Cybersecurity specialist Principle Networks has reported another year of strong financial performance, with revenue reaching £8 million in FY25/26 and EBITDA increasing to £1 million, representing 70% year-on-year EBITDA growth.

Over the past three years, the business has achieved average annual revenue growth of 40% and EBITDA growth of 106%, reflecting increasing demand for specialist cybersecurity expertise as organisations modernise their IT environments.

Growth has been entirely organic, underpinned by strong new customer acquisition, customer retention of approximately 98% and high net revenue retention.

Recent client wins include IRIS Software Group, Hill Dickinson, Hargreaves Services Plc, Buzz Bingo and Datum Datacentres.

Kinematic Trees has raised £585,000 in pre-seed funding to enable its nature-inspired, robot-agnostic software to scale, and evolve with the latest advances in robot hardware.

Funds will be used to build Kinematic Trees’ commercial, robotics and software engineering teams across London, Nottinghamshire and Sheffield in the UK, in line with product development, international deployment and major advancements in the robotics industry.

Proceeds come from Haatch across its SEIS Fund, D2N2 Early-Stage Angel Investment Fund, and British Business Bank ‘BBB’ Syndicate Fund.

Kinematic Trees was founded last year by Dr Stuart Wilson, CEO, a Senior Lecturer in Computational Neuroscience at The University of Sheffield, and Daniel Camilleri, Chief Technology Officer, an exited co-founder of Cyberselves Universal, which later became Bettering our Worlds (BOW).

The pair first discussed ideas for a ‘universal robot brain’ while attending Living Machines at Stanford University in 2017 and working on robot control systems based on theories of how animal brains adapt.

Nuggit has launched a £5m Creator Support Fund – a new initiative designed to enable UK-based YouTube creators to unlock growth in their high potential media businesses.

The launch builds on Nuggit’s existing Creator Operating System, which has already helped over 33 high-potential YouTubers. Nuggit creators include Arsenal fan channel AFTV, food travel creator Only Scrans and lifestyle and family creator Anna Saccone.

The platform is also demonstrating strong early results, with median revenue growth of 29% in under one year across its creator base. In addition, with Nuggit’s support, six YouTubers have taken their creator role full-time.

The Creator Growth Fund is targeted at high-potential YouTubers who have reached an inflection point for professionalising their business. While creators often grow their channels on their own, at a certain point many reach a plateau constrained by resources, time and expertise.

Alongside funding, Nuggit provides strategic and operational support designed to help YouTubers professionalise their operations, and become brand ready creators. This includes data led content strategy to grow audiences, help deploying capital, and commercial support to land valuable brand partnerships.

MASAJ, a bodywork brand founded by Scarlet Amies and Alice Vaughan to professionalise massage for guests and therapists alike, has raised £1.5m.

The round was co-led by women-led fund FIGR Ventures and Sorven Capital, with participation from angel investors including Giles Brook. FIGR MD Fiona O’Callaghan has taken a seat on the board.

The funding takes MASAJ’s total raised to £2m and will fund new studio openings across London over the next 12 months.

The business has earned more than 15,000 five-star reviews on Fresha and Google, 40% of customers return monthly, and its revenue grew 43% year-on-year in FY24/25. Since launching on the high street in March 2021, the business has delivered more than 110,000 hours of massage, grown its footprint to three studios – the latest a June opening in Islington – and secured partnerships and collaborations with the likes of Nike, Gymshark and Home House.

CompliMind, a Cambridge-founded compliance intelligence company, has grown from a single NHS pilot to 18 live deployments across healthcare organisations and private healthcare providers in just 18 months.

The growth reflects increasing demand for specialist AI designed for regulated environments, where decisions must be accurate, traceable and supported by evidence.

