Reckitt’s London-based purpose-led venture arm, has announced a new strategic partnership between heritage clothes care brand Vanish and space-age laundry and dry-cleaning startup Oxwash. The ‘Oxwash, powered by Vanish’ partnership will see Oxwash use the new Vanish sustainable formula - Vanish 0% - in its London state of the art washing facilities, also known as lagoons, to help give old clothes a new life, preventing tonnes of clothes from ending up in landfill. 

Circular economy parenting app YoungPlanet has raised £500,000 through an “Equity for Parents” crowdfunding campaign as it looks to expand its offering following a year of seismic growth. 

YoungPlanet provides a ‘cashless’ platform based on a sharing economy model where parents can list or request a range of different children’s items; from books and clothes to toys and baby equipment. Everything on the app is always given or received for free.

New staycation holiday specialist Caledonian Leisure Ltd has secured a multi-million-pound investment from Mobeus Equity Partners, the investors behind the recent IPO of Virgin Wines and the proposed IPO of Parsley Box.

BGF has completed a £5.7 million investment in Source BMX, the world’s leading omni-channel BMX retailer. The funding will be used to grow the company’s e-commerce offering and fast-track international expansion plans.

Source BMX was founded by brothers Rich and Marc Moore in 2003 and has grown to offer the largest selection of BMX bikes, parts and accessories anywhere on the market, sold direct to consumers via its website.

Fy!, the next gen home, living and lifestyle retail platform for today’s modern shopper, has announced a £5 million funding round led by Hoxton Ventures, with additional investment from a number of angel investors. The funding will enable the team to focus on growth in international territories including the USA, Australia and the EU, and speed up the innovation of their proprietary, machine learning driven technology platform.

To support their growth ambitions, London based Taylor & Hart has secured a total of £500,000 in loan funding  from The FSE Group, via The Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF) this includes £250,000 in conjunction with the government backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Pembroke VCT, the venture capital trust focused on building the brands of tomorrow, has announced that portfolio company Boom Cycle, England’s first boutique cycling chain, has partnered with KOBOX to launch the boutique fitness ‘supergroup’ United Fitness Brands. 

The Funky Appliance Company has partnered with London based Forster Chase Ventures for a Series A funding campaign. To date, The Funky Appliance Company, founded by husband-and-wife team Joe and Sadie Sillett in June 2016, has raised all its capital on Europe’s leading equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs and counts 360 investors in over 25 countries. The company takes popular household appliances and gives them a funky twist. 

GP Bullhound has announced a follow-on investment into wallapop, Spain’s leading classifieds marketplace app for unique and second-hand goods, as part of a Series G funding round of €157 million bringing the company’s valuation to €690 million. The round is led by Korelya Capital and backed by NAVER, Korea’s leading Internet company, with existing shareholders including Accel, Insight Venture Partners, 14W and Northzone.

Reflaunt, a disruptive Resale-as-a-Service (RaaS) technology company empowering global fashion brands to embrace circularity, has announced that it has secured $2.7 million in pre-Series A funding, led by the investment arm of MadaLuxe Group, a leading worldwide distributor of luxury fashion. Participating investors include former Jimmy Choo CEO and Coty Senior Advisor Pierre Denis, Ganni founder and former CEO Nicolaj Reffstrup, Textile Innovation Fund, Piquadro, Bluebell Group and sustainable fashion accelerator Fashion For Good. The investment will enable Reflaunt to add top talent to its technology and business development teams as it executes its growth strategy and offers a variety of resale models to more leading global brands.

Additive Manufactured mountain bike company Atherton Bikes has raised £385,000 through Angel Investment Network. The Welsh business is the brainchild of world-famous mountain biker siblings Gee Atherton, Dan Atherton and Rachel Atherton who have partnered with a team of engineers from F1, aerospace and NASA to produce a world-beating mountain-bike.  The business is chaired by entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den investor Piers Linney.

LoveCrafts, a leading online crafts community, with millions of users across 140 countries worldwide, has secured an additional $22m funding and has acquired WEBS, America’s Yarn Store.  

The funding comes from existing investors including Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), Highland Europe and Balderton Capital, alongside Silicon Valley-based debt providers TriplePoint Capital, to facilitate the deal and further invest in LoveCrafts’ next chapter.

The investment and acquisition follow exceptional growth by LoveCrafts as interest in crafting surges globally. The company saw an increase in orders from new customers of  166% from March to November last year, compared with the same period the year before.