The Zero Carbon Fund has made an investment in the pre-seed funding round of Phycobloom, a UK-based bio-technology company engineering algae that will enable cheap, carbon-neutral biofuels that can power future air travel and more.

OKKO Health, a digital eye care company, has received investment from seven Henley Business Angels (HBA) members, contributing towards a total funding round of £900,000. The amount invested by HBA members was £145k, making it the largest amount invested since HBA’s establishment in 2016.

Private equity firm WestBridge has backed the senior management team at construction software company Eque2 to acquire the business from its existing shareholders.

Innovative Scottish-based drug delivery company, Bio-Images Drug Delivery Limited (BDD), has positioned itself for rapid growth with a further round of investment in its GMP* manufacturing capabilities alongside strategic recruitment to the senior leadership team and the Board of Directors.  The £1.2m investment, has been led by Edinburgh-based business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, supported by Scottish Enterprise and BioCity Investments. 

Alderley Park-based proteomic-data science and diagnostics company, Kinomica, has secured £3.9 million in funding for pioneering technology 

Birmingham-based travel technology business, You. Smart. Thing. Limited (YST) has received £250,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) Debt Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners, backed also by £250,000 from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

Recycleye, the intelligent waste management start-up, has secured £1.2 million in seed funding, led by venture capital investors MMC Ventures and Playfair Capital, with participation from leading funds Atypical Ventures, Creator Fund, and eolos GmbH. The company has also received grants from InnovateUK and the European Union to develop a computer vision system and affordable robotics that will combine to create the world’s first fully automated and deployable material recovery facility.

Fintech start-up Hi55 Ventures has secured the backing of a global investment firm with over $50 billion of assets under management for a unique pilot project that gives workers of investment grade companies real-time access to their pay.

Zokri, a company that provides a ‘software as a service’ platform for businesses to create and track objectives and key results, has received investment from a member of Henley Business Angels (HBA), contributing towards their latest funding round.

The software that Zokri have created is designed to help employees within a company align their strategy, goals and tasks. This helps allow for effective collaboration and for managers to support teams and the wider business.

Crowd Data Systems (CDS) has secured funding to further develop the next generation of treasury management systems. Founded by industry veterans, the CDS team possesses a strong balance of technology, sales, and operational experience, having worked together for 20 years to date. The CDS team founded and successfully exited their first startup ‘City Financials’ back in 2010 via trade-sale.

Poncho, a digital startup backed by Kamet Ventures, has launched to address the growing childcare crisis and the resulting unprecedented pressure facing working parents. This comes as one in six childcare providers is expected to close by Christmas and 87 per cent of parents report having needed to homeschool at least one child since May.  

Renewable energy has proven a particularly resilient asset class throughout the Covid-19 pandemic,