Aura Funerals, the digital end-of-life planning and funeral service, has announced a successful £750,000 funding round through Angel Investment Network, the world's largest online angel investment platform. This marks Aura's third successful raise through the network. The funds were raised as part of a larger £3.2m growth funding round.

Fuel Ventures has invested £2 million in Prosper, a wealth management platform targeting high net worth individuals that is shaking up the way wealth is managed by unlocking access to private markets and leveraging AI.

The investment round which totalled £4 million was led by Fuel Ventures and included participation from existing investors, including England cricket captains Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, Olympians Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Dame Sarah Storey and Tim Pidcock, and footballers Ben White and Serge Gnabry. They are among 60 professional athletes who invested through The Players Fund, a VC firm that also took part in the round. Liverpool footballer Cody Gakpo invested directly.

Financial services AI platofrm Serene has successfully raised £930,000 in pre-seed funding to improve how financial services detect and support customers in vulnerable circumstances. The round was led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from NatWest Group, Oxford Seed Fund, and a group of industry-specific angel investors with deep sector expertise.

Investa, a stocks and options trading app founded by ex-Citi Options brokers and the co-founder of Freetrade, has built the UK's first zero-commission listed options trading app for on-the-go traders.  

Investa aims to level the playing field by providing an accessible means of trading both stocks and options. After launching their first crowdfunding campaign on 25th September, they have closed the oversubscribed round early due to demand.

NETHERLANDS: Plumery, a digital banking experience platform for true customer-centric banking, has announced it has secured $3.3M in additional funding from early-stage investor DN Capital and funds managed by leading global VC firm QED Investors, alongside others, including business angels. The latest round brings Plumery’s total funding to date to USD 7.8M and is in preparation for a larger Series A round in 2025.

Challenger Credit Reference Agency, Infact has raised a £4 million seed funding round after securing FCA authorisation to establish the first real-time credit bureau for the digital financial services market.  

The funding was led by AlbionVC, with participation from 13books Capital, Outward VC, Form Ventures, and Portfolio Ventures. Infact is also backed by leading angel investors in the credit referencing, lending, and fintech space. This investment will be used to accelerate building the richer bureau database and to extend the product suite to help challenger lenders and banks reset the scales when it comes to credit. 

Qardy, the first digital lending marketplace in Egypt and the MENA region for financial institutions to fund MSMEs, has successfully secured a $ 7-figure pre-seed round of investment, with participation from White Field Ventures and Vastly Valuable Ventures among other Angel Investors.

Investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital have acquired a stake in UK headquartered payments business Sokin, marking an exciting new chapter for the fast-expanding fintech firm. The acquisition will provide significant capital and accelerate its product growth plans and further global expansion.

DENMARK: Copenhagen-based fintech startup, ZTLment, has made waves as the first in Europe to pioneer compliant wallet infrastructure on decentralised rails for ordering- and booking platforms. Having raised €2.4 million in total pre-seed funding from investors PreSeed Ventures, Upfin, Giant Ventures, and strong business angels, ZTLment aims to eliminate the need for outdated banking infrastructures once and for all and make it easy to make programmable and peer-to-peer payments.

Firenze, a Manchester-based fintech has raised £750K at a valuation of £3.75 million in a pre-seed angel round. The investment will be used to accelerate its mission to democratise access to Lombard lending. It will allow Firenze to continue its team growth and start onboarding the first wealth managers and platforms.

Fundpath, the critical data and business intelligence service for the wealth and asset management industry, has copmpleted a £2 million funding round with its venture capital partner, Fuel Ventures. This second round of funding follows a £4m investment made in March 2023.

Investment and pension provider Prosper is establishing a back office at Capital Quarter in Cardiff following an investment of £520,000 from the Development Bank of Wales and a syndicate of 11 business angels.