News by Maddyness UK
écrit le 22 November 2024
22 November 2024
Temps de lecture : 20 minutes
20 min
0

Proptech, healthtech, Prawns and a new Challenge Fund from Ufi in this week's Maddymoney

Every week, Maddyness brings you the latest investment news from the UK startup ecosystem. Here's a recap of this week's investments.
Temps de lecture : 20 minutes
Total
£58.5M
Number of deals
9

Architecture AI platform Gendo raises £4.3M Seed as demand skyrockets

Gendo, an AI-powered platform transforming how architects and designers create visualisations, has raised £4.3M in a Seed funding round, following a successful £855K pre-seed round just four months ago. The round was co-led by PT1 and LEA Partners, with additional support from Concept Ventures and Koro Capital. Founded by George Proud and Will Jones, Gendo’s platform uses advanced image generation technology to turn 2D sketches, drawings, or text prompts into high-quality, realistic visualisations within minutes, enabling faster project iteration and significantly reducing costs compared to traditional methods.

Since its beta launch in July 2024, Gendo has attracted over 3,600 users, who have generated more than 50,000 images across 5,000 projects. The platform has quickly become popular among leading architecture firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects and KPF. Gendo’s ability to provide visualisations in under 10 minutes — a process that traditionally takes much longer — has cemented its appeal to designers and architects seeking efficient, AI-driven solutions. Additionally, Patrik Schumacher, principal of Zaha Hadid Architects, has joined Gendo as an advisor to guide the platform’s development, particularly for enterprise clients.

With this funding, Gendo aims to scale its platform and strengthen its position as a go-to AI tool in architectural visualisation. Investors see Gendo as a unique AI application with industry-specific workflows and enterprise features that address critical intellectual property challenges. PT1’s Nikolas Samios and LEA’s Alexi Malikotsinas highlight Gendo’s potential to democratise AI-based visualisation across architecture and real estate, while Concept Ventures’ Oliver Kicks emphasizes the excitement surrounding Gendo’s future growth, particularly as it empowers architects and designers worldwide with cutting-edge creative tools.

Little Journey raises £6M Series A to redefine the way the world delivers paediatric care

Little Journey, a pioneering healthtech company focused on transforming paediatric care through personalised psychological support, has announced a £6M Series A funding round. The investment, led by Par Equity with participation from Mercia Ventures, Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF I), Octopus Ventures, Calm/Storm Ventures, and angel investors, will fuel the company’s global expansion and product development efforts. Additional support includes grant funding of £2.09M from the LEGO Foundation and £493,000 from SBRI Healthcare.

The funding will accelerate Little Journey’s operations globally, with a particular emphasis on entering the US healthcare market. The company also plans to enhance its platform’s capabilities by improving content scalability, interoperability, and data collection. These advancements will help healthcare providers and life sciences organisations adopt more data-driven, patient-centric approaches, ultimately improving outcomes for children undergoing clinical procedures and trials.

Founded in 2018 by Dr. Chris Evans and Sophie Copley, Little Journey was inspired by Dr. Evans’ experience as an anaesthetist and father, witnessing the stress children and families face during hospital visits. The platform now supports thousands of young patients globally, offering localised content in 20 languages and assisting in various procedures, from MRIs to mental health assessments. With partnerships spanning over 100 hospitals in 11 countries and collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, Little Journey aims to redefine paediatric clinical trials and healthcare by placing families at the centre of care.

Three-Sixty Aquaculture closes £3.5M Series A funding to scale locally grown prawn farm

Three-Sixty Aquaculture, the UK’s only producer of sushi-grade prawns, has raised £3.5M in a Series A funding round led by PrimeStar Industries, with additional backing from well-known figures such as chef Marcus Wareing and investor Matthew Freud. The company uses Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) technology to grow sustainable, locally sourced prawns, offering a superior product compared to the frozen, imported prawns that dominate the UK market. With the funding, Three-Sixty Aquaculture plans to scale its operations by building a new facility in Neath, Wales, to supply the UK’s restaurant and hospitality trade as well as sell directly to consumers, starting in early 2025.

The UK relies heavily on prawn imports, with 99.9% of these prawns being frozen, which compromises their quality and contributes to environmental damage due to unsustainable farming practices and long-distance shipping. Three-Sixty Aquaculture aims to address these issues by providing fresh, sushi-grade prawns, reducing the environmental impact while offering a better taste and texture. With the Series A funding, the company plans to expand its capacity and increase production to over 2,000 tonnes annually, positioning itself as a leader in sustainable seafood farming.

