Giles AI, which supports faster, smarter, and more compliant decision-making by delivering an AI-powered tool that enhances workflows in medical research, clinical trials, regulatory affairs, public health, CRO services and healthcare academia, has raised new funds via the FounderCatalyst platform, a cost-effective and rapid fundraising solution tailored for early-stage startups.

Antler Bio, an AgriTech company transforming dairy farming with gene expression technology, has announced a $4.3 million investment to scale its world-first EpiHerd system. Operating across key European markets including the UK, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, EpiHerd provides farmers with a unique understanding of their cows' health. Using advanced data analytics, the technology interprets how a cow's genes respond to its environment, detecting stress and nutritional imbalances, and helping farmers take proactive measures that improve wellbeing and increase milk yield, ultimately boosting farm profitability.

OutSee, a genomics and drug discovery company pioneering a unique AI-based predictive genomics approach to target discovery, has secured £1.8M in seed funding, led by Ahren Innovation Capital and with additional investment from Empirical Ventures, Kadmos Capital and Panacea Investment Group. The funds will support OutSee through the next phase of its growth strategy, with a focus on expanding the Company's in-house target discovery program and establishing new strategic partnerships with leading pharma and biotech companies.

The Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade has announced that £6.6bn of new capital is being committed by the British Business Bank to boost growth, marking a major step change in financing to support smaller businesses to start and scale in the UK.

Business angels continue to be a significant source of equity investment for start up and early stage businesses with 70% of angels investing in early-stage businesses. British Business Bank's Small Business Equity Tracker, published this week, found that two-thirds (64%) of respondents to the Bank's survey of UK angel investors have matched or increased their investments from 2023 to 2024.

Sweden: Swedish deeptech company Embedl has raised €5.5 million in a pre-series A funding round from Chalmers Ventures, Fairpoint Capital, SEB Greentech, Spintop Ventures, and angel network STOAF. After spinning out from Chalmers University of Technology, and kicking off commercial operations in 2022, Embedl has helped innovative startups and some of the world's largest corporates, such as Kodiak Robotics and Bosch to optimize their products' AI inference efficiency. With the new funding, Embedl will accelerate the commercialisation and launch of its SaaS platform, the Embedl Hub.

"A dinner conversation once led me to set up Abcam, a company that later sold for $6billion," says Dr David Cleevely CBE, telecoms pioneer, deep tech investor and innovation ecosystem architect. "Now, was that just luck, or something we can understand and replicate?"

In his new book Serendipity: It Doesn't Happen by Accident, David Cleevely challenges conventional thinking around chance and innovation. He argues that, far from being the result of random good fortune, serendipity (the discovery of valuable, unexpected outcomes) can be deliberately cultivated. And, with the right environments, networks and mindset, we can all change the odds in our favour - engineering serendipity instead of waiting for it to happen.

Blocktype, the residential planning platform helping to unlock the UK's housing pipeline, has announced a new round of investment led by Fuel Ventures to support the scaling of its data-driven planning solution. The pre-seed funding will be used to accelerate growth, expand partnerships, and support local authorities and developers in tackling one of the UK's most urgent challenges: building the right homes, in the right places, at the right time.

Six companies have received investment from a new angel investor network The Clarendon Private Investor Network (CPIN) in the past 12 months, with a number of additional funding rounds due to complete in the next few weeks.

Yorkshire is positioning itself at the forefront of the UK's artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, as the newly launched Oberon Yorkshire AI EIS Fund announces plans to invest millions into the region. The fund, developed in association with Yorkshire AI Labs LLP, highlights significant investor confidence in Yorkshire's potential to become a national centre of AI innovation and economic growth.

Simplisales, the AI-powered commerce and ERP platform for wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers, has closed a $500,00 pre-seed funding round. The round was led by SFC Capital. Startup Wise Guys and Wise Angels, first believers in Simplisales' vision back in 2023, also participated-bringing the company's total funding to $500,000.

Paapi, a next-generation Ad Measurement Platform, has closed a £420,000 pre-seed funding round led by SFC Capital, the UK's most active early-stage investor. The initial round was oversubscribed by 20%.

Paapi is tackling one of adtech's biggest challenges: giving brands a clear and independent view of cross channel advertising ROI-without relying on the platforms marking their own homework. Paapi offers a cost-effective solution that connects spend to performance across channels, campaigns and creatives.