Newsletter: VC Breakfast Club

/deals

☁️ London-based Ascendx Cloud raised €97M to scale its AI-driven CRM SaaS apps, expand in the US, and help enterprises unlock more value from platforms like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Snowflake. Backers include Osprey Investors and Columbia Lake Partners.

🔥 London-based Granola, an AI-powered note-taking startup founded by Google alum Chris Pedregal, raised $43M at a $250M valuation. Backed by NFDG and Lightspeed, it's competing with OpenAI and Notion in the enterprise collaboration space.

💼 UK-based Origin has emerged from stealth with $21M to tackle fragmented global employee benefits. Its AI platform, Cuido, consolidates messy vendor data for clients like Pfizer and BCG, enabling real-time insights, cost savings, and strategic HR decisions.

📅 Nottingham-based Cronofy has raised €17.8M from BGF to scale its embedded scheduling platform, expand in the US (already 60% of revenue), and accelerate adoption across sectors like recruitment, healthcare, and fintech.

🏡 London-based ProFinda has secured £3M from Palatine’s Growth Credit Fund to scale its AI workforce optimisation platform. The funding will accelerate international expansion, hiring, and new product development to support global enterprise clients.

🧾 London-based fintech Savea has raised $2.5M in pre-seed funding to launch tokenized investment products backed by physically scarce assets like fine wine and classic cars. Its first product, SAVW, tracks a benchmark wine index via fully-compliant blockchain infrastructure.

🦴 Imperial spinout OSSTEC has raised £2.5M to bring its 3D-printed joint replacement tech to market. The funding supports US regulatory approval, UK clinical trials, and a launch focused on simplifying surgery and reducing implant failure.

⚡ Zendo Energy has raised £1.7M to launch an AI-powered Energy OS that helps data centres manage procurement, forecast AI-driven demand, and reduce costs and emissions, aiming to decarbonise global compute infrastructure.

🏡 Martello has raised £1.2M to modernise environmental risk reporting in UK property deals. Its AI platform replaces static PDFs with real-time dashboards, surfacing risks like flooding and contamination for faster, data-driven conveyancing decisions.

🌱 Imperial spinout Carbon Cell has raised £1.2M to scale its carbon-negative foam alternative to plastic packaging and insulation. The biochar-based material offers a low-carbon drop-in replacement for polystyrene and PUR/PIR foams.

🤖 Salesforce has acquired London-based AI agent startup Convergence just one year after launch. Backed by Balderton, the team will anchor Salesforce’s new AI R&D hub in London to power Agentforce.

Zopa has raised £80M in AT1 capital via a London Stock Exchange bond listing to fund its upcoming current account launch, expand operations, and strengthen its balance sheet without shareholder dilution.

/spotlight

🚀 Cardiff-based Space Forge has landed the largest Series A in UK SpaceTech history - €26.8M led by the NATO Innovation Fund - to scale its in-orbit manufacturing platform. With its returnable ForgeStar satellites, the startup aims to produce advanced semiconductors and supermaterials in microgravity, unlocking cleaner, more efficient components for sectors like energy, quantum, and defence. Upcoming missions in 2025 could cement the UK’s lead in sustainable, space-enabled manufacturing.

/funds

📢 Northern Gritstone has partnered with the University of Liverpool, gaining preferred investor status for spinouts and expanding its northern UK university network. The move boosts access to deeptech startups and strengthens its regional accelerator programme.

🤗 Meridian Health Ventures has launched a €44.7M transatlantic HealthTech fund to scale UK innovation across the NHS and US healthcare. Backed by NHS Trusts and Cedars-Sinai, it supports startups bridging clinical adoption and global growth.

/tech

• 🚗 Yasa has opened a £12m axial-flux motor factory near Oxford, claiming it as the world’s most advanced. Backed by Mercedes-Benz, the site will produce 25,000+ high-efficiency motors annually for EV makers.

/flywheel

• 📊 Venture capital is key to unlocking UK tech growth, argues Will Hutton, who calls for more scale-up funding, regional investment beyond the Golden Triangle, and deeper support for deeptech to rival US innovation success.

• 💡 Swedish AI startup Lovable, now at $50m ARR, is eyeing a London office to tap UK engineering talent while preserving founder friendships in Stockholm. The team has nearly doubled in three months and continues expanding.

/breakfast

• Clarity Sensors raises £2.1M non-dilutive grant from EIC

• 5 UK startups solving for AI's energy problem

• Why photonic chips might be the next deep tech moonshot

📸 /techbrunch

Every week I use GPT to reimagine a TechCrunch story from the week.

🎾 This week - a bit of a change in honor of Wimbledon coming up - as the Times reports Andy Murrary joining Redrice Ventures as an Associate Partner. I imagine his transition from tennis into VC.

• Caption this in comments?