Newnex's round-up of Startups Funded

19 September 2023

Conigital, a pioneering British driverless vehicle company, has recently revealed its impressive achievement of securing £500 million in Series A+ funding, a blend of equity and debt. This substantial investment materialized through a strategic partnership with a prominent global Private Equity infrastructure firm overseeing £150 billion in assets. Additionally, Conigital has established strategic academic collaborations with various institutions, including Coventry University, University of Essex, and Queensland University of Technology. Notably, the company also engages in collaborative efforts with industry leaders AWS and BT, providing cutting-edge cloud and 5G communications infrastructure.

Open Cosmos, a UK-based satellite company, has successfully raised $50 million in its Series B funding round to fuel its international growth and enhance its capabilities in providing solutions for monitoring and addressing climate change. The funding was secured from a group of investors, including ETF Partners, Trill Impact, A&G, Accenture Ventures, Banco Santander InnoEnergy Climate Tech Fund, and Claret Capital Partners, with notable participation from Taavet Hinrikus and Kheng Nam Lee.

Caeli Energie, a deep-tech startup headquartered in Grenoble, France, has successfully secured €10 million in its second funding round. The funding comes from a consortium of notable investors, including Asterion Ventures, Starquest, Bpifrance, and Rise PropTech. Caeli Energie is dedicated to revolutionizing air conditioning technology, replacing polluting systems with eco-friendly, low-carbon technology proudly made in France.

Thirona, headquartered in Nijmegen, specializes in utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) for advanced analysis of thoracic CT images. The company recently disclosed securing €7.5 million in a new funding round. Notably, HERAN Partners and Borski Fund contributed €5 million as investors, while an additional €2.5 million grant was awarded by the European Innovation Council (EIC).

Charac, the NHS-integrated pharmacy app focused on easing operational challenges for independent community pharmacies, has secured £1.2 million in a financing round encompassing both debt and equity. This fresh funding injection is a result of a collaborative effort between the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and individual pharmacy owners, culminating in a cumulative funding milestone of £2.5 million.

Swiss robotics startup Asento has introduced its latest workforce addition, the autonomous security patrolling robot known as Asento Guard, aimed at addressing the significant labor shortage of security guards, a challenge experienced by many countries with a 52 percent decrease in their security workforce. To make this innovative venture a reality, the startup successfully secured $4.3 million in funding. This pre-seed funding round was led by Wingman Ventures and Playfair Capital, with notable participation from Tim Kentley-Klay, founder of Zoox (acquired by Amazon); robotics industry veteran Ryan Gariepy, CTO & co-founder of Clearpath Robotics and OTTO Motors; Daniel Kottlarz, founder of MYBOTSHOP; and Tobias Redlin, founder of IGO3D. Additionally, Asento received non-dilutive funding from the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse and the European Space Agency incubator ESA BIC.

Cleafy, a Milan-based technology company specializing in proactive fraud prevention for digital banking, has successfully raised €10 million in funding. Leading this investment round is United Ventures through the fund UV T-Growth. The funding infusion will facilitate Cleafy's expansion into new markets and advance the development of its technology platform.

Goldilock, a British cybersecurity firm, has recently achieved a significant milestone by securing $1.7 million in funding in a Seed round. This funding round is supported by prominent investors, including the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater NY and New York Angels.

Tallinn-based cybersecurity company Binalyze, which specializes in digital forensics and incident response solutions, has successfully secured $19 million in a Series A funding round, further advancing its market presence. In total, Binalyze has raised nearly $31 million since the beginning of 2021. Leading the Series A round is Molten Ventures, with participation from existing investors Earlybird Digital East and OpenOcean, along with new investors including Cisco Investments, Citi Ventures, and Deutsche Bank Corporate Venture Capital.

UK-based sustainable tech platform Raylo has secured £5.2 million in its latest funding round, comprising both cash and media-for-equity components. This funding round was led by Macquarie and Channel 4 Ventures, with an additional crowdfunding campaign in the pipeline.

Kuano, a drug discovery company, has successfully concluded a £1.8 million seed funding round. The company's unique approach integrates quantum mechanics and AI to revolutionize the development of future medicines, with a primary emphasis on visualizing and modeling enzymes. The funding round was spearheaded by Mercia Ventures and featured participation from ACF Investors, Ascension Ventures, o2h Ventures, Meltwind Advisory LLP, along with several Angel investors.

IOMED, a frontrunner in AI-powered healthcare data activation technology, has recently announced the successful closure of its Series A investment round, amassing a total of €10 million in funding. The round was prominently led by Philips Ventures, the venture capital division of health technology giant Philips, along with XTX Ventures, the venture capital branch of leading algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets. Additional contributions came from Fondo Bolsa Social, Redseed, and existing investors Adara Ventures and EASO Ventures. Moreover, IOMED secured an additional grant of nearly €1 million from red.es to support a research and development initiative in artificial intelligence.

French battery startup Verkor has announced securing over $2.15 billion in funding to construct its gigafactory in Dunkirk, with a substantial portion raised through a capital increase involving investors like infrastructure funds and insurers. This funding package comprises 850 million euros in capital, marking it as the largest-ever fundraise for a French tech startup, as stated by a French government source. Additionally, it includes 600 million euros in loans provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and 650 million euros in state subsidies, pending approval from the European Commission. Notable contributors to this increase in funding include Fonds Strategique de Participations (FSP), an alliance of seven French insurance companies specializing in innovative industrial players, and maritime transport group CMA CGM, alongside existing shareholders like Renault and Bpifrance.

Oslo-based startup Databutton, has successfully secured $5.1 million in a Seed funding round to advance its mission of democratizing AI-based assistants, chatbots, and automation technologies. The $5.1 million Seed round was backed by Skyfall Ventures in Oslo and Maki .vc in Helsinki.

Swiss climate tech startup viboo has recently concluded a seed funding round, amassing €1.7 million in investment. Notable contributors to the funding round include High-Tech Gründerfonds, Swisscom Ventures, and Rainmaking Impact.

ColibriTD, a Paris-based startup in the burgeoning Quantum-as-a-Service sector, has secured €1 million in a Seed funding round. The funding round was spearheaded by Earlybird Venture Capital's Earlybird-X fund, in conjunction with a consortium of undisclosed angel investors.

Swap Language, headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, and specializing in language training, has unveiled the successful closure of a €2 million Seed funding round. The round was prominently led by Mediahuis Ventures in Amsterdam and Sparkmind .VC in Helsinki. Swap Language's strategic intent is to employ these funds for expanding its services into the German market, where it has already initiated a pilot program. The company also has plans to incorporate additional languages into its platform.

Caravelo, a travel-tech company headquartered in Barcelona, has disclosed its successful Series A funding round, amassing €3.5 million in investment. The round was spearheaded by Samaipata, a European early-stage founder's fund, with active participation from Adara Ventures, based in Luxembourg, and various existing investors.

Munich-based defense AI firm Helsing has successfully raised €209 million in a Series B funding round, establishing itself as Europe's most well-funded defense technology startup and a prominent player in the AI industry. General Catalyst leads this round, with strategic investment support from Swedish group Saab, further strengthening their existing partnership.

Amsterdam-based startup Tap Electric has raised €1 million in seed funding, with leading investors including LUMO Labs, Shamrock Ventures, and Fair Capital Partners Impact Investing.

Fipto, a French treasury management fintech, has raised €15 million in seed funding. Fipto offers a global B2B payments and treasury management solution, allowing companies to manage corporate treasuries and make instant international payments in fiat and digital currencies using blockchain technology. The funding round was led by Serena and Motier Ventures.

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