Blog by Briony Phillips, Investment Activator
Autumn is gearing up and with it, there is a little equity investment news to share. Just ten companies raised investment in September, totalling £10.5 million, which is lower than the last four Septembers, and the fourth lowest amount in the last 3 years.
It’s no secret that the high inflation and interest rates are impacting investment behaviours but this isn’t new this month. However, this is the first time it’s seriously affected the South West investment pattern since January this year. The question that remains is: is this an anomaly or a pattern for the rest of the year? We’ll have to wait and see…
Four companies shared their investment news publicly, read on to find out more about them.
Molendotech
South West research and development company Molendotech is the latest business to be supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund. The business has secured a £500,000 CIOSIF equity investment, as part of an oversubscribed £1m funding round which includes investment from appointed CIOSIF fund manager, The FSE Group, Exeter-based VC firm QantX, a number of existing private investors and the management team.
Honk Honk
We hear from Honk Honk CEO, Sebastien Duval and learn about the recently launched business, their vision, ambitions, journey to date and their longstanding relationship with Dorset Business Angels (DBA) and the support, commitment and guidance received to date. The newly launched business aims to revolutionise the car buying and selling experience throughout the UK, using the Honk Honk marketplace, ‘to make selling your old car and buying a new one as easy as any other online purchase.’ It launched in September 2023, having secured a DBA investment of £340,000, as part of an initial seed investment of £560,000.
HERD
Following a successful summer of fundraising campaigns for Prime Advantage Capital Partners, it is pleased to announce that its client, HERD, has completed their SEIS round. HERD is a luxury sustainable English knitwear brand, built on a regenerative sustainability model. Made from Bluefaced Leicester fleeces, bought directly from farmers in Northern England, HERD’s knitwear is superior in quality to Merino and has a net positive impact on the environment, compared to the very significant carbon footprint of Merino.
TravelLocal
Bristol-founded TravelLocal, the leading brand and online marketplace platform for tailor-made holidays, has landed £8.3m to accelerate its international growth. Formerly on the SETsquared Bristol incubation programme, the company was advised by ICON, the Bristol-based specialist corporate finance boutique, which introduced lead backer Puma Private Equity to invest alongside existing funders Active Partners and Gresham House Ventures on the Series B round.
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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