An invention improving microscopes to battle diseases like cancer and a tool ensuring financial AI models are unbiased are ideas that have won £20,000 for their female founders.

While venture capital funding shows signs of bouncing back in 2025, funding for early-stage startups is unfortunately still lagging since reaching a high in 2022. To increase runway and build a sustainable business, startups should find alternative ways to secure funding beyond traditional VC firms. As the founder and CEO of an early-stage startup myself, here are the best options we’ve found for increasing runway amid a VC slowdown.

eBrands, a Nordic-based export platform enabling international growth for consumer brands, has raised €7.5 million in its latest equity funding round, bringing its total funding raised to €50 million. The funding round was led primarily by Veikko Laine family office, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and operative shareholders.

The Founder Institute is reportedly raising $15 million for a new venture fund, named Founder Capital. This development, which has been revealed in a recent regulatory filing, marks a significant milestone for the Silicon Valley-based accelerator, which first opened its doors in 2009 and has since spread to over 100 countries.

Wearable tech startup UNA Watch has secured more than £300,000 investment from the backer of some of the UK’s most exciting consumer brands as it prepares to take on industry giants Apple and Garmin with the world’s first repairable modular GPS sports watch.

MISSION – a natural energy drink and performance tea company – has announced it has successfully extended its equity fundraising round to  £2 million, inclusive of investment from F1 driver Pierre Gasly.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, there’s still a lot of progress to be made in closing the female investment gap. Despite one in five startups having a female founder, by the time you get to venture funding, a shocking 2% goes to all-women founded teams. According to the latest Virgin StartUp Founder Barometer, over a fifth (22%) of women shared that the biggest challenges when it comes to running their own business today is access to funding.

The European Commission (EC)’s CLIMOS project has partnered with global innovation network F6S to establish an AI-powered early warning system for outbreaks of tropical diseases in Europe. CLIMOS (Climate Monitoring and Decision Support Framework for Sand Fly-borne Diseases Detection and Mitigation) seeks to reduce model uncertainties for better prognosis of the current and potential spread of Sand Fly-Borne Diseases (SFBD). This, in turn, provides socio-economic and risk assessments for a diversity of stakeholders.

In recent years, the global fintech revolution has not slowed down, especially in Europe and the UK. The advent of PSD3 (Payments Services Directive), other tenants of fintech regulation and innovation have almost guaranteed expansion in the sector, and we can trace more than $2.26 trillion of the cumulative value of fintechs across the world from Europe.

HackerPulse, a platform that gives technical leaders advanced visibility into engineering team performance, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. The round was led by AltaIR Capital, with participation from Antler, DVC Fund and angel investors including 15 engineering leaders from Uber, Cloudflare, Deel, SpaceX, Google. The company equips engineering leaders with ML-powered tools to identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and optimise team structures.

Whisper, an AI-driven sales and behavioural cloning technology for content creators, has raised $1 million in a recent funding round led by investors, including AngelList Early Stage Quant Fund and a consortium of high-net-worth content creators. Content creators make up the largest shareholder group, reinforcing Whisper’s mission to develop AI-powered sales tools designed specifically to serve their needs.

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.