SportTech platform SPORTL has launched and closed a pre-seed fundraise of £250,000.

The London-based pay-as-you-train gym and studio booking platform, aiming to transform the fitness industry, has gone live with 50 gyms and studios across London – with 300 in the queue to join.

Onboard are investors and strategic partners such as Kevin Hewitt, former EMEA chairman of FTI Consulting, who will also join as chairman of the board at SPORTL; as well as James Hardy, former Deliveroo executive and co-founder of Bioniq; and HealthTech investor Jamie Hearne.

Tandem Bank has announced key changes to its board as it positions itself for future growth.

Stephen Jones has been appointed chair to lead the bank in its next stage of growth. Jones is currently executive chair of investment banking at Panmure Liberum and brings decades of senior leadership experience from across the UK banking sector, including senior executive roles at Santander and Barclays, as well as being the inaugural chief executive of UK Finance.

He succeeds Paul Pester, who steps down after three profitable and successful years in which he oversaw the successful integration of Tandem and Oplo and strengthened the bank’s leadership team, including appointing new CEO Neil Chandler in 2025.

Clive Kornitzer will also join the board as an independent non-executive director. With senior roles held at Santander and One Savings Bank, he was most recently group COO at OSB Group.

SWURF, an Edinburgh-based remote working platform, has announced a new £200,000 funding round.

The investment will accelerate SWURF’s expansion, with the goal of turning Edinburgh into the world’s most flexible working friendly city.

The investment will primarily drive the rollout of the innovative SWURF Pods, the state of the art, on demand private meeting spaces providing a seamless solution for the ‘work-from-anywhere’ professional.

The investment will also see continued improvement of the SWURF app, where users can discover and connect with welcoming remote working friendly venues across the city. To date, over 450 venues are listed on the app, including partners such as the new Hoxton hotel, the Crowne Plaza Edinburgh Royal Terrace, and The Royal Scots Club.

Data highlights SWURF is contributing £2 million to the local Edinburgh economy through venues adding new revenue streams, monetising space during off-peak hours, and Swurfers discovering new venues across the city.

Women in Unexpected Places (WIUP), a new nonprofit initiative dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and girls, has launched and is focused on developing its first programmes.

The organisation was founded to address a growing global challenge: women and girls continue to face increasing barriers to safety, education, and professional opportunity, particularly in regions affected by instability.

At the same time, women remain significantly underrepresented in many of the sectors shaping the future, including science, technology, and leadership.

WIUP aims to help close this gap by supporting women and girls in moving from crisis to opportunity through education, professional pathways, and partnerships with businesses, universities, and nonprofit organisations.

Its founder is British humanitarian and technology entrepreneur Sarah Porter. She is founder of InspiredMinds!, a global artificial intelligence and emerging technology community, and also World Summit AI, an international technology summit held annually in Amsterdam with additional events in Qatar.

She has advised governments and international organisations on emerging technologies and their societal impact, including serving as an artificial intelligence policy advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and advising the United Nations on the use of AI in lethal autonomous weapons.

The charity will initially focus on programmes for women and girls in the UK, before expanding across borders. The charity has filed the required documentation with the UK Charity Commission as part of its formal registration process. Legal advisors Edwin Coe LLP have been appointed to support the application.

Early work on the initiative has been made possible through support from individual donors. Early fundraising secured over £115,000, and these contributions are helping lay the foundation for programmes designed to expand opportunity and support women and girls where the need is greatest.

Author: Nicole Goodwin, joint managing director, AllBright everywoman

As we look ahead to this year’s everywoman in Technology Awards, I find myself reflecting on how far we have come, and how much opportunity still lies ahead for women in tech.

Celebrating success has always mattered but right now it feels particularly important.

In what many are calling the age of intelligence, representation matters more than ever. I strongly believe that the people designing and deploying technology should reflect both the society we are today and the society we aspire to build.

That can only happen with a genuine mix of viewpoints at the table. Research shows women are more likely than men to prioritise values such as privacy, safety, accountability, fairness and human autonomy in AI systems.

Those are not secondary concerns, as they are central to responsible innovation. If diverse perspectives are absent at the design stage, we risk creating systems that fail to serve everyone.

This is why the everywoman in Technology Awards mean so much to me. As the longest-running tech awards programme dedicated to championing female talent, they have celebrated more than 1,300 women across the UK.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

AI hyperscaler Nscale has raised $2 billion (£1.5bn) in Series C financing, marking the largest round of its kind in European history.

It values the London firm at $14.6 billion. 

Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Decker and Nick Clegg have joined the Nscale board.

Clegg, a general partner at Hiro Capital, is both a former UK Deputy Prime Minister and former president, global affairs at Meta.

Sandberg is a former COO of Meta and an early executive at Google, while Decker is CEO and co-founder of Raftr and a former president of Yahoo, Inc. 

Author: Chris Maguire

Embryo has completed its third acquisition in less than a year following a deal for creative and digital agency Serotonin.

The deal follows acquisitions of Making You Content in April 2025 and Novaro in November 2025.

Serotonin was founded in 2019 by Dom Carter and Clair Heaviside and is best known for its work with major eCommerce players such as ASSOS of Switzerland, New & Lingwood, as well as national property developers including Legal & General and Grainger plc.

Embryo’s CEO Ross Green said: “By bringing Serotonin into Embryo, we’re strengthening our ability to deliver even greater impact for our clients, combining Embryo’s strategy-led approach with Serotonin’s creative excellence, media capabilities and strong client base across EMEA.

“Most importantly, this acquisition is about people. Dom and Clair will be joining the Embryo board, and we welcome the talented Serotonin team, who have built something special over the past six years, and we’re incredibly excited to welcome them to Embryo as we enter this next chapter together.

“Manchester continues to be one of the most exciting and ambitious digital hubs in the UK, and this move reinforces our commitment to building one of the UK’s leading performance-driven agencies.”

As part of the transition, Heaviside will become chief creative officer and Carter will take on the role of chief strategy officer.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Darktrace has named its third CEO in just 18 months after its private equity owner reportedly forced out Jill Popelka.

In January Popelka stepped down after just 16 months, despite having recently described herself as a “long-term leader” to The Times. She was replaced by chairman Charles Goodman on an interim basis.

Now the Thoma Bravo-owned firm has named Ed Jennings as president and CEO, an appointment which it says will bring deep software and cybersecurity experience.

ATC Music Group Plc has acquired two music technology business – Push Media Ventures and Cirkay – in a deal worth more than £1m.

ATC is an independent music company housing talent management, live booking, live events and talent services.

It said the swoop expands its technology and data capabilities across the music value chain.

Push is a technology services business providing digital marketing, data analytics, fan engagement and ecommerce solutions to the music industry.

Cirkay is a technology platform designed to create lasting connections between artists and fans. Its first product, Cirkay Fan Pass, is a digital key that unlocks exclusive perks and engagement across multiple platforms, enabling interaction between artists and their communities

Simon Scott, co-founder and CEO of Push and Cirkay, will join ATC as non-board chief technology and product officer.

The total consideration for the acquisition is £1.05m, of which £300,000 will be satisfied in cash and £750,000 by the issue of new ordinary shares.

Author: Chris Maguire

Connectus Business Solutions, the fast-growing managed IT services provider with offices across the North of England, has acquired the assets of Wrexham-based IT support and cyber security provider I7 Technologies Limited.

The acquisition further strengthens Connectus’ regional footprint, which now already boasts offices in Salford , Doncaster, and Grimsby.

It will allow the business to provide stronger local support to even more organisations across North Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire.

The deal marks another milestone in Connectus’ rapid growth journey.

The award-winning technology business now supports more than 700 businesses and over 15,000 end users and has achieved three consecutive years of double-digit growth, alongside completing five acquisitions in the past four years.

With the addition of I7 Technologies, Connectus will expand its engineering capability, increase recurring revenue, and enhance support coverage across  North Wales Cheshire and Shropshire.

AIM-listed Next 15 Group plc has appointed Mark Astaire as chair designate.

After serving nine years on the board, the last five years of which were as chair, Penny Ladkin-Brand will not be standing for re-election at the London-based MarTech‘s Annual General Meeting.

Astaire joined the board as a non-executive director in February 2025. He is a former chairman of corporate broking at Barclays and head of corporate broking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

He is also a NED at Cavendish Financial plc, a member of the Sky News board, a member of the University of Liverpool Management School Advisory Board, and a trustee of the Holburne Museum in Bath.

Next 15’s COO Jonathan Peachey stepped down late last year after long-serving boss Tim Dyson retired last June after 33 years in charge.

The firm also shut down its Silicon Valley venturing arm, Mach49, after it uncovered ‘serious potential misconduct’ within the subsidiary. However it confirmed late last year that it is in discussions to sell its PR and marketing divisions amid media speculation of a potential £230 million swoop.

MarTech Dotdigital Group plc has revealed its half-year results.

