CorrosionRADAR, a Midlands business that has found a way to detect corrosion and prevent leaks in assets such as pipelines through a network of remote sensors, has completed a £1m funding round from the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund.

A spin-out from Cranfield University, CorrosionRADAR addresses the challenge of how to detect corrosion in pipelines and other assets where the surface is covered by insulation. The firm uses a network of sensors placed on the pipe to continuously monitor its condition and detect problem areas, along with advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to predict where faults are likely to occur. The system allows facilities managers to focus their resources most effectively and helps prevent leaks.

BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, has exited its investment in 3sun Group Ltd, a specialist provider of products and services to the global renewable energy industry. The business has been acquired by Worley Ltd, the Australian-listed supplier of project and asset services for the energy, chemicals and resources sector.  BGF first made its first investment in 3sun Group in 2014 with £10m to support the expansion of its Great Yarmouth base and advance further opportunities in the UK and northern Europe. 3sun Group was BGF’s first investment in the East of England.

Specialist eCommerce platform Online Poundshop Ltd has secured considerable investment from venture capital firm Midven, allowing the company to upgrade current warehouse systems, and create a range of new positions across the business – including marketing and distribution roles. The investment has come from the £35m West Midlands equity portion of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF).

GP Bullhound has invested $10 million in RavenPack, a leading provider of alternative data and insights for financial institutions. The company’s database, comprising over 19,000 sources spanning over 20 years, is used by financial institutions who subscribe to the platform in order to enhance performance and manage risk. RavenPack will use the proceeds to expand in Asia, as well as to go into other sectors beyond financial services.

OpenLegacy, the leader in delivering microservices-based API integration and management for core and legacy systems, has expanded into Asia Pacific/Japan and hired General Manager Joseph Wong, who has spent decades building Asian success for international technology companies.

Cybersecurity company for connected vehicles Upstream Security has announced that a prominent syndicate of investors, including some of the world’s largest OEM automotive vehicle manufacturers, insurance and fleet operators, invested $30 million in a Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total investment to date to $41 million.  The round was led by Alliance Ventures and included Volvo Group Venture Capital, Hyundai, Hyundai AutoEver, Nationwide Ventures and others. Original Upstream investors Charles River Ventures, Glilot Capital and Maniv Mobility all participated in the round.

Foresight Group has made its thirteenth investment from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund into Additive Manufacturing Technologies Limited, a developer of technology designed to unlock the potential of industrial additive manufacturing.  The investment is part of a £4.2 million round led by DSM Venturing.  Sheffield-based AMT was founded in 2017 by CEO Joseph Crabtree.  It was set up with the aim of developing industrial technologies to enable the deployment of 3D printing for mass production, especially to address the shortcomings of existing post-processing technologies.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £5.3 million funding round in E-Fundamentals, a leading eCommerce insights platform.

London and Edinburgh-based e.fundamentals is a market-leading ecommerce analytics platform that helps many of the world’s largest brand owners rigorously improve the sales and profit performance of their products on retailers’ and wholesalers’ websites. 

Speechmatics, the leader in machine learning and automatic speech recognition, has raised £6.35m in Series A funding led by AlbionVC; IQ Capital followed on in this round along with several angel investors.      

Speechmatics has built one of the most accurate speech recognition technology engines in the world. The technology is currently available in 29 languages, either in the cloud or, crucially, on-premises ­– a critical feature for businesses who do not wish or are unable to share data in the cloud. The diversity of languages and accuracy of the technology sets Speechmatics apart from other global brands in speech recognition.

Nu Quantum, a quantum photonics company, has completed a £650,000 pre-seed investment round. The over-subscribed round was led by Amadeus Capital Partners, with participation from IQ Capital, Ahren Capital, Cambridge Enterprise and Martlet Capital, the investment arm of Marshall of Cambridge Group.

Luminous Group, the Newcastle company which is one of the UK’s leading mixed reality experts, has raised over £400,000 to support the launch of a new software to reduce hygiene risks in food processing plants.

The investment round was led by the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia, and included funding from private investors. The firm is now planning to create 28 new jobs over the next three years as it expands its management and technical teams.

Process Mining software provider Minit has raised €7 million in a Series A funding round, led by Target Global, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and existing investors, Earlybird’s Digital East Fund and OTB Ventures. The funding will facilitate further product development and expansion into new markets, including the US.  Founded in 2017, Minit builds intuitive Process Mining software that gives its enterprise customers insight into complex processes - like order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, customer journey or service delivery – and more importantly how these can be improved.