A Bristol-based technology business which manages household bills for students has received vital early-stage investment from Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC).  Easy Student Living was set up by Elliott Herrod-Taylor in 2017, during his second year at the University of Leeds.

BondAval has secured $1.64 million (£1.2 million) in seed financing led by Insurtech Gateway alongside True Sight Partners and prominent angel investors such as Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas (formerly COO of GoCardless, now Partner at Index Ventures), Yi Luo (Greensill), Chris Adelsbach, Will Neale and Charlie Songhurst.  

Quirk, a consumer fintech startup that uses unique personality testing to deliver tailored financial advice to young professionals, has raised £300,000 in pre-seed funding from SFC Capital and angel investors. Quirk will use the funding to grow its team, expand its product offering, and fuel its broader mission to build financial freedom for everyone. 

Insurtech startup Nayms has closed a £1.5m seed round led by XBTO, alongside other top investors across insurance, capital markets and crypto such as Coinbase Ventures, Maven11, the founders of Synthetix and Insurtech Gateway, who co-founded the project with CEO, Dan Roberts, from day one.  The funding will enable Nayms to continue launching larger pilot programs in preparation for a full launch later in 2021 following graduation from the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) sandbox into a full regulatory licence.

Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has agreed the sale of Broadstone, 

The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has announced that Elisabeth Scott has been voted Chair of the AIC.

The membership of the AIC has elected Sapna Shah and Mickey Morrissey to the AIC board. Former Chair Rachel Beagles and Elisabeth Scott have been re-elected. All appointments took effect following the AIC’s annual general meeting on 14 January 2021.

Award winning Digital life insurance provider DeadHappy has completed a £4.75M investment from new investors Channel 4 Ventures and Venture Founders, and follow-on investors Octopus and eVentures.

Fintech start-up Hi55 Ventures has secured the backing of a global investment firm with over $50 billion of assets under management for a unique pilot project that gives workers of investment grade companies real-time access to their pay.

Outfund, the fintech company changing the way online businesses raise funds, has closed a £37million late seed round of capital, including debt and equity. The funding round was led by Fuel Ventures and sees TMT Investments and Force Over Mass also invest in Outfund as it provides a faster, fairer and more affordable way for SMEs to raise growth capital. 

Updraft, a part lending, part credit report, and part financial planning app designed to tackle escalating consumer borrowing, has secured £16m in funding to help its member’s avoid unnecessary credit card and overdraft charges. The funding arrives in the form of equity and debt, with specialist investment firm Quilam Capital leading on the debt side, and the UK Government’s Future Fund participating via their convertible loan note alongside a group of high-net-worth investors.

Bdeo, the leading insurtech company in Spain and Latin America, has just closed a Series A round of funding worth €5 million. The fundraising was led by BlackFin, a European investment firm focused on financial services, with further support from current investors K Fund and Big Sur Ventures who invested €1 million in Bdeo’s seed round in 2019.  The new funding will help consolidate Bdeo's position in the markets where it currently operates as part of its plan to become leaders in visual intelligence in the insurance sector by 2022.

Paid has launched to help enterprises transform supplier management with its next-generation procurement platform. Paid raised £2.2m in a seed funding round led by top early-stage tech investors Crane Venture Partners, along with participation from Seedcamp, Techstars and notable angel investors, including Angel Invest Ventures’ Jens Lapinski, GoCardless and Nested Founder Matthew Robinson, Outrun Ventures founder Chris Adelsbach (in a personal capacity), and former Microsoft head of corporate strategy Charles Songhurst.