Barclays has joined as a cornerstone investor in Salica Investments’ £150m Growth Debt Fund II.

Following the fund’s first close, which also included backing from the British Business Bank and West Yorkshire Pension Fund, the firms say the collaboration marks an important milestone in Salica’s mission to provide flexible, growth-stage debt financing to high potential scaling companies across the UK.

Finastra, a provider of financial services software, has appointed three senior technology executives to its leadership team.

Ali Khan has been appointed chief data officer. The Experian executive has more than 25 years of experience across data, AI, and platform architecture.

Matthew McCormack, the new chief information security officer, joins Finastra from BNY.

Sanjay Jain, appointed chief information officer, previously worked at Honeywell.

Napier AI, a London-based financial crime compliance RegTech, has appointed seasoned professional Stacy Lowe as chief people officer to lead the company’s hiring and retention strategy.

Lowe will be tasked with hiring key financial crime and anti-money laundering talent into Napier AI, the upskilling of staff to support career progression and growth, and managing the organisation’s global workforce, spanning the UK, Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific.

Lowe joins with experience in HR and people leadership, following the acquisition by Marlin Equity Partners (Marlin), and will also support Napier AI’s global expansion strategy.

Most recently, Lowe served as the Director of HR Practice at Private Equity firm Aurelius and has previously held roles at Citeline; a Norstella company, Taylor & Francis and Informa Business Intelligence both Informa Plc divisions.

Bloxx, a FinTech founded by former banking executive Chris Smith – a native of Yorkshire – and Hollywood actor/producer Cliff Curtis, has launched its home equity subscription platform globally.

The platform introduces a revolutionary new route to homeownership, allowing individuals to build equity from day one without taking a mortgage.

It was piloted in New Zealand.

Children will be better protected from becoming victims of horrific indecent deepfakes as new laws aim to ensure AI cannot be exploited to generate child sexual abuse material.

Data from the Internet Watch Foundation released today shows reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material have more than doubled in the past year, rising from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

There has also been a disturbing rise in depictions of infants, with images of 0–2-year-olds surging from 5 in 2024 to 92 in 2025.

Under stringent new legislation, designated bodies like AI developers and child protection organisations, such as the IWF, will be empowered to scrutinise AI models and ensure safeguards are in place to prevent them generating or proliferating child sexual abuse material.

Currently, criminal liability to create and possess this material means developers can’t carry out safety testing on AI models, and images can only be removed after they have been created and shared online. This measure, said to be one of the first of its kind in the world, ensures AI systems’ safeguards can be robustly tested from the start, to limit its production in the first place.

The laws will also enable organisations to check models have protections against extreme pornography, and non-consensual intimate images.

Menstrual health startup Joii is launching the world’s first AI-powered app that measures period blood volume in the UK.

Joii’s innovation, which is registered as a Class I medical device in the UK, is bringing data to an area of women’s health that has long been ignored and minimised.

Using AI technology paired with Joii’s specially designed pads, Joii’s Period Evaluation app instantly measures blood volume and clot size with clinical precision. Users simply scan their pad with their phone.

Using the app to measure period volume provides users with objective data rather than relying on subjective terms like ‘heavy’, ‘light’ or ‘normal’ flow or counting how many pads or tampons they use, the startup says.

The app also provides cycle tracking and predictions, doctor visit notes so users can remember what to ask at appointments, educational content and personalised health insights and reports.

Hospitals, energy and water supplies and transport networks could be better protected from the threat of cyber-attacks under new laws being introduced in Parliament today.

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will regulate medium and large companies providing services like IT management, IT help desk support and cybersecurity to private and public sector organisations such as the NHS.

“Because they hold trusted access across government, critical national infrastructure and business networks, they will need to meet clear security duties. This includes reporting significant or potentially significant cyber incidents promptly to government and their customers as well as having robust plans in place to deal with the consequences,” said the government.

Regulators will also be given new powers to designate critical suppliers to the UK’s essential services such as those providing healthcare diagnostics to the NHS or chemicals to a water firm: this would mean they’d have to meet minimum security requirements – shutting down gaps in supply chains criminals could exploit which could cause wider disruption.

