The Scaleup Landing Pad Hamburg - an initiative launched by the Hamburg Invest business development organisation and the City of Hamburg - has selected five highly promising high-growth companies from a pool of international applicants. These green-tech pioneers include Allegro Energy from Australia, BANF from South Korea, Heatcube - Kyoto Group from Norway, Polymertal from Israel and Tsubame

Superfy, the AI-powered social networking platform catering to Gen Z, has raised a further $2.2m in its latest funding round from a number of high profile angel investors.  This latest funding brings its total funding to $6.7m. Superfy’s AI instantly connects users with the most relevant people so they can discuss anything on their mind – get real-time responses, tips, and more, in a live chat.

Firenze, a Manchester-based fintech has raised £750K at a valuation of £3.75 million in a pre-seed angel round. The investment will be used to accelerate its mission to democratise access to Lombard lending. It will allow Firenze to continue its team growth and start onboarding the first wealth managers and platforms.

Dubai, UAE - Lune, a leading Emirati Financial Data Analytics company, has successfully concluded a seed funding round of $1.5 million. This investment will fuel further expansion of Lune's MENA operations and solidify their position as a leader in data-driven financial solutions.

The Estonian Business Angel Network (EstBAN) has published its annual report for 2023, showing that members invested €13.32m into startup companies during the past year.

The Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) reports a significant decline in angel investments in Finnish startups during 2023, with funding dropping from €37 million to €26 million compared to the previous year. This 30% decrease reflects the cautious stance adopted by investors amidst uncertain financial markets.

The Czech startup landscape stands a significant chance of strengthening this year, as investments in technology companies are expected to increase markedly following a leaner last year, says a report from investment group DEPO Ventures, which is constructing an international syndicate of angel investors in addition to managing angel funds.

Rubedo Life Sciences Closes $40M Series A Financing Led by Khosla Ventures and Ahren Innovation Capital. Series A financing to advance clinical development of lead candidate RLS-1496 into Phase 1 studies this year in chronic atopic dermatitis and chronic psoriasis. Financing will also advance respiratory program, recipient of a substantial CIRM grant last year, to development candidate nomination for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Pollen Careers, a job platform on a mission to transform the entry-level job market into a more inclusive and equitable space, has raised £112,000 funding via SeedLegals, which reached 100% of the target amount in just one week and closed after being overfunded by 12%. Private investors also participated in the round.  The new funding will be used to scale operations to accommodate more employers, meet growing demand, automate processes and for product design, paving the way for future scalability.

Symbe, an AI-powered platform that helps sales teams win more deals by automating the creation of tailored business cases, has raised a £1.2m pre-seed round led by Concept Ventures and joined by Pact VC, Notion Capital, and a range of leading angels through Nodes Ventures. Angels include Resolv Labs Founder, Fedor Chmile, Founders Capital CEO, Richard Hadler, and a series of angels from Stripe.

South East Angels has invested in Blue Skies Space - a startup on a quest to enable the world’s research communities to solve the biggest questions in the universe.

ITALY: Club degli Investitori has invested in Glaut’s $1.4 million pre-seed round. Glaut, founded by Matteo Cera and Giovanni Del Gallo in late 2023, aims to help the Marketing areas of large B2C companies make better business decisions through a new market research methodology: conversational surveys, using artificial intelligence to conduct in-depth market research at scale.