CEO James Fox-Davies is optimistic about the company’s growth, not only within the UK but internationally, as the technology behind Three-Sixty Aquaculture could benefit global markets. The funding will also support the revitalisation of a former canning factory in Neath, generating local employment. With a strong focus on sustainability, the company is poised to reshape the prawn farming industry and offer a high-quality, eco-friendly alternative to traditional imports.

Heim Health raises £2.2M to bring healthcare home

Heim Health, a software platform transforming at-home healthcare, has raised £2.2M in a seed funding round led by Heal Capital, with support from Form Ventures, Portfolio Ventures, and Houghton Street Ventures. Co-founded by Kelly Klifa, James Monico, and Sasha Tory, Heim Health enables healthcare providers to deliver efficient, community-based care such as blood tests, injections, and post-operative assessments directly in patients’ homes. By leveraging advanced scheduling algorithms, the platform optimises practitioner routes and appointments, reducing waiting times by up to 85% and making in-home care cost-effective and scalable.

The platform also enhances patient experiences with an easy-to-use interface for booking, real-time updates, and appointment tracking, removing barriers to accessing care. Heim Health has already partnered with major providers like Numan, Manual, Thriva, and the NHS, supporting efforts to move healthcare out of hospitals and into communities. This model addresses key issues such as delayed discharges and bottlenecks in secondary care while offering a practical solution for patients with mobility challenges or additional needs.

The funding will allow Heim Health to expand its services and refine its proprietary assignment algorithms, with a focus on preoperative and discharge pathways to free up hospital beds. CEO Kelly Klifa emphasised the mission to revitalise community healthcare, bringing it back to its roots through modern technology. With its scalable model and early success, Heim Health is well-positioned to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes while alleviating pressure on overburdened systems.

Northern Gritstone leads £4M Seed round into X-ray technology company Silveray

Silveray, a pioneering Digital X-ray Film (DXF®) company, has secured a £4M seed extension round to advance its innovative X-ray technology, with a planned product launch in 2025. The round, led by Northern Gritstone, includes investors such as ACF Investors, Empirical Ventures, Deeptech Labs, and Hamamatsu Ventures. Since its initial funding in 2023, Silveray has been developing a flexible material that converts X-rays into digital images at the point of use, offering significant advantages over traditional radiographic film, including time and cost savings and the ability to check hard-to-reach areas, such as pipes.

The company’s flexible DXF detectors can be wrapped around objects like pipes, allowing for efficient inspection of welds and corrosion, a breakthrough over rigid digital detectors. Silveray plans to extend the application of its technology to healthcare, where it could be used to create flexible mammography detectors that avoid the discomfort of traditional compression methods. The company was founded at the University of Surrey in 2018 and relocated to Greater Manchester in 2022 to tap into the region's robust talent pool, with significant collaboration from the University of Manchester's X-ray specialists.

With this new investment, Silveray is poised to begin generating revenue by 2025, targeting industrial users of radiographic film as an entry point. The collaboration with investors like Hamamatsu Ventures is expected to accelerate Silveray’s growth and product development.

Goodstack raises £22.17M to power global corporate giving

Goodstack, a global SaaS and fintech platform focused on enhancing charitable giving, has raised £22.17M in its Series A funding round, led by General Catalyst, with support from Morpheus Ventures and Repeat (formerly Jigsaw). The platform, which partners with major global brands such as LinkedIn, Canva, Atlassian, and Monday.com, is set to facilitate over $3 billion in donations in 2024, more than triple the previous year’s amount. Goodstack aims to simplify global philanthropy by offering a unified platform that connects businesses, employees, and customers with verified nonprofits, enabling seamless charitable donations across 215 countries and territories.

Goodstack’s platform operates around three core pillars: effortless impact, worldwide verification, and a unified giving solution. This approach streamlines the process for businesses to implement and scale their giving programs, while also ensuring compliance and offering cross-border payment capabilities for nonprofits. Despite the rapid growth of charitable giving, the sector remains technologically underserved, and Goodstack’s mission is to bridge this gap by providing nonprofits with the same advanced technology used by the private sector. The company is positioning itself as the "Stripe for philanthropy," helping businesses easily integrate purpose-driven initiatives into their operations.

The new funding will allow Goodstack to expand its technology stack for nonprofits and enhance its services for corporate clients. The company plans to hire extensively across its teams in 2025 as it continues to grow.

