Qminder has secured €3 million in seed funding led by Practica Capital - its first investment in Estonia from its latest fund and Qminder's first institutional funding. The round also included Jaan Tallinn's Metaplanet, BADideas.fund syndicate, and strategic angel investors from Toggl, Veriff, Pipedrive, Wise, and Twilio.

The Invest in Women Taskforce has secured over £250 million of funding to support female entrepreneurs in the UK. This milestone exceeds the Taskforce's initial ambitious goal of creating one of the world's largest investment pools of £250 million for female-led and mixed businesses.

BGF has joined forces with other major investors, including Barclays, M&G, the British Business Bank, Morgan Stanley, the Visa Foundation and Aviva, to announce a commitment to invest in female-founded businesses across the country. Investments will either be made directly themselves or through the ‘Women backing Women' fund.

Northern Gritstone has led a £4 million seed investment in Sheffield University spinout Exciting Instruments alongside co-investors Empirical Ventures, NPIF II - Praetura Equity Finance, and serial entrepreneurs Stan Boland and Jonathan Millner.

Virtue Drinks, the UK's fastest-selling clean energy drink, has closed a £2m investment round, bringing its total funding to over £5m. This latest round includes investment from Eberechi Eze, Premier League footballer and England international, and James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog.

Eden AI has raised €3 million in its latest seed round. This funding, led by Galion.exe with participation from 50 Partners and prominent business angels like Olivier Pomel (Co-Founder of Datadog), Sébastien Pahl (Co-Founder of Docker), and Alix de Sagazan (Co-Founder of ABTasty), marks a pivotal step forward in Edenn AI's mission to revolutionize AI integration for businesses.

Chiron Health AI, a health-tech startup which provides a breakthrough model in chronic disease management, has announced the successful completion of its pre-seed funding round, led by SFC Capital. The funding will enable Chiron Health AI to accelerate the launch of its fully integrated B2B product for healthcare payers, providers and pharma, and to develop a new data-driven self-care pathway designed to sit alongside medical care.

In a vibrant display of entrepreneurial spirit, SETsquared highlighted the investment potential of university start-ups and spinouts at its Investment Futures event in London.  The event attracted a dynamic crowd of over 300 attendees, bringing together university researchers, innovators, industry experts and investors interested in capitalising on the groundbreaking companies emerging from academic research.

Bevvy.com has completed a further £1 million funding round led by Scotland's most celebrated rugby icons, including Pierre Schoeman, Duhan van Der Merwe, Hamish Watson, Ben Healy, and Magnus Bradbury.

Founded in 2021 by Laurie Black and Lucas Heron; the pioneering whisky app innovator has transformed the way whisky lovers connect, discover, and appreciate the world of whisky, attracting users from more than 70 countries. The latest ‘stretch' round also received further 6-figure backing from a notable U.S.-based investor, known for his influence in the sports and whisky investment space. Bevvy's cap table now boasts some of the biggest names in global whisky, from sporting stars through to F1 bosses and C-suite whisky executives.

Scotland's first all-female business angel syndicate, Investing Women Angels (IWA), and its sister organisation AccelerateHER have launched a new initiative designed to attract more businesswomen into angel investing - an imperative in addressing the equity gap between male and female-led companies.

Black & Beech, a Cardiff-based online sustainable fashion retailer is expanding with new ranges of ethically sourced clothing and eco-friendly accessories following an investment by the Development Bank of Wales.

Salesfire - a Middlesbrough company whose platform helps e-commerce stores to increase sales - has raised a further £2.75m from NPIF II - Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II).

Little Journey, the healthtech company transforming the delivery of paediatric care through personalised psychological support, has raised £6m in Series A funding round. Mercia Ventures invested alongside the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund I (NPIF I), Par Equity, Octopus Ventures, Calm/Storm Ventures, and angel investors.