Bite-size news in business & technology, from big breaking stories to funding, appointments & deals
Published: November 3, 2025 at 9:24 am
LegalTech TrialView has raised £3.1 million in growth funding led by Elkstone Ventures as it looks to expand internationally and accelerate the development of its AI-powered dispute resolution platform.
The investment marks a major milestone for the Dublin-founded business, which has so far been self-funded and profitable, reaching over £2m in ARR within the last three years.
The now-London-based company’s technology is already used by 15 of the UK’s top 20 law firms and has featured in some of the world’s most high-profile legal cases, including the $6 billion Russian Aviation litigation and major proceedings in London’s Commercial Court.
TrialView’s platform uses AI to mine documents, streamline workflows and surface critical evidence – helping legal teams, judges and arbitrators manage and present cases more effectively from start to finish.
Published: November 3, 2025 at 9:05 am
Furniture search platform ufurnish.com has appointed former O2 UK and Verizon Consumer Group chief Ronan Dunne as chairman.
The appointment follows what the company described as “meteoric growth” since launching in 2019.
The platform now connects over five million users with more than 2.7m products from 100+ furniture retailers, using AI to help shoppers discover and compare items across the UK market.
Dunne, who is currently non-executive chairman of Six Nations Rugby and KoreLabs, and a non-executive director at Marks & Spencer Group, will succeed outgoing chairman Pat McCann.
Published: November 3, 2025 at 9:04 am
The chair of Cykel AI PLC has resigned despite narrowing losses.
Nicholas Lyth has left the company, which is focused on building AI agents, with immediate effect. Michael Chan will assume the role of chairman on an interim basis pending the appointment of a permanent chair.
The London firm’s products claim to interact with any UI, website or API using natural language commands. Following the launch of autonomous recruitment agent ‘Lucy’, it built a sales agent called ‘Eve’ then a research agent named ‘Samson’.
It reported its first revenue of £4,107 in the six-month period to the end of July, while narrowing losses from £4m to £1.2m.
Published: November 3, 2025 at 8:48 am
Social Chain owner Brave Bison has made a move to buy M+C Saatchi Performance (MCSP) from M+C Saatchi plc in a deal worth £50 million.
The marketing and technology company said the proposal, which is currently non-binding, would combine MCSP with its existing performance marketing division to create one of the largest independent digital media groups outside of the US.
Together, the two businesses would have a strong presence across the UK and Asia-Pacific, with very little overlap between their operations.
Published: November 3, 2025 at 8:33 am
InvestAcc Group has completed the acquisition of a business segment from AJ Bell.
Specialist pension administrator InvestAcc, listed in London, said it has acquired the pension administration client books which formed part of the AJ Bell non-platform business for a maximum consideration of £25m.
An initial cash consideration of £17.5m has been paid and £1m of ordinary shares have been issued to AJ Bell. The deferred consideration, of up to £6.5m, will be payable in the first half of 2026, subject to the achievement of specific client transfer targets.
Published: November 3, 2025 at 8:29 am
DCC plc has completed the divestment of its UK and Ireland tech business for £100 million.
The Irish sales, marketing and support services conglomerate, founded in 1976 as a venture capital firm and listed in London, is undergoing a restructure announced last year to simplify its business.
Looking to focus on its energy business, earlier this year it sold its healthcare division for £1 billion – and it has now divested its Info Tech business in the UK&I to German-based private equity group Aurelius.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 3:21 pm
This week’s best-read stories include the Dragon aiming to create a Disney-style empire; the wheelchair user who won full backing in the Den last night; and the FinTech entrepreneur heading a fan bid for crisis club Sheffield Wednesday.
As a Barnsley fan (who grew up in Sheffield, counts many friends among its fanbase and is used to jibes about ‘Dingles’ and ‘you’re just a small town in Sheffield’) I can only hope that Wednesday find a responsible owner who will put the fans and club’s staff first.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 3:10 pm
The CEO of Daisy Communications has left following the Lancashire firm’s merger with Virgin Media O2, which created a £1.4 billion revenue company.
Dave McGinn joined the Nelson-based firm in 2009 as MD of Daisy Distribution and was named CEO of Daisy Communications in April 2016.
Daisy founder Matthew Riley – who chairs O2 Daisy was included in BusinessCloud’s 2025 Northern Leaders list – paid tribute to ‘crafty Cockney’ McGinn.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 12:23 pm
The recent announcement of a £150 billion UK–US ‘Tech Prosperity Deal’ marks a bold step in transatlantic cooperation on AI, digital infrastructure and high-growth industries. But the deal risks overlooking one fundamental fact: technology doesn’t prosper without power.
The UK’s data centres currently consume approximately 2.5% of the national electricity supply, a figure comparable to the power needs of the entire city of Birmingham.
Projections from parliamentary analysis indicate a potential quadrupling of this electricity usage to over 22 terawatt-hours annually by 2030. Concurrently, the International Energy Agency has issued a warning that AI-driven workloads could account for more than 20% of the additional electricity demand in developed economies by the close of this decade.
Data centres are the backbone of digital growth — but without clean, affordable, and resilient energy, they risk becoming the Achilles’ heel of national competitiveness.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 12:08 pm
Risers:
Anglo-Eastern Plantations – +6.46%
IP Group – +2.83%
Smith & Nephew – +2.12%
Avon Technologies – +2.11%
Alfa Financial Software – +2.01%
Fallers:
Ceres Power – -4.55%
WPP – -3.77%
Burberry – -3.48%
Auto Trader – -3.41%
Drax Group – -2.81%
Published: October 31, 2025 at 10:56 am
Research conducted by global advisory firm Vistra has suggested that over half of global firms with a UK presence are unprepared for Companies House’s new identity verification rules.
