A new report developed by National Women’s Enterprise Week (NWEW), launched ahead of International Women’s Day, reveals a staggering inequality in investments and the disproportionate success rates between male and female entrepreneurs’ funding applications.

Epoch Biodesign, a company using enzymes to make recycled plastics cheaper and higher performing than virgin materials, has announced it has raised $18.3 million in Series A capital in an oversubscribed round.

Quantexa has announced that it has completed a $175 million Series F investment round, led by Teachers’ Venture Growth (“TVG”). 

A new study from Grantify, a platform that assists businesses in securing funding, reveals a 44% funding gap in UK tech grant enquiries. These figures suggest that men are more than twice as likely to apply for tech funding in the UK compared to women.

Howie Systems, founded in Vienna in the mid of last year by industry veteran Ewa Lenart, has successfully secured €420,000 in funding from leading London-based Venture Capital firm Pi Labs. The startup is pioneering in building a single source of truth for construction and real estate data.

Cino – the only real-time shared payment app that finally lets people pay together in a seamless, single transaction – has raised €3.5 million in Seed funding led by Balderton Capital. Connect Ventures also participated alongside leading angels, including Barney Hussey-Yeo (founder of Cleo). The funding will support Cino’s launch in the UK, where it already has a growing waitlist, and continued growth across Europe.

Trying to secure investment in your company from venture capitalists can be very daunting for leaders of SMEs or startups. It could have taken you years of hard work to realise your business goals, and now you find yourself negotiating the complex and cutthroat world of finance with experienced, shrewd professionals who might want a significant share of your operation.  

Nisien.AI a Welsh artificial intelligence (AI) startup based in Cardiff, has received investment from the British Business Bank’s £130 million Investment Fund for Wales via Foresight Group and the Development Bank of Wales, in a joint investment.

Moonwatt – the energy storage startup founded by seasoned professionals with a track record at global leaders like Tesla, EDF, Siemens, Scatec, and Freyr Battery – has raised €8 million to unlock the true, 24/7 power of solar with its disruptive sodium-ion battery system. Co-led by daphni and LEA Partners, Founders Future, AFI Ventures (by Ventech) and Kima Ventures also participated alongside strategic business angels and customers. The funding will be used to accelerate the development and deployment of Moonwatt’s hardware and software technology, expand the team and drive the shift toward a cleaner, more resilient global energy ecosystem.

Heidi, the healthcare AI company whose AI scribe is transforming how clinicians work, has raised $16.6 million in its latest funding round. The Series A follow-on investment is led by Headline, with participation from Local Globe, Anthology (Menlo Ventures and Anthropic), and existing investors Blackbird, HESTA, Possible Ventures, and Archangel Ventures.

Needle, an AI-powered search and agent development platform, has raised $2.2 million seed funding in a round led by 468 Capital and Presight Capital. The funding will expand Needle’s engineering team, strengthen its core technology, and accelerate its go-to-market initiatives.

Quantum Industries (QI), a startup in quantum secure communications for critical infrastructure, has announced the successful completion of its seed financing round, raising a total of $10 million in fresh capital.

Unique, a vertical AI player creating a specialised agentic AI platform for financial firms, today announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round, raising $30 million. Unique's total investment now stands at $53 million since its founding in 2021. This round is led by CommerzVentures and DN Capital, with continued support from existing seed investors including VI Partners and Pictet Group.

Electric Sheep, a UK-based AI tech startup, announces a major milestone as it secures Innovate UK's prestigious £500,000 Smart Grant – an award recognising its advancements in AI-driven visual effects (VFX) technology. This funding will support the development of Spotlight V3, Electric Sheep's next-generation rotoscoping tool, set to launch in early 2025.

Seaweed based supplement, cosmetic, and food ingredient startup BioMara, has secured $150,000 to advance fucoidan production to meet growing demand.

Ignota Labs, the AI-driven drug turnaround company, has announced the close of a $6.9 million (£5.5 million) seed funding round, co-led by Montage Ventures and AIX Ventures with participation from Modi Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, and Gaingels. The funding will be used to expand the pipeline by acquiring additional distressed assets and for advancement into early-stage clinical trials of their first asset, a PDE9A inhibitor.

Flanks is redefining wealth management with an end-to-end solution that connects complex data from any asset class worldwide and transforms it into actionable insights, enabling advisors to make faster, more informed investment and risk management decisions.

Gene therapy's biggest obstacle isn't science – it's manufacturing. While the field races forward with breakthrough treatments, production remains stuck in the 1980s, relying on unpredictable cell-based methods that make therapies costly and slow to develop. Fuse Vectors has announced $5.2 million in pre-seed financing led by HCVC to revolutionise gene therapy development with its cell-free viral vector technology.

A Leeds-based accessibility startup has secured early funding and expanded its team as it rebrands and accelerates its growth. AUDITSU, formerly known as IMAGINaiTION, was founded by Jason Crispin, a multi-award-winning entrepreneur.

Magdrive, the startup creating the next-generation of spacecraft propulsion, has announced its $10.5 million seed funding round led by pan-European VC Redalpine.