The company now supports 15 NHS trusts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, covering more than 10% of the NHS hospital estate. Customers include Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospital Southampton Estates Limited, Cambridge University Hospitals, Liverpool University Hospitals, Swansea Bay University Health Board and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

CompliMind builds software for estates teams responsible for keeping safety-critical buildings compliant with regulation. The platform provides a single, live view of compliance evidence, with every answer linked back to its source and supported by an audit trail. It helps professionals find and verify regulatory knowledge faster, while leaving judgement calls and accountability with the people qualified to make them.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Transport technology provider Tracsis has agreed to acquire Mistral Data, a wholly owned subsidiary of FirstGroup plc, for an enterprise value of £48 million.

Mistral Data is a UK rail software provider with a diversified portfolio of business-critical cloud-native software and data solutions that help Train Operating Companies communicate with passengers, manage demand and revenue, run day-to-day operations, monitor rolling stock, and turn operational data into insight.

Headquartered in London, it provides a portfolio of products spanning four areas: customer and revenue solutions; rail operations and staff communications; asset management and data platforms; and business intelligence and cloud security. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Employees of 9fin have cashed in via a secondary share sale, according to its co-founders.

An AI-powered debt market intelligence platform, it recently raised a $170 million Series C at a $1.3 billion (£1bn) valuation – making it the UK’s latest unicorn.

As part of the round, the firm gave ‘9finners’ the opportunity to sell a portion of their vested shares, former J.P. Morgan banker Steven Hunter and Deutsche Bank engineer Hussam EL-Sheikh wrote in a blog post.

“This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” they said. “With our latest funding round significantly oversubscribed, we were determined to make it happen.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A £16 million takeover deal has been agreed for a Liverpool firm which creates AI agents for financial advisory firms.

Investment advice company Tavistock Investments Plc is to acquire 87.9% of Plus Group as it seeks to build a technology-enabled financial services group that combines advice, investment management and intelligent automation for retail investors. 

It also kickstarts the group’s rebranding transition into the Vertex Group, following the recent acquisitions of Alpha Beta Partners and Lifetime Financial Management.

The initial consideration for the acquisition is £900,000 payable in cash with a further £3.6m payable in cash over the next eighteen months. Additional deferred consideration of up to £11.5m in cash may become payable over the balance of four years, subject to agreed performance criteria.

 

Saible, a Birmingham-based construction FinTech building software to stop project money from being delayed, withheld or trapped before it reaches suppliers, has raised £2.9m from angel investors.

The funding comprises £2.1m already raised and a further £800,000 angel round, taking Saible’s total funding to £2.9m.

Saible is working with the Environment Agency and BAM Nuttall on public-sector pilots designed to test its payment-control model on live, government-backed construction projects. The first pilot is expected to be a £1.5m–£2m footbridge replacement, due to commence in summer 2026, with a programme duration of 12–16 months.

The pilot followed work by a Cabinet Office-sponsored group examining payment problems in construction and is intended to generate early evidence on payment visibility, supplier payment timing and supply-chain reach that can inform wider public-sector payment reform.

Alongside the angel round, Saible is opening a limited £50,000 Crowdcube-hosted allocation from 15th July to 14th August, intended to allow smaller construction businesses and industry participants to invest alongside Saible’s angel backers.

Palatine Private Equity, the regionally focused, sustainably driven mid-market investor, has appointed Jihad Karambizi as investment manager in its Impact team.

Karambizi joins Palatine with experience spanning audit, corporate finance and M&A advisory across the UK and South Africa.

He began his career in audit in South Africa, working with businesses across the retail, construction, life sciences, media, manufacturing and consumer goods sectors. After moving to the UK, he continued his audit career at BDO before transitioning into the firm’s M&A team, where he specialised in the healthcare, life sciences, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Most recently, Jihad spent two and a half years in the M&A team at Kreston Reeves, where he progressed to Associate Director and led transactions across a range of sectors including construction, education, and business services, with a focus on the lower mid-market.

Performance nutrition company Science in Sport has appointed six-times Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy as chair of its Elite Performance Advisory Panel.

One of Britain’s most decorated Olympians, Sir Chris will work with Science in Sport’s scientific and elite performance teams to provide strategic insight, helping to shape future research, product development and educational initiatives across elite sport.

