Bite-size news and insight from UK business and tech – including funding, deals and appointments
Published: May 8, 2026 at 8:25 am
The founder of essensys plc has been successful with his bid to take the PropTech firm private.
A vehicle led by Mark Furness and backed by high-profile investors Sir Terry Leahy and William Currie recently agreed an £11.3 million deal with the independent board of essensys plc.
This morning the firm stated that the vehicle had secured agreement from the holders of 98% of its shares, declaring the offer unconditional.
“Bidco (the vehicle) will have significant control over essensys and will be in a position to ensure the approval or rejection of ordinary and special resolutions of essensys and to determine its overall direction,” it stated.
“Following the offer being declared wholly unconditional, each of Jon Lee and Sian Herbert, the independent non-executive chairman and independent non-executive director of essensys, respectively, has resigned from the essensys board with immediate effect.”
essensys said a date would be set to cancel its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s junior AIM market and re-register as a private company.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 8:10 am
Intertek Group plc has rejected a third offer of almost £9 billion from Swedish private equity firm EQT.
EQT’s offer, for £58 per share in cash, was revealed earlier this week and followed the rejection of previous proposals of £51.50 and £54 per share.
London-headquartered Intertek operates a network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices in more than 100 countries.
Intertek is evaluating the potential separation – either through a sale or demerger – of its energy & infrastructure business from its testing & assurance business.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 12:07 am
The City of London Corporation, through its digital verification initiative, is calling on tech firms to input into a blueprint to support the development of digital verification services that will lead the financial sector’s fightback against fraud and protect consumers.
The digital verification service is proposed as a voluntary system that securely connects identity providers with other financial services businesses requiring identity checks.
Under the proposed model, individuals would verify their identity once with a trusted provider. That verification could then be securely reused by other financial services organisations who would support secure data transmission to confirm their identity via the orchestrator, reducing the duplication and administrative burden for firms and consumers.
Once implemented, the verification orchestrator will play a crucial role in detecting and preventing fraud, including by leveraging cryptographically verified identities. Once suspected fraud is flagged on the network, the system will flag this to other firms, limiting fraudsters entry points into the financial system.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 2:15 pm
Two entrepreneurs who experienced both the highs and lows of NHS care have raised £2.1 million in pre-seed funding to build Asterix Health.
The workforce solution hires UK-registered GPs to support primary care remotely through a proprietary technology platform.
Julian Titz and Max Thilo founded the company in 2024 after both navigating serious health conditions. Max was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Julian is currently awaiting surgery for a bicuspid aortic valve repair.
Frustrated by lack of access to timely and preventative care caused by chronic workforce shortages, and the downstream impact on patients, the two founders — who met on the Entrepreneurs First programme in London — decided to solve the problem.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 2:02 pm
Palatine Growth Credit is supporting the continued ambitious expansion of private company data provider Beauhurst as it prepares for the next stage in its scale-up plan.
Founded in 2010, Beauhurst provides in-depth intelligence on every private company in the UK and Germany.
Its platform is used by major UK banks, Big Four advisory firms, legal firms, government departments and other leading organisations.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 1:53 pm
Quantum Motion has raised £117 million to deliver quantum computing’s ‘transistor moment’.
The Series C round was co-led by DCVC and Kembara, with participation from new investors the British Business Bank and Firgun, alongside existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises, Inkef, Bosch Ventures, Porsche Automobil Holding SE and Parkwalk Advisors.
The British Business Bank invested £40m as the London firm becomes the UK’s best-funded quantum computing company.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 12:55 pm
After a 20-mile bike ride followed by lunch, I spend a couple of hours working in the afternoon to set myself up for the week ahead.
Staying on top of what’s happening in the business means there are no surprises in my inbox on Monday morning.
I’m in bed by 9pm, ready for my usual wake-up time of 4.30am.
As an ex-sportsman, morning exercise is non-negotiable.
I’m never going to roll out of bed, grab a coffee and get to my desk without walking, lifting or cycling first.
After I’ve checked the bank balance, it’s time for our daily stand-up meeting.
I always knew the final score when I played rugby, and I thrived on that accountability.
I expect clear headline numbers from every department, from credit control to new sales.
Everyone knows what ‘good’ looks like and can ask for time out or support if needed.
After using the same transport management system since 2007, we’ve recently upgraded to Journease Go, a web-based platform that helps streamline booking, planning and communication.
It’s a big change, so I spend the day with the integration team, making sure the rollout stays on track and delivers the improvements we need.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 11:16 am
National Car Parks (NCP) and JustPark have announced a partnership that will offer both their customers a greater range of options when choosing where to park and how to pay.
The two long-established UK parking companies are joining forces across an initial 79 sites, integrating NCP’s prime, centrally located car parks within the JustPark marketplace, making it easier for drivers to pre-book and pay for their parking sessions.
The 14 million-plus drivers who use the app and website will now be able to reserve parking in NCP car parks as well as pay on arrival. NCP users will also be able to use the JustPark app to drive up and pay in their car parks, adding a new payment option on site.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 9:16 am
Rise at Seven is leaving Sheffield and trebling its presence in Manchester as it eyes global expansion.
The search-first content agency, founded seven years ago in the South Yorkshire city, has consolidated its two northern offices into a single flagship space on Princess Street in Manchester city centre.
It has 100 employees based there across a creator studio, gym and event space.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 9:03 am
Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has backed a London firm looking to transition the recruitment sector’s reliance on CVs to real-world experience using AI.
