FinTech Tribe Payments has opened a new office in Dubai as part of its expansion into the Middle East.

Founded in London in 2018, the company now employs more than 200 people globally, with hubs in Lithuania and Singapore.

The Dubai International Financial Centre base will be led by payments veteran Aurangzaib Khan, who brings experience from Amazon Payments Services, Mastercard and Visa.

Tribe is the only European processor connected to all six major international card schemes and says the move will strengthen its ability to support banks and fintechs with scalable, cloud-based payments technology.

Author: Patrick Killeen

London-based AI health coaching app Simple Life, has raised £26 million in a Series B round led by Hartbeat Ventures, the fund founded by entrepreneur and Hollywood actor Kevin Hart, alongside Liquidity.

The HealthTech will use the funds to accelerate the development of its digital weight-loss platform.

The raise comes after a strong year for the company, which posted $100m in revenue in 2024, grew 64% year-on-year and reached operating profitability.

To date, the app has been downloaded more than 20m times, with users collectively losing more than 17.5m pounds.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Diversified Energy has announced plans to move its primary stock market listing from London to New York in another blow for the LSE.

The Alabama-headquartered firm says that move will boost liquidity and align more closely with its US-focused operations.

Founded in 2001, it has built its business by acquiring long-life natural gas and liquids assets and investing in operational improvements and environmental performance until safe retirement.

It first joined the London Stock Exchange in 2017 but now intends to shift its main listing to the New York Stock Exchange, while retaining a secondary UK listing.

Diversified said the decision reflects the fact it is now ‘substantially a US business’, with its executive management team and headquarters based in Alabama, its entire workforce located in the US, and all assets and profits derived from its US operations.

JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI) has released its results for the year to 30 June 2025, showing a +1.0% net asset value (NAV) total return, compared with +7.2% from its benchmark. 

The trust reported £46.3 million in investment income and a £34m profit after tax, while paying out a dividend of 22.8p per share – up more than 24% per year since 2016.

Despite a challenging year, the business has still delivered a +102.8% NAV return over five years and +245.7% over ten years, both comfortably ahead of the benchmark. 

The board has signalled confidence with a small dividend increase to 23p for FY2026, as the trust continues to balance cyclical and defensive holdings while maintaining exposure to growth themes like AI.

Its shares have risen by 3p to 576p since trading opened today and its market cap currently sits at £3.31 billion.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Texas-based Fermi America has completed a $13.8 billion (£10.2bn) dual listing on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq – the first simultaneous listing this century and one of the biggest in LSE history.

The offering, which includes a $682.5 million (£505.6m) equity fundraising, has been hailed as a sign of growing momentum in London’s capital markets after a period of uncertainty, with major businesses such as Indivior, Hargreaves Lansdown, Deliveroo and Wise all delisting.

It is a major milestone for the company which was only founded in January 2025.

Former US Energy Secretary Rick Perry and CEO Toby Neugebauer co-founded the business which is aiming to transform AI infrastructure by building the power systems to fuel its future.

Its flagship Project Matador in Amarillo, Texas, spans 5,236 acres and is designed to deliver up to 11 gigawatts of low-carbon power through its HyperGrid energy infrastructure.

Tesco has reported robust performance in the first half of its 2025/26 financial year, with like-for-like sales up 5.1% across the group.

UK sales rose 5.3%, helping the retailer increase market share to 28%. Online performed strongly, up 11.4%.

Adjusted operating profit was up 1.5% at £1.67m.

Tesco said it now expects to report adjusted operating profit of £2.9-3.1 billion, up from previous full-year guidance of £2.7-3bn.

The supermarket has so far completed £891 million of its £1.45 billion share buyback programme, due by April 2026.

European delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway is set to be acquired by Dutch technology investor Prosus in a deal worth €4.1 billion.

The present firm was created by a merger between Just Eat and Takeaway.com in 2020.

Earlier this week, shortly after announcing plans to embrace AI, Just Eat Takeaway said it would cut around 450 jobs across multiple countries and functions after a review of its business strategy.

Did Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour Party conference move the dial for the under-fire Prime Minister?

PR agency Be Broadcast’s Mission Control tool analysed the past 24 hours of coverage for Starmer and Nigel Farage and found that the PM had 16,952 mentions compared to the Reform UK leader’s 5,499.

“That’s a clear dominance which shows just how much his Labour conference speech has cut through,” said founder Josh Wheeler.

“Broadcasters repeatedly described the Prime Minister as clear, strong, determined, confident, and positive – signs of a leader trying to reassert authority and reset his premiership. But the coverage wasn’t without caveats: he was also called flat, weak, angry, even patronising. In other words, he may have delivered power and punch, but doubts remain about whether it’s enough to shift opinion outside the conference hall.

“Farage, meanwhile, is framed very differently. He’s less the statesman, more the combative disrupter. Discussions see him as serious, clear and strong, but also angry, divisive and inciting. He commands influence, but here it is reactive – defined by the outrage he provokes, rather than by offering a vision of the future.

“What we’re seeing in the data is a political battle of contrasts: Starmer the embattled Prime Minister fighting for clarity and control, versus Farage the insurgent voice channelling disruption.

“In the last 24 hours, Starmer has won the airtime – but the real question is whether that dominance translates into public trust.”

A University of Nottingham spinout that has developed a novel gene-editing tool has raised £2m from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, through its appointed fund manager, Mercia Ventures.

The investment will enable Forge Genetics to expand its commercial work developing bacteria strains for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and adapt its tool for use with human and animal cells.

