Mike Butcher
Editor At Large
The Latest from Mike Butcher
Financial automation startup Aurelia raises $3M seed round led by Blossom Capital
Financial automation platform Aurelia has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Blossom Capital. Billing itself as a sort of “IFTTT for finance” aimed at small businesses that want to integrate
Founders Factory and G-Force launch seed program for climate-focused startups
U.K. tech accelerator Founders Factory is joining forces with a European counterpart to launch the Founders Factory Sustainability Seed program. Launched in partnership with G-Force (the “G̶
Food sharing app OLIO raises $43M Series B, as the world switches on to the food waste crisis
It was curious enough that OLIO, a U.K. startup with an app that lets users post a photo of unwanted food and share it with the local neighborhood, picked up $6 million in Series A funding back in 201
NYC-based insurance underwriting platform Kalepa raises $14M Series A led by Inspired Capital
Kalepa, an insurance underwriting platform based out of New York, has raised a $14 million Series A funding round led by Inspired Capital, with participation from previous investor IA Ventures. Also p
Acquired by Mercedes-Benz, YASA’s revolutionary electric motor is set for big things
Back in July, YASA (formerly Yokeless And Segmented Armature), a British electric motor startup with a revolutionary “axial-flux” motor, was acquired by Mercedes-Benz. The acquisition didn
Australia’s TechnologyOne acquires UK-based higher-ed platform Scientia for $16.6M
TechnologyOne, an Australian SaaS enterprise, has agreed to acquire U.K.-based higher education software provider Scientia for £12 million/$16.6 million in cash. TechnologyOne claims to have 75% of h
iPhone inside 30 mins? Germany’s Arive brings consumer brands to your door, raises €6M
In Europe and the U.S. we are very much getting used to groceries being delivered within 15 minutes, with a huge battleground of startups in the space. Startups across Europe and the U.S. have raised
Stravito raises $14.6M to create a ‘Netflix for enterprise market research’
Market research and insights are often underutilized assets for enterprises, but it’s usually too hard to find content and there’s a lot of duplication, or information isn’t used well. Swedish s
Sphere raises $2M to help employees lobby for green 401(k) plans
In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored defined-contribution pension account. However, with legacy institutional investing, most of these have at least some level of fossil fuel i
Danish startup Responsibly raises $2M to benchmark supply chains on climate, diversity
If the world is to reach net zero, and avoid climate disaster, it needs to make every product sustainable, and that means every purchase. But to do that you need a lot more transparency, so that means
‘Autonomous accounting’ platform Vic.ai raises $50M round led by ICONIQ Growth
Vic.ai, a startup that has built an AI-based platform it claims can “automate” enterprise accounting, has raised a $50 million Series B round led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation from
Vector design tool Vectornator raises $20M round led by EQT Ventures
It’s an age-old tech industry story: company comes up with a tool to solve its own problem, then realizes the tool is actually worth more than the existing company. Something similar happened to Lin
CoachHub raises $80M in Series ‘B2’ round, as coaching goes digital in the pandemic
The world of professional coaching has grown over the years as coaches realised they could easily counsel people remotely and clients realized digital coaching was far more efficient. But, equally, a
Borzo, a delivery startup which focuses on emerging economies, raises $35M
If you’re in India, the Philippines, Russia or Vietnam, Amazon Prime and Gorillas are probably not that much use to you. Comparable to DoorDash Drive or Lalamove (Malaysia), Dostavista is a “crowd
xentral, an ERP platform for SMBs, raises $75M Series B from Tiger Global and Meritech
Enterprise Resource Planning systems have traditionally been the preserve of larger companies, but in recent years the amount of data small to medium-sized businesses can generate has increased to the
Employee talent predictor retrain.ai raised another $7M, adds Splunk as strategic investor
Automation will displace 85 million jobs while simultaneously creating 97 million new jobs by 2025, according to the World Economic Forum. Although that sounds like good news, the hard reality is that
Contact, a platform for creatives backed by Maisie Williams, raises $1.9M seed led by Founders Fund
With the pandemic digitizing every aspect of our lives, the Creator Economy has taken off like never before, with some estimates saying it’s now a $100 billion+ market. And yet, managing your pr
Mirthy raises $1.1M pre-seed funding to build out platform for sprightly boomers
As baby boomers (aged 57-75 at this point) and Gen X (aged 41-56) head into their dotage, they are no longer the “senior citizens” of yore, being still active and, often, healthy. But leaving work
Construction management platform Remato raises $1.7M seed from Passion Capital
Small and medium-sized construction businesses in Europe and the U.S. tend not to be run on digital platforms, leaving a $1.6 trillion industry relatively untouched. Publicly listed Procore (NYSE: PCO
CRANQ launches to save developers time when adding text code
When adding text code from a third-party source into a platform, the process is an unavoidable and time-consuming chore. Developers currently spend a large part of their day reviewing things like “N