Loopster, the online platform which closes the loop between the use and reuse of second-hand clothes, has secured a six-figure seed equity funding round led by the Development Bank of Wales.

Investing alongside the Development Bank is business angel Jim Lewcock, who owns the internet-focused venture capital Blue14, and experienced non-executive director and angel investor Kate Methuen-Ley. The funding will help Loopster to further develop and commercialise their technology, enabling their platform to catalogue second-hand clothes faster. The Newport-based company will also use the funding to recruit six members of staff. This process is currently underway.

Recruitment platform Tempo has secured £5 million in a Series A funding round led by the Adecco Group, a Fortune Global 500 company and leading HR solutions partner.

Tempo’s end-to-end platform uses technology to simplify the recruitment process, with machine learning used to match job seekers to potential employers and video interviews used for screening.  Businesses using Tempo are able to cut their recruitment costs by 65%, while reducing the hiring process to a matter of days rather than weeks. 

Foresight Group's Nick Mettyear, an Investment Manager responsible for the £100 million Foresight East of England Fund, has been appointed to the delivery board of the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor.

The Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor is one of Europe’s most exciting growth opportunities, home to the people and businesses tackling the grand challenges facing humanity and shaping the future of food, energy, medicine and mobility.

A venture backed Cambridge startup, Better Origin, has launched the X1, the world’s first ever insect mini-farm to convert local waste into high-quality animal feed in the form of insect larvae, which can then be fed to livestock, improving welfare, productivity and yield. They are solving both the global food waste crisis and producing better quality food for consumers.

British Patient Capital comments on the British Business Bank’s Small Business Equity Trackerwhich reveals UK VCs currently have a record amount of dry powder ready to deploy.

The £3.5m SHAKE Climate Change Programme has announced its first three investments.

Energy from manure, tools for smarter pest management and a yield boosting nanotech are the ideas behind three early stage companies selected by the unique fund.

SHAKE funds and trains entrepreneurs and start-ups who have innovative solutions to tackle climate change linked to the agri-food sector, which contributes more than a quarter of global emissions.

Reactec, the Edinburgh-based tech company that recently launched its innovative SAFE-DISTANCE device to enable social distancing among workers, has completed a further £700,000 round of fundraising for the ongoing development of its innovative personal monitoring equipment and reporting technology.

The funding round was led by leading business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, with co-funding from Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.  The funding round included £103,000 of investment from Reactec’s board, management and staff. 

Stained Glass artists Cariad Glass have seen a boost in online sales during lockdown after developing a fun make at home glass mosaic kit to give crafty customers a creative fix. The Llandysul business received a micro loan from the Development Bank of Wales to support their growth plans and give them working capital shortly before lockdown.

Oxford Capital portfolio company, Cambridge-based UltraSoc Technologies Ltd, has signed an agreement to be acquired by Siemens. UltraSoc, a provider of instrumentation and analytics solutions that puts intelligent monitoring, cybersecurity and functional safety capabilities into the core hardware of systems-on-chip (SoC). Siemens will integrate UltraSoc’s technology into the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio as part of Mentor’s Tessent™ product suite.

Epipole, the video retinal imaging specialist, has secured £1.5 million in new funding to prepare for introduction into the United States ophthalmic imaging market. The financing was led by new investor Greenwood Way Capital with the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, also participating. Epipole also appointed Ian Stevens as Chairman.

Equity investment in the UK’s tech businesses increased by 27% in 2019 to £4.0bn, 

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, has invested in Bayfields Opticians and Audiologists.

BGF’s investment will be used to support the independent opticians and audiologists group’s organic growth – including further roll-out of its audiology services – as well as its acquisition strategy to double the number of sites over the next four years.