Deals of the Week Oct 31 to Nov 4 – a Growth Business round-up

Deals this week include manmade meat production, an app for monitoring eye health and an AI platform which spots shoplifting

Manmade meat start-up gets teeth into £11m  

Edinburgh-based Roslin Technologies, a start-up developing cells for the meat industry without raising animals, has raised £11m in Series A funding. Novo Holdings led the round with participation from Scottish Enterprise and existing investors Future Planet Capital and Old College Capital.  

Roslin cultivates real animal cells which can “self-renew forever and differentiate into any tissue” including muscle and fat. These can then be used by producers to create meat in bioreactors.  

Consumer insights platform bags £3m  

A Manchester-based consumer insights company has raised £3m in funding led by YFM Equity Partners

Vypr allows companies to get a quick insight on certain “steers” when they’re toying with options to improve their product or service, from packaging and product concepts to flavour variants. Companies ask the platform’s consumer community a question and they in turn reply which of the options they prefer.  

VR platform for training doctors raises further £2.1m 

A VR platform that provides highly realistic training for healthcare professionals has raised a further £2.1m in funding. Backers include ACF Investors and angel investors.  

Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) uses VR to put the trainee in hundreds of clinical scenarios including consultations, emergencies and procedures with the aim of training doctors and nurses more efficiently.  

Sight loss prevention app eyes £2m  

A Bristol-based app provider for monitoring eye health has closed a £2m pre-seed round led by Cologne-based VC DvH Ventures.  

OKKO Health allows patients with macular disease – which affects 1.5 million people in the UK and is the leading cause of sight loss in developed nations – to play a game on their phone which can inform clinicians of any changes in sensitivity to contrast and colour vision.  

CCTV monitoring platform clocks £2m  

Unmanned CCTV start-up Everyangle has secured £2m in a funding round co-led by Sure Valley Ventures, Act Venture Capital and Furthr VC, with participation from Enterprise Ireland.  

The start-up’s CCTV analysis platform alerts retailers when someone is acting suspiciously – like scan avoidance at self-checkout, without the need for human review. The start-up says less than 0.1 per cent of CCTV footage is currently monitored by a human. The platform can also provide analytics on footfall and customer demographics. 

Children’s food delivery start-up served up £150,000 

A frozen food delivery service offering nutritionally balanced family meals has raised £150,000 in SEIS funding.  

The Family Food Co partners with a paediatric dietician to offer nine healthy kids’ meals and three family meals, including vegan-friendly options. The start-up is aiming to cut down the time families spend planning meals while on a busy schedule. 

More Deals of the Week

Deals of the Week Oct 24 to Oct 28 – a Growth Business round-up

Deals of the Week Oct 17 to Oct 21 – a Growth Business round-up

Deals of the Week Oct 10 to Oct 14 – a Growth Business round-up

Dom Walbanke

Dom Walbanke

Dom is a feature writer for Growth Business and Small Business, focused on matters concerning start-ups and scale-ups. He has also been published in the Independent, FourFourTwo magazine and various lifestyle...