Solena Materials, a biomaterials company developing novel protein fibres for high-performance, intrinsically sustainable clothing, has secured $6.7 million in investment in a seed funding round backed by Sir David Harding, SynBioVen and Insempra.

Using artificia

Materials Market, the innovative online marketplace for heavy side building materials, has raised £2 million in a funding round led by its existing backers Fuel Ventures, with participation from new investors Active Partners (whose investments include household names like Soho House and Honest Burgers) and an assortment of experienced angel investors. In addition to the new funding, Materials Market also welcomed two new directors to the board: James Mackenzie (ex MD of Travis Perkins & Toolstation with extensive experience in the digital building materials space) and Thomas Studd (former partner at Vitruvian whose portfolio experience includes two-sided marketplaces such as AnyVan, Carwow and Lalamove).

Unum has announced the completion of an over-subscribed funding round, backed by existing shareholders, including ACF Investors and Origin Capital Partners.

Conwy-based Dragon Fire Doors is scaling-up the maintenance and fitting of commercial fire doors following a £35,000 investment by the Development Bank of Wales.

Synthavo has secured a €4 million seed investment co-led by Samaipata, the pan-European venture capital fund specializing in digital businesses with network effects, and Senovo, who back European B2B software founders with US ambitions. The funding round also included participation from active business angels such as Rainer Hundsdörfer, Tobias Rieke (Market-Pilot) and Oliver Bendig.

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.

Unum Aircraft Seating, a UK-based manufacturer of business class seats, has raised £3.5m with participation from ACF Investors. The funding will be used to support research and development and to expand its sales pipeline within the airline industry. 

Dragonfly Insulation, an advanced materials manufacturer, has raised £935,000 in an investment round led by the North East Innovation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, alongside angel investors and £300,000 of grant funding from Innovate UK’s Future Economy Investor Partnership programme. 

A café operator who set out to find an alternative to single-use coffee cups has helped to develop a new re-use system that claims to be the most simple and cost-effective to date.

Alasdair Hood and his team have raised £350,000 from angel investors to launch Delete Cups. The system has already been successfully trialled in the two pop-up cafes he runs in Braintree Village, Essex - Roo and FryBaby - and the company is in talks with other potential users in the UK and Europe.

Oxford Innovation EIS Growth Fund has made a follow-on investment in the latest funding round for Interpac, who offer a sustainable and low-cost solution to the production of corrugated board.

Huddersfield based startup, Holdson, has secured a £150k investment from British Design Fund, as it gears up to disrupt the precision manufacturing market with its innovative electrochemical polishing technology.

The OnePlanetCapital Climate Change EIS fund has led a £1.7m round into the groundbreaking technology company MDFRecovery. MDF Recovery has a patented solution for the only effective industrialised process to recycle Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) at scale.