Author: Jonathan Symcox

An entrepreneur who co-founded Lancaster EV charging software firm Fuuse has launched a new EV venture.

Will Maden served as CIO then COO of Fuuse before leaving the business – which earlier this year was ranked the fifth fastest-growing company by the Northern Tech Awards – in 2025.

Now he has raised £850,000 with help from Fhunded Angels for TOGL, which enables companies with fleets of electric-powered vehicles to intelligently manage when their EVs draw power from the grid.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £3 million investment in Applied AGI, a business specialising in advanced AI and machine learning technologies for real-world operational deployment in defence and security sectors.

The funding round includes investment from the Maven VCTs; Maven Cognition, Maven’s specialist EIS Fund; and a syndicate of angel investors.

AAGI develops AI-powered vision technology for defence and other specialist applications, helping machines detect and understand objects in complex environments, including situations with poor visibility or limited data. By improving how information is gathered and interpreted, AAGI supports better decision-making and operational performance for defence and security organisations.

It works with a range of UK defence organisations and leading defence contractors, including the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Air Force and Leonardo.

Manchester FinTech Raisin UK has appointed Jules di Mambro as CEO following regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.

The London-based executive succeeds Steven Amos, who leaves the firm after seven years including the last four as CEO. During his tenure, Amos played a key role in growing and scaling the UK business. 

Amos leaves Raisin UK to pursue new opportunities, writing on LinkedIn: “I want to extend my deepest thanks to the entire Raisin family (past and present), our board, our partners and of course our customers, for an unforgettable journey.

“I am thrilled to pass the leadership to Jules di Mambro. I have no doubt that under his guidance, Raisin UK will continue to break new ground.”

Sprive, an AI-driven consumer FinTech app, has closed a £7.7 million Series A funding round.

The company, which was founded in 2019 by former Goldman Sachs bankers Jinesh Vohra and Saad Hashim, allows customers to use cashback earned by paying for everyday shopping through the app to automatically overpay their mortgage – allowing them to cut interest charges and even shorten their mortgage terms. 

The app – which featured on our most recent PropTech 50 ranking – also scans the market allowing customers to easily switch to cheaper mortgage deals.

The company featured earlier this year on the BBC television programme Dragons’ Den. 

Newcastle-based performance intelligence company Leaf Signal has published UK State of Tracking 2026, an audit of conversion tracking accuracy across 500 of the UK’s leading Shopify websites. 

The audit checked whether those sites send Meta, Google Ads and GA4 the data they need to optimise and report accurately. Where they didn’t, they diagnosed why, using automated diagnostics and AI monitoring alongside manual verification of every result. 

The headline finding was that 98% of brands audited had at least one crucial tracking issue – meaning a significant portion of the UK’s fastest-growing eCommerce brands are making ad targeting, bidding and budget decisions on inaccurate signal data.

A Manchester-based AI-native company that streamlines operational workflows has passed five million cases processed for regulated firms in under three years – built entirely without a sales team, marketing function or paid acquisition. 

Saber was founded in January 2024 by Jakub Lenski and Mitchel Shephard after completing a one-off audit for a law firm. Tasked with auditing a 200,000-claim book by hand – a job estimated to take six weeks to complete 10% of – Saber produced a one-off automation workflow that processed the entire book in under three days. 

Saber has since evolved into a Manchester team of 32 – mostly engineers – and a product that saves 96.3% of time per case. Concerns over AI’s accuracy can be a barrier to adoption, making human oversight a key component of Saber’s design. 

Huddersfield-based Software as a Service firm Adventoris is celebrating 14 new client wins as it makes four internal promotions to bolster the team.

The client wins include beauty and personal care brands, food and drink firms, building and electrical companies, a lab equipment distributor, manufacturers and the US and Canadian entities of a household goods company.

Adventoris has promoted four team members to strengthen its departments across customer support, implementation, development, and finance and HR.

Joel Burnett, who has been with Adventoris for nine years, is now head of customer success and support; Michael Ghatt is stepping into the role of implementation team leader; Jordan Lewis becomes finance and HR manager; and Phil Copland has been promoted to solutions architect.

Adventoris currently supports 230 clients on its flagship platform, SwiftCloud, facilitating £64 million worth of orders from approximately 145k orders per month.