Cytomos secures £5M to scale up production of cell-analysis technology

Cytomos, a biotechnology company based in Edinburgh, has raised £5M in an oversubscribed funding round to scale up the production of its innovative cell analysis technology. The round was led by existing investors Archangels, with participation from Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise, and British Business Bank. The funding will help drive the sales of the company's first commercial product, Celledonia™, a benchtop cell analyser built on the AuraCyt platform, which is already gaining traction in the market. Celledonia™ aims to revolutionise single-cell analysis, a crucial process for the biopharma industry, by significantly enhancing drug discovery, development, and biologics manufacturing.

Cytomos has created AuraCyt, an unbiased and scalable cell analysis platform that provides a low-cost alternative to traditional systems. This technology enables biopharma companies to bring novel therapies to market up to six months faster and at a reduced cost by improving decision-making early in the process. With the complexity and cost of developing cell-derived medicines, Cytomos’ platform addresses a significant need for real-time monitoring and prediction of cell parameters. The company's scalable solution allows it to measure cellular physiology based on intrinsic single-cell properties, making it an essential tool for advancing drug development and manufacturing.

With plans to expand its presence in North America, Cytomos is also preparing for trials with global partners and has attracted strong interest from a top 10 pharmaceutical company. The company currently employs 21 staff and expects to hire additional employees as it scales. CEO David Rigterink expressed that the successful fundraising round positions Cytomos to quickly scale its operations and continue advancing its cell analysis technology to support breakthroughs in biological drug development and manufacturing automation.

Property tech pioneers using £3.3M to scale award-winning estate agent technology

Manchester-based Street Group, founded in 2015 by siblings Tom and Heather Staff, is transforming the estate agency industry with innovative software solutions. Recently, the company secured £3.3M in funding from Praetura Ventures, including support from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II). This investment will drive product development, team expansion, and the integration of advanced AI capabilities to modernise estate agency operations. Street Group offers two flagship products: Spectre, an AI-powered marketing platform that boosts campaign effectiveness by predicting when properties may come to market, and Street.co.uk, a CRM system that automates key processes like bookings, background checks, and tenant management, while also enhancing the customer experience with industry-first mobile apps.

Street Group’s technology has earned prestigious industry awards, including Best Overall Supplier at the 2024 EA Masters and Gold Supplier of the Year at ESTAs 2024. Supporting over 4,000 estate agents nationwide, the company’s innovative tools aim to simplify traditionally complex processes while helping agents meet the increasing expectations of modern consumers.

This investment also reflects the broader mission of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, which aims to stimulate sustainable economic growth and innovation across the North of England. With £660M allocated to support SMEs, the fund provides financial backing to businesses driving regional development and overcoming barriers to finance. Sue Barnard of the British Business Bank noted that Street Group exemplifies the type of forward-thinking, innovative businesses the fund was designed to support, ensuring both technological progress and job creation in the region. With this support, Street Group is poised to redefine estate agency software and further its impact on the property industry.

Konsileo secures £8M to drive innovation in commercial insurance broking

Konsileo, a UK-based commercial insurance brokerage specialising in mid-market advised sales, has raised £8M in a mix of debt and equity financing. The funding round was led by long-term backers Committed Capital, alongside ACF Investors’ Growth Lending. This investment will enable Konsileo to expand its team of broking professionals and continue developing its proprietary technology platform, which underpins its innovative organisational model.

Founded with a vision to redefine the broking experience, Konsileo has scaled to 160 employees while maintaining a unique structure that eliminates traditional corporate hierarchies. By prioritising self-management and collaboration, the company empowers brokers to work directly with peers, leveraging individual specialisms for client benefit. Its proprietary technology supports these efforts with tools for compliance, data capture, and insurer collaboration, enabling brokers to search the entire insurance market for the best client solutions, free from management-imposed placement directives.

Tim Mills, Managing Partner at ACF Investors, noted Konsileo’s transformative impact on commercial broking through its scalable, tech-enabled approach, reaffirming confidence in its long-term growth potential.

In other investment news

Extantia closes €204M Fund to back industry-changing climate innovators

Berlin-based venture capital firm Extantia Capital has announced the final close of its flagship Article 9 fund at €204M, surpassing its original target. The oversubscribed fund received strong backing from institutional investors worldwide, including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies, corporations, and family offices. Since its founding in 2020, Extantia has focused on empowering entrepreneurs driving transformative change in the climate sector, with investments in software and hardware solutions addressing high-impact, near-term opportunities. Specialising in Seed to Series A funding rounds, the firm deploys initial investments of €1-5M, primarily across Europe, with its team spanning Germany, the UK, and Israel.

