Innovate UK is a government-backed agency supporting business-led innovation across the United Kingdom.
Manchester-based sustainable marketplace Veopolis raises £300k from Solid Bond Venture Builder and Innovate UK.
"We’re delighted to support Veo in securing this funding. The RAIA project is focussed on helping innovative North businesses secure finance for growth by attracting co-investment from Angels. Manchester and the wider North are a hotbed of innovation, and I’m delighted we’ve been able to help another disruptive business grow their offer and reach new markets."
The pre-seed round will back research and development as well as sales and marketing expansion.
"Machine learning is more and more integral to products and services we use every day – and to decisions that businesses and governments make about us – but without a widely-accessible way of identifying and eliminating bias, it could cause significant damage to our society by further entrenching discriminatory decision-making despite our best intentions and without us even realising."
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Force Over Mass led the seed round for the privacy-first advertising platform.
"Our vision for Glimpse Protocol is to set new standards for privacy in advertising, becoming the kitemark that consumers can trust. This investment enables us to roll out our technology that delivers valuable, effective advertising while respecting consumer privacy. With consumers, regulators and tech giants taking action on data privacy, the digital advertising industry is seeking a solution that can weather technical changes and increasingly stringent privacy requirements. Unlike our competitors, who offer partial stopgaps, Glimpse Protocol provides a uniquely clear vision of how the problem can and must be tackled."
The seed round was led by Founders Fund with participation from several investors and a public grant.
"We are thrilled to back this innovative group out of the UK, there have been many attempts at small satellite propulsion innovation over the past decade, but they have been marginal improvements on pre-existing technology, Magdrive is the first step-change improvement offering the best of chemical and electric propulsion in a single system."
The grant comes from Innovate UK through the Sustainable Innovation Fund.
"Fixed schedules lead to static groupings of the same people in the same office at the same time. A company’s culture is the mix of all its people, not just those in the office on Mondays. Catering for flexible working practices will not only maximise staff interactions remotely and physically but create a more equal playing field for a diverse workforce. We can’t sleepwalk into a situation where employees who are less present in the office or work on different days to other key stakeholders, miss out on opportunities. It will lead to the people who are remote most often or on fixed days getting promoted less or being overlooked."
