VerbaFlo, a conversational AI platform transforming customer engagement for real estate businesses, has raised a £5.2 million seed round.

The round was led by Pi Labs, with participation from Haatch, Navigate Ventures, Old College Capital – the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture investment fund – and a group of global family offices, alongside follow-on commitments from anchor investors.

Founded in October 2024 by Sayantan Biswas, Abhishek Garg, VP Singh and Dan Smith, VerbaFlo enables real estate owners and operators to automate leasing, operations, and resident engagement through conversational AI.

It powers communication and operations across 200,000+ units globally, adding approximately 30,000 units every month, and supports conversations in more than 180 languages.

The company serves leading operators across the UK and Europe and has recently expanded into the United States, with further growth underway across the Middle East, Australia, South Africa, and additional European markets. Its customers include operators such as Homes for Students (HFS), Moda Living, Fusion Students, Housing Hand, Downing and over 40 others.

Author: Chris Maguire

Hannah Mercer has been named as the new chief executive of Footasylum and will take up the role in May.

She joins from Gymshark, where she led global strategy and expansion of retail, franchise and wholesale business, with full P&L responsibility.

Mercer  previously held a series of senior global roles at adidas, alongside earlier leadership positions at Nike, Harrods and Value Retail.

Commenting on her appointment, Mercer said: “Footasylum is a brand with a powerful identity, a highly engaged customer base and a unique position in youth culture.

“I have long admired the business and the way it connects with its communities, and I’m excited to work with the team to build on these strong foundations.”

Established back in 2005, Rochdale-based Footasylum is now trading 65 high street stores and is one of the leading retailers of fashion streetwear and sportswear.

The University of Huddersfield has launched a new Institute focusing on the application of artificial intelligence, which brings together academic expertise from right across the University.

The Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) is the first fully cross-disciplinary research centre or institute at the University, encompassing researchers in Computing, Engineering, Health, Business, Sciences, Education, and the Arts, as well as professional staff.

Led by Professor John Murray, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), who has a particular interest in Robotics and the ethical dimensions of AI systems, it is driven by Huddersfield’s strong foundation in AI-related research and the growing national need for AI-literate graduates.

Numonic has secured £250,000 in pre-seed funding from Fuel Ventures – towards a £560k round – as mounting regulatory pressure from the EU AI Act creates a significant compliance challenge for the creative sector.

From August 2026, new transparency rules will require organisations using AI-generated content to implement watermarking, maintain detailed records, and disclose AI usage – with penalties of up to €35m or 7% of global revenue for non-compliance.

Numonic’s platform is designed to help creative teams meet these requirements, offering automated tracking, audit trails, and compliance-ready metadata. The need is already being recognised, with BAFTA-winning Territory Studio (Disney, Marvel, Netflix) onboard.

Flexzo AI has raised £9 million in Series A funding, led by Octopus Ventures with participation from Fuel Ventures.

The firm is aiming to transform healthcare workforce management through an agentic AI orchestration platform.

The funding will enable it to deepen adoption across NHS Trusts while accelerating expansion into the United States, where demand for intelligent workforce solutions in healthcare continues to grow.

Author: Terry Hancock, head of cyber resilience and service operations, Axiologik

For many years, cybersecurity sat firmly in the remit of IT teams. It was seen as technical, specialist and pretty much invisible to the wider organisation unless something went wrong. This, however, is changing quickly. 

In October 2025, ministers and national security leaders wrote directly to FTSE350 executives and chairs, urging that cyber risk be treated as a board-level priority and that formal governance frameworks be adopted.

That message is being reinforced by policy, including the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill which is currently progressing through Parliament, and through the Government’s own Cyber Action Plan which aims to minimise risks to public services. 

Government is sending clear signals that cyber resilience is no longer something to be ‘passed to IT’. Instead, it’s increasingly being moved to the board level agenda – viewed as a core part of corporate governance.

Author: Chris Maguire

THG’s former chief people officer has landed a new job at ‘Europe’s fastest-growing company’.

Ashley Ramrachia, who recently closed Manchester-based tech training provider Academy after five years, has joined tech-powered wellbeing marketplace Healf.

Ramrachia launched Academy in 2020 after helping grow THG from 50 to 5,000 people ahead of its IPO in 2020.

He joins ‘rocket ship’ Healf as chief performance officer, with the startup recently named the fastest-growing in Europe by the Financial Times and ranked number one on the Sifted 100 list for the UK and Ireland.

Gamma Communications plc has appointed a new CFO to succeed the departing Bill Castell.

The communications technology firm said Damien Maltarp will succeed Castell, who leaves at the end of March to take up an executive role at private equity-backed Arrive, a global mobility platform.

