Northern Gritstone has led a £4 million Seed extension into the Manchester digital X-ray technology company Silveray.

The University of Sussex Business Angels (USBA) group has backed a significant £1.1m fundraising round for cyber security SaaS platform, CybaVerse. USBA angels joined institutional backers including FSE Group, Haatch, Founder & Lightening in recognising the potential of the CybaVerse AI platform.

AllFocal Optics, the deeptech startup pioneering nanophotonic lens technology for always-in-focus images, has raised $5.3million funding, comprised of a $3.6million (£2.8m) equity raise, led by SpeedInvest, Innovate UK grants and business angels.

The new investment, combined with trials with Jaguar Land Rover, the addition of tech veteran Dr Ash Salusbury means AllFocal Optics is on track to be the first in the world to deliver ultra-thin lenses that recreates human vision for a better and more comfortable virtual experience.

adCAPTCHA, a new specialist security verification platform, has launched with £1m funding to tackle the ‘bots epidemic' and protect organisations against cyber fraud. The London-based company, founded by industry veteran and entrepreneur Alfie Scarborough, equips organisations with the capability to identify and block bots through its sophisticated in-house developed patent-pending human verification technology.

DSW Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of DSW Capital, has led a pre-seed investment into TheNextLevel, a Manchester-based innovator redefining mobile commerce through community engagement. TheNextLevel is pioneering "Community Commerce", allowing online brands to leverage the power of social commerce without being reliant on Big Tech.

Richard Hong, the cofounder of e-commerce personal care brand owner, Pangaea Holdings, and technology and logistics platform, OpenBorder, also contributed to the round. Elizabeth Gooch MBE, a prominent non-executive and angel investor, has joined the board as Chair.

Anaphite, which specialises in production technology for battery electrodes, has raised a $13.7 million (£10.4 million) Series A round. The funding was co-led by World Fund, Europe's leading climate VC, and Maniv, a global early-stage VC investing in the decarbonisation of transportation and digitisation of its value chains. A cohort of top climate investors also joined, including EEI and Nesta, with further participation from existing investors Bristol Private Equity Club, Elbow Beach Capital and Wealth Club.

Morphose Capital Partners has completed a further angel funding round for ‘EdTech’ Sherpa.  Launched in 2020, Sherpa Online provides high-quality, interactive online tutoring for learners of all levels, today offering access to over 3500 experienced tutors and having hosted in excess of 82,000 lessons in the last academic year (Sept 23-Sept 24).

USA: Platformatic, the cloud-native Node.js application platform, raises $4.3 million in its latest seed funding led by Rialto Ventures, with participation from existing investors Decibel and Panache Ventures.

The company completed an initial funding round in June 2023, which included a considerable number of angels including GitHub founder Tom Preston-Werner, Socket founder and CEO Feross Aboukhadijeh, major Node.js contributor James Snell, Tier.run founder Jevon MacDonald, notable Silicon Valley investor Walter Kortschak, and serial entrepreneur and investor Omri Barzilay.

This round brings Platformatic's total funding to $7.8 million.

Crowdcube founder Darren Westlake and co-founder Paul Rose have raised £150,000 from 230 retail investors, along with four angel investors who ‘cornerstoned' the round, for Disco, a new startup. The funding will help them expand their team and add more features for users to enjoy.

Compliance-AI startup Falco has been announced as the winner of the South East Angels Kent roadshow.

Founders, investors, and key stakeholders from the Kent startup ecosystem came together in August 2024 for the startup event as part of the Startup Roadshow 2024 series. These events, hosted by South East

Morphose Capital Partners, a London-based firm specialising in mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, and finance, has completed an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round for Hospitaliti, an innovative social platform designed to connect the global hospitality industry. 

Optalitix, the specialist finance software provider, has raised US$3million of follow-on funding, led by existing investor Calculus Capital, with participation from 24 Haymarket and others. The latest successful funding brings the total capital raised by the company to US$8m.

The funding proceeds will be used to further accelerate product innovation and support the execution of Optalitix’s ambitious expansion plans.