Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Manchester spinout company Nanoco have dropped 55% in trading today after it said this morning that it is looking to delist from the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

Nanoco Group plc, headquartered in Runcorn, develops and manufactures cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials. These are used in monitors, TVs and infra-red sensors.

In 2024 it began cutting jobs in an attempt to preserve cash as it explored a sale via financial advisor CDX Advisors. However in January this year it said it had terminated that process and it said this morning it would seek shareholder approval to delist.

Thorntons has advised Hosel, an innovative golf comparison marketplace platform described as ‘Skyscanner for golf’, on a successful £500,000 fundraising round.

The round was led by London-based venture capital firm Ascension Ventures.

The transaction was supported by Thorntons’ Ventures and Innovations team, who provided strategic legal advice throughout the fundraising process.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Pets at Home has seen its shares rise 8% in trading today despite reporting a big drop in profits in its latest annual results.

New CEO James Bailey painted a positive picture. A former boss at Waitrose, he was appointed to lead a turnaround following the sudden departure of McGowan, a former McKinsey consultant and Sky executive with no retail experience.

He has been in post for just a few weeks. Sarah Pollard, formerly of PZ Cussons, has also taken over the CFO role from the retiring Mike Iddon this month.

Digital bank Tide has reached 200,000 female–led businesses on its platform – representing 25% of its total UK membership – a milestone it set itself to reach by the end of 2027.

To mark the moment and double down on its commitment to female founders, Tide is returning as headline partner of the 2026 Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards, extending a programme it has championed since last year.

The milestone is the result of sustained, deliberate investment in female entrepreneurship. Through its Women in Business programme, Tide has provided practical tips, expert insights, masterclasses and events specifically designed to help female founders start, scale and succeed.

Caudal Energy, a baseload energy company developing a new class of predictable renewable power systems, has raised £4.3 million in funding led by Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and Empirical Ventures, with participation from others including existing investors Zero Carbon Capital and Creator Fund.

The investment will support the next phase of development and full-scale testing of Caudal Energy’s breakthrough fin-based tidal technology at Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. First commercial deployment is targeted for 2028.

The Caudal Generator is designed to deliver predictable, reliable and scalable renewable power from a significantly broader range of tidal sites than traditional systems, at costs competitive with established technologies such as offshore wind. At a system level, tidal energy enhances energy security and significantly reduces grid system costs by providing a consistent source of baseload energy.

John Kennedy, CEO of Caudal Energy, said: “The future energy system needs renewable power that is not only clean, but dependable and built to scale. We founded Caudal to challenge the assumption that tidal energy has to remain complex, costly and niche.”

Andy Straiton, Investment Lead at Oxford Science Enterprises, commented: “The combination of simpler deployment, lower operational complexity and access to a far broader range of viable sites can make tidal energy cost competitive with established renewables such as solar and wind.”

Johnathan Matlock, General Partner at Empirical Ventures added: “As energy systems evolve, solutions that combine predictability, operational practicality and cost competitiveness will become increasingly valuable.”

Author: Chris Maguire

An AI-native platform that aims to transform the deal origination sector has raised £1.7m in pre-seed funding.

London-based Handshaik is the brainchild of Gen Z founder Joshua Port, who came up with the idea while working in M&A at KPMG.

The 26-year-old, who is the son of serial entrepreneur and BigChange founder Martin Port, realised that AI and workflow automation could streamline the process of identifying potential targets.

After building in stealth for 15 months, he launched Handshaik to the market earlier this year and has already compiled 5.5 million company profiles and attracted hundreds of users to the platform.

The startup recently closed a £1.7m pre-seed fundraise from more than 20 angel investors.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Physiomics plc has won multiple contracts following a boardroom coup.

Physiomics is a mathematical modelling, data science and biometrics company which supports the development of new therapeutics and personalised medicine solutions.

Activist investor Mike Whitlow was appointed executive director of the listed firm recently after more than three-quarters of shareholders voted to remove former chair Dr Jim Millen as part of a wholesale replacement of the board.

The fight for control of Physiomics had turned nasty, with Dr Millen accused of “personally derailing” the boardroom coup led by Whitlow – who accused the corporate leadership of value erosion for shareholders – and of “throwing his fellow directors under the bus at every opportunity to cling to control”.

Now matters are somewhat calmer after it secured multiple new contract awards this month with a combined value of over £345,000.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Pets at Home has reported a big drop in profits in its latest annual results – but new CEO James Bailey painted a positive picture.