Maltarp is currently group financial controller for London Stock Exchange Group plc and spent over 10 years at BT Group plc, including roles as CFO of BT Enterprise, its UK B2B division, and as CFO of BT Wholesale & Ventures. He originally joined BT in 2010 as investor relations director, leading the function for four years.

Earlier in his career, he spent 10 years as an equity analyst in the telecoms sector, including roles at Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Cazenove and Bank of America.

He will join the group and the board at the latest in September 2026, with the exact date to be confirmed.

Tech Nation has unveiled the latest cohort of high-growth scaleups joining its Future Fifty programme. 

The startups were announced at an event hosted by Chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday evening at 11 Downing Street.

The 25 companies span sectors including AI, HealthTech and cybersecurity. Among this year’s cohort are digital health platform Numan, fast-growing energy provider Fuse Energy and AI-powered email assistant Fyxer.

UK FinTech CAB Payments has rejected a proposed £241 million bid from American payments giant StoneX.

StoneX, a Fortune 500 firm listed on New York’s Nasdaq exchange, was considering a bid for CAB Payments, which has endured a torrid time as a listed company.

CAB had previously rejected two rival takeovers from shareholder Helios Consortium – the latter for £213m – and StoneX said it was hopeful of winning the support from the company’s shareholders, including Helios, before it tabled the bid officially.

However this morning CAB said its independent board members – excluding Nitin Kaul and Henry Obi CBE, who represent the interests of Helios – had unanimously decided the StoneX bid ‘significantly undervalues CAB Payments and its future prospects’.

The Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Decarbonisation, Keir Mather MP, has officially opened Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s (LJLA) new £3m solar farm during a visit to the airport.

The airport’s investment in the solar farm is a key part of its decarbonisation plan and a zero carbon future for the airport operation by 2040.

Solar panel experts Activ8 Energies in partnership with SSE Airtricity, designed and installed the new solar farm, which is located within the airport perimeter fence on land to the east of the runway.

It is capable of generating up to 3 MW (megawatts) of electricity, powering up to 25 per cent of the airport’s current overall electricity demand.

John Irving, CEO Liverpool John Lennon Airport, commented: “Our new solar farm is the next part of our journey towards a zero carbon future by 2040.”

Ciaran Marron, CEO of Activ8 Energies, added: “We’re proud to have partnered with SSE Airtricity and Liverpool John Lennon Airport to deliver a system that will generate clean electricity on site for decades to come.

“With an installed capacity of up to 3 MW, the solar farm will make a significant contribution to reducing the airport’s carbon footprint while strengthening its energy resilience.

Author: Chris Maguire

BGF has completed a £15m investment in Seda Pharma Development Services, an integrated contract research, development and manufacturing organisation (CRDMO) headquartered in Cheadle, Manchester.

Seda provides end-to-end pharmaceutical development services, supporting companies from early-stage drug development through the clinical phases to registration.

The company has delivered more than 1,000 projects for 185 customers since inception, serving a growing international client base.

BGF’s investment comes at a time of sustained expansion in the global pharmaceutical outsourcing market, as biotech and pharmaceutical companies increasingly seek integrated partners capable of streamlining development timelines, reducing regulatory risk and supporting the manufacture of complex medicines.

Demand for specialist development and manufacturing capabilities continues to rise, driven by expanding R&D pipelines and increased regulatory scrutiny.

Since its founding in 2015 by chief scientist Dr Paul Dickinson and chief business officer Dr Marcel de Matas MBE,  Seda has established a strong reputation for scientific depth and technical excellence.

Dr Paul Stott joined as chief executive four years later, strengthening the leadership team as the company scaled its capabilities.

In 2023, Seda invested £8m installing a manufacturing capability in a 50,000 sq. ft leasehold facility at Cheadle Royal Business Park.

Augmented Healthcare, a Bury-based HealthTech startup, is preparing to unveil a new clinical AI tool.

Founder Dr Jonti Hudson is a practising GP and computer engineer whose real-time AI model is designed to support clinicians during live consultations.

The company’s Consultation Dashboard (CoDa) platform passively listens to conversations between doctors and patients. It then identifies ‘red flags’ signaling possible serious illness and raises them instantly for clinical consideration.

To bring his vision to life, Dr Hudson worked with GM Business Growth Hub’s Innovation Service, receiving innovation grant funding and expert guidance to develop the platform.

 

Signals has raised £830,000 in seed funding.

The UK startup is aiming to set a new standard for how the world evaluates and trusts research. The company helps publishers reduce research integrity risks and protect their reputation by identifying potentially problematic manuscripts and publications.

