Oxford Nanopore, Guider & Sunsave – the week’s best-read stories

FTSE 250 constituent Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc released positive results for the first half of 2025 and saw a stark increase in its share price. It rose from 145.8p at the close of play on Friday to 176.02p on Monday morning.

EdTech firm Thrive has acquired AI-powered mentoring and coaching platform Guider in a multi-million-pound deal. It is the first acquisition to be made by the Nottingham-based Thrive all-in-one learning platform.

Sunsave, the UK’s first FCA-authorised solar subscription service, has raised £113m to accelerate its rollout of rooftop solar across England and Wales. The aim is to help tens of thousands of British households install rooftop solar panels over the coming years.

Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett has resigned as a director of the PR company he acquired in 2022. R.Agency, originally known as Rebecca Abigail after its founder Rebecca Ridge, was founded in 2013 and has worked with the likes of Tinder, Hinge and what3words.

Burnley FC and X have partnered in a deal that will see the social media platform produce its first X Originals content series in the UK. The series will exclusively capture first-team players, staff and leaders behind the scenes at the club and will see 20 fortnightly episodes, beginning early in the 2025-26 season.

A founding shareholder and former chairman of British retail giant N Brown Group has passed away at the age of 93. Tributes have flooded in for Iran-born Lord David Alliance CBE, who started his career in the bazaars of the Asian country before moving to Manchester aged 18.

Sarah Louise Fairburn: Disrupting the world of food and drink gifting. Meet the entrepreneur on a mission to turn IMP & MAKER into the UK’s go-to business for the industry. 

MONET, a financial platform transforming cashflow management for creative agencies, has secured an early-stage funding commitment of £17m ahead of closing its seed round this July. The ‘unique’ investment is led by prominent UK banking executives, including Paul Rippon, the co-founder of challenger banks Monzo and Starling.