Panthera Biopartners has completed a Series A funding round with Gresham House Ventures as a major investor. The capital raised will enable Panthera to further build out its network of clinical trial sites across the UK and overseas and increase its team of clinical trial experts in serving both pharma and patients.

Playfair Capital and Tech Nation have joined forces to expand their nationwide initiative to improve access to funding and mentors for female founders with two special events taking place on 5th and 12th November.  Female founders from across the UK will have the opportunity to meet four investors during one hour of remote office hours to discuss their tech business idea, ask for advice, pitch for investment and find a mentor. 

Finance Durham Fund has invested £250,000 in Power Roll, a developer of ultra-low-cost and lightweight flexible film for energy generation and storage. The investment through Finance Durham, which is managed by Maven Capital Partners, will support construction of a solar film pilot plant in County Durham, further improve the efficiency of Power Roll’s solar film technology and help commercialise its capacitor technology with its joint venture partner.

Finch Capital has published its latest annual research, The State of European Fintech 2020.

Deepbridge Capital and Boundary Capital backed diagnostics firm Glyconics® has been awarded an internationally recognised quality certification for the development of its diagnostic medical devices product range.

Ceryx Medical, a bioelectronics startup working towards the world’s first curative therapy for heart failure, has secured a £575,000 seed round.

The funding, which comprises a £250,000 commitment from the Development Bank of Wales, £225,000 from angel investors, and £100,000 from the University of Bristol’s Enterprise Investment Fund, managed by leading UK university spinout investor ParkWalk, will enable the company to grow its management and technology teams.

Global venture capital firm 500 Startups released new survey findings that reveal how startup investors are responding to the new challenges brought on by COVID-19 and their plans for 2021. The survey of 160 investors found that many respondents reported that investment activities have remained the same as planned before COVID-19, or even increased. Many respondents also believe that valuations have been as expected or higher than anticipated.

Booking.com CEO Kees Koolen has invested more than €4 million in Holidu, one of the fastest-growing travel tech companies worldwide, from his personal fund as part of a €5 million extension to the €40 million Series C round of the previous year.

AccelerComm, a Southampton University spinout supercharging 5G, satellite and other wireless communications with IP which increases spectrum efficiency and reduces latency, has raised £5.8m in Series A funding in a round led by IQ Capital alongside  existing investors Bloc Ventures and the IP Group. The funding will be used to expand the current team, drive US and global expansion, and develop the technology further as demand for the company’s cutting-edge digital signal processing IP grows among mobile operators, telecoms equipment vendors, satellite operators and connected device manufacturers.

Praetura Ventures, the VC fund that targets high-value sectors in the north of England, is investing £1m in a tech company that helps businesses defend themselves against customer-focused cyberattacks and improve the digital experience their websites offer to consumers.

The funding secured by Leeds-based RapidSpike will allow it to enhance and scale its product and expand its client base to add to its stable of blue-chip customers that includes William Hill, Npower and major US brand retailer Helen of Troy (owner of Revlon, Braun and Honeywell among others).

Tribosonics, whose smart sensing technology helps industry to reduce costs, has raised £1.1m from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

Tribosonics embeds sensors within bearings and other moving parts to create ‘intelligent components’ which can monitor friction and wear and tear. The results help companies to extend plant life, prevent critical failures and reduce energy use.  Tribosonics’ technology can be used in manufacturing, power generation and transport – for example to create smart factories, or in critical parts such as the bolts on wind turbines and the bearings within a ship’s propeller.

Lincolnshire-based cyber security firm KryptoKloud Limited is pursuing new growth following a £500,000 investment from Foresight Group using finance from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund.

The Company is the latest in a number of female co-founded firms supported by MEIF, with the Foresight managed fund investing over 25% in mixed gender founding teams thus far, well above the 10% share of venture capital funding that normally goes to mixed gender teams.