Blog by Briony Phillips, Investment Activator
Last year, October saw £227 million closed by companies in the South West, so there was a precedent for an impressive number and 2022 hasn’t let us down. Eighteen companies have closed equity investments totalling £113 million; ten of those companies have announced the news publicly amounting to £107m in total, read on to find out more about them.
Amschela
A Bristol-based luxury handbag company has secured a six-figure sum as part of a Series A funding round. Amschela, which featured in London Fashion Week earlier in the year, said the investment would allow the company to scale its domestic and international market operations – and provide opportunities to young people in the South West. The lead investor for the round was Bristol & Bath Regional Capital (BBRC) – the West of England’s first home-grown place-based investor.
Bud
National law firm Freeths has advised Maven Capital Partners UK LLP, a leading UK-based private equity and investment firm with over £650m of funds under management, on its £3m investment in Bud Systems Limited. Bristol-based Bud provides specialist software as a service to apprenticeship and other training organisations to enable the delivery of high-quality, compliant training whilst improving the visibility of progress and performance.
Enate
Enate, a Cheltenham-based intelligent automation platform, has received a follow-on investment round of £2 million from Mercia, a growth-focused investment firm. The company will use the funds to accelerate its geographic footprint, extending its client and partner coverage in existing and new market verticals in the UK and across the globe.
GoCollaborate
A Cornish digital community engagement platform has secured a £120,000 equity investment from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF), as part of a larger £240,000 round. GoCollaborate is an online platform which enables communities to directly impact the planning and development of their local area.
Immersive Labs
Bristol-based cyber-security firm Immersive Labs has raised $66m (£59.7m) in its latest funding round. The previous SETsquared Bristol member, which counts corporate giants such as HSBC, Citi, Pfizer and Daimler among its customer base, said it would use the capital to continue its growth and investment in its Cyber Workforce Resilience platform.
Moneyhub
Moneyhub, a market leading Open Finance, Open Data, and payments platform, announces that it has secured an initial £35m in funding from high profile backers Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group, with an additional £5m debt facility provided by Shawbrook. Legal & General’s investment is partially subject to regulatory approval.
Newspage
A former England and Bath prop has invested an undisclosed sum in PR platform, Newspage. Launched in 2021, the platform passed its first major milestone of 250,000 pieces of media exposure for its users in early October. Newspage is now building a mobile app, which is due to go live early in the New Year. It will also be launching in the US in Q2 2023.
NVOR
To coincide with the commercial release by NVOR Limited of their Ownership Beyond Doubt service, Fuel Ventures have announced that they have completed and led their pre seed round of £150k investment in Q1 2022, following earlier private investment received by the company in 2021.
OKKO Health
OKKO Health, a developer of eye health self-monitoring apps and another former SETsquared Bristol member, announced the close of a pre-seed round of £2 million to support the launch of its eye health monitoring app in Germany. The round was led by Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (DvH Ventures), based in Cologne, Germany, from its Digital Health Fund.
TruePlayers
Mobile game development studio TruePlayers has secured a £225,000 investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF). This was part of a £475,000 funding round. TruePlayers’ focus is on creating mobile-first titles that embody the essence of successful PC and console experiences, and translating that to mobile games. The investment money will be used to grow the team at TruePlayers by creating 24 new jobs across the next three years within the technology development and sales departments.
This article is written as part of the Investment Activator Programme (IAP) in the West of England. This programme is run by TechSPARK and is kindly sponsored by TLT LLP, delaware, West of England Combined Authority, UWE, Sanderson, Engine Shed and Rocketmakers.
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