Autentica, a disruptive tech start-up has raised over £150,000 of investment – and is set to make 20 key hires by the end of 2022 – in a bid to become the ‘Amazon of the global additive manufacturing sector’ and transform the archaic spare parts industry.

The company  has developed the first blockchain-powered, AI-based digital supply chain for spare parts and – with private investors matching a £76,000 Innovate UK grant – is set to move from proof-of-concept to full launch by March 2022.

gigl, a video-based job platform on a mission to solve the UK hospitality staffing shortage, has closed a $1.5m round.

gigl’s mobile and video first platform enables employers to combine the application process, telephone screening and 1st round interview into a 60-second video. 

Salisbury-based LENA Space, an SME chemical rocket propulsion product development company, has signed up to the national SPRINT (SPace Research and Innovation Network for Technology) business support programme.

Glucose Republic (GR) has raised a £500,000 investment round from leading equity investors Deepbridge Capital and the Development Bank of Wales, to build the world’s first system focused on what  impact food has upon us.

Leading digital training solutions provider, WELL Training (WELL), has secured £625,000 funding from Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) West Midlands Equity Fund, managed by Midven, part of the Future Planet Capital Group, to drive its growth strategy in two main areas - increasing apprenticeship training capacity and expanding the use of its online digital training platform. 

Easol, the leading experience commerce platform, is announcing an investment of $25 million from Tiger Global with participation from existing investors Notion Capital, Foundation Capital, Y Combinator and FMZ Ventures led by Michael Zeisser, the former Chairman of US investments at Alibaba who is also joining the board. According to CrunchBase, this will be the fifth largest Series A fundraise of all time for a UK-based SaaS company*. 

Investment into the UK’s property technology (‘proptech’) sector has reached record levels in 2021 and more than quadrupled since last year, as the growing sector matures.

The UK based FinTech group, SPG that owns and operates Shieldpay and Paycast, has raised a $34 million dollar (£25 million pounds) Series A that includes strategic funding from Mastercard and Marqeta. Other significant Investors in SPG include Elliott Management, CreditEase and Techstars. 

Landscape, the anonymous review platform for founders to rate interactions with venture capitalists, announces the upcoming launch of OpenScout. The new scout platform will enable anybody with access to exciting startups to share these with investors through their profile and earn success fees from successful deals.

lool ventures, an early stage investor backing mission-driven Israeli-founders, has reached the $60 million first close of its third fund (lool III) targeting $100 million, which will bring the firm’s total Assets Under Management to $200 million. This news is accompanied by the recent appointment of Tony Saigh to Partner from his current role of VP Value Creation at the firm.

Philippe Thomas, CEO at Vaultinum discusses why software due diligence is such a valuable tool for private equity investors

NPIF - Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) has invested £500,000 in Advanced Bacterial Sciences Ltd, which creates, manufactures and sells biological solutions for a range of real-world pollution and maintenance problems. The funding will enable ABS to commercialise its portfolio of products, sell directly to end users, as well as invest in continuous product development, patenting future technologies and scientific advances.