DSW Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of DSW Capital, has led a pre-seed investment into TheNextLevel, a Manchester-based innovator redefining mobile commerce through community engagement. TheNextLevel is pioneering "Community Commerce", allowing online brands to leverage the power of social commerce without being reliant on Big Tech.

Richard Hong, the cofounder of e-commerce personal care brand owner, Pangaea Holdings, and technology and logistics platform, OpenBorder, also contributed to the round. Elizabeth Gooch MBE, a prominent non-executive and angel investor, has joined the board as Chair.

Anaphite, which specialises in production technology for battery electrodes, has raised a $13.7 million (£10.4 million) Series A round. The funding was co-led by World Fund, Europe's leading climate VC, and Maniv, a global early-stage VC investing in the decarbonisation of transportation and digitisation of its value chains. A cohort of top climate investors also joined, including EEI and Nesta, with further participation from existing investors Bristol Private Equity Club, Elbow Beach Capital and Wealth Club.

Morphose Capital Partners has completed a further angel funding round for ‘EdTech’ Sherpa.  Launched in 2020, Sherpa Online provides high-quality, interactive online tutoring for learners of all levels, today offering access to over 3500 experienced tutors and having hosted in excess of 82,000 lessons in the last academic year (Sept 23-Sept 24).

USA: Platformatic, the cloud-native Node.js application platform, raises $4.3 million in its latest seed funding led by Rialto Ventures, with participation from existing investors Decibel and Panache Ventures.

The company completed an initial funding round in June 2023, which included a considerable number of angels including GitHub founder Tom Preston-Werner, Socket founder and CEO Feross Aboukhadijeh, major Node.js contributor James Snell, Tier.run founder Jevon MacDonald, notable Silicon Valley investor Walter Kortschak, and serial entrepreneur and investor Omri Barzilay.

This round brings Platformatic's total funding to $7.8 million.

Crowdcube founder Darren Westlake and co-founder Paul Rose have raised £150,000 from 230 retail investors, along with four angel investors who ‘cornerstoned' the round, for Disco, a new startup. The funding will help them expand their team and add more features for users to enjoy.

Compliance-AI startup Falco has been announced as the winner of the South East Angels Kent roadshow.

Founders, investors, and key stakeholders from the Kent startup ecosystem came together in August 2024 for the startup event as part of the Startup Roadshow 2024 series. These events, hosted by South East

Morphose Capital Partners, a London-based firm specialising in mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, and finance, has completed an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round for Hospitaliti, an innovative social platform designed to connect the global hospitality industry. 

Optalitix, the specialist finance software provider, has raised US$3million of follow-on funding, led by existing investor Calculus Capital, with participation from 24 Haymarket and others. The latest successful funding brings the total capital raised by the company to US$8m.

The funding proceeds will be used to further accelerate product innovation and support the execution of Optalitix’s ambitious expansion plans.

MILAN: HR tech startup Skillvue has announced a $2.8m funding round for its AI platform to boost better talent allocation, higher capability to anticipate job market shirts and increaseretention of high-performers.

MONTRÉAL: Workstaff, a Montreal-based provider of workforce management tools for businesses that manage temporary and flexible staff, has closed $1.6M CAD in seed financing.

The round closed in the second quarter of 2024 and included investments from Impulsion PME, a Gouvernement du Québec program managed by Investissement Québec, and Anges Québec. This new investment will enable Workstaff to continue expanding into global markets and enhance its already robust product offering that helps companies easily find, schedule, and manage temporary and flexible staff.

Shuffle, a start-up hospitality investment platform, is committed to investing an initial £2.5 million into Manchester’s hospitality industry to fuel the continued growth of some of the city's most successful businesses.

Sofia, Bulgaria: Nasekomo, the leading biotech innovator dedicated to advancing the insect industry, has announced an upgrade to its neonate delivery service for Hermetia illucens (black soldier fly, BSF) newborn larvae. This enhancement introduces a groundbreaking suspension technology, significantly improving the efficiency and reliability of insect-based protein production.