Onstage, the organiser of Europe’s largest standalone demo day, launched its first venture fund.

The first close of the £10m fund, led by founding partner Joel Hambly, will be used to support European founders at pre-seed and seed stages.

It plans to make around 80 investments over the next three years.

Onstage aims to build Europe’s answer to Y Combinator, but without the accelerator element.

Founded in 2020 by Episode 1 GP Hector Mason and dmg ventures partner Taos Edmondson, Onstage has become a focal point for Europe’s fragmented startup ecosystem.

Risers:

Vistry Group – +4.76%

Trustpilot Group – +4.20%

Wizz Air Holdings – +3.92%

Oxford Biomedica – +3.89%

Endeavour Mining – +3.67%

Fallers:

PayPoint – -3.79%

Bluefield Solar Income Fund – -3.10%

Trainline – -2.68%

Anglo-Eastern Plantations – -2.22%

Ocado Group – -2.10%

Sencillo, a new FinTech focused on responsible education finance, has raised more than £350,000 in pre-seed funding in a round led by Fuel Ventures, with the raise still open to more investors.

The startup is building a platform to help parents plan and manage the full cost of a child’s education, from nursery through to university, at a time when annual spending can run from a few thousand pounds for childcare to more than £22,700 a year for higher education including living costs.

Its marketplace will initially offer unsecured credit products linked to planning tools, with parents able to map future costs, factor in savings or family support and access tailored finance paid directly to schools or universities.

Founded by former Pigzbe co-founder and EY innovation lead Adam Amos, it is positioning itself as a clearer, more transparent alternative to today’s fragmented education funding options, including for families facing pressures such as VAT on private school fees and SEND-related accessibility gaps.

The new capital will support team growth, platform development and a planned launch in early 2026.

Navan has been chosen by Frasers Group as its global partner for travel and expense management, covering brands including Sports Direct, FLANNELS and FRASERS.

The retailer wants to centralise booking and expenses across its international operations, while making the process smoother for staff and giving finance teams clearer, real-time oversight.

NASDAQ-listed Navan’s single platform lets employees book trips and file expenses in one place, with automated payments, policy checks and reconciliation built in.

Frasers expects the move to lift adoption, improve the employee experience and cut travel costs through better rates and controls as it continues to scale worldwide.

Author: Rav Hayer, managing director, UK and Ireland, and head of BFSI, Europe at Thoughtworks

The UK government needs to prioritise tackling its structural productivity crisis, because failure to do so risks undermining long-term growth and widening the fiscal gap.

Otherwise, broad-based tax increases or ad hoc measures could harm investment, stifle innovation and reduce the UK’s attractiveness for top talent.

We expect targeted tax measures, such as capital gains tax reforms for founders and charges on professional partnerships, to help address the £20-30 billion fiscal gap.

Simultaneously, the government must accelerate reforms to the pension structure, compelling domestic DC schemes to funnel capital into high-growth UK technology and infrastructure assets.

Crucially, they must protect R&D tax credits and maintain competitive conditions for tech companies, ensuring the UK remains a destination for innovation-led growth.

Manchester-headquartered UrbanChain has teamed up with Oxfordshire social enterprise Low Carbon Hub to link community-owned renewable power straight to local energy users via UrbanChain’s renewable energy operating system.

The two-year deal aims to cut out middlemen, giving generators a fairer return and offering businesses competitively priced, 100% renewable electricity.

Oxford-based Low Carbon Hub can also choose to set up its own private local energy market, allowing it to supply clean power directly to organisations in the area.

The partnership will first integrate its 56-strong portfolio of solar, wind and storage projects into the platform, with the longer-term goal of building a fully independent local market to support Oxfordshire’s low-carbon transition.

Author: Patrick Killeen

A Newcastle-based robotics firm says it is facing shutdown after a court order froze its bank accounts, leaving it unable to fund a legal appeal.

Dr Atif Syed, founder of Wootzano, has taken to LinkedIn to warn that the business is at risk of liquidation, not because demand has dried up, but because of what he calls a “procedural trap”.

He said Innovate UK Loans Limited, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), petitioned the court to wind up the company, which led to an order that immediately froze the firm’s accounts.

Syed says that move has put the company in an impossible position under Scottish legal rules.