Ethos is aiming to shift the focus from static credentials to real-world expertise and says traditional platforms capture the wrong data as a CV is just a list of where you’ve been, not what you can actually do.
The company also tackles the problem of fake or AI-generated CVs, which make it harder to confirm a candidate’s real skills.
The firm’s CTO Daniel J. Mankowitz is a former research scientist at Google DeepMind. His co-founder James Lo previously worked in growth and transformation at the SoftBank Vision Fund – he was part of the turnaround team at WeWork during its 2019 IPO collapse – and at McKinsey.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 8:33 am
A high-power ultrafast charging tech firm which warned it could go bust last year has been crowned a unicorn in a fresh round of funding.
Cambridge-based Nyobolt warned in early January 2025 that it could run out of funds in late Q1 2025 if it didn’t raise investment.
Last summer it raised £23 million to allay those fears. Now it has raised a further £44m, at a $1 billion valuation, in a Series C round led by Nasdaq-listed Symbotic, a leader in AI-enabled robotics technology for the supply chain.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 7:54 am
Listed accountancy firm MHA plc has reported strong revenue growth and earnings ahead of expectations for its latest financial year.
The professional services provider of audit and assurance, tax, accountancy and advisory services said group revenue was up 12% to £251 million for the year ended 31st March 2026.
Adjusted EBITDA grew 12% to £46m.
In August 2025, MHA completed the acquisition of Baker Tilly South East Europe, establishing a presence in Cyprus, Greece and South East Europe.
On 7th April 2026, following the period end, it completed the acquisition of Moore Stephens LLC and Moore Stephens Consulting LLC, extending the group’s footprint into the Middle East.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 7:49 am
Touchstar plc swung to a loss in 2025 after undergoing a restructure.
The Manchester-headquartered firm, which has supplied mobile data computing solutions and managed services to industrial sectors since 1982, reported 1% grown in revenue to £6.8 million.
Annual recurring revenue rose 5.2% and now represents 47% of total turnover.
However pre-tax profits of £388,000 in 2024 became losses of £1.3m in 2025.
Touchstar has served blue chip organisations such as Tata Steel, Wincanton Logistics, GSK, Certas, Calor, and Lakeland with its solutions, which include fire and security, rugged mobiles and proof of delivery.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 7:40 am
JD Sports Fashion plc reported sales growth in its last financial year – but profits fell.
Sales were up 10.5% to £12.7 billion in the 12 months to 31st January 2026.
Profit before tax dropped 12% to £629m.
North America is now its largest region, at nearly 40% of sales.
Published: May 6, 2026 at 4:23 pm
Manchester-based Silvia Health has appointed Kyle Yeldon as a non-executive director.
Yeldon spent 13 years at NHS England, most recently as head of primary care services, overseeing national primary care transformation and systems handling over £10 billion in public funds.
He now runs KSY Consulting, advising HealthTech organisations on NHS navigation and market entry.
Silvia Health builds structured menopause care tools for NHS primary care and private clinics. It is preparing for NHS pilot activity and private clinic partnerships, with Silvia Lite available now via early access.
Published: May 6, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Genasys, a modern policy administration platform for insurers, MGAs and brokers, has appointed Becky Downing as COO.
She joins the InsurTech 50 leader from By Miles, the UK pay-per-mile motor insurer, where she was COO with responsibility for customer experience, operations and people.
Downing has spent over a decade as an insurance operator and founder. She was the founding CEO of buzzvault, the connected home insurance proposition that raised one of the largest InsurTech seed rounds in European history from White Mountains Insurance Group, and that went on to commercial partnerships including with Munich Re Digital Partners.
She also served as venture director at Admiral Pioneer, seeding and scaling new businesses inside Admiral Group.
Published: May 6, 2026 at 3:55 pm
Evaran has launched today – bringing together software providers CareLineLive, MOA Benchmarking and Health Metrics under a new, unified care technology platform.
The company has been created to help care providers manage services, compliance, reporting and oversight through more connected systems.
CareLineLive, founded by Josh Hough, is based in Sussex, while the other two platforms are headquartered in Australia.
Hough will serve as managing director of Evaran Europe.
Published: May 6, 2026 at 12:16 pm
ZigZag has expanded its global presence with the acquisition of French firm Shipup.
ZigZag is a returns network for retailers. It featured in third on our recent RetailTech 50 ranking.
Its partner retailers will now be able to service each stage of the post-purchase journey – from the moment an item is bought through to a completed return – in the ZigZag platform.
Published: May 6, 2026 at 12:04 pm
Techspace has petitioned for Aircall UK to be wound up.
The workspace firm claims to be a creditor of the UK subsidiary of the French unicorn, which launched into this country with great fanfare in 2020. A hearing is set for 13th May.
Aircall UK’s confirmation statement is overdue at Companies House.
The Aircall parent company recently announced $204 million annual recurring revenue for 2025 – representing 26% year-on-year growth – and a seventh consecutive quarter of positive EBITDA.
Published: May 6, 2026 at 11:02 am
Halo Drive, a Glasgow startup building ‘vehicle-aware AI’ for commercial fleets, has raised £250,000 in SEIS funding.
The round was supported by early-stage investor SFC Capital.
The investment will enable smarter, safer and more efficient connected and automated mobility, founder Terry Sunny told BusinessCloud.
The startup is now actively progressing pilot deployments, deepening collaboration with OEM partners, and bringing autonomous vehicle technology closer to real-world adoption.
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