DUBAI: Gingo Partners, an Investor Outreach Service and Startup Community, has completed its fundraising campaign, securing $350k in capital from a group of business angels. 

Veremark, a global background screening company, has secured $3 million in a Pre-Series B round led by Samaipata and Stage 2 Capital and including participation from ACF Investors and Vulpes Investment. The investment will be used to support Veremark’s continued client acquisition and further develop its screening technology.

The need for more compliant hiring has become a global requirement, with background screening alone equating to a  $8bn global market in desperate need of innovation.  Veremark provides a global background screening service that helps companies run checks on prospective employees, business partners, limited partners and founders — therefore reducing the risk of hiring or working with underqualified or legally unsuitable people. 

Manchester-based The Insights Family, a global leader in kids, parents, and family market intelligence, has announced a significant £5.6 million investment round led by BGF – one of the largest and most experienced growth capital investors in the UK and Ireland.

BGF has invested £5 million in the business, with additional participation from DSW Ventures, – the venture capital arm of Dow Schofield Watts, marking a pivotal step for The Insights Family.

The Development Bank of Wales and a syndicate of nine business angels are backing Academii, a Cardiff start-up with an equity investment of £370,000 that will help transform workplace training.

Panoramic Growth Equity and Maven Capital Partners, through its professional client investment platform, Maven Investor Partners, have backed the management buyout of Glasgow-based distribution and logistics specialist Bullet Express.

The transaction includes a multi-million pound investment from Panoramic and Maven, alongside the existing Bullet shareholders, David McCutcheon, Gary Smith and John McKail. The transaction was introduced by Emerald Capital Partners, who also invested in the deal via Maven Investor Partners.

The Development Bank of Wales has completed a further  six figure investment in Reel Label Solutions 

USA: Eze, a wholesale marketplace for used and new electronics, has secured $3.7 million in seed funding to develop its technology infrastructure, broaden its product offering and expand into new markets in Africa, Europe and South America. The funding round was led by Right Side Capital Management, with participation from C2 Ventures, Boro Capital, EVPI Investments and other angel investors.

Tesel, a platform created to simplify the process of ESG assessments for buyers and suppliers throughout the supply chain, has raised £320,000 in a pre-Seed round led by early-stage focused venture capital firm Jenson Funding Partners and angel investors. The investment will fund further product development, commercialisation and expansion of its highly experienced team ahead of its next phase of growth.

London-based startup Spotted Zebra has secured USD1.8m in seed funding in a round led by Playfair Capital, with participation from Entrepreneur First. The company is helping solve the skills-gap crisis by powering the shift to skills-based organisations, a rapidly growing trend amongst the world's largest employers.

Wealth Club has led a £4.5 million investment round raising £2.35 million, or 52% of the total raise, under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) for Fabacus, a Software as a service (SaaS) platform for the licensing industry. 

ITALY: The close of a fundraising round of over EUR 10 million for UNGUESS, Italy's leading innovative crowdsourcing platform, has been announced. The lead investor is Fondo Italiano d'Investimento SGR, through the Fondo Italiano Tecnologia e Crescita – "FITEC". In addition to FITEC, investors who supported UNGUESS in previous rounds participated in the capital increase: P101 SGR with its two funds Programma 103 and ITA500, managed on behalf of Azimut, Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), Club degli Investitori and Club Italia Investimenti 2.

Netherlands: Vev, a company founded by former Apple employees, has raised €5m from Notion Capital and Point Nine Capital and a number of angel investors. Vev helps aspiring entrepreneurs to launch a business by providing its users with a ready-made and industry-specific software and payments track. Using Vev, founders can choose to launch one of over 100 business-types -- ranging from restaurateur to dog walker -- and Vev’s platform provides them with all the tools they need to start trading.