IKEA pinpoints £12m investment in what3words

Ingka Investments, the investment arm of IKEA, has invested £12m in location technology what3words. The system uses three words to pinpoint a location within 3 sq m. Ideal for logistics and deliveries as well as emergency services, what3words also pinpoints addresses in developing countries without any kind of postcode system. What3Words has raised more than £80m in capital to date from investors including Intel, ITV, Deutsche Bahn, Subaru and the Sony Investment Fund.

Ziglu cryptocurrency app closes £6.1m seed round

Ziglu, the app which provides safe, transparent access to buy cryptocurrencies using its Mastercard debit card, closed a £6.1m seed round. Angel Investment Network committed nearly £900,000 to the seed round. Ziglu points out that this seed round raised more and at a higher valuation than Revolut or Monzo at a similar stage.

Praetura Ventures enthusiastic about Enthuse

Praetura Ventures led a £3.5m Series A funding round into Enthuse, a white-label donations, fundraising and events platform. Existing investors in Enthuse also reinvested, bringing the total amount raised to £7.5m.

Enthuse provides charity-branded donation, fundraising and event-management tools to more than 4,000 charities, helping them raise more than £100m to date. It supports one in five of the UK’s largest charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, NSPCC, WWF and Save the Children.

Praetura gets real with £2m virtual reality investment

And Praetura Ventures also led a £2m funding round for Manchester-based virtual world developer PixelMax in tandem with ACT Capital Partners. PixelMax has created a virtual hospital department for one NHS Trust to help patients and families prepare for treatment.

Adapttech closes £2m in more venture funding

Biomedical start-up Adapttech has raised £2m in new venture capital funding to help improve the fitting of prosthetic devices. New investors including ACF Investors, Wealth Club and Wren Capital joined existing investors MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund and Bionova Capital. The new funding will be used for new product development and to drive sales of its Insight system, which makes it faster and easier to correctly fit lower-limb prostheses and monitor rehabilitation.

Angel investors bless IPG with £2m Series A funding

Intelligent Power Generation, which develops turbine technology to wean industry off diesel in favour of renewables such as hydrogen and biogas, has closed £2m so far of its £3-4.5m Series A round through angel investors.

UCL Investors and IP Group get Intrinsic

UCL Investors and IP Group have led a £1.35m seed funding round for Intrinsic, whose semiconductor technology helps speed up chips needed for the next generation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

SFC Capital gets stuck on Stickies

SFC Capital has led a £325,000 investment round in Sticky.to, mobile phone technology which blends physical and online shopping by giving customers better experiences instore. SFC discovered Sticky.to as part of the Decksender platform, which connects start-ups and growth companies with angel investors and VCs.

Further reading

Deals of the week March 15 to March 19 – GrowthBusiness roundup