The government has published new statistics that show businesses across the UK have to date benefitted from 1,593,620 government-guaranteed loans worth £72.9bn to support their cashflow during the crisis through schemes delivered by the British Business Bank.

Birmingham-based Linear Diagnostics has secured £800,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) and other investors in the company’s second round of funding.  The finance will facilitate the ongoing development of the company’s high-speed platform technology for point of care diagnostics. The funding package includes backing from MEIF Equity Finance, managed by venture capital firm Midven, the University of Birmingham and the UKI2S Fund. The UK Future Fund matched the investment from the initial investors. 

Maven Capital Partners has invested £1m into Fintech platform, Pockit Ltd as part of Pockit’s £15m Series B funding round. The business has secured £1 million funding through the North East Development Fund,supported by the European Regional Development, and £1.3 million via private investors, Crowdcube and the Future Fund, a government scheme backed by the British Business Bank.  

2150 has announced the first close of its flagship €200m fund. Based in London, Copenhagen and Berlin, the fund will back technology companies that seek to sustainably reimagine and reshape the urban environment. 

Limited Partners in 2150’s first fund include a mix of institutional capital and family offices including Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Denmark’s Green Future Fund and Novo Holdingsalongside an ecosystem of partners building or managing over ten million square meters of real estate, who will help evaluate and accelerate the adoption of the sustainable technologies that the fund backs.

Vivacity Labs, the London-based tech company which uses artificial intelligence to improve traffic insights and safety, has secured £5m of Series A funding in a VC round led by investor Mobeus, with additional funding from existing investors Downing Ventures and London Co-Investment Fund.

StorageOS, a leader in cloud native storage management, has closed a $10 million Series B funding round to build on growth, which has seen more than 4,000 customers globally implement its software-defined storage solution. Led by Downing Ventures, existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures and MMC Ventures also participated in the round alongside new investor, Chestnut Street Ventures. This brings the total funding raised to date by StorageOS to $20 million.  The company will now invest further in its go-to-market strategy and scale its sales and customer facing technology teams to build its customer base and revenue. 

Soccer Manager – the UK-based online soccer management game – has secured a further £3m to support its continued growth in a funding round led by its existing investor Mercia.  The latest investment, which comes from Mercia’s own funds, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and the Government’s Future Fund, will allow it to grow its user base in the Middle East and Far East through local language translations, further develop its SM 2022 game which is due to launch this autumn, and relaunch its original multi-player game, SM World, by creating new apps and adding new features.

Reflaunt, a disruptive Resale-as-a-Service (RaaS) technology company empowering global fashion brands to embrace circularity, has announced that it has secured $2.7 million in pre-Series A funding, led by the investment arm of MadaLuxe Group, a leading worldwide distributor of luxury fashion. Participating investors include former Jimmy Choo CEO and Coty Senior Advisor Pierre Denis, Ganni founder and former CEO Nicolaj Reffstrup, Textile Innovation Fund, Piquadro, Bluebell Group and sustainable fashion accelerator Fashion For Good. The investment will enable Reflaunt to add top talent to its technology and business development teams as it executes its growth strategy and offers a variety of resale models to more leading global brands.

Burleighs Gin, a Leicestershire gin distiller business has secured a £250,000 investment to scale-up its operations and create new jobs.

The compnay has secured the finance from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), provided by The FSE Group and backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

The funding package will enable Burleighs Gin, based at Bawden Lodge Farm, Loughborough, to expand its operations. Five full-time jobs within its sales and operational functions will be created as the brand focuses on developing its premium brand gin range with two new products in the pipeline.

Worker tech start-up Orka Technology Group has raised £29 million in its latest funding round and will use the capital to fuel the rapid growth of its earned wage access product Orka Pay.

The fundraise was a mixture of debt financing from Sonovate and equity funding involving the British Business Bank Future Fund and existing investors, including former UK CEO of Adecco Peter Searle. This takes the total raised by Orka to £31.5m since the company launched in 2017.

Market research and online consumer intelligence veteran Richard Thornton has been appointed to the board of fast-growing Manchester-based consumer insights business Vypr following a £2.5m investment

Paddy Willis, CEO of Mission Ventures, discusses how large companies can learn from innovative and fast-moving start-ups without taking their focus off their day job.