Author: Jonathan Symcox

Ofcom has today fined Virgin Media £28 million for putting customers on millions of calls through unreasonable effort, hassle and difficulty when trying to switch to another provider.

The regulator said its rules state that the conditions or procedures telecoms providers have in place must not act as a disincentive for customers who wish to cancel their contract.

However an investigation uncovered deliberate call-dropping tactics, excessive and unnecessary call transfers and putting customers repeatedly on hold for no reason.

 

Women entrepreneurs are driving some of the UK’s most exciting businesses – and the organisations backing them are continuing to outperform the wider market.

For the sixth consecutive year, signatories of the Investing in Women Code have directed a greater proportion of funding to female-founded businesses than the wider market, reflecting a shared recognition that backing women is not only the right thing to do, but the most economically sound thing to do.

The Code, a government-backed commitment to improve access to finance for women-led businesses, has grown from just 12 signatories in 2019 to more than 330 organisations today, including most major UK retail banks, venture capital firms, angel investors, and lenders. New signatories in 2026 include Nationwide and Innovate U.

The findings, published today as part of the Code’s annual report, come as Government works to unlock the UK’s full entrepreneurial potential by ensuring talented founders can access the finance they need to start and scale businesses, regardless of gender.

YFM Equity Partners has invested £3m from its British Smaller Companies VCTs in NextWave, an AI consultancy serving Tier 1 global financial services firms across banking, asset management, insurance and FinTech.

Many of NextWave’s senior consultants have held senior roles in financial services firms, meaning they understand clients’ operational and regulatory realities from the inside, not just in theory.

The business has also built its own delivery tools and software accelerators that allow it to work faster than a traditional consultancy, reducing the time-to-value for clients.

A major summit designed to strengthen connections across the North’s technology ecosystem is coming to Sheffield this October.

With a mission to fuel collaboration, innovation and global competitiveness, The Northern Tech Summit will bring together more than 500 entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers and decision makers from across Northern England to take part in the unique two-day event with a clear theme: collaborate to compete.

Organised by TECH SY, the first confirmed speaker at the event is internationally recognised data and ecosystem expert Yoram Wijngaarde, the founder of Dealroom. During the event, Yoram will discuss his journey, which saw him leave a successful career in investment banking in London and New York to launch the global data intelligence platform that tracks and monitors high-growth companies and venture capital ecosystems.

The event will take place at the iconic Crucible Theatre between 21st – 22nd October.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The parent company of CurrentBody has achieved a £400 million valuation for the first time.

The Beauty Tech Group plc launched on the London Stock Exchange In October 2025 with a valuation of £300m.

Its latest trading update, announced this morning, has seen it hit a new benchmark after its share price rose 9% today. It is 26% up in the year to date.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

NCC Group plc shareholders have been boosted after an £185 million announcement by the Manchester cybersecurity firm this morning.

NCC said it would return £185m to them – representing a total return of £225m since the sale of its Escode division – leading to a 6% spike in its share price.

The new return will be via a combination of  a £170m tender offer, with shareholders invited to tender some or all of their ordinary shares at 145 pence apiece, alongside a new £15m general share buyback programme.

Nscale is to accelerate its global build-out of AI infrastructure after signing a $900 million revolving credit facility.

The London firm said the liquidity will also accelerate its capital deployment across the US, Europe and APAC.

The facility was syndicated across a group of leading financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, MUFG, RBC Capital Markets, Bank of America, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho, SMBC, TD Securities and KeyBank N.A.

Chiron, an AI-driven platform enabling healthcare organisations to deliver personalised care beyond the clinic, has completed a £900,000 seed funding round.

The investment was led by specialist healthcare investor THENA Capital, with participation from Arāya Ventures.

It will support Chiron’s next phase of growth across UK healthcare providers, lay the commercial and regulatory foundations for future expansion into the United States, and further develop its AI platform which empowers people to become active partners in their own care.

