Capital, Seedcamp, Connect Ventures, and Tiny VC.

Tracxn, a global SaaS-based market intelligence platform, has released its UK Tech Semi-Annual Funding Report - H1 2023. The report, based on Tracxn’s extensive database, provides insights into the UK Tech space.

J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking’s Innovation Economy team has hired almost 20 new client-facing teammates in EMEA to further its efforts to support companies in this sector in the UK, Ireland and DACH region.

The UK Government has announced that it has secured an agreement from nine UK pension funds to invest at least 5% of their funds into the nation’s fast-growing startups and venture capital funds by 2030.

UK Fintech funding has dipped in the first half of 2023, as total cash raised by UK fintech firms reached $2.9 billion in the first six months, showing a 37% decrease compared to the latter half of last year, according to new figures from industry body Innovate Finance.

Swiss FinTech startup Numarics has raised a €10.2M seed round for its automated accounting and administration solution tailored to SMEs.

uMed, the health and research technology company, has raised £9.8 million in its latest venture capital funding round.

In Part Two of this series, Victor Basta, CEO, DAI Magister continues his masterclass on preparing for a successful funding round during an economic downturn and what companies can learn from trends in the African ecosystem.

In Part One of this series, Victor Basta, CEO, DAI Magister gives a masterclass in preparing for a successful funding round during an economic downturn and what companies can learn from trends in the African ecosystem.

Founders and entrepreneurs have to have a determination and resilience that often distinguishes them from those that are paid employees. It is not only that they have to find a gap in the market that they feel they can exploit, but they also have to have the confidence to back themselves to do that.

Settly, a HR platform for employee relocation, has raised €6 million from the French evergreen impact fund “2050” and Mediahuis Ventures, the Belgian venture capital fund of international publisher Mediahuis. It is Settly's first investment round after having single-handedly grown to over 50 employees in 7 European countries since its inception in 2019.

Nothing, the London-based consumer technology brand, announces a $96 million fundraising round led by Highland Europe, with participation from existing investors GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures and C Capital, alongside house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia.

A raft of start-ups working at the interface between climate change and human health have received financial backing and commercial support from global healthcare provider Bupa, to focus on the link between the environment and health.

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.