Enterprise Nation and Visa Foundation have today announced the launch of AI for Every Business, a three-year programme designed to reach micro and small businesses across the UK and Ireland with practical support to adopt AI tools and use them effectively and securely in their businesses.

Backed by a $2 million grant from Visa Foundation, the programme will provide free, targeted support to more than 157,000 small businesses over three years.

Support will range from practical videos, webinars, and regional events to personalized assessments and learning paths. A smaller cohort of entrepreneurs will receive more intensive support including coaching, peer learning, and one to one mentorship to help them put their AI tools into practice.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Another four speakers have been confirmed for BusinessCloud’s FUEL Manchester 2026 event on October 28^th.

Founders Fergal O’Connor, Thomas Keighley, Sid Sethi and Gabriel Erinle will join the breakfast panel of the ground-breaking event at No.1 Circle Square in Manchester city centre.

O’Connor, a star of our Founder 250 list, is the CEO and founder of Buymedia – a data-driven, AI‑powered advertising platform. Founded in Galway in 2015, Buymedia expanded to the UK, launching a head office in Manchester in October 2025. It has been ranked as the 4th fastest-growing tech company in Ireland, and 73rd in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Keighley founded Urfuture alongside fellow Founder 250 figures COO Jayel Williams and CCO Holly Hobbs in Preston and moved to Manchester at the start of this year. The HR startup raised £1.7m in seed investment in April as it looks to replace CVs and job boards with tech solutions for the AI era.

Sethi, from Delhi, India, founded Specscart after his glasses broke while studying for a key exam during his Masters at The University of Manchester. Finding the industry was dominated by a small monopoly of companies, he started the business in 2018 with a focus on fashionable, low-priced eyewear, sustainably-made in its in-house Bury HQ and delivered within 24 hours. A Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni, he is targeting the £10m turnover.

Erinle spent 17 years helping to shape some of Manchester’s best-known developments – then decided it was time to back himself. The former Allied London estates director, who played key roles at Spinningfields, St John’s and Leeds Dock, swapped managing landmark estates for starting his own company GAME FM, which stands for Go A Mile Extra Facilities Management.

The event is sponsored by GM Business Growth Hub and S&W, with support from Bruntwood SciTech.

givestar, a fundraising technology company connecting events, fundraisers, donors and charities, has raised £9 million to accelerate its ambition to build the technology layer powering modern fundraising. 

The round – led by Mercia, with participation from Love Ventures – will fuel continued UK growth and a major expansion in the US. 

It is the largest round completed by a UK fundraising technology platform. 

 

SolarSub, an Edinburgh solar technology company developing passive cooling solutions for photovoltaic modules, has completed a £1.34 million funding round to accelerate the development and commercialisation of its technology.

The round was led by Sustainable Ventures, with participation from Zinc VC, Scottish Enterprise, Old College Capital – the University of Edinburgh’s venture investment fund, SFC Capital and the British Business Bank, alongside support from Innovate UK’s Investor Partnership programme.

Solar PV has a heat problem. As solar panels become hotter, they generate less electricity and degrade more quickly, reducing both energy output and lifetime value.

SolarSub is developing passive cooling technology designed to keep solar modules closer to their optimal operating temperature. Requiring no pumps or moving parts, the technology increases energy generation, reduces temperature-driven degradation and improves the long-term economics of solar projects.

Over the coming months, SolarSub, which was founded by two University of Edinburgh Engineering graduates, will undertake trials across multiple international locations as it works towards commercial-scale deployment.

Connect Ventures has announced the first close of its fifth fund at $55m as it increases its focus on founders with deep technical expertise building the next generation of European technology companies.

The final close target is $80m. The firm will lead pre-seed rounds across Europe, with cheque sizes ranging from $500k–$5m, investing at the intersection of AI, hardware and real-world automation.

The firm has invested in over 120 companies to date, leading the earliest rounds in category-defining technology companies including Aikido Security, a European outlier in AI cybersecurity; and TrueLayer, the leading Pay By Bank network.