The provider of an AI-powered customer experience and data platform personalised marketing said total group revenue increased 4% to £44.2m in the six months ended 31st December 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA was £13.6m, down slightly from £13.8m year-on-year. Adjusted profit before tax was £8.9m (H1 FY25: £10.0m).

Trading is in line with full-year market expectations on a constant currency basis, it said.

A former British Army captain has raised £1.3 million in pre-seed investment from female angel investors for her FinTech DataWollet.

Cardiff-based Jen Lothian (pictured centre), who served in Afghanistan, subsequently performed tech roles at Bank of America before joining financial services group Octopus.

She founded DataWollet, described as the UK’s first full-spectrum open finance platform, in 2022. It aims to offer a single gateway for instant access to consumer financial data.

 

A leading insurance company has thrown its support behind a campaign to help tackle digital exclusion in the North East.

Somerset Bridge Group has donated 50 laptops to Dynamo, the region’s largest tech sector network, as part of its efforts to tackle digital poverty. The devices will be given to Sunderland City Council’s digital inclusion team, which will distribute them to residents and community groups who need access to digital technology.

The council is supporting Dynamo this year in hosting the annual North East Tech Charity Dinner, which will take place at The Fire Station on 19 March 2026. The event brings together senior figures from across the North East tech sector and will raise money for initiatives tackling digital exclusion.

Funds raised through the dinner will support the Dynamo Digital Inclusion Fund, which provides grants to charities and community organisations working to improve access to devices, connectivity and digital skills.

VIOOH, a premium global digital out of home (DOOH) supply-side platform, has announced a strategic partnership with OUTFRONT, one of the largest media companies in the US.

The partnership encompasses OUTFRONT’s premium inventory of more than 7,600 digital screens, delivering more than 18 billion monthly impressions. High-impact locations include roadside billboards on key highways, train and subway stations, urban panels and bus shelters across more than 50 major cities and regional areas nationwide.

The network’s street furniture portfolio delivers strategic coverage across New York City, Boston, Louisville, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tampa and Miami among others.

The transit network provides access to major train stations including New York City MTA, Boston’s MBTA, San Francisco BART, Florida Brightline, Miami Metrorail, Chicago Metra and Washington DC WMATA.

Apadmi has appointed its first chief revenue officer in Rachel Wood.

The mobile product consultancy – which is based in Manchester and scaling globally – welcomes Wood, who spent nine years at ANS Group where she supported growth in preparation for a private equity-backed MBO and subsequent merger with UKFast. 

Most recently, she served as COO at OBT Live, where she built the company’s operations, product strategy and commercial foundations from the ground up.

The founder of an app which aimed to keep women safe at night has raised £11.2 million for his latest venture.

Harry Mead was behind the non-profit app Path Community, which no longer seems to be active. 

Then-restaurateur Mead developed the app after learning how many of his female friends felt uneasy about travelling home alone. To help build it, he retrained in coding and worked closely with female volunteers on its design.

It was singled out for praise from then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson for helping to keep women safe when walking home.

In 2024 Mead founded Augur with former Palantir engineers Imran Lone (CTO) and Stefan Kopieczek (head of engineering) to support national security interests, protect public spaces and defend critical national infrastructure using AI.

He has now raised £11.2 million led by Plural, with participation from First Kind, SNR, Flix and Tiny VC. 

 

Northern Gritstone has invested into Manchester spinout Cytotrait as part of a £3m seed funding round.

Cytotrait is a biotechnology spinout from The University of Manchester commercialised with support from the University of Manchester Innovation Factory.

It is focused on the development of novel traits for food and agriculture.

The £3 million round was led by Northern Gritstone, with contributions from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S, managed by Future Planet Capital), and Northern Universities Ventures Fund, managed by Parkwalk in collaboration with Northern Gritstone.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has invested in Stack BTC Plc, a company seeking to build a portfolio of cash-generative businesses alongside a Bitcoin treasury.

The MP for Clacton joined Blockchain.com in backing the company which is led by executive chairman Kwasi Kwarteng.

Kwarteng served as Chancellor for just 38 days before being sacked after his and former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s mini-Budget caused turmoil in the markets.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The future of Beauty Bay has been secured via a sale of the business and its assets via a pre-pack transaction to an international investment group.

The Salford-based online cosmetics retailer filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators in February and took down its website. It continues to show a holding page.

Rick Harrison and James Clark from Interpath were appointed joint administrators to Beauty Bay Limited on 6th March and immediately concluded a sale of the business to French-owned AA Investments Group.