Author: Jonathan Symcox

Partners at YFM Equity Partners have completed a management buyout of the private equity firm.

Managing partner Jamie Roberts led the MBO alongside Eamon Nolan, head of fundraising and investor relations, and COO Marcus Karia.

The trio have bought Dave Hall and David Bell, the leaders of a previous MBO 13 years ago, out of the business.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Manchester FinTech Powdr has partnered with managed IT services and technology solutions specialist Red Rock, as the business looks to help scaling companies make better decisions backed by stronger systems.

The collaboration brings together two companies on GM Business Growth Hub’s ASCEND scaleup programme.

The partnership will see Powdr provide financial clarity and forecasting, while Red Rock ensures the technology underpinning it is secure, scalable and well supported.

This is in an attempt to reduce friction for growing teams and free up time to focus on running the business.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A new report from the Invest in Women Taskforce has found that the number of women angel investors has risen 60% in three years.

However the rise from 5,000 in 2022 to more than 8,000 today only equates to 14.1% of the 50,000 total angel population – just 0.1% higher than three years ago.

The Women Angel Investors report was compiled in collaboration with Beauhurst and the UK Business Angels Association.

ElevenLabs has launched The Eleven Album, a new AI-powered musical release created in collaboration with a roster of high-profile artists.

The company has used its Eleven Music model to generate fully original, studio-quality compositions. 

Spanning genres including rap, pop, R&B, EDM and cinematic scoring, the project brings together established names such as Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel and Michael Feinstein, alongside producers and next-generation creators exploring new ways to make music with AI.

The London unicorn said artists used the technology in different ways, from generating compositions to write over, to experimenting with new genres or speeding up production, with every track described as fully original.

Zenith Energy has strengthened the legal team supporting its claimant subsidiaries in ongoing arbitration proceedings against the Republic of Tunisia.

The AIM-listed international energy production and development company has appointed Andrea Pinna, a partner at international disputes firm Pinna Goldberg, to support its case being brought before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) under the UK-Tunisia Bilateral Investment Treaty.

Pinna, who is based across Paris, London, Washington and Dubai, specialises in international commercial and investment arbitration and has acted in more than 50 arbitration proceedings across sectors including oil and gas, joint ventures and M&A disputes.

The wider legal team is being led by Professor Thomas Clay alongside other counsel from Charles Russell Speechlys Paris and Essex Court Chambers.

Hargreave Hale AIM VCT has launched a new fundraising offer of up to £30 million, made up of a £20m raise and a £10m overallotment.

The VCT currently has £129.5m in net assets and a portfolio of more than 54 companies, but said the prolonged decline in AIM valuations has pushed it into a more diversified mix of holdings including Marlborough-managed equity funds and blue chip bonds.

Over the five years to December 2025, the VCT delivered a NAV (net asset value) total return of -39.5%, while continuing to target an annual dividend equivalent to 5% of NAV.

Wealth Club’s Nicholas Hyett said the sell-off in AIM has damaged most AIM-focused VCTs, but argued it has also left Hargreave Hale with a lower-risk portfolio, with 17.6% in main market listed companies and 16.4% in blue chip bonds.

MyARC has launched a next-generation platform designed to help fitness creators scale, monetise and grow their businesses, while also confirming a $2 million funding round backed by Araya Ventures, Morgan Stanley, Techstars and G Fund. 

Founded by Peter Monteza, alongside co-founders Nikhil Shah and Arohan Subramonia, the platform aims to solve a long-standing challenge in online fitness by enabling creators to deliver personalised training and nutrition plans at scale.

The new platform includes tools for automated personalisation, no-code app creation, subscription-based monetisation and always-on community engagement, helping creators grow revenue and serve more users globally. 

The London-headquartered startup has already supported creators generating millions in platform earnings and attracted thousands of daily active users worldwide. 

The company said the new funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand creator tools and support international growth.

Formula E has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud, naming the tech giant as its new principal artificial intelligence partner in a multi-year agreement designed to accelerate innovation across the championship.

Building on an official partnership first signed in January 2025, the deal will see Formula E integrate more Google Cloud technologies, including Gemini models, to improve performance, streamline operations and enhance the fan experience globally.

Formula E has already used Google’s AI tools to support projects such as the “Mountain Recharge” initiative and has rolled out a new strategy agent in live broadcasts to deliver real-time insights and predictions for viewers.

Ceryx Medical has appointed Mark Strong, a medical devices executive with decades of global leadership experience in heart failure therapy development, to its board of directors.

Strong has held senior roles including VP of R&D at Abbott, Boston Scientific and HeartWare, and was most recently CEO of Heart Failure Solutions, bringing expertise in developing and commercialising cardiovascular technologies.

The appointment comes after the business completed a successful first-in-human trial of its cardiac rhythm management device, which is designed to improve the efficiency of the failing heart and activate the body’s own repair mechanisms. 

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

Ceryx, which is headquartered in Cardiff, has attracted backing from MedTech investors including BGF, ParkWalk and the Development Bank of Wales.

It works to develop bioelectronic devices that restore the body’s natural pacing rhythms and improve outcomes for patients worldwide.

The UK Government is investing £36 million to boost the computing power of the University of Cambridge’s DAWN supercomputer by six times, in a move aimed at helping researchers and tech startups develop the next generation of AI tools. 

The upgrade will support the national AI Research Resource (AIRR) programme, which provides free access to high-performance compute for UK innovators and is expected to go live from Spring 2026. 

