Integrated Graphene Ltd,  the Scottish-based tech company, has fired the starting pistol on scaled production of its unique breakthrough 3D graphene foam, Gii, following the completion of a £3.1 million round of investment in the business, led by Edinburgh-based business angel syndicate, Archangels, with co-investment from Par Equity, Techstart Ventures and ESM Investments.

QVentures has made an investment into Opsly, a platform that allows software developers to build cloud infrastructure and architecture with no prior coding or cloud knowledge necessary.

Downing Ventures has completed a $35 million Series B funding round in Ayar Labs as the co-lead investor. Ayar Labs is a Deep Tech organisation that is solving semiconductor interconnect (I/O), bandwidth and power bottlenecks by moving data using light, with its TeraPHY™ monolithic in-package electronic/photonic chiplet-based solution. The result is a vast improvement in bandwidth, bandwidth density, latency and power consumption across a wider distance.

MIME Technologies, a med-tech spin-out from the University of Aberdeen, has received £248,000 in funding from the Scottish Government to help deliver technology that will support the heavily impacted aviation industry during its recovery from the pandemic. It will also drive new maritime med-tech solutions and create several skilled jobs in Scotland.

Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) has announced that its technology investment partnership with Foresight Group has hit a milestone of £50 million raised, helping a total of 20 UK-based SMEs and start-ups take their innovative products to market.

New research from The Entrepreneurs Network, in partnership with The Enterprise Trust, finds the majority of entrepreneurs believe the shift to a greener economy represents an opportunity for business and a boost for the economy. 

Employee engagement SaaS solution secures funding after enjoying strong growth and doubling revenue in the last 12 months.  £1.75 million funding round includes £500,000 investment from the North East Development Capital Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

The North East Development Capital Fund has co-led a £1.75 million funding round for Newcastle-based Hive HR Ltd, an innovative employee engagement Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. The Fund, which is managed by Maven Capital Partners, has invested £500,000, alongside £1 million of funding from Maven’s VCTs and £250,000 from existing shareholders.

Triple Point has announced that Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council has successfully secured £6,591,000 of Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP) grant funding to support the commercialisation and construction phases of the Solihull Town Centre Low Carbon Energy Network. 

In October 2019, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council recognised a climate emergency and voted unanimously to ensure that the Council’s own activities are carbon neutral by 2030. In addition, the Council is working closely with the West Midlands Combined Authority towards meeting the region’s wider target of ‘net-zero emissions’ by 2041. More than a year earlier they had embarked on a mission to deliver affordable, low carbon heat to homes and businesses in the town centre. 

A spin-out from Cranfield University whose technology can detect and predict corrosion in pipelines has raised a further £900,000 to expand its global client base.  CorrosionRADAR, which has offices in Cranfield and Cambridge, secured the investment from the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, as well as the government’s Future Fund and existing shareholders.

Malvern-based D-RisQ, has secured £360,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) Equity Finance Fund, managed by Birmingham venture capital firm Midven.

Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s most active private equity managers in the UK, has invested £2 million in MirrorWeb, a leading tech firm that enables organisations to capture, archive and monitor web-based content for digital oversight and regulatory compliance. The transaction has been funded by Maven’s managed VCTs and represents Maven’s tenth VCT investment in 2020.

Manchester-based MirrorWeb has developed a cloud-based SaaS platform that helps organisations create accurate and immutable records of online communications, ensuring they meet compliance obligations and information of cultural or historical value is never lost.

Europe’s tech sector is worth four times what it was five years ago as the leading generation of companies and founders give back to the next wave of ambitious tech firms – signalling the start of a golden age of European tech entrepreneurship - says a new report from Dealroom.