The BBC is reportedly preparing to make programmes specifically for YouTube for the first time, as it looks to boost revenues as audiences shift to streaming platforms.

According to the Financial Times, the tailored content would later also appear on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, with an announcement potentially coming as early as next week.

The move is expected to focus on younger viewers and allow the broadcasting giant to earn more by running advertising on the shows outside the UK.

The agreement would cover the BBC’s domestic public service arm and formalise its existing relationship with BBC Studios.

Author: Chris Maguire

Student living platform Housr has stepped up its US expansion plans by announcing two new office openings in New York and Chicago.

It follows last year’s news that the Manchester-based startup had raised £7.5m in private financing to accelerate its product innovation and expansion across the UK and US.

The round included backing from Ashta Capital and Juniper Equity, two Texas-based investment firms known for supporting high-growth operating companies.

Housr, which grew revenues by 186 per cent year-on-year, is on a mission to modernise student housing through technology.

Founded in 2021 by Harry Panter and Ben Clayton while studying at the University of Manchester, the company’s free-to-use app has become a digital ecosystem for student life, offering rentals, local deals, roommate-matching and ride-sharing, all in one place.

Co-founder Harry Panter said: “2026 is the year Housr becomes a market leader in the US, while continuing aggressive growth in the UK and entering new European markets.

“At the start of Q2, I’ll be relocating to New York. This is a deliberate move that reflects our ambition and long-term commitment to building the most important rental and living platform in the US.”

Author: Patrick Killeen

Sportsbook and casino operator Midnite has raised $35 million (£26.1m) in fresh funding as it ramps up plans to become a “tier-1” challenger brand.

The London-based firm’s Series C round was led by Raine Partners IV, the growth equity fund of The Raine Group, a global investment and advisory business focused on sectors including gaming, sport, tech and entertainment.

Existing investors Play Ventures, Discerning Capital, Makers Fund and Big Bets also backed the round, taking Midnite’s total equity funding to more than $75m. 

The company also secured a $100m credit facility earlier this year to support marketing and wider growth initiatives.

It said the new capital will be used to scale operations, speed up development of its in-house sportsbook and casino products, as well as support international expansion. 

A large portion of the investment will go into hiring, with the business planning to further build out its product and engineering functions.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Red tape that is holding back robotics and defence innovation in the UK is set to be reviewed under an expanded remit for the government’s Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO).

The watchdog, launched in October 2024, has named robotics and defence as new priority areas as it looks to tackle regulation it believes is outdated or duplicative and is slowing emerging technologies from reaching the market.

The RIO said it has already spoken to more than 150 businesses and is working on reforms across sectors worth more than £100 billion. 

Sulnox has secured a new patent in Vietnam as it continues to expand across Asia.

The London-based EnviroTech develops fuel conditioners and emulsification technology designed to cut fuel costs and reduce emissions without requiring upfront capex, across marine fuels and blended diesel and petrol.

It said Vietnam is a key growth market, supported by its trade links with hubs such as Singapore and proximity to Indonesia and China.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The Sunday Times has published its second annual league table of Britain’s fastest-growing companies in both software and hardware.

The tables rank private UK-headquartered tech companies on the growth in their annual revenues, measured over three years.

The 2026 Sunday Times 100 Tech is led by Abound, a lending FinTech company which just yesterday completed its latest acquisition to move into mortgages.

Founded in 2020 by Michelle He and Gerald Chappell, Abound uses AI to help borrowers bypass traditional lending through its technology-driven loans platform. 

The company now employs 120 people and has a small office based in Bermondsey, London. Over the past three years, it has grown by an impressive 490% a year, generating £66.8 million in sales last year.

Revolut, Mastercard and Visa have failed in a High Court challenge to stop the UK’s payments regulator from consulting on a cap for overseas card fees.

The firms launched a judicial review after the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) confirmed plans in December 2024 to explore limits on interchange charges.

Those fees have risen sharply since Brexit, with debit card rates increasing from 0.2% to 1.15% and credit card fees from 0.3% to 1.5%.

Judge John Cavanagh ruled that the regulator, now part of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), does have the powers to pursue the proposed price cap and threw out the case.

Author: Patrick Killeen

The BBC has confirmed that hit show Dragons’ Den will return later this month for its 23rd series.

Four guest investors will join long-standing Dragons  Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Steven Bartlett as the programme recommences on 29th January.

Gary Neville will return as a guest investor after previously featuring on the programme in 2024. 

He will be joined by three first-time guest Dragons, who have been revealed as rapper Tinie Tempah, Tropic Skincare founder Susie Ma and REFY CEO Jenna Meek.

Seven new episodes have been scheduled initially and further instalments are due later in the year.

Ofcom said Snapchat has “materially improved its illegal content risk assessment” to better protect UK users, particularly children.

The regulator raised concerns that Snapchat’s original assessment underestimated how likely illegal activity was to occur on the platform and warned it was considering enforcement action.

The social media giant initially submitted revisions that still fell short, before committing to a full overhaul, including a complete reassessment of risk levels across all identified harms.

Ofcom has now placed the company into a formal “compliance remediation” process, giving it a final chance to meet requirements.

Lower-mid market tech-focused private equity fund WestBridge III has secured a £34 million commitment from the British Business Bank as it targets high-growth UK technology businesses.

With offices in London, Manchester and Cardiff, the firm invests between £10m and £40m in firms across the country, with a stated focus on backing companies outside of London and the South East.

The funding supports the final close of WestBridge III at its £225m hard cap, following earlier backing for the firm’s WestBridge II fund in 2017.