His appointment also builds on a relationship with Science in Sport spanning more than 30 years. Sir Chris was first introduced to the brand as a student, becoming one of its earliest customers before going on to work alongside Science in Sport throughout his sporting career.

A consortium of some of the UK’s largest pension providers have committed to exploring the establishment of a first-of-its-kind vehicle dedicated to investing in scaling UK science and technology businesses.

The potential £1 billion fund would seek to deliver strong long-term returns for pension providers and their members while also helping innovative businesses to scale and commercialise new technologies.

Among the pension providers are Railpen, Nest, LPPI, LGPS Central and Border to Coast.

The British Business Bank is working alongside them to support the launch of the UK Scale-up Fund and with the intention of investing in partnership with the group. The Office for Investment is also supporting the consortium.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “Today sends a clear message: this is a vote of confidence in British business, British talent and British ambition.

“This new fund would help unlock good growth in every postcode, connecting pension investment with the entrepreneurs and technologies that will reindustrialise Britain and create the jobs of the future.

“That means more opportunities for working people, stronger returns for savers, and more businesses choosing to start, grow and stay in Britain.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A fourth company director has been disqualified for their role in a scheme involving unauthorised banking transactions worth almost £14 million.

Daryl Dylan allowed unarranged overdrafts with Barclays Bank to be used to make transfers of more than £1.6 million from the accounts of Oldcocdt Ltd and Oldcostl Ltd in 2021.

Most of the transfers were to connected companies controlled by his half-brother, Scott Dylan, and associates.

Daryl Dylan failed to ensure the funds could be repaid to Barclays on demand, breaching the bank’s terms and conditions.

The 38-year-old, of Kilmainham Square, Dublin, was due to stand trial at the High Court in Manchester in late July. However, he signed a disqualification undertaking – a legally-binding agreement in which a director agrees to be disqualified and does not dispute certain facts – to end court action against them.

His seven-and-a-half year ban comes into effect on Friday 7th August. It prevents him from acting as a director and being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The CEO of AIM-listed Restore plc is to leave the role.

Charles Skinner led London-headquartered Restore for a decade from 2009, retiring in 2019, but returned to the company as CEO in 2023. At the end of the year he will step aside once more and take up the role of non-executive chair. 

He will be succeeded as CEO by Dan Baker, who has served as CFO since 2023.

Restore, a provider of information and data management, business digitisation and recycling services to businesses, has made 64 acquisitions since 2011.

Indeed last year Bloomsbury published Skinner’s book Buy, Run, Build – A Guide to Entrepreneurship through Acquisition.

The firm also reported its half-year results this morning. 

Journeo plc, a provider of intelligent systems for transport networks and critical national infrastructure, has reported half-year growth in revenue and profits.

For the six months ended 30th June 2026, group revenues increased by 53% to £37.6m while adjusted profit before tax increased by 10% to £3m.

Its cash balance at the period end was £12.6m – down from £18m a year earlier –  following payment of £10.7m cash consideration for the acquisition of Crime and Fire Defence Systems in September 2025. The company’s invoice discounting facility of £2.75m was unutilised during the period.

The AIM-listed firm said trading was in line with expectations.

Revenue at Newcastle PropTech iamproperty now exceeds £60 million following major investment in innovation, strategic acquisition and expansion into new markets. 

Financial results for the year ending 31st October 2025 show a 20% year-on-year growth to £61.2m.

Adjusted EBITDA scaled to £17.2m, up by over 14%. Gross profit climbed to £50m, rising by 20%. 

The PropTech 50 star’s digital solutions support estate agents to save time, maximise opportunities and meet the changing needs of consumers across the entire buying, selling and lettings process.  

iwoca, one of Europe’s largest SME lenders, has closed a new £250 million facility with a leading UK bank and WAM Capital. 

iwoca, led by co-founder and CEO Christoph Rieche (pictured), says it can now extend its lending to more small businesses across the UK – whether they’re scaling up operations, investing in new equipment, or seizing a growth opportunity. The new facility is structured to grow as demand scales.

