Women are starting and running new businesses at virtually the same rate as men for the first time, while one in five entrepreneurs are non-white, according to new analysis of entrepreneurship activity in Scotland.

Wealthbrite, an award-winning company whose AI-powered accelerator programmes enable businesses to build financially savvy teams has closed a pre-seed round of £200,000 from angel investors to expand into new markets.

Pioneering audio technology company Submix has closed a $1 million funding round. This investment will drive Submix's mission to enhance remote collaboration for musicians, producers, and audio professionals, fundamentally reshaping their workflow and access to global opportunities.

Tech1M, a recruitment intelligence platform, has raised $750K in pre-seed funding to revolutionise the talent acquisition landscape. 

INQDATA, a data solutions company which hails Northern Ireland as a global centre of excellence when it comes to the talent of engineers, has received £750,000 funding from the Investment Fund for Northern Ireland’s equity arm.

4D Medicine – a UK company whose innovative biomaterial has potential to be used for a wide range of 3D printed implants and surgical devices - has raised £3.4m ($4.4m) in a Series A investment.  The funding round was led by Oshen Holdings and backed by DSW Ventures, SFC Capital, Boundary Capital and private investors including several leading scientists and surgeons. It will enable the company to complete pre-clinical testing of its first product range and seek FDA clearance for entry into the US market.

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.