Sourceful finds £15m to help brands decarbonise

Sourceful, a platform for sustainable product sourcing, has secured $20 million (£15.2m) in a Series A funding round led by Index Ventures. Founded in 2020, Sourceful works with brands to find, create and deliver products which are more environmentally friendly by reducing the carbon footprint in their packaging and supply chain.

Minut clocks £11m in Series B funding

Minut, a start-up which monitors noise levels, occupancy, motion and temperature in holiday rental properties in a bid to prevent parties and protect homes, has closed a $14m (£10.7m) Series B round led by Almaz Capital. Using machine learning and AI, the Minut sensor analyses sound volume and events without streaming audio recordings to protect guest privacy. Minut is has secured a partnership with Airbnb, which now recommends the solution to its hosts.

Sano raises £8m for long-term medical research

DNA testing start-up Sano Genetics has raised $11m (£8.4m) in a Series A funding round led by MMC Ventures. Sano has developed a software platform that connects patients living with rare and chronic conditions, such as Long Covid, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, directly with biotech and pharma companies leading medical research, helping them to develop personalised treatments.

Relative Insight picks up £5m investment

Relative Insight, a text analytics platform which helps companies understand market trends and consumer language, has received a £5m investment by YFM Equity Partners (YFM). The start-up’s platform analyses text data from any source (such as surveys, social media and reviews) and its AI-based text analysis techniques highlight critical differences in consumer language to give businesses qualitative data insights.

Tagus Capital buys in to NFT payment system

Wert, the first checkout platform to purchase NFTs with credit cards, has raised $5m (£3.8m) in a seed round led by UK-based crypto fund Tagus Capital. Wert (which means “value” in German) uses embedded finance technology to simplify the purchasing of NFTs and other decentralised finance (DeFi) products. Through the checkout interface, non-crypto owners can buy NFTs directly and participate in the Web3 ecosystem.

Swytch pedals away with £3m investment

Eco-friendly e-bike conversion kit company Swytch has raised £3.1m from OnePlanetCapital. Swytch creates a product that can be used on 99 per cent of bikes world-wide, allowing a standard bike to transition easily and indefinitely into an e-bike. They claim to have been able to save more than 17,000 tonnes of CO2 over the past two years with over 500 car miles avoided annually per customer.

Tech solution for shift workers secures £3m

Manchester-based Orka, a business which provides tech-based solutions for shift workers and their employers, has secured a £3m investment from Praetura Ventures. Orka’s products include a platform that enables workers to find temporary employment with large organisations and a soon-to-be-launched passport system, which will eliminate the need for background checks every time someone sources work through the platform. The funding follows an earlier £29m investment into the start-up.

Employee benefits platform lands another £750,000

A Bristol-based start-up that has developed a digital employee benefits platform has raised £750,000 from Mercia. Cloud8’s platform BEAM at Work allows employee benefits consultancies and other advisers to deliver online services, increase efficiency and improve client service. The latest funding round, which comes from Mercia’s EIS funds, brings the total raised to date to £2.75m.

Woodland regeneration start-up grows £370,000 seed investment

A company aiming to create healthy forest ecosystems has secured £370,000. Edinburgh-based Rhizocore Technologies, which plans to support the planting of 40 million new trees in the UK every year, produces adapted fungi to enhance tree-planting projects. The company’s specially developed fungal pellets are used when new saplings are planted, helping accelerate woodland regeneration and improve forest productivity. The seed investment package includes £85,000 of funding via the Edinburgh Technology Fund (ETF) and £130,000 from Nucleus Capital.

More Deals of the Week

Deals of the Week 21 March to 25 March – a Growth Business round-up 

Deals of the Week 14 March to 18 March – a Growth Business round-up 

Deals of the Week Mar 7 to Mar 11 – a Growth Business round-up