QVentures is to lead the funding round in Glean.ly, a scalable repository for user experience research and insights.

Almost all companies rely on user experience and there is a growing need for companies to produce a unique user experience. Very few companies have the tools to allow employees to easily access and understand research previously carried out in their companies which often leads to duplicating work.

Lifebit Biotech, a leading innovator in bioinformatics and cognitive software solutions, has closed its Series A funding round of US$7.5M (£6 million) led by Idinvest Partners, to fuel ongoing product innovations and global market expansion. Previous investors Pentech Ventures LLP, Beacon Capital, and Connect Ventures also participated in the round. 

Medopad has changed its name to Huma and has acquired two UK AI and wearable technology businesses, BioBeats and TLT. The rebrand and acquisitions support the company’s mission to use insights gathered by remote monitoring to help healthcare, life sciences and innovation partners understand, treat and prevent poor health. By collectively benefiting from the data people individually generate, Huma aims to give knowledge and power to individuals, while saving clinicians time, energy and valuable resources. 

Experts from the University of Birmingham’s Medical & Dental School, Health Technologies Institute, and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have designed a new piece of equipment to help prevent transmission of COVID-19 from patients to medical staff.  

Big Society Capital and Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity have partnered to fund Good Food Fund, a new Accelerator and Venture Fund which will be backing food and drink challenger SME and start-up brands to help tackle childhood obesity. Business owners are invited to apply for a cut of the £1.8m Good Food Fund to come together in the fight against childhood obesity. The prototype fund will provide business support and allocate finances to brands committed to bringing healthier children’s brands to market. The Accelerator will be run by Mission Ventures and the Venture Capital Fund will be managed by Ascension Ventures.

Gilde Healthcare has closed its $450 million venture and growth capital fund Gilde Healthcare V. The new fund, which was oversubscribed, targets growth opportunities in a broad range of healthcare sectors including digital health, medtech and therapeutics both in Europe and North America. The fund will have a special attention for private healthcare companies enabling improved care at affordable cost.

With vast swathes of the world in lockdown, the one question on everyone’s minds is how long will it take to develop a vaccine against COVID-19? The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has spoken to investment company and VCT managers about the prospects for a vaccine and how their portfolio companies are contributing to the fight against coronavirus.

Air Doctor, a technology platform providing a global medical outpatient network that connects travelers with local doctors, has raised a Series A funding round of $7.8 million from Kamet Ventures – the AXA-backed venture builder – and The Phoenix Insurance Company.

Marion Surgical, which works with surgeons from around the globe to build a next generation suite of surgical simulators through virtual reality, has received a £280,000 investment from GC Angels, part of the Growth Company and an angel investor, alongside grant funding from Innovate UK, following an introduction from MIDAS, Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency.

The Canadian company enables surgeons to learn, collaborate, practice and share procedures in a realistic, safe, cloud-hosted environment through virtual reality. The company has recently set up a UK entity based at The Landing in MediaCityUK, Salford and has plans to relocate some of the Canadian team to the region as well as hiring locally.

A new medical device supplier which aims to offer UK hospitals the latest innovations from around the world has secured a £650,000 investment fromNPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

In December 2019 Backfinch invested c.£500,000 in London-based company Auro. Founded in 2016, Auro offers a fitness app that provides its users with tailored audio-based workouts. 

AstronauTx Ltd, a biotech company developing new medicines designed to restore the normal behaviour of astrocytes for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, has received £1 million of investment from the UCL Technology Fund to enable the development of translatable biomarkers for their drug discovery programs.  The UCL Technology Fund is a £53.3million investment fund that is co-managed by UCL Business and AlbionVC that invests in licensing projects and spinout companies arising from the UCL knowledge base.