The expanded system will also give researchers access to AMD’s latest MI355X AI chips, integrated by Dell Technologies, enabling larger models, bigger datasets and more ambitious projects

Altrincham-based marketing agency The Genius Group has made a string of new hires following a period of rapid growth and expansion.

The appointments come as the business settles into its new headquarters at Foundation on George Street, a move designed to support a growing team as the agency scales.

New joiners include Gemma Barlow, who arrived in November as head of people from LADbible Group, alongside January hires Ben Herbert as senior video producer and Ben Taylor as a Shopify and e-commerce developer. 

Georgina Goldman has also joined the company’s Valid8 team as sales administration assistant, with further recruitment across office support, development/UX and marketing.

Founded in 2017 by Chris Niebel and Mark Shephard, the business has grown from six staff to more than 40 and is planning to build a team of more than 100 this year. 

The agency has driven more than £2.3 billion in client sales over the past three years and has now surpassed £100,000 in charity donations, including a £42,000 gift to Prevent Breast Cancer at the opening of its new office.

Oxford BioDynamics has confirmed that Stephen Diggle has stepped down as a director of the AIM-listed precision diagnostics company.

Diggle, who has served as a non-executive director for nine years, had previously indicated his intention to leave the board ahead of the company’s AGM.

The company added that Vulpes Investment Management, which is controlled by Diggle, remains its largest shareholder through the Vulpes Testudo Fund and Vulpes Life Sciences Fund.

LendInvest’s funds under management (FuM) have risen to £5.44 billion. 

The update comes shortly after a new £250 million bridging funding partnership with Castlelake, which the business said will support its bridging proposition and provide greater flexibility for UK property investors.

Assets under management stood at £3.61bn as of 31st December 2025, with total originations now exceeding £9bn since inception. 

In the fourth quarter of 2025, the listed company originated £360 million of lending, including £150m in December alone.

S4 Capital’s full-year 2025 performance came in ahead of revised guidance and above market expectations, with results set to be published in March. 

The digital advertising and marketing group expects like-for-like net revenue to fall by around 8.5%, while delivering an operational EBITDA margin of about 12%, ahead of consensus forecasts of £664 million net revenue and £75m EBITDA. 

It also reported a sharp improvement in liquidity, with net debt expected to be below both the £133m consensus and its previously guided range of £100m-£140m, helped by tighter treasury and working capital management. 

Executive chair Sir Martin Sorrell said there is still more work to do on growth and margins in 2026, but confirmed the board intends to recommend a 1p dividend.

The London-based MarTech’s shares have risen by nearly 40% to 26.5p in the first two hours of trading today.

Venture Life has reported a sharp uplift in revenue for 2025, as the AIM-listed consumer healthcare group continued to focus on scaling its core portfolio of branded products. 

The Berkshire-based company delivered revenues of £35.1 million, up 32% year-on-year, with proforma growth of 11.1% driven mainly by higher volumes sold. 

Growth was led by its “power brands” range, including Balance Activ, Lift/Glucogel, Earol and Health & Her/Him, with the business performing strongly after increased investment in advertising and promotion.

Author: Patrick Killeen

London-based AI video creation platform Synthesia has raised $200 million (£146m) in a new funding round led by Google Ventures (GV), pushing its valuation to $4 billion.

The investment makes the business one of the UK’s most valuable AI companies and follows a prior £146m Series D round in January 2025.

That round valued the company at $2.1bn and its latest deal highlights the rapid rise of the now-UK giant amid the AI boom.

The latest round also saw participation from Evantic, the venture fund founded by former Sequoia partner Matt Miller, and Hedosophia.

Other existing investors NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Accel, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), PSP Growth, Air Street Capital and MMC Ventures also participated.

As part of the transaction, the business will also facilitate an employee secondary sale in partnership with NASDAQ at a $4bn valuation.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Revolut has ditched its plan to acquire a US bank, according to the Financial Times, and will instead seek to secure a standalone licence to operate in the country.

The UK neobank had been seeking a target with a licence to operate across all 50 states.

However sources told the FT that if it bought a community bank, it might have to commit to keeping open high street branches, while any takeover would also require engagement with US regulators.

Meanwhile the Trump administration has promoted deregulation – and so Revolut is now said to be banking on securing its own licence quickly.

Author: Patrick Killeen

BGF returned more than £600 million during 2025 as it continued to scale its model of patient, minority growth capital across the UK and Ireland.

The growth capital investor said the performance delivered a money multiple of more than 2x, helped by a series of successful exits and continued positive trading across its portfolio. 

The London-based firm also paid a £75m dividend to shareholders, supported by the strength of realisations during the year.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A British AI boss intends to quit Britain for the United States as the latter is more founder-friendly.

Gravitee CEO Rory Blundell is planning to relocate to Denver, Colorado with most of his senior team, reports The Telegraph.

However Blundell and his three co-founders had already chosen to headquarter the firm, founded in 2015, in Denver. It also has bases in London and Lille, France.

Last summer it was valued at $300 million in a $60m Series C round of funding.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Develop North has appointed Michelle Percy as its new CEO as the North East-based investment company ramps up for its next phase of growth following the launch of a £58 million fundraise.

Percy’s appointment takes effect immediately and comes soon after the publication of its prospectus.

It plans to expand its activity as it continues to deploy capital into projects across the region.

Percy joins the listed company after almost nine years at Newcastle City Council, where she played a senior role in attracting inward investment and building public-private partnerships across a development pipeline valued at around £7 billion.