The British Business Bank has made the first investment under its new co-investment strategy as part of its £285m Regional Angels Programme to Wales-based Space Forge, a company that utilises the space environment to manufacture advanced semiconductor materials for critical infrastructure, ensuring more powerful and resilient capabilities across telecommunications, aerospace, and quantum. Space Forge's £22.6m series A round was led by NATO Innovation Fund.

A new report from one of the UK's most prolific VC firms, Fuel Ventures, has revealed fresh insights into the thousands of startup pitches they receive each year after ten years in business. Now averaging around 6,000 incoming pitches a year-equivalent to one every 88 minutes-Fuel Ventures has taken a deep dive into a decade's worth of data to share what these pitches say about the current state of entrepreneurship.

Everybody Counts, the UK-based EdTech social enterprise delivering inclusive, AI-powered maths education, has raised £500,000 in the latest phase of its £1.9 million seed funding round. The investment, led by Fuel Ventures with support from industry angels, will accelerate the global rollout of its personalised learning platform designed to close the maths attainment gap for all learners.

Ulla Technology Ltd. has secured £500,000 to unveil Ulla, an AI-powered assistant designed to revolutionise meeting management. The innovative tool transforms how businesses in law, government, accounting, and corporate services manage meetings, enhancing productivity while prioritising data security with a privacy-first approach.

Bristol-based renewable energy company Cepro has raised £335,000 angel investment to accelerate its mission to decarbonise and decentralise home energy and shake up the energy industry in the process.

Green Angel Ventures has made a follow-on investment in PES Technologies, which has just closed a £1.3m pre-Series A funding round. The round was led by TSP Ventures, with participation from Green Angel Ventures, Kero Development Partners, and Moorhampton Investments Limited.

Carbon Cell, a materials innovation company, has raised £1.2m in a pre-seed round to scale its novel, plastic-free foam made from biochar and natural polymers. This round was led by Green Angel Ventures and Counteract, with participation from HERmesa, RCA Design and Innovation S/EIS Fund, and One Planet Capital.

At the core of Carbon Cell's solution is biochar, a carbon-rich material made from agricultural waste that would otherwise be burned or left to decompose. Combined with natural polymers, this creates a high-performance, fully compostable foam that not only avoids plastics and petrochemicals but also boasts a negative carbon footprint because of the carbon captured within the biochar used to make the material.

Tended, the company behind a wearable safety solution, which helps to improve the safety of railway staff and prevent avoidable incidents, has raised £2m from Praetura Ventures and Blackfinch Ventures, as it aims to expand into new sectors and global markets.

Lincoln-based Tended has created an innovative geospatial positioning device to alert rail workers when they exit designated safe zones, allowing them to maintain a safe distance from onsite hazards, such as open lines and in-use heavy machinery.

Oxford Innovation Finance's EIS Growth Fund and OION Angel Network have invested in Gardin, the first real-time, remote and autonomous crop phenotyping SaaS platform, alongside LDV Capital, MMC, Navus Ventures and other investors.

Loxa, a UK-based Insurtech firm focused on revolutionising product protection, has successfully raised £125,000 through Angel Investment Network (AIN) as part of a £1.69 million Seed Round.

MindSpire, the neurotech start-up dedicated to helping people regulate stress and unlock peak performance, has raised £850,000 in pre-seed funding. This investment will support the launch of MindSpire's first device: SONA^TM, a medical-grade wearable that delivers precision-coded electrical pulses to the vagus nerve, activating brain circuits for calm, focus and enhanced learning.

The round was led by SFC Capital, with participation from SyndicateRoom and non-dilutive innovation funding secured via Innovate UK's Investor Partnership Programme. The £850,000 investment will enable MindSpire, based at the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE), to complete the development and launch of SONA^TM.

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.

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