The University of Lancashire has bolstered its Business School with three new appointments to support students and regional business growth.

Robert Binns has joined as a professor in practice, Miranda Barker OBE as an honorary professor and Marcello Trovati as professor of digital transformation.

Dean Steven Rhoden said the trio’s expertise in entrepreneurship, business leadership and AI reflects the university’s ambition to drive innovation and digital transformation across Lancashire.

Author: Cody Barrow , CEO, EclecticIQ

Harrods’ second breach in six months should remove any illusion of safety through prestige.

The retailer may not be engaging with the attacker, but cyber criminals are certainly engaging with them and the brand is paying the price.

This incident wasn’t a direct hit, but a reminder that supply chains are now battlegrounds. Customer data, loyalty tags, and contact info are enough to launch highly convincing scams and cause long-term damage to trust.

Once again, attackers didn’t need to storm the front door when a back entrance was wide open.

The alarm has been ringing for years. What’s changed is the cost of ignoring it – regulatory fines that hit the bottom line, customer defection that damages valuation, and personal board-level accountability that follows executives home.

The question isn’t whether to act, it’s whether you act now or after your brand takes the hit.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Fuse Energy has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing startups by tackling the problem of soaring energy bills.

Founded in 2022 by ex-Revolut executives Alan Chang and Charles Orr, the London company has surged past $300 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) while helping more than 150,000 households cut their bills by up to £200 a year.

To date, it has raised $100m, including a recent $10m round, and it is planning European expansion as well as further innovation in its energy stack.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Royal Mail’s parent company has acquired a minority stake in delivery network Collect+ for £43.9 million, leading to a rocketing share price for owner PayPoint.

PayPoint set up Collect+ as a joint venture with Yodel in 2009. It would buy Yodel’s stake for just £6m in 2020.

Now International Distribution Services (IDS), owner of Royal Mail, has agreed a £43.9m deal for a 49% stake in the business, valuing Collect+ at £90m. PayPoint owns the other 51% following the deal.

PayPoint’s share price has increased by nearly 10% since trading opened this morning.

Risers:

Paypoint PLC – +9.94%

Kainos Group PLC – +3.64%

Rentokil Initial PLC – +3.41%

Molten Ventures PLC – + 3.15%

Baltic Classifieds Group PLC – + 2.84%

Fallers:

BT Group PLC – -2.77%

Wizz Air Holdings PLC  – -2.23%

Investec PLC – -2.20%

Anglo-Eastern Plantations PLC – -1.79%

Pantheon Infrastructure PLC – -1.33%

Digital Catapult has invested £400,000 in DeepTech startup Immersely to expand across the UK’s creative industries.

Immersely says its tool – which uses deep machine learning and anonymised biometric data such as heart rate, stress levels, and engagement patterns, to determine how video game players emotionally respond to the content they experience – could redefine the creative economy and fuel a steady pipeline of compelling new content, particularly in the design and development of video games.

By applying emotional intelligence, the system identifies which elements enhance player enjoyment and which diminish engagement, providing valuable insights for future game design and development. This helps game developers and studios to predict how a game will perform before release and deliver real-time, adaptive content as players interact with the game.

NoBACZ Healthcare, a University of Cambridge spinout developing novel products that change the way lesions and wounds are treated in livestock and horses, has raised a £4.8m funding round led by The Yield Lab.

Wounds on livestock and horses are traditionally treated with antibiotics and then covered with cloth bandages; however, this approach is ineffective as it can lead to infection risks. NoBACZ has created a flexible and waterproof coating that can be applied as a gel, dip or spray. Unlike cloth bandages, it creates an instant protective barrier that seals out bacteria, allowing lesions to heal without the risk of infection.

The investment will be used to finalise its new pipeline of products and accelerate the commercialisation and global distribution of its existing products.

Maven Capital Partners has provided Shawpak Limited with a £500,000 funding package through the British Business Bank’s Midlands Engine Investment Fund II.

The investment will support Shawpak’s move to a larger, modern facility in Derby, enabling the business to expand production capacity, build and test bigger machines, and scale its service and spares operations.

Founded in 2013, Shawpak is a UK manufacturer of specialist packaging machinery for the medical sector. Its rotary thermoforming technology provides a compact and efficient alternative to traditional machines and is now used by major medical device manufacturers worldwide.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Online retail giant ASOS has seen its share price drop by almost 9% since trading opened this morning.

It comes after the company notified the London Stock Exchange of its annual results, reporting a rise in profits in the last financial year despite a fall in sales.

The company stressed its progress in cutting costs and clearing stock even as revenues slipped. However profit came in at the lower end of the expected range, it said.

Its share price now sits at 267p at the time of writing, 8.9% down on the 293p it sat at when markets closed yesterday and 39% down on 436.2p, where it was at the start of the year.

Galytix has teamed up with PwC to modernise the Global Emerging Markets Risk Database (GEMs), which holds 40 years of credit risk data from 29 development banks and institutions.

The goal is to make the huge dataset easier to use so investors can better understand the risks and opportunities in emerging markets.

The London-based firm, which builds AI tools to help banks and insurers turn complex financial data into clear insights, will add its CreditX AI Agent, which is said to be able to cut routine credit analysis work from 30 hours to 30 minutes while ensuring accuracy and transparency.

The project supports the G20’s call for clearer data to encourage more private investment into developing economies.

