CyberSmart secures £5.5m investment

CyberSmart has raised £5.5m in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm IQ Capital and other cybersecurity and tech entrepreneur investors.

The funding will be used to continue the company’s rapid growth (300 per cent over the last 12 months) and increase its ability to help small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) combat the constant threat of cyber-attacks and increasing regulation.

IQ Capital, a venture capital firm based in Cambridge and London, primarily invests in “deep-tech” with an initial investment range from £300,00 to £5m and capacity for follow-on investment up to £30m.

Meditopia receives healthy $15m investment

Meditopia – a mental coach app intended for non-English speaking markets – has closed a Series A investment of $15m co-led by Creandum and Highland Europe.

The Turkish-German firm, based in Istanbul and Berlin, will use capital raised to increasing services both quantitively and geographically, expanding out of the 75 countries where the app is already live.

Carl Fritjofsson of Creandum and Fergal Mullen of Highland Europe will also join Meditopia’s board of directors.

Creandum, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Stockholm, Berlin, and San Francisco, has a varied portfolio which focuses on a wide range of tech sectors with an initial investment range of €200,000 to €8m, it has been an early backer of Spotify, iZettle, and Klarna.

Milaya Capital banks on Lanistar with £15m in funds

Lanistar, an banking alternative firm, has received a £15m investment from Milaya Capital to develop a new service, which will utilise into polymorphic technology, to provide better security and customer service.

The investment will help Lanistar grow its operational and customer support teams, and scale it towards its product launch.

The venture capital firm has agreed terms for a 10 per cent stake in the company in exchange for their investment, giving the company a current £150m valuation before its launch in winter 2020.

£1.1m in a wave of new funding for medtech company

BrainWaveBank Limited, an artificial intelligence company focused on developing a machine learning-enabled neurocognitive platform for in-home assessment, announces the closing of a £1.1m financing round led by Par Equity and supported by current investors Techstart Ventures, Co-Fund II, Angel CoFund and British Business Investors.

The investment will be used by the Irish company to further develop its technology, to scale its commercial activities, and to roll the platform out into the global clinical trials market.

This is Par Equity’s second investment in the company, which also announced in April 2020, a £75m investment programme with British Business Investments to support more companies in the north of the UK.

£167m for ETF Partners’ Environmental Fund

London-based ETF Partners has closed its third Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF3) at £167m, with the capital raised channelled into climate change solutions to power a strong economic recovery.

ETF Partners’ fund has already supported companies in diverse fields such as smart mobility, ethical cybersecurity, microbiome AI and software, and energy-efficient data centres.

The funds were raised from a combination of existing and new Limited Partners, including British Patient Capital and the European Investment Fund.

British Patient Capital is the commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank, which has been given new resources of £2.5bn and will deliver a programme designed to support UK businesses.

Relief for UK businesses with £1.5m loan from Unity Trust Bank

Unity Trust Bank, a UK specialist business bank with an interest in making ethical loans, has supported a financial relief package for SMEs in South-East England which are suffering during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Up to 20 SMEs will benefit after the bank loaned £1.5m to Let’s Do Business Finance – an accredited lender of the Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Capitalise Business Support, the finance arm of the Let’s Do Business Group, will provide average loans of £80,000 to help struggling firms.

Let’s Do Business Finance, is a provider of business advice and loans to SMEs in the south east and last year provided £5m worth of funds to 472 businesses.

Further reading

Deals of the week July 2-9 – Growth Business roundup