Grid Edge, a UK company whose AI-powered software helps reduce carbon emissions and energy costs in commercial buildings has raised over £2.8m from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II and Mercia Ventures, Centrica, bp Ventures and private investors.

A technology spin-out of the Alacrity Foundation has closed a significant six-figure equity investment pre-seed round led by SFC Capital, the Development Bank of Wales and a syndicate of business angels.

Ryft, a PSD2 and FCA-approved decentralised payments innovator, has successfully raised £5.7 million Series A funding for the development of technology that will empower acquiring banks, like Clearhaus, to compete with Stripe Connect, Adyen, and similar payment providers in the market. The round, which takes total investments in Ryft to £7.4 million, was led by EdenBase, with participation from GPOS Investments, British Business Bank, Pembroke VCT, Sidebyside, and Ingenii VC. The fundraising round was also joined by strategic angel investors, including executives at PayPal.

Dealstack has closed a $5.5 million seed funding round, 

nettle, an AI-powered risk assessment platform, has raised £1.45M in pre-seed funding led by Project A, alongside top angel investors from major insurers, startups, and insurance & AI leaders. With this funding, nettle is scaling out the core engineering team and bolstering a platform already cutting risk engineering turnaround times for early partners.

UK-based startup Matoha, manufacturers of AI-powered material identification scanners, have completed a first phase of Seed funding which will enable them to solve the problem of textiles sorting for recycling. The round was led by Archipelago Ventures and the Circular Plastics Accelerator with additional investment from Conduit Connect, British Design Fund, Fashion for Good and others.

Neuranics, an award-winning Scottish deep-tech semiconductor company pioneering the future of human-machine interaction, has raised $8 million in seed funding to accelerate global growth and the commercial adoption of its Tunnelling Magnetoresistance (TMR) magnetic sensing technology.

Damisa, the next-generation payments platform co-founded by fintech entrepreneur Jordan Lawrence, has announced the successful close of its £2.25 million pre-seed funding round, led by Fuel Ventures. The oversubscribed round also saw participation from investors including EWOR, Greyhound Capital, prominent investor Mark Ransford, and strategic backing from Damisa's first customer, a leading foundational company using Damisa's secure wallets to replace their existing Escrow services.

An opportunity to invest in Broski, one of the fastest growing Whisky brands of 2004, to support its continued expansion.

The buzzing Cambridge Wide Open annual event returns in June, this time as a week-long interactive festival showcasing Cambridge's pioneers, the companies of the future, and opening the offices and workspaces that make up one of the world's most vibrant ecosystems.

Lifted Ventures has backed an angel investment round for WAC, the UK's number one app designed to empower hourly-paid workers by ensuring every minute of work is accounted for. They participated in a £500,000 bridging round which is currently overfunding and due to close very soon. This follows WAC's successful £1 million pre-seed raise that they previously closed.

Returnal Ltd, a tech-driven platform enabling retailers to take ownership of their secondary markets through seamless trade-in solutions, has successfully closed a £300,000 funding round. The round was led by SFC Capital with additional backing from British Business Investments and three angel investors.