British predictive analytics platform, DragonflyAI, has completed a £625,000 ($1m) seed funding round. Downing Ventures is the lead investor in the round which includes existing shareholders Capita plc and private investors. Having onboarded and retained brand giants including Diageo and Mitsubishi this year alone, the investment allows DragonflyAI to grow their team across sales and customer success in addition to further developing the research into how companies will be able to take advantage of predictive visual analytics in creative workflow.

Nozzle.ai, an eCommerce and advertising optimisation platform for Amazon, has raised $2.6 million (£2 million) in funding from Parkwalk Advisors, The Angel CoFund (ACF), UCL Technology Fund (UCLTF), and a syndicate of eCommerce-expert angel investors. The funding will accelerate the company’s growth as it attracts major international brands and agencies to its proprietary AI platform.

Translation platform TAIA, has raised a further €1.2 million in seed funding from venture capital fund Fil Rouge Capital, to expand into the United Kingdom, Europe and the USA with its revolutionary software which bridges the gap between translation agencies and Google Translate.

ilumoni, the fintech startup helping people to borrow better, save on unnecessary interest and time in paying off debts has raised $450,000 pre-seed investment backed by Move Ventures, and angel investors including Simon Moran, former CMO and now Non Executive Director, Premium Credit and Andy Deller, former CEO of Dunbar Bank plc, part of Zurich Insurance Group.

Mind Foundry, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company that spun out of the University of Oxford’s Machine Learning Research Group (MLRG), today announced it has raised an additional $13.6 million in Series A funding led by Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd (ANDI) of the MS&AD Insurance Group and includes funding from existing investors Parkwalk Advisors, Oxford Sciences Innovation, the University of Oxford, and the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund. With the new funding, the company has raised a total of $24.4 million to date. 

The University of Liverpool has formed a new spin out company - Robotiz3d Ltd – to take forward new technology that has the potential to radically transform road maintenance.  Robotiz3d Ltd is a joint venture spin out company established in partnership with A2e Ltd and will receive investment from the University’s Enterprise Investment Fund, alongside private equity investment from a2e Ltd.

Personify XP, the world’s first anonymous digital analytics and AI personalisation platform, has closed a £550,000 pre-seed round. Investors include Founders Factory, Touker Suleyman and other high-profile angels. As part of Founders Factory’s investment, its operations team across a number of core business functions are providing hands-on support to support the growth of Personify XP.

Pimloc, the visual privacy and security company, has closed £1.4M in new financing in a seed funding round led by Amadeus Capital Partners with participation from Speedinvest and existing shareholders.

Founded in 2016, Pimloc specialises in deep learning systems for security video and diverse image collections. Pimloc’s technology powers products that enable private businesses and public organisations to protect sensitive or personal visual data, to maintain safe online environments and to manage video security footage.

Tech Nation, the growth platform for tech companies and leaders, announces the 32 companies that have been selected to join the Applied AI Growth programme and reveals new data that shows the UK leads Europe for AI investment. 

AI chatbot specialists, We Build Bots, has set its sights on global growth with the announcement that international technology evangelist, Patrick Hosch, has been appointed as chief commercial officer.

Humley, a company which develops conversational assistants capable of manning helpdesks and answering technical enquiries, has raised £700,000 to help scale up its operationssecured the investment from the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), Mercia’s own EIS funds and a private investor.

The funding, which follows an earlier round by private investors, brings the total raised by Humley to £1.4m and will allow the Northampton-based company to grow its customer base and revenue ahead of a planned Series A funding round next year.

Spoon Guru, the London-based AI powered food search and discovery technology start-up, has has secured a Series A funding round with W23, the Venture Capital arm of Australia’s largest retailer, Woolworths Group. The multi-million dollar investment will be used to expand Spoon Guru’s footprint with retailers across APAC, North America and Europe, at a time when governments are putting a greater focus on the importance of food and health to boost national health.