SwiftCloud helps businesses save time, reduce manual order processing and increase both monthly sales volumes and average basket values.

FintechOS has raised £21 million in combined equity and debt financing from its current shareholder base.

The London-based agentic platform serves banks, insurers and other financial services companies across the United States and Europe.

The investment will be used to further set up the company’s expansion base in the United States, deepen its European client portfolio, and scale the delivery practice behind its AI-native platform.

The round follows a strong first half of 2026 for FintechOS, during which the company confirmed it had reached profitability while growing recurring revenue 40% year-on-year for the first half of 2026, driven in large part by 130% growth in the US market. 

Ceryx Medical, the bioelectronic MedTech company developing a new class of heart failure therapy, has appointed Professor Zaheer Yousef OBE as Chief Medical Officer.

Heart failure affects more than 20 million people across Europe and the US and remains the leading cause of hospitalisation in people over 65, with around half of patients dying within five years.

Professor Yousef was principal investigator on RSA-Pace, Ceryx’s multi-centre study of its respiratory sinus arrhythmia pacing technology.

RSA-Pace confirmed that the biomimetic pacing effect seen in Ceryx’s preclinical work translates into patients. Professor Yousef will now lead the design and delivery of the next study, the one set up to show what the therapy does for patients over time.

GC Angels has announced the third cohort of its Venture Forward accelerator programme.

The Innovate UK-backed programme from GC Angels – the venture capital investment arm of The Growth Company, the largest social enterprise institution in Greater Manchester – supports underrepresented founders from across the North of England to prepare for their first institutional seed investment round. 

Delivered by the investment managers behind GC Angels, it equips early-stage founders with the first-hand knowledge, tools and investor connections needed to raise their first VC investment within the next 12 months.

 

Reward, a global leader in customer engagement and commerce media – part of Rezolve Ai – has appointed Enrique Del Rio as President, UK & Europe, strengthening its commercial leadership as the business accelerates growth across the region.

With more than three decades of global financial services experience, Del Rio brings extensive expertise across commercial banking, data and major client relationships. He spent 15 years at Lloyds Banking Group in senior leadership positions and has also held senior roles at Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust.

Project Ventures, an independent early-stage venture capital firm rooted in the Imperial College London ecosystem, has announced the launch of its debut £5 million fund.

The fund will back pre-seed and seed startups at the intersection of DeepTech and AI who are either emerging from or connected to the Imperial College London ecosystem, with three investments already completed to-date.

Founded and led by Shahryar Barati, the firm’s alumni-powered model mirrors more established alumni-backed venture networks in the US and aims to close its debut fund by summer 2027.

InTouchNow has secured £2.3 million in seed funding to develop its AI voice agent technology for general practices and ease pressure on overstretched primary care NHS services.

The round was led by Ada Ventures with participation from Exceptional Ventures and Kadmos Capital.

This latest funding boost marks one of Ada Ventures’ largest seed cheques to date and the first venture capital investment into a primary care AI voice agent operating in the NHS.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The outgoing CEO of Barratt Redrow plc is to join the board of online property portal Rightmove plc.

David Thomas has been the group chief executive of Barratt Redrow plc, the UK’s largest housebuilder, since 2015, having joined Barratt as group finance director in 2009. 

He led Barratt through its £2.5 billion merger with Redrow in 2024, and announced his retirement as group CEO in March 2026, stepping down from the role today but remaining with the business in an advisory capacity until March 2027. 

He will join Rightmove as a non-executive director from the start of next year. Meanwhile Rosemary Leith will also be appointed as a NED from the start of next month then become senior independent director at the beginning of 2027. 

The company also confirmed the retirements of Jacqueline de Rojas, current senior independent director, on 31st December 2026 and of Amit Tiwari, NED, on 30th September 2026.

Metris Energy, an AI‑native platform for managing energy assets at scale, has raised a $5m seed round led by PT1 Ventures, Octopus Ventures, AENU and Blackfinch Ventures.

The round saw participation from Plug and Play and Love Ventures.

The announcement comes alongside the launch of Metria AI: the company’s new AI interface which seamlessly executes complex tasks previously carried out manually by operations teams.

