Bite-size news in business & technology, from big breaking stories to funding, appointments & deals
Published: September 16, 2025 at 12:32 pm
AI-powered home care provider Cera has been credited with saving the NHS and government more than £1 billion, according to new analysis by data science company Faculty.
The report found that the company’s preventative model cuts hospital admissions, emergency visits and referrals into residential care, saving over £1.5m a day.
The HealthTech, which is led by the UK’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024, Dr Ben Maruthappu, now has 10,000 carers and nurses delivering around 2.5 million home visits each month.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Sky is to make roughly 600 tech roles redundant as it moves away from the development of new technology platforms.
The broadcaster is beginning a consultation with 900 staff across its Osterley, Leeds and Livingston sites.
Sky said it will refocus on existing services rather than platforms like Sky Glass and Sky Stream television, while more tech functions will be moved to international teams.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 11:53 am
Dragons’ Den star Touker Suleyman is backing customer engagement platform Reward through a new partnership with his fashion brand Hawes & Curtis.
The deal gives the retailer access to Reward’s network of 10 million customers, helping it grow sales online and in-store.
The London-based FinTech connects banks and retailers via its commerce media platform.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 11:38 am
Shop Circle has extended its Series B round to $100 million (£73m), with backing from investors including Nextalia Ventures, 645 Ventures and CDP Venture Capital.
CEO Luca Cartechini said the funding gives the company “firepower to double down” on acquisitions and AI product development.
The London-based firm recently bought API gateway KrakenD and says more deals are already in the pipeline.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 11:36 am
Early-stage investment firm Anthemis and Cambridge AI Venture Partners have together launched CommonAI, a collaborative engineering and computing platform for AI-enabled startups, enterprises, engineers, academics and investors.
Aiming to turbocharge the UK and European AI innovation ecosystem, it seeks to tackle the key challenges and barriers startups and enterprises face, allowing them to innovate safely and cost effectively, reduce their reliance on Big Tech and secure strategic investment.
At the heart of the initiative is a non-profit engineering organisation – Common AI CIC – which will co-develop foundational AI IP in partnership with its members. The platform additionally provides access to CommonAI Compute Ltd – a facilitator of cost-effective GPU resource.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 11:32 am
eCommerce retailer Vanquish Fitness has secured a UKEF-backed trade loan from NatWest to fuel growth ambitions.
Founded in Tottenham in 2014, Vanquish focuses on supplying high-quality active streetwear to a global customer base, with significant sales in the UK and the US.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 11:30 am
Renovare Fuels has appointed George Mkushi as head of engineering as the company accelerates the commercialisation of its sustainable fuel, backed by NASA.
Mkushi previously acted as head of engineering and executive director to firms C-Capture Ltd and East Energy.
The strengthened engineering team will support a growing pipeline of projects, including a £13 million site in Craigmore, Northern Ireland, due to open in 2026.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 11:07 am
Blackfinch Ventures has appointed Dr Simon Porter as principal.
He joins Blackfinch after building his own consultancy firm that helps startups and their management teams with business growth, including planning, strategy, fundraising and exit.
Prior to that Simon held a principal role at Active Partners, where he built strong expertise in Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) investing.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 11:05 am
CleanTech company UCR Group has appointed Mel Morris CBE, seasoned entrepreneur, investor and CEO/co-founder of Corpora.ai, to its advisory board.
Morris brings over five decades of experience founding, scaling, and transforming high-growth ventures across software, AI, medical and cloud technologies to the Southampton business.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 10:20 am
As millions of people turn off ‘X’, I go back to a time before 24-hour news when our TV screen was dominated by an eight-year-old girl playing noughts and crosses with Bubbles the Clown.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 10:19 am
The Data City has appointed its first chief economist in Paul Swinney as it continues its international expansion.
The Leeds-based organisation has built a platform that tracks emerging industries and markets in real time.