Tougher turnover-based penalties for serious breaches will also be introduced, while the Technology Secretary gets new powers to instruct regulators and the organisations they oversee to take specific, proportionate steps to prevent cyber attacks where there is a threat to UK national security.

Credit reporting and data company Experian has reported strong growth in the six months ended 30th September 2025.

Revenues for the period topped $4bn, up from $3.6bn in the corresponding period last year – signalling growth of 12% at the FTSE 100 firm.

Profit before tax was $975m, up from $718m – a rise of 36%.

Author: Chris Maguire

Serial entrepreneur Grace Beverley took to the Web Summit stage yesterday – twice in one hour.

Her business portfolio includes  SHREDDY, TALA, The Productivity Method and the  AI-powered talent agent Retrograde.

The companies employ around 100 people and are reported to have a collective value of £70m.

She’s also the host of the chart-topping podcast ‘Working Hard with Grace Beverley’ and the author of the bestselling book ‘Working Hard, Hardly Working’.

Beverley has around 3m social media followers – including 1.1m on Instagram – and has raised in excess of $14m in investment.

Chris Maguire has profiled the 28-year-old after watching both her appearances at Europe’s biggest tech event.

Founded by former care worker Tsitsi Mtasa, Manchester-based Wisterias has developed a digital care management platform designed specifically for smaller providers, combining scheduling, compliance, invoicing and care planning in one intuitive system.

With £87,000 in funding and tailored support from Greater Manchester’s innovation ecosystem, the start-up has gone from concept to market-ready product in under two years – already creating two new jobs and forecasting turnover growth from £58,000 to £1 million by 2028.

Built from the ground up by people who’ve worked in the industry, the cloud-based platform aims to provide an affordable way for care workers to access real-time updates even in low-connectivity environments. It offers a number of cutting-edge features, such as automated compliance tracking and offline functionality, to streamline workflows and reduce paperwork.

I don’t remember too much from my last year at school, but it definitely didn’t involve being a speaker at a global scale event filled with entrepreneurs and investors.

It also, unfortunately, didn’t involve starting a successful business in the world of technology.

Heman Bekele (15), Raya Mardani (16) and Aarav Sharma (15) all just spoke on a panel chaired by podcaster David Savage about their startups – and it was genuinely mindblowing to see not only how well they’re doing, but how well they carry themselves.

Bekele has invented a skin cancer-treating soap, Mardani a FemTech to make periods safer, and Sharma a brain-controlled exoskeleton arm to make assistive technology more accessible.

Very tough to put in to words how impressive these teenagers are – watch out.

St John’s in Manchester is fast cementing its reputation as a growing media industry hub in the city after announcing McCann as its latest signing.

Department’s Bonded Warehouse is already home to leading global agencies, including Dentsu, Weber Shandwick and Grayling.

This month, Department will welcome its latest high profile signing – globally renowned advertising agency, McCann.

Open Partners, one of the UK’s biggest and fastest-growing fully independent agencies, is now in its fourth year at Bonded Warehouse.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Live from Lisbon, Manchester City CTO Greg Swimer and VTEX chief revenue officer Santiago Naranjo discussed how technology is transforming the fan experience through their new global partnership.

Swimer said the collaboration, announced eight months ago, reflects shared values of innovation, collaboration and expertise, as City expands its digital and physical footprint with new developments around the Etihad.

Among these are the recently announced virtual stadium tour, which gives fans first-hand experience of stepping out onto the pitch.

Naranjo praised the club’s – and Swimer’s- “commitment to putting fans at the centre,” and explained how VTEX’s platform will help to create personalised online journeys for supporters worldwide.

4Imprint – +17.18%
Oxford Instruments – +12.72%
Vodafone – +5.38%
Watches of Switzerland – +5.28%
WPP – +4.39%

Other big risers from the tech space are Kainos (+3.22%), Trainline (+2.13%), BT Group (+1.72%), Sage (+1.50%) and Rightmove (+1.49%).

