A start-up inspired by an adventurous granny and co-designed by a team of retirees has raised £1.1m in funding to tackle the loneliness epidemic amongst older people. The Joy Club is a community-based platform designed to help retirees discover events, passions, and friendships that will enrich their lives.  Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen has invested in the round, alongside Calm/Storm Ventures, Alma Angels, and other notable angel investors.

Catalyst has announced a new partnership with all-island female entrepreneurial community, AwakenHub, to support and empower the next generation of female entrepreneurs and innovators in Ireland.

Turquoise, the UK merchant bank specialising in energy, environment and efficiency, has made a £150k investment in Electric Miles. Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2) led the £776,000 equity round which included co-investors Vipul Amin, founder of uSwitch and owner of Kelkoo; and Blue Lake VC, which focuses on B2B and software start-ups.

UK law firm Shoosmiths has sponsored the 2022 Gender Index report, with findings demonstrating that female-founders obtain disproportionately less investment compared to male-owned companies.

The Gender Index's (TGI) ambition is to help create a more equal future by providing a clear and accurate picture of the disparity between male and female led businesses, by benchmarking the current level of activity undertaken by companies across the UK which are owned or led by female founders.

Northern Ireland investors must commit to doing more to support female led businesses and encourage entrepreneurship among women if they want to ensure there is a strong pipeline of innovative, scalable businesses emerging into the local start-up scene, according to one leading Belfast fund manager.

Clarendon Fund Managers is the first local fund manager to sign up to the Investing in Women Code and is now urging other Northern Ireland-based investors to join them in committing to support female founders.

Capital Pilot Advisory has launched its Boost Fund 1 to invest in high-growth UK startups using a unique automated selection and completion process.

Green Angel Syndicate Founder and President Nick Lyth asks whether the monetary cost of reaching Net Zero is just too much to bear.

Patrick Pichette, a partner at Inovia Capital and an active environmentalist through his directorship of the Kenauk Institute, shares five material things entrepreneurs can do to build startups that have sustainability as their founding ethos.

Biomedical startup Adapttech has raised £2.25 million from investors including Mercia Asset Management, ACF Investors, Wren Capital and Wealth Club. The company also announced the launch of the new INSIGHT Range, a family of products that make it faster and easier to fit lower-limb prostheses and improve patient outcomes.

Climate change investor, Climate VC, an 80% angel backed fund which launched only last week, has made three new investments. Offgrid.Finance, Treeconomy and Deep.Meta are the latest UK-founded start-ups being supported to achieve Climate VC’s aim of removing a gigatonne of CO2e from global emissions through investments in high-potential, high-impact, climate-focussed businesses.

Olivia Sibony is Head of Impact and International Partnership at Angel Investment Network (AIN), the largest angel investment community in the world, with 40 networks extending to 90 different countries and more than 1.4m users, helping tens of thousands of businesses worldwide with investments ranging from £10,000 to £1 million.

Olivia was a founder of SeedTribe and is now a Government advisor on recruiting impact-led starts ups to relocate to the UK post Brexit. She is also a passionate advocate for getting more female founders backed but also encouraging more female investors.  

Here she shares her thoughts on topics close to her heart including how to encourage more female entrepreneurs and the future of impact investing.

Koolen Industries, the clean energy investor headed by Kees Koolen, has invested in ParkBee, the leading tech platform for off-street parking in Europe. Other investors are a number of leading (tech) entrepreneurs and investors, as well existing shareholders. Total funding to ParkBee amounts to EUR 30m.