In the Cheshire-based company’s first full-year results announcement since the departure of former CEO Lyssa McGowan in September 2025, revenue fell 0.8% and remains just under £1.5 billion. However profit before tax was £86.5m, representing a 28.3% drop.

Bailey, a former boss at Waitrose, was appointed to lead a turnaround following the sudden departure of McGowan, a former McKinsey consultant and Sky executive with no retail experience.

He has been in post for just a few weeks. Sarah Pollard, formerly of PZ Cussons, has also taken over the CFO role from the retiring Mike Iddon this month.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Manchester spinout company Nanoco is looking to delist from the main market of the London Stock Exchange after failing to find a buyer.

Nanoco Group plc, headquartered in Runcorn, develops and manufactures cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials. These are used in monitors, TVs and infra-red sensors.

In 2024 it began cutting jobs in an attempt to preserve cash as it explored a sale via financial advisor CDX Advisors. However in January this year it said it had terminated that process and it said this morning it would seek shareholder approval to delist.

Last year Nanoco – which currently has around 40 staff and a cash balance of £10.1 million – settled a legal case with South Korean multinational electronics corporation LG Technologies over alleged patent infringements. However it ended legal action against Shoei Chemical Inc. and Shoei Electronic Materials, Inc with no payments made.

In 2023 it won $150m in a legal dispute with Samsung, settling on a no fault basis for the alleged infringement of the group’s intellectual property.

 

Moneybox produced a record year in 2025 as it recorded a third consecutive year of profitability.

Revenue grew 23% to exceed £100 million for the first time and reach £115.6m. Profit before tax was £14.9m. 

As of December 2025, the London firm had 1.7 million customers – up 31% on 2024 – and more than £19 billion of assets under administration, up 62% year-on-year.

Concretene, a Manchester DeepTech firm that uses sustainable, UK-sourced graphene to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete, has been named a winner of the sixth Water Breakthrough Challenge by Ofwat’s Water Innovation Fund.

The project, Splitting Biogas, Multiplying Value, is a collaboration led by United Utilities with partners Tarmac, graphene producer Levidian and specialist application firms Concretene (concrete admixtures), ULEMco (hydrogen economy) and Carbon Ion (battery tech).

Four other water companies, Anglian, South-West, Wessex, Yorkshire, are included in the project, with the total award amounting to £9.5 million; Concretene’s share of funding is £1m.
This is a key milestone for the company, which is led by construction sector veteran Mike Harrison.

Climb26, the flagship business festival created by ClimbUK, returns to Royal Armouries Museum and Leeds Dock on 1st and 2nd July.

It will bring together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, operators and business leaders for two days designed to help ambitious businesses grow.

Recent industry data shows that all-female founding teams continue to receive only around 2% of UK venture capital funding, while London and the South East attract the majority of investment. Climb26 was established to help challenge those disparities by connecting founders from across the UK with investors, mentors, partners and peers in an environment designed to encourage meaningful conversations and real opportunities.

Over two days, attendees will take part in more than 40 workshops, masterclasses, open-mic pitch sessions, meet-the-buyer opportunities and curated networking events. Topics will cover raising investment, scaling operations, building high-performing teams, adopting emerging technologies and expanding into new markets.

As Manchester Digital reaches its 25th year, it has today announced details of its new Manchester Digital Festival for 2027.

The festival runs from February 8th-12th across various venues in the city region, anchored by a dedicated festival hub for the first time.

The new festival is the evolution of the Digital Skills Festival, which Manchester Digital ran for more than a decade. Originally focused on early careers, talent pathways and diversity in the workforce, it became one of the most significant tech events in the North. Now Manchester Digital Festival 2027 broadens that remit.

Manchester Digital Festival will take place across venues throughout Manchester city centre, with support from venue partners Bruntwood Sci Tech and St John’s with Department, hosting daily keynotes alongside a programme of roundtables, conferences and drinks receptions throughout the week. A wider programme of fringe events will also take place across venues throughout the city region.

Five themed days give the week its structure and the programme will bring together leadership sessions, industry discussions and networking that reflect the strength and capabilities of the region’s tech sector, spanning ecommerce, defence, cyber and AI, alongside themes of diversity, social mobility and future talent. Daily keynotes from some of the UK’s most inspiring tech leaders and speakers will sit at the heart of the week, alongside roundtables, community-led events and a festival dinner bringing together senior leaders from across the ecosystem.

Rob Lankey has been promoted to chief commercial officer at Afin Bank, overseeing the bank’s lending strategy and managing the specialist lender’s sales team.