The new facility builds on a period of sustained growth at iwoca. The number of SMEs iwoca has funded across the UK since 2012 has grown from 60,000 (2024) to 96,000. In 2025, iwoca issued 58,000 loans worth over £1.3 billion across the UK, a 60% year-on-year increase in lending value from 2024. 

AI-powered coaching platform VEYR has launched a Crowdcube investment campaign, inviting consumers to invest in the next generation of fitness technology as part of a £1 million funding round.

The raise, which values the business at a £4.5 million pre-money valuation, includes £400,000 through Crowdcube alongside pre-committed investment and non-dilutive funding. The 3-week campaign opens for expressions of interest on 27th July, with a public launch on 10th August.

More than 40% of the funding round has already been secured through pre-committed investment and grant funding, including support from Google, Cloudflare, Kylla Investment Partners and private angels. VEYR has also been entirely self-funded to date, with founders investing more than £250,000 into building the platform before seeking external investment.

Founded on more than 15 years of elite coaching experience, VEYR transforms expert coaching methodology into an intelligent AI coach that learns the individual, not simply their training data. The proprietary Fitness Intelligence Engine combines human coaching expertise with artificial intelligence to deliver fully adaptive, personalised workouts in real time. The platform is designed to remove barriers to fitness by creating a flexible, responsive training experience that evolves with the user.

The company’s vision is to become the user-aware intelligence layer sitting behind the future of fitness – helping people not only train harder, but show up more often, stay motivated and establish long-lasting, life-changing habits.

Foresight Group, a regional private equity investment manager, says it has opened 2026 in strong form, with significant new investments, a series of successful exits, and a continued pledge to support the growth of SMEs across the UK and Ireland.

During this period, Foresight invested more than £43 million into 11 growing UK businesses and completed three exits, reflecting continued investment activity, and in turn confidence, across regional growth markets. Multiple follow-on investments were also completed, backing the growth of existing portfolio companies.

The 11 new investments include, Federal, SAMP Technology, Pinocchio’s Nurseries, Play Revolution, Optera, Envoke, Alan Wood & Partners, VS Group, Vestd, Connective3 and Regenerus, spanning numerous regions across the UK and Ireland, as well as sectors including technology, defence, food and beverage, and healthcare.

Among the highlights of the first half was the sale of the Northern Ireland-based TES Group, a key supplier of power distribution equipment to critical infrastructure across the UK, Ireland, and Europe. The transaction delivered a 4x return on Foresight’s invested capital. During the investment period, TES Group grew revenue by 84% to £72m and increased its headcount by 60%.

Foresight also exited Fieldway, the Liverpool-based fire safety and compliance specialist primarily serving the social housing sector. Acquired by Axis CLC, the exit marks the 12th realisation from the Foresight Regional Investment Fund, which has delivered an average return of 4.2x invested capital across its realised investments.

Foresight continued to strengthen its Private Credit strategy, including providing a £40 million senior debt facility to Revolve, a leading provider of stock and working capital finance to UK SMEs. The strategy’s innovative approach was also recognised through shortlists at the Alternative Credit Investor Awards Europe for Best Market Innovation and Wealth Market Proposition of the Year.

The Ventures strategy also remained active, completing a new investment in Optera, a UK space technology company, and providing 23 follow-on investments to support the continued growth of existing portfolio companies. The team’s activity and impact were recognised through a number of industry award shortlists, including Deep Tech Investment of the Year and Impact Investment of the Year.

Across Foresight’s 13 offices in the UK and Ireland, the team continued to grow welcoming six new joiners across deal origination, private credit and growth and buyout strategies further strengthening Foresight’s local capabilities.

North West digital agency Stonechat Digital has rebranded as Grid53, marking its seventh anniversary with a renewed focus on helping businesses across the UK energy sector grow.

The rebrand reflects the company’s evolution into a specialist agency serving energy suppliers, price comparison websites, renewable installers and energy technology businesses.

Founded in 2019 and headed up by CEO Scott Byrom, the agency has secured clients including British Gas, Which?, E.ON Next and Samsung.