GC Angels’ Jess Jackson has joined 28 of the North’s most high-profile female investors from Northern Investment firms and angel groups to launch a new investment collective designed to break down the barriers faced by female-led businesses when securing investment and drive the number of female investors in the North.

The British Business Bank’s UK Business Angels Market report 2020 reveals that angel investors across the UK are continuing to invest in early stage businesses and are optimistic about the future despite current economic uncertainty.

Ada Ventures has launched a new £250,000 angel investor programme – Ada’s Angels – which has been set up to help discover a new generation of angel investors, who may have otherwise been excluded from the industry.

The first ‘Ada’s Angels’ cohort has identified five candidates from the firm’s grassroots scouting community. These individuals will now receive support and mentoring, as they identify their own investment opportunities in the UK tech sector. Each investor will be able to make five investments of £10,000 over the course of the next year.

Mountain Technologies has secured investment from a group of HBAN angel investors.

Ballymena-based Mountain Technologies will use the funding to market and launch its connected ski pass system designed for ski resort operators worldwide.

Dublin start-up FoodMarble has raised €1.2M in a funding round which included HBAN business angels from the MedTech syndicate who invested alongside Enterprise Ireland, SOSV and Delta Partners. The investment will support the company's ongoing research and development, along with expansion into the US and Canada.

A Northern Ireland start-up which appeared on TV's Dragons' Den earlier this year has successfully closed a £350,000 funding round with local business angels to bring its innovative new insulated cable clip to market.

Gray's Clip, run by Lisburn-based co-founders Davy and Julie Gray, secured £250,000 of investment from a group of nine private investors through the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) and a further £100,000 from Co-Fund NI, part of Invest Northern Ireland's Access to Finance portfolio.

The Insights People, the Manchester-based company which is a global leader in kids, parents and family market intelligence, has secured a £500k investment from DSW Angels, the business angel network focused on UK regional scale-up companies.

The investment will allow The Insights People to boost its international growth and follows its expansion into Brazil, Mexico and Canada in recent months. The company expects to create around eight new jobs in Manchester in the next six months.

The Insights People surveys 200,000 children and parents a year, providing clients with valuable insights into kids' attitudes, behaviours, and consumption. Its award-winning market intelligence and portal enables users to tailor the results to their own requirements to inform their marketing strategy, identify market trends and evaluate return on investment.

HR DataHub, the HR data benchmarking platform, has raised a £1m seed round led by the Angel CoFund and backed by an angel syndicate of seasoned HR experts including Chris Bruce and Michael Whitfield, founders of the hugely successful Thomsons Online Benefits; Oliver and Ben Black, founders of My Family Care and Tinies businesses; and HR DataHub’s new Chairman, Ian Dyke. The funding will be used to further develop and scale the platform both domestically, and internationally. 

In a first phase of this funding round, Climeworks announced, in April, the successful raise of CHF 73 million (USD 75 million) in equity from private investors.  As of August 2020, Climeworks’ funding round has been completed with a total equity investment amount of CHF 100M (USD 110M) - the largest ever investment into direct air capture.

Enigma Holdings has invested £500,000 seed funding in Crowd Network, a new audio-on-demand network in Manchester. Comedian and entrepreneur John Bishop has invested alongside Enigma and will be launching a podcast with Crowd in September. Enigma is an investment company focused in the areas of Health, Wellbeing, Sport, Learning, Community Programs and Social Housing. It was seed funded through a Family Investment Company and reinvests returns into growth capital and new projects 

Sheffield-based Electric Vehicle (EV) tech start-up Mina has successfully secured significant seed investment during the lockdown period supported by investment non-profit NorthInvest, valuing the business at £2m.  Private angel investors from a range of backgrounds including Energy, EV Charging and Vehicle Lease sectors contributed to the round led by NorthInvest Angel Investor Gary Shuckford and supported by equity finance advisor, Mick Morris at Compellor.

Edtech startup BibliU has raised £500,000 as part of a Series A extension funding round, supported by Angel Investment Network, the world’s largest online angel investment platform.  London-based BibliU is a digital education platform that provides students with digital access to their textbooks and libraries across all their devices. The campaign funding round, an addition to its £6.5m Series A, was in response to a surge in demand due to COVID 19.