Lankey initially joined Afin as director of credit during its launch phase last year. He then took on the role of national sales director at the start of this year, taking on responsibility for the sales team as it expanded with the appointment of a number of new BDMs.

This latest promotion means Lankey will help shape Afin as it reinforces its presence in the marketplace supporting hard-working borrowers let down by mainstream banks because they do not fit their restrictive lending criteria, such as the self-employed, workers with multiple incomes, qualified professionals, the high-net-worth and foreign nationals working in the UK.

Nexco.ai, an AI startup building agentic co-workers for executive search, has secured pre-seed funding from DSW Ventures.

The investment will expand Nexco’s AI agent platform, deepening the candidate intelligence available to search consultants and freeing more of their time for client advisory work.

Nexco’s technology integrates with existing CRMs, deepening a firm’s candidate intelligence without disrupting the consultant–client relationship that defines the industry.

Finova, the UK’s largest provider of cloud-based mortgage, savings and lending software, has appointed three directors who will be based in its new Manchester hub, with recruitment for the site now 80% complete.

Hemant Kumar joins as Research and Development Director, responsible for heading-up the development of Finova’s next-generation AI decision engine that will help define the company’s offering for the next decade. He brings more than two decades of experience leading technology modernisation across financial services, the public sector and healthcare. Joining from Accenture, he has a proven track record of scaling full-stack and data engineering teams and turning strategic ambition into shipped product.

Pete Craven joins as Director of DevOps. In this role, he will lead the platform engineering team responsible for building the secure, scalable cloud infrastructure underpinning Finova’s next-generation platform. With more than 13 years of experience driving large-scale cloud transformations, Pete has a strong track record of building high-performing engineering teams and robust DevSecOps architectures. He joins Finova following senior roles leading cloud strategy and delivery at technology consultancies and global brands including Slalom Build, Made Tech, Booking.com and IBM. During his career, he has architected mission-critical platforms for organisations ranging from the NHS and the Home Office to Sainsbury’s and Lloyds Bank.

Kelly Wilson joins as Director of Technical Delivery, where she will lead the teams responsible for technical delivery across Finova’s engineering-supported product suite. She brings a broad range of experience spanning financial services, consulting and education, most recently leading Salesforce programmes at London Stock Exchange Group. Prior to this, Kelly spent almost 15 years serving across both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, working in IT and supporting global communications operations.

A new initiative designed to inspire and equip the next generation of women angel investors is launching in South Yorkshire next month.

The TECH SY x Lifted Angel Academy in South Yorkshire is a fully funded angel education programme delivered by Lifted Ventures in partnership with TECH SY. 

The support is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, through the Tech Town status given to Barnsley Council, as well as funding through the British Business Bank and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

The programme will support up to 20 women from across South Yorkshire to learn the fundamentals of angel investing, gain confidence in assessing investment opportunities and connect with founders, investors and ecosystem leaders from across the region.

Tata Consultancy Services has expanded its global cloud portfolio with the launch of SovereignSecure Cloud in Europe. 

The IT services, consulting and business solutions giant says the bespoke offering is designed specifically for governments, public sector enterprises and regulated industries.

It combines sovereign cloud architecture with AI capabilities to enable sovereignty across data, operations and digital infrastructure. 

The launch of TCS SovereignSecure Cloud in the EU builds on its rollout in India in 2025, followed by expansions into Kenya, East Africa and the Philippines. 

Author: Chris Maguire

TympaHealth, an ear and hearing health technology provider, has secured a £2m Innovate UK loan.

The money will be used to accelerate Tympa Assist, its world-first AI-powered guidance platform.

TympaHealth is a team of doctors and technology experts united by a mission to help the world achieve better ear and hearing health.

Founded by ENT surgeon Dr Krishan Ramdoo, TympaHealth raised £18.4m in Series A funding in 2023.

Author: Chris Maguire

Fresha, a London-based AI-powered marketplace and business management platform for the beauty and wellness industry, is the latest UK firm to achieve unicorn status.

It follows the news that the firm has secured a £60m ($80m) primary growth investment from funds managed by KKR, valuing the company at over $1bn.

The investment marks a major milestone for Fresha, which began as a salon booking and scheduling tool in 2015 and has grown into one of the world’s largest beauty and wellness technology platforms, now used by more than 130,000 businesses globally.

Already profitable, Fresha has now raised $285m (£210m) to date and will use the new funding to accelerate international expansion, product development and AI innovation, as it continues its mission to transform how self-care businesses operate and grow.

Headquartered in London and founded in 2015 by William Zeqiri and Nick Miller, Fresha is one of the fastest-growing beauty and wellness platforms in the world.