Scottish Enterprise’s new risk capital market report indicates that despite challenging market conditions, Scotland has retained its position as one of the UK’s top performing markets in 2023, with significant continued investment.

The winner of the Wales Technology Awards 2024, Optimise-AI has secured a significant six-figure investment led with equity of £300,000 from the Development Bank of Wales alongside £320,000 from seven angel investors and £120,000 from co-investors Carbon13.

Investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital have acquired a stake in UK headquartered payments business Sokin, marking an exciting new chapter for the fast-expanding fintech firm. The acquisition will provide significant capital and accelerate its product growth plans and further global expansion.

Global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company has acquired Aparito, the Wrexham-based med-tech business set up by Dr Elin Haf Davies and part-funded by the Development Bank of Wales who now exit with an initial return of 2.9x on their £1.2 million equity investment.

London based Permia Sensing, an agritech startup on a mission to sustainably increase productivity on palm plantations, has secured a £150,000 investment from British Design Fund.  The Imperial College London spinout is seeking to revolutionise the way palm plantations are managed, with the introduction of precision farming techniques supported by IoT, AI, sensors, and robotics. This includes helping improve yields through the use of sensors that enable the early detection of damaging pests.

Cubbit, the first geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, has closed its $12.5M funding round. With this new funding the company will enable European Service Providers and Companies to take back full independence and control over their data, infrastructures, and costs.

LegalFly, a pioneering legal AI platform, has raised over €15 million in Series A funding led by Notion Capital, with participation from redalpine and Fortino Capital. Founded one year ago, LegalFly has swiftly made its mark on the legal tech industry. This investment comes just eight months after the company’s €2 million Seed round led by redalpine, which saw early participation from industry leaders including Mehdi Ghissassi, Director of Product at Google Deepmind.

The Development Bank of Wales has led a £1.75 million round in a biotech company currently working on demonstrating a new type of drug to treat cardiovascular disease. Argonaute RNA Ltd is a biotech business developing gene-targeting drugs to treat a rare form of heart disease called severe familial cholesterolaemia (or FH).  It has long-term plans to use similar drugs to tackle common conditions.

Yond, a revolutionary travel planning app that will transform how travellers explore the world, has secured £150,000 in a pre-Seed round led by early-stage venture capital firm Jenson Funding Partners, alongside a number of angel investors. Founded in 2023 by Mark Merrywest and Emily Vinsen, the funding will be used for product development and go-to-market activities to test and validate the new social commerce concept and ensure product-market fit.

Edit Cloud, a new cloud based, AI-fuelled editing platform, has secured £2m funding to empower collaboration in the post production sector. Founded by broadcast industry insider Simon Green, Edit Cloud’s innovative, virtual editing platform is set to make waves in the production landscape. The platform aggregates cloud-based tools and AI technology to enable teams to work collaboratively and efficiently from any device, any software, anywhere in the world.

Educational Intelligence, an innovative B2B/SaaS company specializing in online adult learning, has successfully closed its seed round at £750k – significantly above its funding target. This investment will be pivotal in building their Minimum Viable Product (MVP), validating market fit, and establishing the business commercially.

Amber Therapeutics (Tx), a start-up involving the University of Oxford, has just completed a $100 million Series A funding round from healthcare and technology investors in the US and UK to develop treatment for mixed urinary incontinence.