OneDome, a London-based housing and FinTech platform, has raised £18 million in a Pre-Series C funding round, taking total funding raised to date to almost £30m.

The round was funded largely by existing investors alongside Channel 4 Ventures, whose investment was announced in late 2025.

The funding will be used to support the next phase of growth, including continued investment in technology, product development, and expansion of OneDome’s integrated housing and financial services platform.

The Growth Company, powered by its early-stage investment arm GC Angels, and Bruntwood SciTech have successfully brought together over 150 investors, founders and key ecosystem partners from across the UK at their flagship ‘Early-Stage Northern Showcase – Investor x Founder’ event.

Held at Sister’s Renold Innovation Hub, the event welcomed more than 75 pre-vetted early-stage businesses from across the North of England and over 50 investors from across the UK, marking a historic moment for the region’s early-stage investment community. 30 of the businesses present were among the first cohort of GC Angels’ Underrepresented Accelerator Programme – Venture Forward – delivered on behalf of Innovate UK.

Designed to connect investors from outside the North with regional investors and ambitious Northern businesses, the event focused on building long-term relationships, ensuring early-stage and scale-up businesses can access the capital needed to continue expanding at pace. Each business is undergoing an active pre-seed or seed fundraising round, covering high-growth sectors including EdTech, ClimateTech, MedTech, BioTech, FinTech, PropTech and advanced manufacturing.

Aston University has joined forces with Aurrigo, a provider of autonomous vehicles and related software for international airport operations, to develop AI to make its fleet even more efficient, responsive and sustainable.

As the number of autonomous vehicles used for baggage and cargo handling at airports continues to grow, managing these fleets becomes increasingly complex.

Traditionally, task allocation and scheduling have relied on centrally controlled systems overseen by human operators. They must interpret large volumes of real-time information (for example, battery level and location) and respond to frequent changes such as flight delays or gate reassignments. While effective at smaller scales, this approach can create decision bottlenecks and limit the ability of fleets to adapt quickly as operations expand.

Under the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), Aston University’s research team will develop new algorithms that allow individual vehicles to make smart, safe decisions locally, based on their real-time status and surroundings, and their place in the wider network of AVs.

Digital Catapult, the deep tech innovation organisation, has announced the opening of a new office for South Gloucestershire, Bristol and Bath, strengthening its long-term commitment to working in partnership across the South West of England and Wales.

To deliver shared economic and skills ambitions, Digital Catapult is primed to deliver in-demand innovation services to local startups and businesses, including technological consultancy, accelerator programmes, and access to Digital Catapult’s network of labs to enable deep tech startups to scale.

Located on the Bristol & Bath Science Park, the new permanent base will strengthen Digital Catapult’s regional presence, building on its place-based approach to innovation that has established successful partnerships with local academic institutions, government authorities, industry leaders, and startups.

This includes delivering the £30million MyWorld programme in collaboration with the University of Bristol, the University of Bath and the University of the West of England (UWE), catalysing nearly £28.3m of investment raised by South West based SMEs, and working with the University of Bristol to accelerate the commercial deployment of future 6G technologies through the REASON and JOINER projects.

Insurwave, a leader in AI-driven exposure management for specialty insurance, today announces the appointment of Deepak Saigal as Chief Delivery Officer. Deepak joins Insurwave at a critical phase of growth, as the company continues to scale its platform and sharpen its focus across distinct product lines.

Deepak brings more than 20 years of experience in the specialty insurance market, with a proven track record of leading the build and delivery of core policy, exposure, and risk platforms for many of the largest insurers, reinsurers, and brokers across the London market and the United States.

He has also played a pivotal role in delivering the platform foundations that enabled the creation and successful scaling of multiple MGAs across the UK and EEA.

Paragon Group has announced its acquisition of Parseq, a specialist in document, finance, and payment process automation. This acquisition helps Paragon continue its strategic growth strategy and reinforces its position as a leader in business process services.

Acquiring Parseq enables Paragon Group to scale its current offerings with new BPS market clients, accelerate its innovation using Parseq’s Robotic Process Automation and Machine Learning capabilities, and obtain Parseq’s Secure Cheque Encoding patent to provide enforced reliability for FS clients.