Originally spun out of Founders Factory with support from Reckitt, Chiron has received multiple innovation awards and has been recognised as a finalist in global programmes run by Bayer and GSK.

Global media intelligence leader Onclusive has appointed Peter Harris as its new CEO following the resignation of Rob Stone.

Stone will move onto the board alongside owners STG.

Harris joins from CRM software provider Pipedrive, where he was president, with previous roles at Intuit and Deloitte. He joined Pipedrive in 2021 and was responsible for global P&L across 180 markets and 100,000 customers.

At Intuit he led partnerships and business development, while at Deloitte he established and managed their first investment vehicle in the UK whilst also building their first product launch in the UK market – Propel by Deloitte.

PayByPhone, a Hatfield technology provider for mobile parking payments, has promoted Rebecca Maisey to UK MD.

She will continue to report directly to PayByPhone’s President and CEO Jonny Combe.

Maisey, who has been with PayByPhone for 15 years, steps into the role after successfully serving as the company’s UK commercial director.

Sales recruitment and training specialist Furza has expanded with two new divisions focused on executive search and the outsourced management of junior commercial teams in fast-growth businesses.

The move marks the latest phase of Furza’s growth, following a triple-digit revenue increase in 2025.

The company has appointed Emily Bates as business development director to spearhead the expansion of the new divisions, Furza Talent and Furza Enable.

Furza Talent is an executive search service placing high-impact, mid-to-senior revenue and go-to-market professionals into high-growth companies.

Furza Enable provides outsourced management, training and development programmes for in-house sales teams.

Emily has joined Furza from recruitment vendor management platform Hiring Hub, where she was sales manager. Before Hiring Hub, she worked in a business development role at Pareto and as a recruitment consultant at Venturi.

She is the latest addition to Furza’s management team, following the arrival earlier this year of Claire Coulson as head of delivery and operations.

Furza, which is headquartered in Salford and has an office in London, has built its reputation by supporting companies to identify, recruit, train and enable sales talent through managed assessment and hiring programmes, alongside tailored training and development delivered through its academy.

Social agency SocialChain has appointed Tom Fenwick-Smith as executive creative director.

Fenwick-Smith joins from VodafoneThree, where he was senior conceptual creative and strategy social lead.

He will lead the creative department across Brave Bison-owned SocialChain and its sister agency Engage Digital Partners, reporting into SocialChain’s CEO, Jacinta Faul.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Thought Machine has surpassed $100 million in revenue – but an anticipated stock market flotation is at least two years away.

The core banking technology provider has published audited accounts which revealed a previously unpublicised £45 million funding round as well as a fresh £30m from a new investor.

Founder and CEO Paul Taylor told Tech.eu that it has been secured from an unnamed tier 1 bank which also acts as a client.

On the £44.8m Series E quietly raised from existing shareholders in July 2025, Taylor refused to reveal the valuation this put on the business, saying: “We are trying to put less emphasis on valuation and more emphasis on commercial success. 

“Funding rounds are just not where we want the attention to be. We want the attention to be on commercial growth. 

“Hitting revenue targets is a far better indicator of success than saying ‘look how valuable we are’.”

Gyre Energy, an Oxford-founded energy tech company using AI and thermal energy storage to cut the cost and energy demand of industrial cooling, has secured around £1m in investment and grant funding as it expands work with larger enterprise customers.

The pre-seed round, led by Speedinvest with participation from Rule 30 and Plug and Play, has funded Gyre’s growth into large-scale cold chain environments including one of the world’s largest logistics companies responsible for moving and storing temperature-sensitive goods across global supply chains.

Gyre will install its AI-driven cooling optimisation and thermal energy storage platform within a chamber of a 140,000 square foot cold chain operation, with performance measured against an IPMVP baseline. Gyre’s AI analyses how the site behaves, forecasts cooling demand, and optimises the system to cut overall energy use while maintaining temperature stability. Its thermal energy storage then stores cooling capacity when energy is cheaper and greener, releasing it during expensive peak periods so the equipment runs less when power costs most.