“We are on the verge of a new industrial revolution,” said Sebastian Heitmann, Partner at Extantia. “Industry leaders are recognising the value of building resilient supply chains and adopting low-carbon solutions that drive economic growth. Our role is to partner with pioneers who create cheaper, better, and greener solutions that enable mass adoption.” Extantia has already built an impressive portfolio of over 20 climate innovations, including Reverion, which develops carbon-negative power plants and has secured €58M in Series A funding alongside significant customer pre-orders. Another standout, INERATEC, leads the market in e-fuels and recently closed a €120M Series B round to scale its production of sustainable “drop-in” fuels. BeZero, the top carbon ratings agency in Extantia’s portfolio, has attracted blue-chip customers and continues to secure follow-on funding from major growth investors.

Extantia’s partners emphasise the importance of scalability in driving real impact. Yair Reem, Partner at Extantia, stated, “There is no impact without scale. We provide hands-on support for founders, helping them overcome key pain points in commercialisation, organisational growth, and fundraising. As entrepreneurs and operators ourselves, we bring the expertise needed to accelerate growth for both deep tech and high-impact software solutions.” With this new fund, Extantia is poised to further its mission of empowering climate innovators and advancing the transition to a greener economy.

Ufi Ventures launches Challenge Fund to drive skills for a changing economy

As the UK faces significant shifts in its labour market, driven by digitisation, automation, and the transition to a green economy, the challenge of delivering critical skills has grown more urgent. Many individuals, particularly those with historically lower qualifications, face barriers to learning and risk being left behind. To address these issues and prepare for the future, Ufi Ventures has introduced the Challenge Fund, a new investment initiative to support early-stage businesses using vocational technology to transform skills development.

The Challenge Fund is dedicated to backing innovative EdTech solutions that address five key areas: skills for the green economy, digital transformation and Industry 4.0, reskilling in traditional industries, inclusive skills development, and lifelong learning. Investment starts at £250k, with the potential for up to £1m in follow-on funding. Ufi is particularly interested in companies with proven products already in the market, demonstrating early signs of adoption at scale and a clear strategy for growth. Portfolio companies will also gain access to Ufi's extensive network and resources to support their expansion.

Ufi is seeking ventures with significant potential to impact the skills landscape, scalable and revenue-generating solutions, innovative technology or delivery models, and strong, passionate founding teams. With this new fund, Ufi aims to empower businesses that can shape the future of the workforce and enable more people to acquire the skills needed for a rapidly evolving economy. Entrepreneurs interested in joining this mission are encouraged to submit their pitch decks to the Ufi Ventures team for consideration.

“This new fund furthers our backing of the most ambitious entrepreneurs driving skills acquisition for adults and employers. The skills needs of workforces across the UK are changing at a rapid pace. New investment is needed to deliver these skills and open up opportunity. This fund builds on the success of our existing investment activity and enables us to keeping backing skills innovation so that no-one is left behind.” Director of Ventures, Helen Gironi.

You can explore the investment criteria in more detail here.

In other international investment news

Pruna AI secures $6.5M to sustainably optimise machine learning models and empower AI engineers to focus on innovation

Pruna AI, an AI optimisation engine designed to simplify code and streamline machine learning (ML) models, has successfully raised $6.5M in a seed funding round led by EQT Ventures, with participation from Daphni, Motier, and Kima, as well as support from notable angels including Roxanne Varza, Hervé Nivon, and Olivier Pomel. The company will use the capital to expand its technical team and accelerate its go-to-market strategy. With the rapid growth of AI and the increasing cost of model development, Pruna AI aims to provide an efficient and cost-effective solution for AI developers by simplifying the model optimisation process.

The tool is designed to make AI development more efficient, reducing the need for large-scale resources while ensuring models are optimised for performance across different hardware setups. By streamlining the deep learning model optimisation process, Pruna AI enables smaller businesses and research teams to focus on innovation without the burden of resource-intensive tasks.

Beyond cost and time savings, Pruna AI is also committed to sustainability. As AI models become increasingly energy-intensive, the company’s compression methods can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by up to 91%, helping companies meet sustainability goals while maintaining high performance.

