The former director of Digital Catapult in Northern Ireland has joined Catalyst as its Director of Strategic Business Development, a new role created to help Catalyst develop and strengthen strategic partnerships across industry, academia and government.

Catalyst is an independent, not-for-profit organisation focused on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, supporting transformative businesses and developing Northern Ireland’s tech industry.

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.

Sustainable delivery pioneers, Zedify, have raised £1.2m to support their growth into cities across the UK, in a round led by Green Angel Syndicate, the UK's largest and most experienced network of investors fighting climate change.

Zedify are disrupting the urban delivery market with their innovative network of sustainable last mile delivery hubs, and currently operate out of 9 UK cities.  Experts in cargo bike logistics and micro consolidation, Zedify have also developed a powerful tech platform to cut through the ever growing challenges in urban logistics.

While 2021 may have been defined by survival, 2022 presents an opportunity for growth. Jordan Dargue, co-founder of Fund Her North, the Northern volunteer collective working to improve access to finance for female-led businesses, shares her top five tips for business getting ready for expansion in 2022.

Online education company FourthRev has raised $8 million. The lead investor is Educapital, Europe’s first education technology impact fund, with follow-on funding from Reach Capital, Emerge Education and Danner Capital as well as a number of edtech entrepreneurs and executives.   This funding round fincludes four new angel investors alongside the VC funding, namely Dan Devine, Greg Finkelstein, Jeff Keith and Scott Mckinley.

Nick Lyth, Founder and President of Green Angel Syndicate – the UK's largest specialist network of investors fighting climate change – takes an in-depth look at carbon markets.

This article was first published by Green Angel Syndicate in December 2021.

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.

1Password, the leader in human-centric security, has closed a $620 million (USD) Series C that raises the company’s valuation to $6.8 billion. Led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation including Tiger Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Backbone Angels, the round is the largest raised by a Canadian company, and reinforces 1Password’s security and privacy leadership. Accel, who led the company’s Series A and B, is also participating in the round. 

A ground-breaking female-led business network has defied the pandemic and helped more than 130 businesswomen launch disruptive tech companies in under a year.  

The Angels@Essex - Female Founders and Investors has expanded rapidly since launching last May and has been labelled “amazing” by members.  

Swedish technology and design startup STILRIDE has raised £2.5m to produce sustainable electric motorcycles and scooters using a groundbreaking process dubbed ‘industrial origami’. This £2.5m seed round was joined by angels and private investors that include Gustaf Hagman, Saeid Esmaeilizadeh, Sam Bonnier and Andreas Adler. 

BGF has led a £2.5 million investment round into sustainable female underwear brand, Stripe & Stare, alongside a consortium of high-profile investors. 

 BGF provided £1.5 million of growth capital with the remaining amount coming from private backers, including Richard Longhurst, co-founder of Lovehoney, and Sam Galsworthy of Sipsmith Gin.

Headquartered in Devon, Stripe & Stare was founded in 2017 by friends and business colleagues Katie Lopes and Nicola Piercy, with the aim of creating the most comfortable and eco-friendly knickers in the world.

University of Sheffield spinout company Aegiq has secured seed investment from an investor syndicate led by High-Tech Gründerfonds, with participation of Deepbridge Capital and business angel investors. Together, with existing funding from Innovate UK, the seed investment brings Aegiq’s total available funding to over £3.5m ($4.8m). Having completed the first closing Aegiq is considering funds to join the second closing.