The deployment is Gyre’s most significant to date, its first with a global logistics leader, and comes as heatwaves across Europe and other regions place growing pressure on cold chains, buildings, power grids and cooling infrastructure.

Palatine Private Equity has invested in OryxAlign, a specialist provider of mission-critical network design, build and managed IT services.

The strategic partnership will accelerate London-based OryxAlign’s growth across its core markets, including the fast-growing data centre and built environment sectors. 

The partnership will provide the platform and capital to pursue both organic growth and targeted strategic M&A.

 

Shares in Raspberry Pi Holdings plc climbed 5% today after it announced it had appointed Tim Powell as its next CFO.

The Cambridge-based firm said Powell, who brings over 20 years’ leadership experience across fast-growing public companies, will join as its finance chief and as a director with effect from 16th October 2026.

Last October current CFO Richard Boult informed the board of his intention to step down. He will leave at the end of October.

Gateshead-based TSG has completed its third acquisition since its management buyout.

The IT service provider, which serves mid-market businesses in the UK, has acquired Creative Computing Solutions, an established Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partner known for its work with the likes of Hat Trick Productions, whose credits include programmes such as Derry Girls, Outnumbered and Have I Got News For You.

Based in Maidenhead, Creative Computing Solutions has around 100 customers and offers a particular specialism in the production and media sectors. The acquisition will see Creative Computing Solutions’ CEO, Justin Farmiloe, step into the TSG management team as CTO, while the business’s existing contracts, support arrangements, and the intellectual property of all bespoke customer solutions will remain unchanged.

TaiSan – a London company whose technology could unlock the use of sodium-ion batteries for mass market applications such as electric bikes, scooters, vehicles and power tools – has raised £4.65 million.

The round was co-led by Eos Advisory, and the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II through fund manager Mercia Ventures, with participation from AFI Ventures, EverQuest Capital Partners, Adeline Arts & Science, Techmind, angel François Badelon, and existing investors InnoEnergy, TSP Ventures, Exergon, and Heartfelt. 

Of the total raised, £700,000 came from Innovate UK, which provided grant funding through its Investor Partnerships Programme to match fund part of the private investment.

IRIS Software Group, a leading global software provider of accountancy, payroll, HR, and education solutions, has appointed Surya Sagi as its first chief data and AI officer.

The newly created role reflects IRIS’ commitment to helping customers unlock even greater value from their solutions and data, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver faster insights and better-informed decisions. It also supports the company’s next phase of product innovation and global growth.

Sagi brings more than 30 years of experience building data and AI platforms, scaling cloud-native SaaS businesses, and leading M&A and platform integration across SMB, enterprise, and regulated environments.

His track record of building and scaling platforms has helped customers achieve better outcomes while accelerating growth and strengthening governance. He most recently founded ARKA AI and ARKA Advisors, helping enterprises successfully transition from AI experimentation to governed, outcome-driven implementation. Prior to that, Sagi served as CTO at Pitney Bowes.

Co-Ride, a community-driven carpooling and ride-sharing app made in Sunderland, has launched in beta and is now accepting sign-ups from commuters across the UK.

Co-Ride connects local drivers with passengers travelling the same route. The platform lets users split petrol, parking, and car costs fairly, reach their destinations faster through smart route matching, and reduce their carbon footprint by filling seats that would otherwise sit empty.

Getting started takes minutes: users create a free profile, add their daily route, get matched with nearby riders, and share the journey. Trust and safety are built in from day one, with verified profiles, in-app chat, ratings and reviews, and transparent cost-sharing.

Co-Ride is designed for a broad range of travellers – daily commuters looking to cut costs, students sharing lifts to campus, professionals in corporate offices, and eco-conscious individuals. The company also offers corporate solutions to help employers reduce parking demand, support sustainability goals, and improve employee wellbeing.