Veeam Software has announced the appointment of Piero Gallucci as regional VP for UK and Ireland.

Prior to joining Veeam, Gallucci served as area vice president and general manager for UK & Ireland at NetApp, where he led strategic growth and customer success initiatives across the region.

He has also held leadership positions at VMware Tanzu, Docker, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HSBC and Intel Corporation.

Edinburgh’s Smart Data Foundry has secured £35,000 in funding to develop a new data-driven platform designed to ease the transport and accommodation pressures facing Scotland’s cultural events.

The data-for-good pioneer is one of just 12 Scottish companies selected by CivTech, the Scottish Government’s innovation programme, to fast-track high-impact tech solutions that improve lives and public services. The funding will support the development of a prototype ‘festival planner’ map-based dashboard, aimed at helping cities and event organisers better co-ordinate major events such as the Edinburgh Festival, blockbuster concerts by artists like Taylor Swift and Oasis, and sporting fixtures including the Six Nations.

Smart Data Foundry will now enter CivTech’s 15-week Accelerator programme, working closely with public sector partners to deliver a Minimum Viable Product. By the end of the programme, participants could compete for a share of up to £7.7 million in public sector contracts.

A Sheffield-based startup backed by Innovate UK and 3D printing inventor Scott Crump has launched a crowdfunding campaign.

Fyous, a pioneer of polymorphic manufacturing, has launched a £1.5m equity crowdfunding round to advance and expand its ‘shape-shifting’ tooling technologies.

The funding round, which is now open on Crowdcube, builds on a £1.3m raise from angel investors in 2025, and allows a wider range of investors to own a stake in Fyous at a £25m valuation.

Fyous says it has a waitlist of manufacturers for its machines in the footwear and dental sectors and has already received expressions of interest to join this round worth £724,000.

POWWR, an energy software provider, has received a significant multi-million-pound cash injection from Five Elms Capital.

The investment will be used to bolster POWWR’s product innovation and enable it to increase its headcount by up to 40% over the next 12 months.

Paul Hodnett, founder of the UK business formerly known as UD Group, has been appointed as CEO in place of Matt Tormollen. In 2019 POWWR merged with UD Group.

Polaron, a London-based AI startup transforming how advanced materials are characterised, designed and manufactured, has raised £5.8 million to build the ‘intelligence layer for materials science’.

This means addressing a bottleneck in materials manufacturing: understanding the connection between how materials are made and how they perform.

The round was led by Racine2, an impact focused fund led by Serena and Makesense, with co-investment from Speedinvest and Futurepresent, plus angel backing from senior figures across the industrial AI ecosystem.

‍Spun-out from Imperial College London after seven years of research at the intersection of AI and materials science, the company was co-founded by CEO Isaac Squires, CTO Steve Kench and Chief Scientist Sam Cooper.

Welsh EdTech Academii has raised £1m Series A investment.

The Caerphilly-based business, established in 2019 by former ALS People chief executive Steve Lanigan, supports workplace training with AI-powered tech tools.

The round was led by the Development Bank of Wales with £700,000.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have announced the first cohort of banks and building societies to benefit from their joint Scale-up Unit.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Barnsley is making the headlines after the Government designated it the UK’s first ‘Tech Town’.

Serving as a blueprint for future nationwide adoption of AI across public services, healthcare, schools and jobs, the South Yorkshire town’s institutions will work closely with US tech giants to bring about a “transformation designed to make life easier, fairer and more prosperous in Barnsley”.

While some outside the county may be sceptical, it is the latest phase of a long-running council plan to reinvent Barnsley following the decimation of the mining industry in the 1980s and 90s.

So how did we get here? And what is at the core of the vision?

A listed MedTech which ousted its leadership last year and is conducting a strategic review has reported revenue ahead of expectations.

The CEO and chairman of Surrey-based Futura Medical plc agreed to step down following discussions between the board and the company’s largest shareholder. 

Futura, which floated over 20 years ago with a share price of 73.08p, has developed Eroxon, a gel for treating erectile dysfunction.

It currently has a share price of just 1.4p and market cap of just over £8m. When Jeff Needham and James Barder were forced out last year, these stood at around 8p and £25.3m.

The share price was 31.43p at the beginning of 2025. 

