Newsletter: VC Breakfast Club

/espresso

• Marshmallow raises €79.4M to expand financial services for newcomers.

• Nyobolt lands $30M for ultra-fast EV battery charging tech.

• Skin Analytics secures £15M to scale AI-driven cancer detection in NHS.

/raising (?)

Are you raising? Founders, let me know here.

/deals

🚗 Marshmallow raises €79.4M to expand its digital motor insurance and financial services for newcomers to the UK, with plans for international growth beyond insurance.

⚡ Cambridge-based Nyobolt raised $30M to scale its ultra-fast charging battery tech, supporting EVs, AI data centres, and industrial applications with sub-5-minute charge times and high-power density.

🩺 Skin Analytics, an AI startup for skin cancer detection, raised £15M to expand its NHS-deployed tech that diagnoses with 99.9% accuracy and reduces unnecessary appointments by up to 95%.

🎮 UK-based sports betting startup Midnite raised $10M in Series B led by Discerning Capital, Raine Group, and Play Ventures to scale its self-built platform and disrupt the UK betting market.

🏡 Homemove, a London-based proptech startup simplifying home moves, raised $5M led by Fuel Ventures to expand its all-in-one platform across mortgages, conveyancing, surveys, and removals.

💊 Cambridge-based Healthera raised an additional £2M, bringing its Series A to £5.6M, to accelerate growth of its digital pharmacy platform and North American expansion.

🤖 Portia AI, founded by ex-Stripe and Google execs, raised £4.4M led by General Catalyst to build secure, in-house AI agents for enterprise workflows.

📄 Vizzy, a London-based startup reinventing CVs with dynamic, data-rich profiles, raised £3.65M to scale its talent platform used by brands like Burberry and Virgin.

🧪 Oxford spinout Mode Labs raised £3M to launch ultra-sensitive, low-cost chemical sensors for real-time water monitoring, aiming to meet soaring environmental regulation demands across the UK and beyond.

🎬 London-based AI creative studio Wonder raised €2.6M pre-seed to slash film production costs and empower next-gen storytellers with AI-driven, faster, and more inclusive content creation tools.

📆 Booked it raised £2.5M from Calculus Capital to scale its booking, CRM, and loyalty platform, aiming to hit £1B in annual bookings amid booming experience-led consumer demand.

🌾 Salford-based Fotenix raised £2.1M to scale its AI-driven crop diagnostics platform, which uses 3D imaging to detect plant stress and disease early, improving yields and reducing pesticide use.

🩺 Cambridge-based Healthera raised an additional £2M to expand its digital pharmacy platform and accelerate North American growth, bringing its total Series A funding to £5.6M.

🧠 London-based Inephany raised £1.8M to reduce AI training costs with a real-time optimisation platform for neural networks, aiming for 10x efficiency in compute-heavy model development.

🚐 Flock Mobility raised €1.1M to expand its AI-driven EV fleet platform, delivering smart, shared transport solutions for NHS, local authorities, and enterprise partners across the UK..

🛩️ Hammer Missions raises €1.6M to expand its AI-powered drone inspection platform to the US, streamlining building assessments for AEC firms with automated 3D reports and data insights.

👕 London startup Matoha raised £1.5M to scale its AI-powered textile identification scanners, aiming to automate sorting for recycling and tackle the growing challenge of end-of-life garment waste.

🥗 Weight loss startup Habitual raised £1M from Lexham Partners to scale its holistic support platform, combining GLP-1 prescriptions like Wegovy with personalised coaching and nutrition.

🔌 Gateshead-based equiwatt raised £700k to launch a SaaS platform helping utilities reward consumers for cutting energy use at peak times, ahead of a planned Series A.

🛋️ Gen-Z rental app Loby raised £377k pre-seed to expand its group apartment booking platform, backed by SFC Capital and driven by viral TikTok growth.

🏃 Strava has acquired UK-based Runna, a personalised running app backed by athletes and celebrities, to strengthen its global fitness platform and expand personalised training offerings.

/funds

🎓 Oxford Science Enterprises raised $232M in venture debt from Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank - becoming one of the first early-stage VCs to secure a NAV facility for spinout funding.

💼 Aviva Investors has committed £9.8M to Lakestar’s Growth Fund II, backing deep tech, health, fintech, and digitalisation startups alongside previous investments in Oxford Science Enterprises and Northern Gritstone.

/tech

• NICE has approved 11 robotic surgery systems for NHS use, aiming to improve precision, recovery times, and access, while collecting evidence over three years to assess long-term value.

• 🎓 Edge Hill University students placed second at Unibots UK 2025 with an autonomous robot, showcasing innovation in robotics, engineering, and AI at a national competition in Cambridge.

/flywheel

• Tour de Tech 2025 returns with four Oxfordshire road cycling meetups for tech founders, investors, and advisors - mixing 40km rides with post-ride pints, burgers, and networking.

• London startups raised £2.69B in Q1 2025, driven by AI and healthtech megadeals. Despite fewer deals, investor confidence remains strong amid record VC fundraising and global competitiveness.

• 🤖 Birmingham will host the 2027 European Robotics Forum, bringing 1,500+ delegates and a £1.55M boost—cementing the region’s rise as a hub for robotics and AI innovation.

/breakfast

• When does deeptech become venture-backable?

• 15 sports tech VCs and athlete angels

• 7 young Oxford VCs backing Oxford founders

📸 /techbrunch

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

This week, social media has been quite (very) vitriolic in response to the Blue Horizon launch. I imagine world leaders agreeing to use the 11 minutes trip to the Karman Line as a time-out for troublesome technocrats.

• Caption this in comments?