The commitment will help it continue supporting ambitious founders and management teams through its next stage of growth.

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has signed an expanded deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to move its high-speed financial data operations to the cloud.

The partnership aims to give banks and other financial institutions faster, more flexible access to LSEG’s market data, which spans over 100 million instruments sourced from more than 575 exchanges and trading venues worldwide.

It builds on LSEG’s wider cloud transformation strategy, which has also included a strategic partnership with Microsoft.

Leicestershire-based The Access Group has agreed to acquire MaxOptra, a cloud-based route optimisation and delivery management platform.

MaxOptra, headquartered in London, supports more than 450 customers, helping optimise over 6,000 vehicles a day across sectors including food and drink, construction, logistics and waste management.

The deal strengthens Access’s ERP Specialised Supply Chain & Logistics portfolio, adding route planning and delivery management tools that customers have identified as a priority.

MaxOptra’s platform uses AI-driven routing alongside real-time tracking, electronic proof of delivery and automated customer updates to help fleet operators cut costs and improve on-time performance.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Shares in CAB Payments have risen by more than 13% to 75.11p today after the B2B FX and payments provider said it expects to deliver a stronger-than-expected performance for FY25.

The company, which specialises in helping businesses move money into and out of emerging markets, is now forecasting total income of around £119 million for 2025.

That would be well ahead of market expectations, where consensus had been pointing to £110.1m.

The London-based business also expects adjusted EBITDA to come in slightly above the consensus range, after analysts had pencilled in between £28.3m and £33.8m, compared to £30.8m in 2024.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Oxford Biomedica has confirmed it has received an unsolicited takeover approach from private equity giant EQT, sending shares up by more than 15% to 928p today. 

The life sciences group is now valued at around £1.13 billion, with its share price up 131.88% over the past year.

In a statement to the market, the MedTech said it is in preliminary discussions with EQT over a possible cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the company. 

However, it added that there is no certainty a firm offer will be made, or on what terms, and advised shareholders to take no action at this stage.

VIOOH has struck a strategic partnership with Atmosphere TV, expanding access to premium place-based video inventory across the UK, North America and Australia.

The deal gives advertisers programmatic access to 60,000+ venues generating over a billion monthly impressions, spanning restaurants, bars, gyms, airports and hotels.

Texas-based Atmosphere TV, which claims over 85% market share in North America’s place-based streaming sector, reaches 150m+ monthly viewers with more than 30 channels of audio-optional content.

UK startups and scaleups raised $23.6 billion in venture capital funding in 2025, up 35% year-on-year, marking the first annual increase in UK VC investment for four years. 

The rebound was driven by stronger late-stage activity and a record year for AI, with megarounds of over $100 million returning in force and Revolut topping the list with a $2bn raise at a $75bn valuation. 

According to HSBC Innovation Banking UK and Dealroom, AI startups pulled in $7.9bn, making up a third of all UK VC investment, while FinTech remained the most funded sector overall with $6.6bn across more than 300 rounds. 

The UK also maintained its position as Europe’s top VC market, with London securing $17.7bn alone and the wider ecosystem boosted by major hubs including Cambridge and Oxford.

ESA-backed InsurTech BirdsEyeView, which specialises in natural catastrophe modelling and exposure management for insurers, MGAs and brokers, has raised an undisclosed seven-figure investment round led by 24Haymarket.

Existing backers, including the European Space Agency and ACF Investors, also reinvested.

The funding will support new product development, hiring more climate scientists and expanding the London firm’s footprint in new regions, following 200% turnover growth and recent launches in the US and Australia.

The company’s WEATHER ANALYTIX technology uses large climate and catastrophe datasets with machine learning modelling to improve underwriting accuracy for fast-evolving risks such as wildfire.

London-listed Agronomics has made a further AU$3 million (around £1.47m) investment in Australian MedTech All G, which uses precision fermentation to produce animal-free human and bovine milk proteins such as lactoferrin.

The funding forms part of a minimum AU$10m round and will support commercial-scale production, regulatory work, patents and expansion into Asia and Europe.

All G has already secured key regulatory milestones, including clearance in China for recombinant bovine lactoferrin and GRAS status in the US, with launches planned in both markets in Q1 2026.

The firm will fund the deal via a convertible note and issue just over 10m new shares, taking its total investment in All G to around £8.9m.

Nasdaq-listed RedCloud Holdings has posted record preliminary annual results, with revenue rising 15% year-on-year to $53.7 million, beating its $51–$53m guidance range.

Transaction value is also up 31% to $3.2 billion for the London-based trade infrastructure firm.

It has today lifted its 2026 revenue guidance by 20% to $120m, citing momentum and expanding joint venture deployments.

The business is targeting further growth through new market launches and the commercial rollout of its RedAI agentic trading capabilities in February 2026.

Its share price is up by over 9% today.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Shares in Dunelm Group have fallen by almost a fifth today after the UK homewares retailer warned full-year profits are now expected to come in at the lower end of market expectations.

The update – and subsequent 17.6% share price dip – comes despite posting a solid first-half performance.

The retail giant’s total sales rose 3.6% to £926 million in the first half of its financial year, helped by continued growth in its core categories and stronger digital participation, with online-related sales accounting for 41% of total revenue. 

However, the group said trading became “more challenging” in the second quarter, with Q2 sales up just 1.6% to £498m, following stronger momentum in Q1.

Dunelm said the tougher performance was particularly evident around Black Friday and into December, as competition intensified across the market.