Two sport and exercise scientists who established ART Health Solutions, an app to improve employee wellbeing and performance have raised £800,000 from the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia, to fund the next stage of growth.

Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) investment manager Deepbridge Capital has now deployed over £100m of capital via the Deepbridge Technology Growth EIS fund.

Vala Capital, the entrepreneur-led venture capital firm, has appointed Lian Michelson, a successful entrepreneur and experienced angel investor, as investment director for its EIS portfolios. The appointment comes as Vala launches a new tranche for its Sustainable Growth EIS portfolio – targeting small companies focused on sustainable solutions.

Brainomix, the AI-powered medtech solutions company, has closed a series B financing round, raising £16M ($21.2M) to fund its expansion into new markets and new therapeutic indications, including lung fibrosis and cancer. This investment will build on the proven success of the company’s tech platform in stroke and enable value-generating pharmaceutical partnerships to improve clinical trial success, foster broader adoption of existing therapies in the new indications, and improve patient outcomes.

Hypi, the London-based SaaS platform that makes no-code app development accessible to everyone, has secured £150,000 in pre-seed funding from SFC Capital, the UK’s most active seed stage investor. The funding will support the growth of Hypi platform and push their new no-code solution out to users who want a simpler, more visual way of developing and launching their app ideas.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £5.5 million funding round for Liftango, a cloud-based technology platform which enables transport operators to optimise route planning in real-time based on passenger demand.

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, and a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland, today announces its latest survey results which found that HBAN business angels have invested a median of £167K each in start-ups on the island of Ireland. 

Plastron UK Ltd, a specialist in safe operations for the NewSpace industry, has signed up to the national SPRINT business support programme.

After an impressive pitch to the Angel Investors from Anglia Capital Group, WATR successfully secured funding for their clean-tech start-up.  The founders of WATR came to the Angels with a clear mission for their business - to use technology to improve water conditions across the globe. Their long-term ambition is for WATR to become the early warning system for water quality globally and to have units in every country in the world by 2024.

Praetura Group, the North West-based debt and equity capital provider to small and medium sized businesses, has celebrated a record £253m year as demand for its equity and debt services continues to grow.

MMC Ventures, the leading UK Series A investor, has promoted three individuals to its senior leadership team, and added a partner, following a record year in 2021 – during which MMC’s portfolio companies raised more than $1bn in funding.

Connection Capital, the specialist private client alternative investments business, saw its highest ever levels of demand from private investor clients for alternative asset investments last year, raising a record £77m of private capital across its direct private equity and debt transactions and third party managed alternative fund opportunities, in 2021.