Ex-PwC associate Swinney joins after spending 16 years at London-headquartered think tank Centre for Cities and will be tasked with developing the company’s economic insight products, as well as helping to show how its real-time data can replace traditional industry codes.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 10:15 am
FARx, described as the world’s first and only AI fused-biometrics company, has secured £250,000 seed investment.
The round was aided by the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) – a UK Government initiative providing tax relief to investors who fund small, early-stage startups.
The Worcestershire-based company is tackling the escalating threat of AI-driven cyber-attacks currently targeting global commerce, enterprise and critical national infrastructure.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 9:11 am
London-based consumer tech company Nothing has raised $200 million (almost £150m) in a Series C round, valuing the business at $1.3 billion (almost £1bn).
The funding round, which was led by Tiger Global, marks a major milestone for the firm as it becomes the latest UK unicorn.
Its products include the Phone (2), Phone (2a), and Ear (2), which have helped the startup carve out a loyal global community, which is reflected by it previously raising over £8m in community funding rounds.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 8:17 am
Google has announced a £5 billion two-year investment in the UK – covering capital expenditure, research and development, engineering, and Google DeepMind’s AI research in science and healthcare.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves opened its new data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire which it says will help the UK develop its AI economy — advancing AI breakthroughs and supporting a projected 8,250 jobs annually in the UK.
This will help meet growing demand for AI services like Google Cloud, Search and Maps, according to the Big Tech giant.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 7:47 am
A new drone factory will open in Swindon today, making it four companies in the sector who have set up in the town.
Leading European drone maker Tekever is cutting the ribbon on its North Swindon site, with Defence Secretary John Healey MP in attendance.
The firm says the move will bring hundreds of new jobs to the area.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 7:46 am
Angels from OpenAI & Google have backed an agentic AI customer service startup based in London as part of a £9 million funding round.
Anecdote, an AI-powered customer-experience and voice-of-customer (VoC) platform for highly regulated industries, will rebrand to Clarity.
The round was led by Prosus Ventures with participation from STV Al Fund (backed by Google), Sukna Ventures, Wamda Capital, Neo, Oraseya Capital, Phaze Ventures, Propeller and Tech Invest Com as well as angels from OpenAI and Google.
Clarity will use the funding to expand its teams in New York, London and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 7:44 am
A London-based AI-native restaurant management system for hospitality businesses has raised £27 million in Series B funding, bringing total funding to £46m.
Kinnevik led the investment round for Nory, which has experienced a period of rapid growth amid the company doubling down on building AI assistants and global expansion.
The news comes just one year after the firm’s Series A, led by Accel, who also participated in this round alongside existing investors.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 7:40 am
B HODL, described as the first British company founded exclusively for Bitcoin accumulation and revenue generation, is to list on the AQSE Growth Market next week.
The company has conditionally raised £13.3 million by way of a subscription for new ordinary shares and is proposing to make a WRAP retail offer to raise a further £500,000.
Exclusively focused on Bitcoin-related activities – building robust and sustainable revenue streams from strategically acquired Bitcoin – the firm is led by Frederick Edmund New, the co-founder of Bitcoin Policy UK, a non-profit organisation focused on engaging UK policy makers, regulators and the public on the role of Bitcoin in a modern society.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 7:36 am
Silverbullet, the listed company behind AI advertising solutions, has appointed Dara Nasr as a non-executive director.
Nasr most recently served as vice president, global sales at WeTransfer. Prior to that, he was managing director of Twitter UK, the company’s largest office outside the United States.
Headquartered in London, Silverbullet employs more than 85 data specialists across five regions across the globe, including, the UK, Italy, Australia, USA and Latin America.
Published: September 16, 2025 at 7:32 am
Alternative investment manager Pollen Street Group saw its assets under management increase by 35% to £6.1 billion in reporting its half-year results.
For the six months ended 30th June 2025, profit after tax rose by 18% to £27.9 million. Pollen Street also pointed to the final close of its Private Equity Fund V in July 2025 at €1.5bn.
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