Launched in 2025, Metris began by solving a single, painful problem for solar portfolios: reconciling data scattered across inverters, meters, SCADA, CRMs, spreadsheets and finance tools into one clean, reliable record. That focus has since evolved into a broader ambition to become the unified data layer for the entire energy sector.

The North East Mayor Kim McGuinness is backing the region’s design industry, with £150,000 to boost the reach and impact of the Design in Everything programme.

Design in Everything is aiming to celebrate and support the North East’s growing design ecosystem, build new collaborations, connect communities and inspire action on the big challenges facing society. It brings together creative professionals, businesses, innovators, students, educators, community leaders and public sector changemakers to explore and celebrate the design across the North East.

Design in Everything is facilitated by Gateshead-based design innovation consultancy Edge Innovation. The programme is overseen by a steering group made up of the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, Newcastle University, Northumbria University, Newcastle College, Gateshead College, Design Network North, Gardiner Richardson, Layers Studio, E3 Design and Gateshead Council.

It includes an annual North East design week – taking place this year from 5th-9th October – smaller events throughout the year and work to connect designers to each other for learning and collaboration.

Author: Chris Maguire

Welsh technology firm de Novo Solutions has appointed Lynette Slater as its new chief executive, while founder Mark Sweeny has taken on the role of executive chairman.

Sweeny, a serial entrepreneur and part of BusinessCloud’s 2026 Founder 250 list, has grown de Novo Solutions to a team of 150 and into the fastest-growing tech firm in Wales.

Slater, who has more than 30 years of experience within insurance, financial services and software organisations, has previously worked at Logicwave, ICE InsureTech and Allianz.

She said: “I am delighted to be joining de Novo, and proud to have the opportunity to lead a company with such strong foundations. What has made de Novo successful is the expertise and commitment of its people. Together, we can build on what is already working and take the business into its next stage with confidence.

“We will build on the foundations created by Mark, the senior leadership team, and every person across de Novo, ensuring strong support for our teams, clear ways of working, and consistently better outcomes for clients.

“I am looking forward to getting to know the team, our clients, and our strategic partners over the coming weeks, and helping elevate de Novo to the next level of success.”

Sweeny, who previously sold Certus Solutions to Accenture, said it was time to pass the baton on but insisted he wouldn’t be ‘walking off into the sunset away from de Novo Solutions’ just yet.

The Northern VCTs have launched an offer for up to £30 million.

The VCTs have total net assets of £410 million and, in total, a portfolio of 58 companies.

Northern VCTs manager Mercia prides itself on a national footprint that helps it find and back entrepreneurs from across the UK. Over the five years to June 2025, rising interest rates and a slowdown in venture capital have taken its toll. The VCTs have delivered an average NAV total return of between 2.3% and 4.7%.

The VCT targets an annual dividend equal to 4.5% to 5.0% of NAV, not guaranteed.

Investors can apply from 30th September.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Behind the ready smile of Alex Craven lies a burning ambition to achieve something truly remarkable.

Leeds is officially the biggest tech cluster outside London, with 853 tech companies based in the city – more than any other local authority outside the capital.

However, while the likes of Cambridge, Manchester and Edinburgh can point to several unicorn companies – tech firms with a billion-dollar-plus valuation – Leeds has only one: Sky Betting & Gaming.

Should The Data City become the second, it would contain a certain irony: for it is co-founder and CEO Alex’s business that provides the company classification data itself.

I met Alex last night at the launch party for the 11th annual Leeds Digital Festival. Even in a room containing the great and the good of the Leeds tech scene, his infectious enthusiasm stood out.

That doesn’t mean it has always been rosy. “I sold my first business, Bloom, to Jaywing in 2016 and it was an absolute disaster,” he tells me for Founder Friday.

Bristol-founded startup stuDex is giving independent businesses a new way to reach the city’s large but fragmented student market.

The app, which launches today, connects verified university students with local businesses, societies, sports clubs, events and activities through one central app.

Since its pilot at UWE Bristol, the platform has grown to more than 1,200 registered users and 33 partners, with the founders now aiming to build a significant share of Bristol’s student population during the 2026/27 academic year.

The platform’s partners already include Mr Wolfs, Bristol Folk House and independent cafés Drizzle and Cafe 56, alongside university societies and sports clubs including Bristol Black Futures, University of Bristol Fencing Society, UWE Snowsports and UWE Vegan Society.