Forge’s technology offers some key advantages over CRISPR, a widely-used tool that enables scientists to modify genes by inserting or removing sections of DNA. Because it is more precisely targeted, it enables more bacterial cells to survive the editing process, and can be used with a much wider range of bacterial strains. It may also provide a safer way to modify human cells. Unlike CRISPR, it can detect unwanted DNA mutations resulting from the editing process and filter out the damaged cells.

North Star Media has acquired Picture Shop Manchester’s operations from Streamland Media.

The new business will operate as Home Post Production retaining all 40 creative, technical, production, and management employees, and will continue to deliver a full-service offering to its established client base from its 22,000 sq ft facility in the city centre.

The deal was led by David Jackson, who previously owned and managed Manchester’s 422 facility, and advised by Bermans and Christian Douglas Chartered Accountants.

A firm linked to Baroness Mone has lost a £122 million PPE case brought against it by the Government.

PPE Medpro was set up by a consortium headed by Doug Barrowman, husband of Ultimo bra entrepreneur and Conservative life peer Mone, to provide medical supplies at the height of the COVID pandemic.

Mone recommended the company as a supplier and it won the contract through the Conservative government’s controversial ‘VIP lane’ system.

Following a High Court ruling, it must now repay the £122m it received from the Department of Health and Social Care to supply 25m sterile surgical gowns for hospitals in August and October 2020.

The Government has argued successfully that these gowns, manufactured in China, were unusable, claiming it was “not satisfied that the gowns were contractually compliant… a number of them were not sterile”.

David Beckham’s business ventures saw profits climb by more than a quarter in 2024.

DRJB Holdings Limited, which includes David Beckham Ventures Limited, Seven Global LLP and Studio 99 Group, reported net profit of around £35.1m)for the year, up from £29.1m in 2023.

The group has issued an underlying ordinary dividend of £39m, as reported by CityAM.

Love Finance, the UK’s fastest-growing SME lender and broker, has secured £45 million in its first debt financing arrangement.

The funding package comprises a £35m revolving credit facility from FTSE 250 specialist lender Paragon Bank, and a £10m junior medium-term note programme from LGB Capital Markets.

This milestone allows Love Finance to lend directly from its own book, accelerating decision-making and widening access to essential capital for SMEs. 

Founded in 2016, fully bootstrapped and profitable, Love Finance has grown revenue over 900% in the last four years to £9.2m in 2024 and doubled its team, while providing £300m in funding to more than 7,000 SMEs across the UK.

Salica Investments, a UK-focused investment firm, has announced the first close of its second growth debt fund.

The flagship repeat anchor investors for Fund II are the British Business Bank, which has made a £30m commitment, and West Yorkshire Pension Fund, which increased its commitment to £30m from the first fund.

The fund provides vital capital to innovative and high-growth companies across the full breadth of the UK.

Risers

Greggs PLC – +6.98%
AstraZeneca PLC – +6.56%
JD Sports PLC – +3.84%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC – +3.59%
GSK PLC – +2.86%

Fallers

Tate & Lyle PLC – -9.34%
QinetiQ Group PLC – -3.28%
Goodwin PLC – -2.92%
Babcock International Group PLC – -2.56%
Marshalls PLC – -2.43%

Author: Jason Kennedy, co-founder and CEO, Skyral

The Prime Minister is right to highlight tech investment, but the real test is whether government backs the innovators driving it.

Britain has world-class AI and simulation talent, but we need procurement reform that actually puts contracts in UK SMEs’ hands – not just talks about supporting them.

Equally critical is ensuring government and defence are set up to adopt new technology effectively once it’s procured. If we’re serious about being indispensable for AI, we need to nurture British champions that can compete globally, not just feed into someone else’s supply chain.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the Labour conference yesterday that “tech companies are queuing up to back this country… we are indispensable for the AI future”.

He said in Liverpool: “The energy of the future – we’re backing it. Carbon capture here in Merseyside. The Celtic Freeport in South Wales. Off-shore wind turbines – made and built in Humberside. Brilliant scientists in the heart of middle England. Developing nuclear fusion. Is that broken Britain, conference?

“Look at the investment. Tech companies queuing up to back this country, saying that we are indispensable for the AI future. Now those companies can invest anywhere in the world, but they are choosing us.”

HM Treasury has invested more than £63.6 million on cloud services over the past three years, with the department moving to a model of 100% reliance on cloud and zero on-premise IT infrastructure as part of a broader digital transformation push across public spending and tax policy.

The State of Digital Government Review shows that around 60% of public sector IT systems now operate in the cloud, reflecting a steady shift in how departments deliver services.

The data was retrieved under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and analysed by the Parliament Street Think Tank, observing departmental IT spend and infrastructure allocation between August 2022 and July 2025.

Global tech business SYSPRO has signed a 4,000 sqft lease at MediaCity’s Tomorrow building.

The move follows a recent £1.2m refurbishment project of the 5th and 6th floors of the building which are now 70% let, with a significant number of pre-lets.

SYSPRO, a software provider for the manufacturing and distribution industries, joins a wide range of global businesses relocating to MediaCity, which is now home to over 250 SMEs alongside major international names in finance, education and the creative industries.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Acuity Knowledge Partners has completed the acquisition of a Bristol- and Munich-based provider of AI-powered digital transformation services.

Ascent, which was founded two decades ago and now works with over 170 businesses across Europe and North America, will now look to build a global technology services business unit.

The acquisition expands Acuity’s global workforce to over 6,500 analysts and industry experts, and takes it into new sectors, including reinsurance, pharma, manufacturing and retail.