Foresight Group has invested £249,000 in Usheru Limited, the firm behind a pioneering technology platform operating in the £50bn film distribution market.

The investment from Foresight, using finance from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, has been made alongside £224,000 from Enterprise Ireland, taking the total package to £473,000 and allowing the firm to relocate its head office to Milton Keynes. This is an important step for the business after successfully creating a technology platform to power direct ticketing and marketing data insights for film distributors.

Tech Nation, the UK network for ambitious digital tech entrepreneurs, is revealing today the 10 early-stage tech startup winners of its Rising Stars competition. Out of the 220,000 existing tech companies in the UK today, 10,764 are early-stage tech startups and eligible for the Rising Stars programme.

Draper Esprit portfolio company Trustpilot, the leading independent platform for companies to build trust with consumers, has raised $55 million in its Series E funding round.

New research from Revolution.Aero, the global meeting place for people who are reshaping, rethinking and revolutionising business and personal aviation, 

London-based veterinary tech business, Felcana, has received an early stage venture capital investment from Global Venture Partners and Seedrs. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2016 by veterinary professionals, Felcana combines artificial intelligence, data analytics and veterinary expertise to help predict, simplify and treat over 90% of health issues for dogs and cats. Felcana will use the fresh capital to expand its presence in the UK and to scale internationally.

Belfast-based ECG biometrics innovator B-Secur has closed a follow-on funding round worth £4 million, from investors, including Accelerated Digital Ventures(ADV) and Kernel Capital.

Harwell Campus, the UK’s science and innovation hub, has secured £110 million funding from Santander Corporate & Commercial to further expand the Campus, and enter its next 400,000 sq ft phase of development.  Santander has assisted with growth that will exceed 1 million sq ft in under eight years. With a total of 5.5 million sq ft planned develpment, Harwell Campus is rapidly becoming the fastest growing UK location dedicated to the science and technology sector.

Swipii, the loyalty card app, has secured investment of £1.9m via a funding round led by award-winning Scottish venture capital firm Par Equity.

The latest version of the app removes the need for physical loyalty cards by linking to a debit or credit card and rewarding users with points as they shop at businesses signed-up to Swipii. The app’s original iteration had 1.1m users and its 1,700 affiliated businesses saw up to a 1.5x revenue boost, but it relied on using iPads to track visits only.

With the backing of an equity investment package of £500,000 from the Development Bank of Wales and a further £600,000 from private investors, OpenGenius has its sights on global expansion and stock market flotation.

Cardiff-based OpenGenius, which develops high-tech software for innovators and creative teams, has enjoyed increasing momentum over the past few years.

Task management app, DropTask, has attracted a worldwide customer base, with teams and individuals at Harvard University, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Coca-Cola and McDonald's, among others, all joining its client list. Whilst iMindMap is an all-in-one Mind Mapping and visual thinking tool – the software is used for creative ideation by a large number of varied industries; ranging from education to finance.

In 2017, OpenGenius became the first Welsh company to be selected for the international 'accelerator' training and networking programme (ELITE) at the London Stock Exchange. A scheme which has helped them develop their scalable business model as well as building new strategic partnerships, increasing sales and raising awareness of their brand and pioneering products.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths are key to the innovative small businesses that are set to make up a significant proportion of the Government's future industrial strategy. 

Angel CoFund backed energy technology company Limejump is to be acquired by Shell*.  With this deal Limejump’s technology and management team will enable both companies to continue to take steps to support the UK energy system’s transition to a lower carbon future.  Upon completion Limejump will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell.

The next generation of innovators met TeenTech patron HRH The Duke of York KG at Buckingham Palace to share their bold inventions, designed to make life ‘better, simpler, safer or more fun’ using the power of science and technology.