Lookiero, the online personal shopping service for clothes and accessories, has closed a $19 million funding round led by venture capital fund MMC Ventures with support from existing investor All Iron Ventures, and new investors Bonsai Partners, 10x and Santander Smart. The funding will allow the company to continue its international expansion and strengthen its leadership position within its main markets: Spain, France and the UK.

Leading European social media management platform Agorapulse has announced a growth investment round of £14.7 million from three investors - Hi Inov Dentressangle, Cipio Partners and Entrepreneur Venture.

The company, headquartered in Paris, employs more than 65 highly skilled team members from all over the world and has rapidly grown a user base of over 22,500 users across 6,200 accounts to date. Agorapulse has been bootstrapped since its inception to achieve £9 million in ARR, with year-on-year growth exceeding 65%. Agorapulse marks one of the few European companies in the SMB sector that has excelled in the UK market. Agorapulse currently sees an annual UK revenue of  £500,000 and with this new investment Agorapulse plans to continue its expansion across the UK and Europe. 

In a week that saw the announcement of CMR Surgical as the latest UK company to be valued at over $1b, there is hardly a more appropriate time to examine the state of the UK's unicorn herd. These companies, so named due to their coveted rarity (there are just 16 in the UK), are an exciting cohort to examine owing to the prospect of a multibillion dollar exit.

In this report, Beauhurst profiles the UK's billion dollar businesses, the fundraisings and investors that have supported them, and the founders leading them forward.

Origin Capital has invested in Cyclops Marine, a specialist provider of load measurement instruments and technologies for sailing vessels. Cyclops has already secured several prestigious clients, not least the New Zealand America’s Cup team. Origin’s Mark Woodhams has joined the Cyclops board of directors.

Learning with Experts has just completed a latest funding round above target, raising £800k with an impressive group of High Net Worth (HNW) Angels. The investment followed an investor showcase pitch to The Oxford Opportunity Network (OION), at Rathbones. New investors joining this round via OION include Rupert Pennant-Rea, Learning with Expert’s New Chairman, former editor of The Economist and Deputy Governor of The Bank of England. 

CEO/Founder Elspeth Briscoe, formerly eBay, The Guardian, and ‘Skype Mafia’ explained: “The raise is enabling us to execute on our hiring plan, to scale our B to B, tech development and marketing teams and to hire new A list tutors for our consumer product.  We intend to drive the next education revolution beyond the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), with our unique approach to community based, trusted, high quality, global interactive online learning.   MOOCs have 80% drop out rates.  Learning with Experts has 80% course completion rates.”

Israeli startup GK8, which provides secure end-to-end management of digital assets, has completed the development of a patented technology for sending transactions to the blockchain without any direct or indirect internet connection. GK8 is now emerging out of stealth mode having completed a seed funding round of $4 million, led by Check Point co-founder Marius Nachtand Israel Discount Capital, Israel Discount Bank Investments Arm, with the participation of investors such as the blockchain VC firm EdenBlock, iAngels, IDEAL-HLS, StratX and Israel Innovation Authority.

Red Sift, the cognitive data platform that provides cloud-based email security solutions, has closed a $8.8m investment round from research-led VC  MMC Ventures. New investor In-Q-Tel, Inc. (IQT) the US not-for-profit strategic investor, also invested alongside existing investors, White Star Capital and Oxford Capital. The news of the Series A funding comes as Red Sift plans to expand into the US and makes its latest product, OnINBOX, publicly available.

Founded in 2015 by Rahul Powar and Randal Pinto, Red Sift is a data-driven cybersecurity business that uses machine learning to analyse and synthesise data from core business processes, such as email, to help its global customer base better manage its online security. 

British Business Investments (BBI), a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has announced a new £25m commitment to Cheshire-based asset finance specialist and alternative lender, Kingsway Finance Ltd.

The commitment is a revolving credit facility provided through BBI’s Investment Programme, which is designed to increase the supply and diversity of finance for smaller businesses by boosting the lending capacity of challenger banks and non-bank lenders.

The facility will be used to support Kingsway’s growth plans for the provision of lease finance, commercial loans and professions loans to smaller businesses across the UK.

Wagonex Limited, the car subscription marketplace platform is delighted to announce a significant equity funding round as it looks to bolster growth in the U.K. and beyond.

The investment round was led by the Development Bank of Wales technology ventures team co-investing with US investors and UK-based angels with a final close to complete after the summer.

Wagonex has been a leading name in vehicle subscriptions since its inception and now works closely with several global vehicle manufacturers.

klarx, Europe’s leading online platform for construction machinery rental, has raised €12.5 million in a funding round led by B&C Innovation Investments GmbH (BCII), alongside existing investor Target Global. The funding will facilitate further product development and the company’s expansion into new European markets.  Founded in 2015 by brothers, Matthias and Florian Handschuh, together with Vincent Koch, klarx is a digital platform that seeks to make the supply of construction equipment easier, faster and more cost efficient for its users. 

Process Systems Enterprise (PSE), the leading supplier of predictive Advanced Process Modelling (APM) software and services to many of the world’s largest companies, including 60 Fortune 500 firms, is exiting the AlbionVC portfolio to join Siemens AG in Q4 this year, for an undisclosed amount.

Heartwood Investment Management, the asset management arm of Handelsbanken in the UK, has launched four sustainable multi asset funds designed to make sustainable investing accessible to everyone, regardless of portfolio size and risk tolerance, without compromising performance.