Northern Ireland’s independent, non-profit science and technology hub, Catalyst has announced Bank of Ireland, EY and AVEVA as the three headline partners for its Generation Innovation Work Experience Programme 2024.

Focused on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, Catalyst’s Generation Innovation is a free work experience programme for 17-18-year-olds who have an interest in becoming innovators. The programme is designed to empower, enable and upskill young people for the workplace of tomorrow by pairing them with household business names such as Bank of Ireland, EY and AVEVA.

San Diego Angel Conference (SDAC) at the University of San Diego (USD), a program in its sixth year that activates accredited angel investors and engages promising early-stage companies, has awarded two startups with angel funding for their potentially disruptive solutions.

Ecodrive took the top prize with $300,000*. Runner up Achieve Clinics was awarded $100,000* in funding.

Purple Dot, the pioneering e-commerce pre-order and waitlist platform, has closed a $10 million Series A funding round. The round was led by leading European venture capital firm, OpenOcean, to fuel Purple Dot's mission of creating a world where everything that gets made, gets sold. Purple Dot's solution is trusted by hundreds of brands, including Oh Polly, one of the UK's fastest-growing private fashion firms, Lando Norris, Goorin Bros, Astrid and Miyu, and Sachin & Babi, processing millions of dollars in transactions each month.

Sona, the next-generation, intelligent workforce management platform for frontline enterprises founded by Steffen Wulff Petersen, Oli Johnson and Ben Dixon, has rasied a $27.5M Series A. Felicis led the financing with participation from Northzone, Google's AI-fund Gradient, SpeedInvest, Antler, BAG Ventures, and numerous notable angels participated in the round. Sona has raised $40M+ to date and will use this fresh round of capital to expand its go-to-market function and build more advanced AI capabilities on its platform. In 2023 alone, Sona experienced an explosive 400%+ revenue growth. To date, over 4.6 million shifts have been created on Sona.

A syndicate of 15 female investors from Women Angels of Wales (WAW) is helping to improve recycling rates of single-use plastic with an equity investment in Deeside-based Polytag.  With the backing of Collateral Good and Knop Ventures, Polytag has now raised £2.85 million to help fund the growth of its unique, tag and trace barcode technology. The GS1 Digital Link QR Codes allow brand owners and retailers in the food and beverage sectors to track packaging from the time it’s labelled to the moment it’s scanned at recycling centres. Trials are already underway with Ocado, Co-op, Arla, Aldi and Biffa.

Carbon13, the Venture Builder for the climate emergency, has announced new investments in six ventures through its accelerator, the Venture Launchpad. Each venture has received £120,000 pre-seed investment.

Oxford Innovation Finance’s EIS Growth Fund 3 and OION Angel Network have invested in Oxford Space Systems, a deployable antenna company helping to unlock the full utility of small satellites on orbit.

The Angel Investor Summit hosted by South East Angels is set to take place in the vibrant city of Brighton on 6th June. Offering a unique platform for active angel investors and those intrigued about getting started with venture investing to come together and explore insights from some of the UK’s most prolific angel investors and innovators, the event has been curated to foster education and networking whilst emphasising a look into the future. 

Midlands-based travel demand management platform You. Smart. Thing. (YST) has secured £1.2 million in funding, from the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund (WMCO). The regional fund is managed by Midven, part of Future Planet Capital, and has invested alongside angel investors including Giles Fearnley, ex-MD at First Bus, Will Phillipson ex-COO Citymapper, Venture Innovators’ Jeremy Acklam, and green energy company, Ecotricity.

Semiconductor manufacturer Kubos is set to bring its revolutionary new compound semiconductor material to South Wales, with a £670,000 equity investment from the Development Bank of Wales.  The funding wsa part of a wider £2.2 million round from investors including Dr Drew Nelson, founder of IQE plc, Angels Invest Wales Co-Investment Fund and business angels, plus a £700,000 grant from Innovate UK.

Angel Academe has made its 50th investment in PreActiv, an innovative platform that optimises patients before surgery, using technology to create individualised prehabilitation programmes. 

Where You At ("WYA") an app which uses indoor mapping and offline bluetooth positioning to allow users to precisely locate and contact friends in spaces without connection, has raised funding from Angel Academe.