Karshare hitches £3m pre-Series A

Karshare, the community car-sharing app, has closed £3m in pre-Series A with Saracens rugby club owner Nigel Wray joining existing investors Fullbrook Thorpe and Adjuvo. Since launching last year in Bristol, Manchester, Coventry and London, Karshare has seen a 45 per cent increase in rentals. The new investment will help the car-sharing app launch in Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh and rural communities such as Strathaven and Talybont.

Karshare calls itself the first fully on-demand, peer-to-peer car sharing platform in Europe. People can rent their car to others, taking 24 cars off the road for every one which participates. Renters book through the app and cars are equipped with keyless technology.

Shot Scope birdies £1.5m from Virgin Money

Virgin Money has invested £1.5m in Edinburgh-based golf improvement wearables manufacturer Shot Scope. Existing investors in the technology, which helps golfers improve their game, include Old College Capital, Equity Gap and Scottish National Investment Bank, which between them have invested £7m in the company. On average golfers of all abilities experience an improvement of 2.7 shots in fewer than 25 rounds of golf using Shot Scope.

SnapDragon swoops on £1.2m in new funding

SnapDragon Monitoring, an online brand protection business, has raised £1.2m in its latest funding round from ACF Investors, Mercia, and Scottish Enterprise. The company helps brand owners identify and remove fakes, copycats and online threats, using intellectual property to do so. To date, SnapDragon Montoring has raised just over £3m.

Fake products account for over 3.3 per cent of world trade each year, according to the OECD. SnapDragon Monitoring’s “Swoop” platform searches for copies and counterfeits of products and brands, so that they can be removed from sale.

Chromacity lasers in on £1.2m funding round

Chromacity, which develops ultrafast fibre lasers for a wide range of scientific and industrial applications, has closed a £1.2m funding round. Contributors to the round include existing investors, Kelvin Capital, EOS and the Scottish Investment Bank, as well as new impact investor ESM Investments. The ultrafast laser manufacturer will use the funding to expand the company’s workforce, particularly within its manufacturing and R&D divisions.

More Deals of the Week

Deals of the week August 2 to August 6 – a GrowthBusiness roundup