In his words, “In Scotland, a company cannot speak in court without a solicitor”, but with accounts frozen, he says Wootzano cannot pay a solicitor to lodge the appeal needed to challenge the order.

If an appeal is not filed by the 28th November, he says liquidation becomes final.

Author: Patrick Killeen

M+C Saatchi has cut its outlook for 2025 after a late-year hit to one of its most profitable divisions, blaming disruption from an extended US Government shutdown.

In an update to the market, the listed advertising and marketing group said trading in the second half has been “adversely impacted” by the shutdown, which it described as the longest in US history.

The disruption has weighed on its Issues specialism – a public sector and policy-focused arm that typically delivers a significant share of fourth-quarter revenue and profit.

While the London-based company said that the shutdown has not damaged client relationships or longer-term contracts, it confirmed that the lost income will not be recovered before year-end.

It now expects like-for-like net revenue to fall by around 7% for the 12 months to 31st December 2025.

The trading update has not been well received by investors, with shares having already dropped by 12.7% to 110p in the first hour of trading.

TT Electronics plc has reported flat trading in its latest results ahead of a £287 million takeover.

For the four-month period ended 25th October 2025, it said revenue was £150.4 million.

The board reconfirmed its previous guidance for full year 2025, which was for adjusted operating profit expected to be in line with the then consensus of £33.7m.

“The TT board acknowledges that achieving this outcome for 2025 requires a significant step up in November and December performance, with c.£12m of adjusted operating profit to be delivered in these last two months of the year,” it added.

Author: Patrick Killeen

S4 Capital has warned that full-year performance will come in below expectations after a weaker third quarter was compounded by worsened trading in October.

In a statement released to the London Stock Exchange this morning, the digital advertising and marketing group said it had reviewed both its October financial results and a revised forecast for the third quarter.

The review showed net revenue falling behind plan, leading to a downgrade to its outlook for the year.

The London-based MarTech now expects like-for-like net revenue for 2025 to be down by “just under 10%”, a step back from the “upper single digits” decline it was guiding to in early November.

The company’s share price has already fallen by 8.4% in just over half an hour of trading today, dropping to 16.21p as of 8:38am.

EMV Capital Plc, a DeepTech and life sciences VC investment group, has appointed Anesh Patel as group CFO.

Patel has experience in investment banking and leadership roles within AIM-quoted life sciences companies. EMV is listed on the jumior AIM market.

Stephen Crowe, the company’s current CFO, will transition to a newly created role of portfolio CFO. Both are non-board positions.

EMV now has over £100 million of Assets Under Management (AUM) and a portfolio of more than 70 companies, supported by multiple revenue streams across corporate finance, fund management and value-creation services.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Microlise Group plc, a provider of transport management software to fleet operators, it to make redundancies after its global sales were hit.

The firm, based in Nottingham and listed on the junior AIM market, said EBITDA for 2025 will not be less than £8.3 million – well below previously reported market expectations of £12.7m.

Based on trading results for the year to date and its pipeline for the remainder of FY25, it now expects to deliver revenues of not less than £84m, compared with market expectations of £91.3m.

However this is up 4% compared to FY24 adjusted revenues of £81m.

The board has decided to implement cost saving and efficiency measures, which are expected to generate annualised cost savings of at least £4m. There will be an expected reduction in headcount of approximately 10%. 

The firm also said it has hired Dean Garvey-North as its new CTO, succeeding Duncan McCreadie, who will retire after a decade of service.

Challenger professional services platform DSW Capital has reported a rise in EBITDA and revenue in its half-year results.

The firm, owner of the Dow Schofield Watts and the DR Solicitors brands, said for the six-month period ended 30th September 2025 adjusted EBITDA rose significantly to £700,000 (H1 FY25: £100,000), reflecting a full six-month contribution from DR Solicitors, acquired in November 2024.

Network revenue increased by 32% to £10.3m.

The firm has a strong balance sheet with net assets of £10.2m (FY25: £10.0m) and declared an interim dividend of 1.2p per share, up from 1p last year.

Arsenal Football Club has signed a multi-year deal with Zilch, a consumer payments platform.

The global partnership, which marks Zilch’s first foray into sports, spans both men’s and women’s teams, and will make available Zilch’s range of flexible payment options to Arsenal supporters.

The agreement will also offer Arsenal supporters benefits every time they spend with Zilch.

