22OCT

Basecamp Research, TrueLayer and three regional firms raise

1 min read

16:30UTC

Basecamp Research's £105.6m Series C topped a run of rounds that reached Cardiff, St Helens and Belfast, with TrueLayer backed by Italy's state lender.

← Back to Stryker agrees option to buy CMR Surgical Jump to analysis ↓

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Key takeaway

Basecamp Research led a spread of rounds reaching Wales, northern England and Northern Ireland.

Basecamp Research closed a £105.6m Series C for six drug programmes from its AI-led discovery platform, the largest round of a £262.8m week⁠¹. TrueLayer raised £20.4m led by CDP Venture Capital, venture arm of Italy's state lender, to expand Pay by Bank across Europe⁠²; Manchester's Ryft closed its own payments Series B in September.

Three more rounds put money into plants and products away from London. Reclinker raised a £10m Series A co-led by Clean Growth Fund and AP Ventures to take cement recycling into commercial production in Cardiff⁠³. Inovus Medical of St Helens closed a $9.3m round, taking total funding to $20m, to sell its surgical simulators in the United States⁠⁴. CATAGEN of Belfast secured undisclosed finance, guaranteed by UK Export Finance, to put its sustainable aviation fuel units into production⁠⁵.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Five smaller British companies raised money. Basecamp Research uses AI to look for new medicines. TrueLayer lets people pay shops straight from their bank account. Reclinker recycles old cement in Cardiff. Inovus Medical in St Helens makes machines that let surgeons practise operations. CATAGEN in Belfast is building equipment to make cleaner aircraft fuel.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Cement is one of the hardest industrial emissions to cut, because making clinker releases carbon dioxide from limestone as well as from fuel. Recycling used cement into new clinker attacks that chemical source directly.

First Reported In

Update #16 · Stryker agrees option to buy CMR Surgical

Startupmag· 22 Oct 2026

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Different Perspectives

Abu Dhabi Investment Council

The Abu Dhabi Investment Council holds notes in Nscale's $3.36bn pre-IPO raise, beside Third Point, Apollo, Citadel and Nvidia. No British institution appears among the named holders of notes that convert into shares at Nscale's New York listing.

CDP Venture Capital

CDP Venture Capital, the venture arm of Italy's state lender, led TrueLayer's £20.4m round to expand Pay by Bank across Europe. A foreign state investor set the terms on a London fintech round in the same month the British Business Bank mostly followed.

EDBI

Singapore's state investor EDBI joined Universal Quantum's Series A of more than $100m, and the Sussex company is opening its first research centre outside Europe in Singapore. British state money is absent from the largest Series A by a UK quantum company.

Forbion

Forbion co-led OMass Therapeutics' $310m Series C with Bain Capital Life Sciences and Novo Holdings, while the British Business Bank and Syncona followed. The terms of the Oxford spinout's round were set by investors from three countries, none of them Britain.

British Business Bank

The Bank committed £180m to six AI funds on 15 October with no UK-deployment condition, yet led the first close of Microbiotica's £36m Series C. That lead, with Airtel Money choosing London for its £5.3bn debut, is the evidence that British money and markets still set some terms.

Stryker Corporation

Stryker called its roughly $400m CMR Surgical deal its entry into soft-tissue robotics, taking US sales rights for Versius, a board seat and an exclusive option over 100% of the company. The option lets Stryker choose whether and when a Cambridge robot maker becomes part of an American group.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.