Equipal secures over £16m funding

Equipal secures over £16m funding - equipal funding — Equipal secures over £16m funding

Business equipment fintech funder Equipal has secured £16.25m in combined equity investment and forward flow funding from Altum Capital Management. The funds will support growth plans, including hiring in business development, marketing, operations, credit, and data. By expanding its team across multiple critical functions, the company aims to accelerate adoption among vendors while maintaining rigorous underwriting standards.

The London-based company, soft-launched in 2021 by former investment banker Eamonn McMahon, provides tech-enabled financing for business equipment. Its platform is embedded at the point of sale and used by vendors in manufacturing, agriculture, and transport.

McMahon said the deal provides operating flexibility and room for future scaling. “While the market environment has been challenging, our resilience and credit discipline have kept us on track,” he noted.

This latest raise follows other notable June funding rounds. Irish space-tech firm Ubotica secured $11m for its AI-powered platform, led by Act Venture Capital and Greencode Ventures, with participation from existing backer Atlantic Bridge. Ubotica’s platform leverages artificial intelligence to enhance satellite and Earth observation capabilities, addressing demand in sectors such as agriculture, defence, and climate monitoring. The round reflects growing investor interest in space-based AI applications.

Paris-based Tsuga, an AI observability startup, raised $35m in a Series A round, with backers including Singular and General Catalyst, alongside DST Global Partners, Picus, Databricks Ventures, and Quantumlight. Tsuga’s technology helps enterprises monitor and optimise AI systems in production, ensuring reliability and performance. The participation of both existing and new investors shows confidence in the scalability of its observability tools amid rising enterprise adoption of AI.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek also recently closed a round exceeding $7bn. Reports indicate investors directed funds into a limited partnership managed by CEO Liang Wenfeng, rather than the company itself. This structure allows DeepSeek to deploy capital with greater agility, potentially accelerating research and development in large-scale AI models while maintaining control over strategic direction. The scale of the raise highlights the intense competition and capital intensity in the global AI race.

Equipal’s platform allows vendors to offer financing directly to customers, streamlining equipment purchases. The company’s model relies on in-house technology to manage risk and credit assessments. By developing its own underwriting algorithms and data analytics, Equipal can tailor financing terms to the specific needs of different industries, from heavy machinery in manufacturing to precision tools in agriculture. This vertical-specific approach differentiates it from generic financing providers, offering vendors a competitive edge in their markets.