By combining network analysis, expert knowledge, and AI, Signals delivers comprehensive and transparent evaluations. Signals’ core product, Signals Manuscript Checks, enables journal teams to spot and investigate potential issues accurately and efficiently within their existing workflows.

It has been backed by minority investments from strategic investors ACS Publications, a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and Enago, along with the Scholarly Angels and other angel investors.

VIOOH, a global digital out of home (DOOH) supply-side platform, has released its annual research into the programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) market.

The UK findings show that pDOOH is firmly established as a mainstream channel within the UK’s digital media landscape, with 34% of campaigns featuring pDOOH in the past 18 months, up from 31% in 2024 and in line with the global average.

Looking ahead, UK marketers expect this to rise to 47% of campaigns in the next 18 months, as the channel continues to win share of both budgets and planning attention.

UK marketers are forecasting an average 41% increase in pDOOH spending over the next 18 months, notably higher than the 32% growth projected in 2024, pointing to accelerating momentum as advertiser confidence matures.

The budget funding this growth is increasingly coming from within the wider digital ecosystem. Among those planning to increase pDOOH invest41ment, 96% expect to reallocate budget from other digital channels (including DOOH), up sharply from 82% in 2024.

Movement from traditional channels is also a factor but less pronounced, with 65% expecting to shift spend from these, including from traditional OOH. New budget plays a smaller role overall (22%) but is more common where dedicated pDOOH expertise is in place.

Among those buying via a dedicated pDOOH team, 39% expect growth to be supported by entirely new budget, underlining the link between channel familiarity and incremental investment.

First Concepts, an AI-native workspace for early stage creative work, has raised £750,000 in pre-seed funding.

The London-based platform, currently in beta, seeks to eliminate context fragmentation so teams move from brief to concept up to 70% faster.

The startup, founded just nine months ago, has been backed by Antler, Araya and leading industry angels. It is already working with over 40 independent creative agencies across London and New York.

The Bank of England has held interest rates a 3.75 per cent in the wake of the economic impact of the Iran war.

In December 2025, the Bank of England cut its base rate by 0.25 per cent to 3.75 per cent –  the lowest level in almost three years.

However, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East dashed hopes of further cuts.

Richard Merrett, managing director of Alexander Hall, said:“Today’s decision to hold the base rate should provide reassurance for borrowers that the broader outlook remains one of stability.

“While the market has adjusted in response to recent movements, the medium-term picture for borrowing costs is still far more predictable than it was a year ago.”

Health and wellbeing platform Raiys has unveiled a clinically-led digital solution to support people with neurodiversity, their families and carers, employers and colleagues.

It aims to bridge gaps in overstretched services by providing immediate, 24/7 access to clinically-informed content, neuro-screening tests and behavioural resources within a single digital platform which is accessible via employers, healthcare providers and insurers across mobile, tablet and desktop.

The programme provides self-check tools, educational pathways and support. The 12 neuro-screening tests help individuals explore traits associated with ADHD, autism, dyslexia and more, so they can consider whether their experiences align with those conditions.

Manchester’s digital sector will come together this April for Manchester Tech Week, as the event enters a new phase in 2026 with an expanded programme of conferences, exhibitions and community-led events across the city.

Running from 27 April – 1 May, Manchester Tech Week is evolving to bring together three core events alongside a growing Fringe programme, creating new opportunities for technology leaders, businesses and emerging talent to connect.

More than 10,000 attendees are expected to take part across the week, spanning key areas of the digital economy including AI, cyber security, digital transformation, unified communications, B2B eCommerce and the creator economy – with two flagship events taking place at Manchester Central.

Among them is Digital Transformation EXPO (DTX), which will bring together IT leaders and teams responsible for cloud, data, AI and cyber security as organisations accelerate their digital transformation programmes. Alongside it, Unified Communications EXPO (UCX) will draw UC and CX leaders, contact-centre teams, AV specialists and security professionals exploring new approaches to colleague and customer experience.

Speakers from organisations including Microsoft, the FBI’s Cyber Division, JD Sports and NatWest will share real-world insights and case studies from major digital transformation projects.

Michael Berkeley will step down as chair of the challenger Aquis Stock Exchange after six years in the role.

Independent non-executive director Danny Lopez MBE has been appointed as his successor, effective from the 1st April 2026.

 Lopez has experience across finance, technology and international markets. He is currently CEO of cybersecurity company Glasswall and a member of the City of London Corporation’s Competitiveness Advisory Board.

Earlier in his career, he held senior roles in the UK government and financial services, including as British Consul General to New York, CEO of London & Partners and senior positions at Barclays in the UK, US and India.