Now the company reports that it expects to deliver FY25 revenue of £1.7m, ahead of previously guided management expectations of £1.3-1.4m.

Net cash at year end was £3.4m following a £2.75m fundraise in November 2025.

Under an existing agreement with Haleon and subject to the granting of a US patent for Eroxon, the company expects to trigger a milestone payment from Haleon of $2.5m during H1 2026; in addition, the Company expects to receive a tax credit refund for FY2025 of approximately £300,000.

Author: Chris Maguire

Manchester-headquartered eCommerce retailer THG is danger of seeing its market cap drop below that of Applied Nutrition.

THG’s has continued to see its share price fall since January 13^th, when it told the London Stock Exchange that the company had ended 2025 with its strongest quarter of trading with group revenue growth up 7 per cent.

The company’s share price opened this morning at 36.20p – compared to 47.92p on January 12^th.

At 8.24am, THG’s share price stood at 36.86p – giving it a market cap of £600m.

At the same time Applied Nutrition, a Liverpool-based sports nutrition, health and wellness brand founded by Thomas Ryder, had a share price of 236.50p and a market cap of £591.25m.

Applied Nutrition floated in 2024.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Zurich Insurance Group has reached agreement in principle to buy Beazley plc.

Beazley ‘unanimously rejected’ a £7.7 billion takeover bid from fellow insurance giant Zurich – which is listed in Switzerland – last month following previous failed takeover attempts last year.

However Zurich has now been successful with an increased bid which values the FTSE 100 firm Beazley at £8bn.

Author: Chris Maguire

River Capital has announced a significant seven-figure investment into a leading provider of digital infrastructure services to the UK holiday park and leisure sector.

The investment into Preston-based Infinium Group will be used to support the scaling of the company’s next-generation EDGE platform and accelerate nationwide growth.

The investment comprises a combined package of equity funding from River Capital’s North West Equity Fund alongside mezzanine debt from the newly launched River Capital Mezzanine Fund.

Founded in 2002 by CEO Peter Miles and CTO Dan Massey, Infinium has established itself as a trusted specialist designer, installer, and operator of complex WiFi networks for holiday home and lodge parks across the UK.

As part of the investment, former Telefonica UK CEO Andrew Peters has joined the board as chair.

In addition, Mark Evans, group finance director at leisure operators Bourne Leisure and Warner Hotels, has joined to provide additional support to the finance function.

Mark Borzomato, CEO of River Capital, said: “Infinium is exactly the type of established, sector-specialist business we seek to support.”

Author: Chris Maguire

An app that was launched to be the ‘Uber for barbers’ has rebranded into an on-demand home services marketplace.

Manchester-based mobile barbering service Appacut was launched in 2024 but has been renamed as Doorly, offering everything from personal chefs and baby massage to beauty treatments, dog training, DIY and cleaning.

The expansion comes after founder Michael Lawes secured £600,000 of funding, including backing from musicMagpie CEO Steve Oliver, who has become Doorly’s non-executive chairman.

Doorly is operating in Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield, and plans to expand into Glasgow, Coventry, Bristol, Bath, Newcastle upon Tyne and Portsmouth.

It is seeking to capitalise on the growing popularity of Deliveroo and Uber-type services.

More than 1,000 service providers have so far signed up, with a further 250 applicants awaiting clearance.

They are offering services across eight categories – hair, beauty, pet, home, family, vehicle, lifestyle and learning.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A pair of sisters have launched their third startup since leaving investment bank Goldman Sachs.

India and Portia Healy O’Connor have raised £2.25 million pre-seed funding to scale Linda AI, an agentic technology which is already live in 50 sites in the UK and Ireland, across the dentistry industry.

The former Goldman Sachs sales and trading professionals grew up around their father’s medical practice, gaining early insight into the operational strain faced by healthcare clinics. 

Their first startup was Xelda, formerly a cashless payments platform and now a developer of pre-accounting automation payments, which is backed by Sequoia Capital and the founders of Irish unicorn Flipdish.

Their second business, Curie, is an AI transcription programme aimed at the medical sector which counts their father Dr Hugh O’ Connor as chief medical officer.

Curie founding engineer Lucio Tudisco, who previously built enterprise systems at Amazon, Patreon, and Circle, has also joined them at Linda AI.