Solena Materials, a biomaterials company developing novel protein fibres for high-performance, intrinsically sustainable clothing, has secured $6.7 million in investment in a seed funding round backed by Sir David Harding, SynBioVen and Insempra.

Using artificia

Following initial investment in 2022, Clothes Doctor, leader in premium eco-friendly laundry care products, has secured a £500,000 follow-on equity from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF). The funding comes via appointed Fund Manager, The FSE Group, as part of a £1 million round that includes funding from private investors.

The investment aims to fuel the company's global expansion and further its commitment to sustainable innovation, creating several new jobs across the business.

Hampshire based startup, Zeus Sleep, has secured a £150,000 investment from British Design Fund to help accelerate the development of its groundbreaking solutions designed to alleviate the symptoms of snoring and sleep apnoea.

Platter, a UK-based all-in-one wholesale food platform connecting buyers and sellers, has just raised a £350,000 pre-seed round. By consolidating all food ordering, sales and purchasing tools within one digital platform, Platter is tackling food sourcing inefficiencies for the 3 in 4 businesses that still manage their food orders offline.

Simpli, an insurtech startup building AI agents for the insurance industry, has closed a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by SFC Capital, with participation from a select group of strategic angel investors.

A new intelligence-led startup, AVIEL Intelligence, has emerged from stealth with an ambitious mission: to stop financial scams before they happen. Founded by ex-Google operators, the former UK director of what3words, and leading intelligence experts, AVIEL Intelligence has secured a £350,000 pre-seed investment round led by Fuel Ventures, one of the UK's leading early-stage venture capital firms. The round also includes backing from Cambridge Angels and a range of other angel investors including respected experts across the cybersecurity industry.

Trusted, a UK-based technology startup transforming how B2B enterprises harness customer advocacy, has closed a £1 million pre-seed funding round led by Fuel Ventures. The investment will accelerate the development of Trusted's platform, which empowers businesses to convert their happiest customers into their most powerful growth engine.

Etiq AI, a female-founded AI-startup based in London, has raised €900,000 in seed funding led by GapMinder VC, following previous grant funding of £1million from InnovateUK, and will be used to scale its newly launched "Data Science Copilot", a platform designed to radically accelerate debugging and testing for machine learning models.

Jake Fox of South East Angels looks at how better collaboration and openness could improve the angel investing market in the UK.

Inicio AI, a Coventry-based FinTech company, has secured £2.6M in seed funding to transform how organisations assess affordability for customers, including for those in financial difficulty. This investment follows their recent victory in the OneToWin pitch competition at Birmingham Tech Week.

The funding round includes a £500,000 investment from the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund (WMCO), managed by Midven, part of Future Planet Capital, alongside £500,000 from Rigby Group PLC, £300,000 fron Haatch Ventures, and further investment from Morgan Stanley, Angel Academe, Mint Ventures and individual angel investors.

The British Business Bank has committed £7 million to a new platform enabling it to invest alongside five of the UK's promising and emerging angel syndicates. The platform will be managed by Haatch, an existing partner of the Bank.

Green Angel Ventures has invested in Arda Biomaterials, a chemistry technology company creating high-performance materials from industrial food waste.

Arda has raised £4.05M in its latest round, led by Oyster Bay Venture Capital, alongside Green Angel Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, and Kadmos Capital. The new funding will enable Arda to make advancements in the R&D of its first product, New Grain^TM, a plant-based, plastic-free, leather-like material derived from spent grain, the byproduct of beer and whisky production.