The mandatory period begins on 18th November.
The survey of 100 global company directors found that 52% aren’t compliant with identity verification requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA), while nearly 1 in 3 remain unaware of the legislation altogether.
The findings highlight a significant compliance gap ahead of the UK’s biggest corporate transparency reform in 180 years.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 10:20 am
West Yorkshire’s reputation as one of the world’s most dynamic regions for health technology innovation will take centre stage this November as a first-of-its-kind conference brings together leading voices from the NHS, government, academia, and industry to shape the future of healthcare.
The event, ‘Driving the Future of Innovation – West Yorkshire’s HealthTech Cluster’, will be held on Thursday 6th November at Leeds United’s Elland Road stadium.
It will be delivered in partnership with the West Yorkshire HealthTech Cluster, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Innovate UK’s West Yorkshire Health Technologies Launchpad (hosted by Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber), and the West Yorkshire ICB’s HIVE Network.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 9:59 am
Solid State plc, a component supplier and manufacturer of computing, power and communications products, says its subsidiary Steatite Ltd has secured an initial order valued at $10.8 million under Project CAIN, a major defence programme, for a UK Government end user.
It says the order represents a significant milestone in Steatite’s ongoing strategy to deliver cutting-edge, mission-critical technologies to the UK’s armed forces and security community.
Under Project CAIN, Steatite will supply a range of secure, ruggedised systems including the MPU5 and Wave Relay Radio Technology from Persistent Systems, supporting advanced operational capabilities in challenging environments.
Delivery of these initial systems is scheduled for the first half of 2026. The project further strengthens Steatite’s position as a trusted supplier to the UK Ministry of Defence and reinforces its reputation for innovation and reliability in the delivery of secure technology solutions.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 9:40 am
MHA, a professional services provider of audit and assurance, tax, accountancy and advisory services, has reported growth in half-year revenues.
The group said it is on track to deliver full-year performance in line with market expectations after estimating revenue for the six months ended 30th September 2025 at approximately £121.3 million, up 13% on H1 25 (£107.2 million).
Of this revenue growth, 3% relates to the acquisition of Baker Tilly South-East Europe Holdings in August 2025, and 1.5% is attributable to the full period income from Baker Tilly Ireland, acquired in July 2024.
MHA completed a successful AIM IPO shortly after the period began in April 2025, raising gross proceeds of £97.8m to be used, amongst other things, to invest in technology, including AI, and support further bolt-on acquisitions to accelerate growth.
In August 2025 it completed the acquisition of BTSEE, a professional services firm offering a comprehensive range of services to clients in Cyprus, Greece and South-East Europe.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 8:55 am
A shareholder in TT Electronics Plc says it will reject the £287 million takeover offer from Swiss electronics firm Cicor Technologies Ltd.
DBAY, which owns a 16.5% stake in TT, said it is “not supportive of the acquisition”.
TT responded by revealing that it had rejected three “highly conditional” offers from DBAY for the company in the last three months, adding: “Against this background, the board of TT believes that DBAY may in some respects have a different agenda to other TT shareholders.”
Published: October 31, 2025 at 7:49 am
Retail group Princes Group has floated on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of £1.16 billion.
The £2.1bn revenue food and drinks firm includes the brands Princes, Napolina, Branston, Batchelors, Flora, Crisp ‘N Dry, Delverde, Naked Noodle and Vier Diamanten.
The Liverpool-headquartered group exports its products to more than 60 countries and has more than 8,000 customers globally across large food retailers, B2B partners and the foodservice industry.
The offer price of its float has been set at 475 pence per share, equating to a market capitalisation of approximately £1.162bn. It includes a retail offer which it expects to raise £14m.
Princes said the float would raise primary capital of approximately £400m to support further inorganic growth via acquisitions.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 7:42 am
The CFO of Raspberry Pi is to step down.
The Cambridge firm – behind low-cost miniature computers used extensively in education – floated in London in June 2024 at a valuation of £542 million.
Now Richard Boult has informed the board that in the second half of 2026, after seven years at the firm, he will leave the company to “explore new challenges and enable the company to put in place a team for its next period of growth”.
Raspberry Pi, led by CEO Eben Upton, has begun a search for his successor.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 7:27 am
Moonpig has appointed its new CEO.
Catherine Faiers will replace Nickyl Raithatha, who in June announced that he would be stepping down after seven years in the business.
Faiers is currently the COO at Auto Trader Group plc. Prior to this she was COO at Addison Lee, corporate development director at Trainline and a director at Close Brothers Corporate Finance.
Raithatha’s leaving date – and Faiers’s start date – will be announced in due course.
Published: October 31, 2025 at 7:22 am
The Dragons’ Den line-up for 2026 has been revealed – with three new guest Dragons joining Gary Neville.
Tinie Tempah, Jenna Meek and Susie Ma will enter the Den for the first time alongside heavyweights Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Steven Bartlett.
Sara Davies, as previously reported, will not return in 2026.
So who are the fresh faces?
Published: October 30, 2025 at 9:03 pm
Must give credit to my editor, Jonathan Symcox, who has taackled the live blog for the last few weeks. The whole watching and typing isn’t as easy as he makes it look!
He’s still not by any means the star of the show – with accessibility innovator Simon Sansome winning backing from all five Dragons in tonights finale.
You can read more about his pitch and reaction here.
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