 

A Manchester startup aiming to using technology to connect and strengthen local communities has unveiled new platforms and members in its advisory team.

Circle of Trust says it will refine and simplify its current offering while launching a new complementary platform, creating a suite of three products that connect people locally – but on a global scale.

The next phase of the Circle of Trust app is Recommenda, which helps people to discover and support local businesses through trusted, word-of-mouth recommendations.

Meanwhile, The CircleOf is a hyperlocal website expanding as a white-label solution for councils and place partners to showcase events, jobs and community support.

And Circles is a new space connecting business, recreational and social communities to build stronger local and professional networks.

To support this next phase, the Circle of Trust team is welcoming several people to its advisory team.

The British Business Bank has announced that Aegon UK, NatWest Cushon and M&G are the partners for the first close of the British Growth Partnership Fund I. 

The Bank is targeting a first close of £200m by the end of the financial year, enabling the fund to begin investing into high growth UK companies in 2026.

All parties have now completed investment diligence and are finalising terms and structuring.

Risers:

Hammerson – +6.58%
CMC Markets – +5.42%
Telecom Plus – +4.86%
Persimmon – +4.83%
ME Group – +4.79%

Fallers:

Ithaca Energy- -12.85%
Integrafin – -4.92%
Ceres Power – -4.89%
Harbour Energy – -4.68%
Polar Capital – -4.16%

The Government has committed billions in investment among a raft of AI measures ahead of next week’s Budget.

AI ambassadors have been appointed including Simon Johnson, the Nobel prize-winning Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economist and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, who will act as a standard bearer with public services and businesses. 

Monzo co-founder and Y Combinator general partner Tom Blomfield will champion British startups to scale up and attract talent and investment.

Google DeepMind VP of research Raia Hadsell will champion the UK’s place at the forefront of AI innovation and security. 

Venture capitalist James Wise will chair a new Sovereign AI Unit, backed by almost £500m in investment, to help build and scale AI capabilities. The unit will bring together Government, industry and investors to become the ‘go-to fund’ for high potential startups and scaleups in the UK. 

The government says it will act as a ‘first customer’ for promising UK startups who are building high-quality AI hardware products but currently struggle to get off the ground without investment. 

The new ‘advance market commitment’ is backed up by up to £100m of government support. 

A new AI Growth Zone in South Wales – with partners including Vantage Data Centers and Microsoft – powered by £10bn investment will create more than 5,000 new jobs for local communities over the next decade, the Government says – including at the former Ford Bridgend Engine Plant.

PolyModels Hub has raised £7 million in a Series A round to accelerate the digital transformation of biopharma process development.

The London firm said the funding will enable it to expand its engineering and product teams and reach more pharmaceutical organisations worldwide.

Developing a new drug typically costs around $2.5 billion, with roughly a quarter of that — about $650 million — spent on process development alone. Across the hundreds of therapies progressing through the pipeline each year, this represents a vast opportunity to make drug development faster, more efficient, and more reproducible.

The Polymodels Hub platform, ModelFlow, brings together advanced modeling, simulation and workflow management in one place. It allows scientists and engineers to design, test and refine manufacturing processes faster.

Author: Chris Maguire

Lindsey Burrow, Collette Roche, Steve Morgan, Michael Ingall, Frank Rothwell and Figen Murray were among the big winners on a glorious night at the 2025 Northern Leaders awards.

Now in their second year, Northern Leaders celebrate the leaders who make the North a better place and were inspired by the late, great Sir Howard Bernstein.

More than 130 people from across the North packed into KPMG’s Manchester office for a glorious celebration of the best of the North.

There were plenty of tears in the room as a video was played at the end of evening of Lindsey Burrow collecting the Northern Leaders Overall Award.

Her husband, rugby legend Rob Burrow, died in 2024 after a brave battle against motor neurone disease (MND).

Earlier in the day she and her three children had joined the Prince of Wales at the official opening of a specialist centre for motor neurone disease (MND) in Leeds named in her late husband’s memory.

Lindsey Burrow, who works as an NHS physiotherapist, is a published author and has helped raised millions of pounds for charity.

She was presented with her award by BusinessCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire at the home of Leeds Rhinos.

The headline sponsor of Northern Leaders was OBI and the other sponsors were CG, Rochdale Development Agency, GM Business Growth Hub, Lockton and  J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

There were a total of 16 award categories with several regional winners.