Dorset Business Angels (DBA) hosted its quarterly pitch event at the Bournemouth Carlton Hotel and welcomed entrepreneurs based across the South of England, two of them from the BCP area.

Vulse.co, whose groundbreaking AI technology is reducing content creation times from hours to seconds, has secured a pre-seed round of angel investment worth £150,000, to accelerate growth and implement revolutionary features.

London-based startup Spotted Zebra has secured USD1.8m in seed funding in a round led by Playfair Capital, with participation from Entrepreneur First. The company is helping solve the skills-gap crisis by powering the shift to skills-based organisations, a rapidly growing trend amongst the world's largest employers.

University spinout About:Energy has announced the launch of its battery design software platform, The Voltt, to shorten R&D timelines, improve battery performance, and reduce development risk for battery cells and systems in automotive, aerospace and niche industries. 

A Newcastle-based company has raised over £ 1.85 million of funding to help its quest to save more lives through better testing for prostate cancer.

The funding includes £500,000 investment from the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures alongside investment from Prostate Cancer Research together with and investment of £250,000 from JR Holding ASI, and £305,000 from angel investors. On top of this investment Innovate UK awarded the company a grant of £750,000 to develop its disease screening activities.

Leading biotech company MiAlgae has officially launched its omega-3 product NaturAlgae to market thanks to recent expansion of its commercial production site in Scotland following investment last August.

Taylor & Hart, the digital-first bespoke jewellery business, has raised £3.5 million in funding from Virgin Money, Active Partners and private investment platform Seedrs. The investment will be used to support Taylor & Hart’s intentions to further develop its state-of-the-art technology offering which ensures the authenticity of its gemstones and enables a seamless customer experience, as well as grow internationally and increase brand awareness.

Twelve years after his initial investment, Lord Alan Sugar, 76, and Susie Ma, 34, have agreed to terms that return Tropic Skincare to a 100% founder-owned company.

o2h group, the creators of innovative SciTech communities, has launched the Cambridge Wide Open Day, offering a unique insight into the city best known as the ‘UK Centre of Science & Technology’. The inaugural event will take place on Wednesday 14^th June 2023, kicking off with an exclusive breakfast to introduce investors to the latest cohort of science and tech businesses set for growth beyond their own frontiers.

Dorset Business Angels (DBA) will host its inaugural Angel Investing Workshop on April 17th, at the Bournemouth Carlton Hotel. The workshop will take place prior to the Spring pitch event and will be led by experienced angel investor and DBA Chairman, Don McQueen.

In recent years, there has been a growing focus on gender diversity in the investment world, both in the venture capital and angel investment spaces. As the President of EBAN, I am proud to say that we have made gender diversity a priority in our organization, and we have seen the benefits of doing so. 

Glopal, a cross-border e-commerce software solution that enables brands to develop their international sales, has announced a €20 million Series A round of financing from Hi Inov - Dentressangle and Crédit Mutuel Innovation. The historical investors, Seventure and Axeleo Capital, participate in the round, joined by retail experts such as Motier Ventures (Family office of the owners of Galeries Lafayette) and Pierre Denis (former CEO of Jimmy Choo).