Eden AI raises €3M seed round to bridge the gap between AI models and business needs

Eden AI, an AI integration platform that helps businesses leverage advanced AI models, has raised €3M in a seed funding round led by Galion.exe, with additional participation from 50 Partners and angel investors including Olivier Pomel (Datadog Co-Founder), Sébastien Pahl (Docker Co-Founder), and Alix de Sagazan (AB Tasty Co-Founder).

The funding will be used to enhance product development, grow Eden AI’s engineering team, expand its ecosystem of partners, and refine the platform's capabilities for simplifying AI integration across industries.

Eden AI offers a comprehensive end-to-end platform that provides access to over 70 AI technologies and 100 AI models from leading providers like Google, AWS, and OpenAI. Designed with ease of use in mind, it enables businesses—irrespective of size or technical expertise—to integrate advanced AI models into their operations. By streamlining workflows, cost monitoring, and deployment, Eden AI bridges the gap between AI sophistication and practical business applications.

SuperScale secures $1.2M investment to launch and expand game business analytics platform

SuperScale, a leader in game business analytics, has raised $1.2 million to accelerate the rollout of SuperPlatform, its cutting-edge analytics solution designed to address a critical need in the gaming industry. SuperPlatform provides a unified, AI-powered system that consolidates reliable and standardised business insights from across marketing, product, and finance teams. Since its soft launch in August 2024, the platform has gained rapid traction, with 60 studios already adopting it to streamline their operations and align strategies across their organisations.

The investment round was backed by a mix of existing and new investors, including Across Private Investments, LevelUp Ventures, Zero One Hundred, Venture to Future Fund, and newcomer Strecko Investments.

SuperPlatform is built to integrate data from over 40 sources, offering executives and investors a ‘Command Center’ feature that enables strategic modeling and implementation across the organisation. From indie developers optimising short-term cash flow to larger publishers maximizsng portfolio profits, the platform ensures scalability and adaptability. With this move, SuperScale transitions from its established service model to a full-fledged SaaS (software-as-a-service) offering, marking a transformative moment for the company since its founding in 2015.

Twenty Secures $5M Seed Round to Revolutionize Open-Source CRM Solutions

Twenty, the company behind one of the fastest-growing open-source CRM platforms, has raised $5M in a Seed round led by Runa Capital, with support from prominent founders of HubSpot, Front, Cal.com, Sentry, and Photoroom. Founded by Félix Malfait, Charles Bochet, and Thomas Colas des Francs, the Paris-based startup plans to use the funding to expand its open-source community, enhance its product offerings, and scale adoption among enterprise clients.

Launched in July 2023 as a small open-source project on Hacker News, Twenty has rapidly grown into a globally recognised platform, standing out among 220+ million public GitHub repositories with over 280 active contributors. It joins an elite group of only 26 private product-focused tech companies—including Laravel, Supabase, and Vercel—that have reached similar levels of contributor activity. The platform allows businesses to consolidate customer data and workflows into a single, customisable hub, offering unparalleled flexibility and the ability to create end-to-end solutions tailored to their unique needs.

Twenty is positioning itself as a compelling open-source alternative to proprietary solutions like Salesforce. According to Konstantin Vinogradov, General Partner at Runa Capital, "Open source is uniquely suited to highly extendable areas like CRM, and Twenty's impressive traction validates its bold vision."

Kodiak Hub secures €6M to revolutionise supplier relationship management

Kodiak Hub, the Stockholm-based Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) platform, has raised €6M in funding from leading B2B SaaS investor Oxx. The funding will fuel Kodiak Hub’s global expansion, including entry into the US market, and advance the development of its AI-driven data analytics tools. Positioned as a one-stop shop for procurement and sourcing teams, the platform empowers businesses to manage supplier relationships with a data-driven approach that enhances resilience, optimises supply chain performance, and supports sustainability.

In the face of global supply chain challenges—from microchip shortages to climate-induced disruptions—Kodiak Hub’s platform offers procurement leaders a 360-degree risk overview, transforming fragmented data into actionable insights.

Founder and CEO Malin Schmidt explained that the company’s platform not only supports strategic buyers in managing compliance and supplier performance but also optimises decisions around quality, cost, and sustainability. Highlighting the demand for AI-powered solutions in procurement, Schmidt added, “This investment enables us to further redefine procurement strategies and amplify sustainability outcomes for our customers.” Ingrid Bonde Åkerlind, Principal at Oxx, described Kodiak Hub as a "data cockpit" for procurement leaders, perfectly aligned with growing regulatory and sustainability pressures. She affirmed Oxx’s confidence in the platform’s potential to lead the evolution of Supplier Relationship Management.

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