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.

With the FemTech market set to be worth $1trillion by 2027 (McKinsey & Company), impulse, the University of Cambridge's unique entrepreneurship programme, has seen a sharp rise in the number of participants contributing novel innovations to this exciting sector.

ITALY: Inventio.ai has closed a pre-seed round of €555,000 led by the business angels of the Club degli Investitori through Simon Fiduciaria SpA, with co-investment from CDP Venture Capital SGR (via the Acceleratori fund) and Plug and Play Tech Center through the Motor Valley Accelerator, the mobility accelerator of the CDP National Network.

Carlo Tassi, president of Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), was awarded the prestigious Business Angel of the Year 2024 prize, conferred during the Italian Tech Week, one of the most important events in the innovation landscape in Italy, held in Turin. The prize, promoted by the Club degli Investitori, is aimed at recognizing the exceptional contribution of individual investors in supporting the growth and development of high-potential innovative startups. A fundamental recognition for those who, with their commitment, capital and know-how, support the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem.

NETHERLANDS: Plumery, a digital banking experience platform for true customer-centric banking, has announced it has secured $3.3M in additional funding from early-stage investor DN Capital and funds managed by leading global VC firm QED Investors, alongside others, including business angels. The latest round brings Plumery’s total funding to date to USD 7.8M and is in preparation for a larger Series A round in 2025.

Revolution-ZERO has secured £1 million equity from the South West Investment Fund via appointed fund manager, The FSE Group. The initial £1.6 million round, which includes funding from private angels, will help create 20 new jobs while supporting the overall growth of the business, which is based in Truro in Cornwall.

Founded in 2020, Revolution-ZERO is a medical textile solutions provider, with a strong emphasis on environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Initially focused on reusable masks, the company has since expanded to include surgical textile solutions and decontamination/sterilisation units equipped with an RFID tracking system.

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).

Playfair's Female Founder Office Hours (FFOH) event, which aims to tackle the gender funding gap, launched its 12th Edition this week.

on 7th November 2024, Playfair and 200 of the world’s leading venture capital funds will be holding remote office hours for more than 300 female founders from across Europe.

Funds participating include Balderton, Cherry, LocalGlobe, MMC, Northzone, Notion, Plug & Play, Seedcamp, SpeedInvest, and Target Global.

Paris: Phacet, a pioneer in personalised artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has raised a seed round of €4 million.

The French startup has received backing from 148 business angels from sectors including tech, finance, insurance, data and retail. The investors include Thibaud Elzière (Hexa), Des Traynor (Intercom), Florian Douetteau (Dataiku), Philippe Corrot (Mirakl), Rodolphe Ardant (Spendesk), Damien Marc (JPB Système) and Guillaume Moubèche (Lempire).

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.

Last week, investors from 48 venture capital firms from the UK and Ireland ascended on Belfast for Catalyst’s annual Inbound Investors event.

Held in the new state-of-the-art Ulster University campus in Belfast city centre on Thursday 12 September 2024, Inbound Investors connected high-growth potential Northern Ireland companies with relevant investors through pre-matched meetings, tailored to each participating company.

Organised by Catalyst and supported by headline partner, British Business Bank, Inbound Investors gave 50 fast growing Northern Ireland start-up and scale-up companies the opportunity to meet and pitch to 48 investors, discussing investments of up to £10m+.

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.