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.

Naturbeads, a startup company founded by University of Bath researchers, has received new funding to build a new factory to increase production of its plant-based alternative to microplastic beads.

The company has developed innovative biodegradable cellulose ‘microspheres', which will replace microplastics in a range of consumer and industrial products.

It received £7.8 million in its latest funding round, from investors including Eos Advisory, Progress Tech Transfer and CDP Venture Capital.

MintNeuro, a pioneer of scalable, low-power semiconductor technology for minimally-invasive neural implant applications, has raised £1 million in a funding round led by Empirical Ventures. Additional investment came from Parkwalk Advisors (through the Imperial College Enterprise Fund), Imperial College London, Plug & Play, Excellis Holding, and several prominent angel investors.

Research Grid, the AI startup that helps medical research institutions automate back-office admin for clinical trials, has raised a $6.5m seed round. The company will use the new funding to double down on its mission of making clinical trials faster and more successful.