Notion Capital has closed a new £97 million growth fund, Notion Capital Opportunities III, to back its strongest portfolio companies and selected external growth-stage businesses.

The fund, which has already invested in Aikido, Upvest, Resistant AI, Nelly and Kraken Technology Group, is expected to make around a dozen core investments.

The London-based venture capital firm has also announced the hire of Jess Bartos, formerly of Salesforce Ventures, as its first external partner to help drive the strategy alongside partner Stephanie Opdam.

A listed Sheffield firm creating technologies that reduce the impact of clothing on the planet says it has agreements in place across the globe.

Xeros Technology Group plc said its half-year results show the first sales from its denim processing partner Yilmak following an agreement with prominent Pakistan-based manufacturer Ambition Apparel, which produces over nine million pairs of jeans a year.

There are also new agreements across Europe and China, the latter for its microfibre filter.

Revenue was £65,000, down from £79,000 in the prior year, as ‘delays pushed some income into the second half’. Adjusted EBITDA loss fell to £1.6m (H1 24: £2.4m), reflecting lower ongoing costs.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Steven Bartlett has told Press Publish NYC that he built Diary of a CEO into one of the world’s biggest podcasts by embracing failure as a competitive advantage.

The SocialChain co-founder revealed his dedicated ‘failure team’, tasked with running rapid experiments, and explained how pre-watch testing helps his team cut guesswork from content decisions.

Bartlett also discussed how AI is already reshaping podcasting, with his team producing AI-generated episodes that are said to be indistinguishable from human shows in retention data.

Despite turning down offers worth hundreds of millions, he said his priority remains creative control, happiness and the freedom to keep innovating.

EMV Capital, the VC investor specialising in high-growth deep tech and life sciences companies, has reported interim results for the six months to 30th June 2025, with revenues of £1.1 million, slightly down from £1.2m a year earlier, and losses reduced to £1.5m from £1.8m.

Total assets grew to £19.7m from £19.5m at the end of FY 2024, though net assets slipped to £13.6m from £14.1m. Cash fell to £0.5m from £1.0m, alongside a reduction in readily realisable securities to £1.0m from £2.5m.

Assets under management remained strong at £104.7m, compared to £106.7m in H1 2024, with £5m syndicated into seven portfolio companies, down from £6.4m into 11 companies.

CEO Dr Ilian Iliev said the group remains focused on expanding its funds practice and delivering shareholder value despite challenging markets.

Symphony Environmental Technologies Plc has reported a drop in revenue for the six months ended 30th June 2025.

The Hertfordshire firm, which aims to make plastic products smarter, safer and sustainable, said revenue was £2.93m compared to £3.44m in H1 2024.

Gross profit was £1.5m, down from £1.57m, with an operating loss of £370,000 (H1 2024: £420,000).

Author: Patrick Killeen

Tech and data driven growth consultancy Next 15 Group COO Jonathan Peachey will step down from his role and from the board on 31st October, remaining as senior advisor until January 2026 to support a smooth transition.

Peachey, who joined in 2018 and became COO the following year, played a key role in the acquisitions of SMG and Engine, and more recently helped drive the company’s simplification strategy.

CEO Sam Knights praised his “huge contribution” over seven years, while Peachey reflected on “seven fantastic years” with the London-based business and said he is excited to begin his next leadership challenge.

Charlotte Prior, CFO of listed tech training provider Northcoders, is to step down from the position and as a director next April.

The Manchester-headquartered business also reported a drop in half-year revenues for the period ended 30th June 2025 to £3.7m, compared with £4.4m in the previous year, against a backdrop of ‘unpredictable’ government funding as changes to internal departments are announced.

Underlying adjusted EBITDA remained steady at £400,000.

Northcoders ssid its B2B Counter consultancy division had expanded contracts within Skipton Building Society, Manchester Airport Group and a major UK Government department during the period.

Amigo Holdings PLC has placed its subsidiaries into solvent liquidation, appointing Grant Thornton to oversee the process.

The move released £740,000 in cash, of which around £450,000 will remain with Amigo after costs.

The funds will cover basic expenses and support its search for a reverse takeover target, with no further payments available for scheme creditors.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Revenues and profits have dropped at a listed company embroiled in multiple legal battles.

Big Technologies plc, a provider of Buddi electronic monitoring solutions used in prison services around the world, recently accused founder Sara Murray OBE – which it dismissed as CEO earlier this year – of forging documents to enable its 2021 IPO. She was already embroiled in a £320m High Court battle with the firm.

Murray responded last week by joining a group of investors in their bid to oust chairman Alexander Brennan, telling BusinessCloud: “Given the damage he has done to the business, this is not a moment too soon.”

This morning it reported its results for the six months ended 30th June 2025. Total group revenues for the period were £24.8m, compared with £26.5m in the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA was £12.5m (H1 2024: £14.3m).

The firm has no debt and net funds of £94.9m, slightly up on last year.

ASOS has reported a rise in profits in the last financial year despite a fall in sales.

The online fashion retailer stressed its progress in cutting costs and clearing stock even as revenues slipped. However profit came in at the lower end of the expected range, it said.

The company had previously forecast core profit of £130-150 million. Adjusted EBITDA was up more than 60% year-on-year, it reported.

The online fashion retailer, which has faced intense pressure from inflation and shifting consumer demand, said it has reduced inventory sharply year-on-year.