Most startups want to shout as loud as possible about their latest fundraising deal. But a large number of deals are also unannounced: 68% of UK stock deals, according to Beauhurst.
Companies remain silent for various reasons. Some don’t have the PR resources to coordinate a press release, or will have chosen to devote their efforts elsewhere. Others may want to remain secret for a bit longer, or they may have raised funding at a lower valuation than before and don’t want the new figure released.
We take a look at the biggest rounds in the UK that haven’t been announced so far this year (as of May 5).
This data was compiled based on share issue submissions to Companies House, the UK trade register.
1/ Femtogénix
round size: £51.9 million
round date: March 2022
campus: harpenden
Femtogenix is a biotechnology company that uses a drug discovery platform to develop new cancer treatments. The company’s website says its platform allows it to design payload molecules capable of binding to DNA, leading to “potent cytotoxicity toward tumor cells.”
Femtogenix did not respond to a request for comment.
2/ Shop
round size: £51.3 million
round date: March 2022
campus: aberdeen
Scottish company Storegga raised £51.3 million. He is working in COtwo extraction and renewable energy sources.
“There is a lot of investor support available for companies like ours that are developing permanent COs.two removal and clean energy sources,” a spokesperson tells Sifted.
“We bring together investment, technical expertise, market-leading knowledge and engage with industry and government to solve the toughest climate problems in the UK and around the world.”
Storegga says it has received investment from GIC, M&G, Macquarie and Mitsui.
3/ Cloud NC
round date: april 2022
round size: £34.1 million
campus: London and Chelmsford
CloudNC, an Entrepreneur First alumnus, uses AI software to automate parts of the manufacturing process. Its goal is to reduce the time and costs associated with manufacturing.
Atomico led a £9m seed round at the company in 2018, which also happened quietly, although it was eventually confirmed by TechCrunch.
CloudNC did not respond to calls for comment.
4/ Biologics Crescendo
Round date: January 2022
round size: £22.5 million
campus: cambridge
Crescendo Biologics is an immuno-oncology company developing novel T-cell enhancing therapies.
In January, the startup made a deal with the German company BioNTech, which developed one of the vaccines against covid-19. The two signed a three-year collaboration contract, but the figure BioNTech put on Crescendo was not confirmed at the time. Crescendo confirmed to Sifted that he received £22.5m.
5 percent
Round date: January 2022
round size: £22.2 million
campus: London
Founded in 2017, Percent provides businesses with an API to allow customers to donate to charitable causes when they make a transaction. It is often used to round up the original cost.
The percentage did not respond to calls for comment.
6/ Colorifix
Round date: february 2022
round size: £20.7 million
Campus: Norwich
Colorifix is developing sustainable fabric dyeing methods to try to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry. It uses synthetic biology to engineer microorganisms so that they can produce and fix dyes directly onto textiles.
Colorifix did not respond to calls for comment.
7/ intropic
round date: february 2022
round size: £18.6 million
campus: London
Intropic came out of Entrepreneur First. Its website says it provides “data refineries for investment management firms” to help map and cleanse information from different sources.
Their website says they are used by 20 leading hedge funds and their product is built and ready to ship.
Intropic did not respond to request for comment.
8/ Year
Round date: March 2022
round size: £17.3 million
Campus: London
Attio’s website says it’s a data-driven CRM to help teams manage and collaborate on their data. I raise an initial round of $7.7 million in November last year, which was reported.
The company did not respond to request for comment.
Freya Pratty is a reporter at Sifted. She tweets from @Fratty and write our newsletter focused on sustainability — You can sign up here.
