The record-breaking results of the 21/22 tax year were always going to be tough to trump in this year’s data. However, the figures for the tax year 22/23 indicate some green shoots of growth in key regions.

Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology, welcomes eight new companies onto the ImmexCity programme, to spearhead the adoption of immersive solutions across key sectors. The latest cohort will play a vital role in further cultivating immersive entrepreneurship in the North East, with solutions ranging from heritage conservation projects to initiatives geared towards empowering mental health.

Prova Investments has continued to grow its European portfolio of early-stage businesses operating at the forefront of cleantech, sustainability and the circular economy, by taking an equity stake in electric vehicle (EV) software company ClearWatt.

D2N2 LEP Chair Elizabeth Fagan launched D2N2 LEP’s Early Stage Angel Investment Fund at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds this week.

Speaking at the interactive panel session ‘Focus on the East Midlands, our Time is Now’, she said:

“I’m delighted to announce today that we are launching our Early Stage Angel Investment Fund here in Leeds at UKREiiF. The purpose of the Fund is to stimulate investment and growth in ‘early stage’ companies – those that have been trading between six and 24 months – that are based in Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham or Nottinghamshire (the D2N2 region).

Salar Pursuits, a Scotland-based company that has developed permeable lice and algae/jellyfish bloom shields that fit inside net pens, has been given a financial boost from a corporate angel investor.

Ada Ventures has unveiled 10 new angel investors for its inaugural European angel investing programme in Denmark.

Zero Carbon Capital (ZCC) has closed a £20 million fund to invest in European pre-seed and seed-stage companies developing transformative scientific solutions for deep decarbonisation.

The fund attracted investment from a diverse group of both institutional, corporate and individual investors, including Isomer Capital, Green Future Investments, Bunge Ventures, and Extantia Climate All-stars. This mix of investors underscores the broad support for ZCC's mission to tackle the planet's most pressing environmental challenges through science.

Northern Ireland’s independent, non-profit science and technology hub, Catalyst has announced Bank of Ireland, EY and AVEVA as the three headline partners for its Generation Innovation Work Experience Programme 2024.

Focused on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, Catalyst’s Generation Innovation is a free work experience programme for 17-18-year-olds who have an interest in becoming innovators. The programme is designed to empower, enable and upskill young people for the workplace of tomorrow by pairing them with household business names such as Bank of Ireland, EY and AVEVA.

San Diego Angel Conference (SDAC) at the University of San Diego (USD), a program in its sixth year that activates accredited angel investors and engages promising early-stage companies, has awarded two startups with angel funding for their potentially disruptive solutions.

Ecodrive took the top prize with $300,000*. Runner up Achieve Clinics was awarded $100,000* in funding.

Purple Dot, the pioneering e-commerce pre-order and waitlist platform, has closed a $10 million Series A funding round. The round was led by leading European venture capital firm, OpenOcean, to fuel Purple Dot's mission of creating a world where everything that gets made, gets sold. Purple Dot's solution is trusted by hundreds of brands, including Oh Polly, one of the UK's fastest-growing private fashion firms, Lando Norris, Goorin Bros, Astrid and Miyu, and Sachin & Babi, processing millions of dollars in transactions each month.

Sona, the next-generation, intelligent workforce management platform for frontline enterprises founded by Steffen Wulff Petersen, Oli Johnson and Ben Dixon, has rasied a $27.5M Series A. Felicis led the financing with participation from Northzone, Google's AI-fund Gradient, SpeedInvest, Antler, BAG Ventures, and numerous notable angels participated in the round. Sona has raised $40M+ to date and will use this fresh round of capital to expand its go-to-market function and build more advanced AI capabilities on its platform. In 2023 alone, Sona experienced an explosive 400%+ revenue growth. To date, over 4.6 million shifts have been created on Sona.

A syndicate of 15 female investors from Women Angels of Wales (WAW) is helping to improve recycling rates of single-use plastic with an equity investment in Deeside-based Polytag.  With the backing of Collateral Good and Knop Ventures, Polytag has now raised £2.85 million to help fund the growth of its unique, tag and trace barcode technology. The GS1 Digital Link QR Codes allow brand owners and retailers in the food and beverage sectors to track packaging from the time it’s labelled to the moment it’s scanned at recycling centres. Trials are already underway with Ocado, Co-op, Arla, Aldi and Biffa.