Oliva, an advanced workplace mental health platform founded in 2020, has raised £4.84 million seed funding.  The round was led by Stride VC, a seed-stage VC firm based in London, along with additional investment provided by Moonfire, as well as adding a number of new angel investors.

The Clean Growth Fund, a venture capital fund investing in the most promising early-stage UK clean technology ventures, has closed its first fund with £101m in capital commitments. The first and final close comes with new commitments of £31m from two of the UK’s largest local authority pension funds – Merseyside and South Yorkshire – and from Queens’ College Cambridge and Aviva Investors, the global investment management company.

Wastewater treatment and bioenergy company, WASE, has raised £400,000, to be followed by a further £300,000, following closure of the oversubscribed Seedrs campaign. The funding was led by Elbow Beach Capital, the decarbonisation, sustainability and social impact investor, with support from the Science Angel Syndicate, and the European Union’s Climate-KIC’s investment support programme Found by Us, Funded by You, WASE has raised over £1 million.

Semarion Ltd, a University of Cambridge spin-out company from the Cavendish Laboratory combining materials engineering and cell biology to tackle unmet drug screening needs, has closed a £2.14 million GBP seed funding round. The investment round was led by Parkwalk Advisors, with the University of Cambridge Seed Funds, Martlet Capital, and angel investors also contributing to the fundraise.

The entrepreneur behind a new property management platform COHO has raised £275,000 to establish it as the ‘Airbnb for shared living’.

Vann Vogstad has raised funding from the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, and a number of private angel investors.

AI-driven cancer detection platform C the Signs has raised £5,000,000 in Series-A funding from MMC, Ataraxia and Acequia Capital, alongside notable Angels including the past CEO of AXA Health, past CEO of Bupa, and Founder of Monzo.

Cauldron was labelled one of FinTech’s best kept secrets when last summer it spun the gaming studio out of the fintech unicorn, Thought Machine. Their Chief Design Officer, Mark Warrick, announced he was moving on after 7 years to become the CEO of Cauldron with a founding team including the award-winning creative force of Fox Rogers and BAFTA-nominated games director Matt Hyde.

Vertical Future Limited, , which grows crops without soil and with artificial light, has successfully completed a £21m Series-A Equity Fundraise from investors including the Acceleris syndicate of investors participated in this fundraise alongside new UHNW, HNW and family office investors.  The funding is Europe’s largest ever “Series A” fundraising in the emerging vertical farming sector.

Smartia, the leading UK industrial intelligence technology company, has raised £1.7 million, led by 24Haymarket and supported by existing investors. Smartia’s flagship intelligence platform, MAIO, combines Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep industrial expertise to provide manufacturers with an end-to-end Industry4.0 solution.

Streetwear mystery box start-up HEAT has closed a multi-million dollar seed round with investors including global venture capital investor Antler, LVMH Luxury Ventures, and a number of strategic angel investors including Stefano Rosso (OTB), the Hermès family, Michael Mitterlehner (L Catterton), Oliver Merkel (Flink) and Sven Ahrens (Spotify).

Skiller Whale, the online live training platform that marries skills assessment with small expert-led classes tailored to upskill tech teams, has raised a $2.9M seed round to scale up their on-job learning offer. This approach allows a high degree of flexibility and an easy integration with tech teams' schedules.

Par Equity has more than doubled its annual investment into innovative technology businesses, from £12m in 2020 to £25m last year. This was in addition to a landmark $400m exit on the sale of portfolio company Current Health in October, which continued Par Equity’s track record of successful exits, returning cash to investors every year since 2013.