Hilton Food Group – -22.31%
Ceres Power – -4.08%
Tesco – -3.28%
Marks & Spencer – -3.05%
Ashmore Group – -2.87%

Tech firms which have also dropped today are Auto Trader (-2.42%), BAE Systems (-1.15%), Pinewood Technologies (-1.13%) and Plus500 (-1%).

MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub (MITIH) has partnered with Grow with Google to deliver a free new workshop series helping Greater Manchester’s entrepreneurs unlock the practical potential of AI for business growth.

Based at HOST, the Home for Skills & Technology in MediaCity – and open to all – attendees can choose to take part in any of the interactive workshops, including Making Sense of AI, Practical AI for Business, Social Media Masterclass, AI Prompting Essentials, and Leadership for the Digital Age.

Delivered by MITIH as part of its Spark Salford accelerator programme, it brings together entrepreneurs, small business owners, and creative professionals for hands-on learning. Participants will gain actionable insights into using AI tools to streamline operations, boost productivity, and strengthen digital strategies.

Lifted Ventures won the ‘Investing in Women: Initiative of the Year’ award at the Growth Investor Awards 2025.

It was recognised for empowering women founders and building regional investment ecosystems outside London.

The Growth Investor Awards, organised by Intelligent Partnership, took place at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Thursday 6th November.

Other finalists in the category were Angel Academe, Conduit Connect, NoBa Capital and Revenge Capital.

The award was presented by TV presenter Alex Jones and Natalie Gasson-McKinley MBE, senior manager, policy and strategy at the British Business Bank.

Liverpool-based MedTech innovator Enteral Access Technologies Ltd (EAT) has secured £500,000 in a bridging round led by British Design Fund for its patient safety device.

The round also saw continued support from existing investors, with the funding intended to contribute to EAT’s work in advancing patient safety through innovation in enteral access.

The company’s flagship product, DoubleCHEK, is a device designed to prevent misplacement of nasogastric feeding tubes, a persistent and dangerous issue in clinical settings and one of the most frequently reported Never Events in the NHS – serious, preventable incidents that should not occur when proper safety procedures are followed.

DoubleCHEK’s CO₂ indicator helps flag accidental lung placement by detecting carbon dioxide, which is an indication that the nasogastric tube is in the airway and not the esophagus, and should be removed prior to full insertion. When there is no indication of CO2, the tube can be fully inserted to the stomach where DoubleCHEK’s pH indicator can then confirm the acidic environment of the stomach. This combined approach provides a fast, reliable, and easy-to-interpret bedside check, reducing reliance on X-rays and subjective interpretation, and aligning with emerging NHS safety guidance.

The company was founded by George Gallagher, an electrical engineer and seasoned entrepreneur who recognised the scale of the challenge with misplaced nasogastric feeding tubes – a treatment he himself needed as a child.

Customer service provider Moneypenny has launched two new services, Payment Taking and Appointment Booking, that complete high-intent customer calls in the moment.

The products remove the need for handovers and follow-ups which slow companies down.

The Appointment Booking service allows Moneypenny PAs to schedule, rearrange or cancel appointments during a call, updating calendars or booking platforms instantly. For Payment Taking, trained PAs process deposits, balances, invoices or gift vouchers on the spot.

Starling Bank has teamed up with Small Business Britain to found a campaign to empower women across the UK to start and grow their businesses.

Launching in early 2026, the new partnership will feature a free training programme – ‘Female Founder Fundamentals: the definitive guide to starting and growing your business’ – comprising online masterclasses and peer-learning opportunities focused on building confidence, growth and financial skills.

The programme will also support mental resilience, financial wellbeing and community connection after joint research found that 60% of female founders struggle to switch off from work.

Permutable AI, a UK-based FinTech using vertical large language models to deliver real-time, explainable intelligence for institutional markets, has announced a major expansion of its global partnerships programme.

This initiative marks the next phase in its scale-up journey, extending its adaptive, reasoning-based AI systems into leading financial, commodities, and energy platforms worldwide.

Unlike generic LLMs, Permutable’s vertical architecture continuously learns from evolving market, sentiment, macro and geopolitical data – enabling financial institutions to anticipate, not just react to, market change.