Tonic Health, a natural healthcare company that combines all-in-one vitamins, minerals and plants into a drink that fuels the immune system to help end unnecessary illness, has received investment from Henley Business Angels as part of a £463,000.funding round.

Judith Hartley, CEO of British Patient Capital, comments on the need for more diversity within the UK venture capital and angel investment industry.

Investment in Northern Ireland tech firms reached its highest level ever in 2021, hitting over £100m, with the number of deals and average deal size also topping all previous figures, according to new data published by Catalyst.

The annual NI Deal Tracker report revealed that £100.7m was invested across 66 deals in locally based innovation companies in 2021, a 127% rise in the value of transactions completed the previous year.

Angel Academe has made a significant follow-on investment in Provenance, the leading tech platform to tackle greenwashing as part of its $5 million fund raising.

21 of its angel investors participated (16 of them female), investing alongside Working Capital Fund, Digital Currency Group, Nordic Eye Venture Capital, The Brandtech Group, WakeUp Capital and The Index Project.

An award-winning entrepreneur has raised a further £1.3m for her software platform which helps companies manage complex rebate and price incentive schemes.

It is the third funding round for e-bate founder Leanne Bonner-Cooke MBE, and comes from the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, Mercia’s EIS Funds, and angel investors.

WellFish Diagnostics, a new spinout company from the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) is set to transform health diagnostic practices in the £245 billion global aquaculture sector.

WellFish Diagnostics has developed the first non-lethal method for assessing fish health and will benefit from a £1.2 million investment from the University, Kelvin Capital and Scottish Enterprise.

Just three months after its pre-seed round, an impressive group of Europe’s leading food tech entrepreneurs, startup founders and investors have joined Berlin food tech company, Perfeggt. 

Green Angel Syndicate, the UK's largest network of specialist investors fighting climate change, has led a £1.9 million funding round in startup Sphera.

"Natasha and her team really impressed our specialist Green Angel Syndicate members, right from the very first meeting" says GAS CEO Cam Ross. "The Sphera approach to decarbonising such a mainstream component of global building materials is very compelling, hence our substantial investment."

Fast growing Edtech startup Vygo has raised £1.5m in a pre-seed funding round supported by Angel Investment Network, the world’s largest online angel investment platform. Vygo is a Saas platform reinventing the conventional social support ecosystem in higher education.

Offering personalised support services beyond the physical campus, the business already works with a third of Australian Universities and is rapidly growing in the UK. The raise will help it expand in the UK and Europe and fuel its ambition to build borderless social education for every student.

Fox Robotics, an agritech company specialising in the development, manufacture and sale of autonomous robots in agriculture, has received investment from multiple members of Henley Business Angels, contributing to a total funding round of £145,000.

Financial Crime Intelligence startup Schwarzthal Tech has raised £150,000 in a pre-seed funding round from SFC Capital, the UK’s most active seed-stage investor. Schwarzthal Tech uses AI to fight financial crime  by gathering publicly available information and building an individual’s network to support investigations into potential criminals. Schwarzthal Tech will use the funds to further develop the platform, build a marketing team as well as filing for an intellectual property patent on their unique “Know your Network” methodology. 

Wave power specialists Mocean Energy have secured major new investment to accelerate the commercial roll-out of their ground-breaking wave energy technology.  The Edinburgh firm has raised £730,000 equity funding from existing funders, led by angel syndicate Equity Gap, together with Old College Capital, the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture investment fund, and Scottish Enterprise.