The fund is anchored by British Business Bank, with significant participation from returning limited partners including Aldea Ventures, Sella Venture Partners and Molten Ventures, alongside new investors and a group of leading European family offices and several founders of Connect-backed companies.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Airtel Money, the mobile money arm of London-listed Airtel Africa, has confirmed its intention to float on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

The firm will have an expected valuation of around $9 billion (£6.8bn) – below earlier expectations of up to $10bn – and see it raise around £600m.

The news is a boost for the UK capital markets after UK-based AI infrastructure firm Nscale chose to list in New York rather than London.

 

MAGIC AI, the business behind the MAGIC AI Mirror, has closed an £8 million Series B round to scale in the United States and capitalise on the surging AI fitness market.

The round is believed to be the largest funding round for an AI fitness company this year, and arrives as MAGIC AI is named the fourth fastest-growing hardware company by The Sunday Times. 

The business has posted 342% annual growth, supported by rapid expansion in the US with a community already spanning 18,000+ members across all 50 states. It takes total funding to $20m.

Open GI has appointed James Barnard as Group CEO to lead the organisation through its next phase of growth and transformation.

The specialist technology partner serves the general insurance industry across the UK and Ireland and has more than 600 customers.

Barnard will be responsible for building on Open GI’s established market position, industry expertise and longstanding customer relationships.

Having joined from Aviva where he was chief operations officer of Aviva General Insurance, he has held a range of senior technology and operations roles at Aviva as well as at Ardonagh.

A company behind carbon-storing technologies and products for the construction industry has secured a £4 million funding package to launch commercially.

Bristol-based Adaptavate has combined equity investment with major UK and European innovation funding, marking a significant milestone in the company’s evolution from technology development to commercial deployment.

The funding will accelerate Adaptavate’s commercial licensing strategy and international manufacturing partnerships, enabling the company to help existing wallboard manufacturers transition towards commercially competitive production of carbon-storing wallboard.

 

CSignum, a provider of wireless communications from beneath the surface of water, ice and ground, has completed a £2.6 million funding round to accelerate commercial deployment of its EM2 product portfolio across multiple markets and applications, including water quality monitoring.

The investment supports CSignum’s mission to become an indispensable enabler of AI in the physical world, extending reliable data communications to underwater and below ground environments that have historically been impossible to connect.

Archangels, PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, British Business Bank and a group of US-based angel investors have provided additional investment, reflecting their continued confidence in CSignum’s technology and momentum in multiple markets.

Funding will be used to support commercial expansion and manufacturing scale-up. Since completing a £6m investment with the existing investor group in April 2025, CSignum has moved from pilot projects into volume deployments with multiple UK water utilities and international customers.

A new £140 million fund designed to support the growth of small and medium sized businesses in the East of England has been launched today by the British Business Bank.

The launch of the East of England Investment Fund means the British Business Bank is now delivering targeted finance across every UK nation and region outside London. 

Covering  Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire , the fund will provide much-needed access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses, offering loans from £25,000 to £2 million and equity investments of up to £5m to help businesses start, scale and grow.

 

The CFO of WPP plc is leaving to take up the role of CFO at Diageo plc.

The global advertising powerhouse said Joanne Wilson has a 12-month notice period and ‘a date for her departure will be agreed in due course’ – specifically once a successor has been appointed.

London-based media group WPP, known for owning global names such as Ogilvy and PR agency Burson, has recovered some of its share price this year after a dramatic slump in 2025.

Diageo is a global producer and distributor of beer, Scotch whisky and other spirits.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Losses at Aurrigo International plc widened in its latest half-year results amid a move to a far bigger HQ in Coventry.

However the self-driving technology leader grew revenues in the six months ended 30th June 2026.

In April Aurrigo said it would triple the size of its headquarters with a move to Power Park, which will serve as its UK hub for advanced engineering, autonomous vehicle development, high-volume manufacturing and ongoing automotive activities, with a test track also installed.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

An AI healthcare firm with a deep presence in the NHS has revealed its UK expansion plans after raising a mammoth $340 million in funding.

Australian firm Heidi’s next phase of growth will see a deepening of adoption across the NHS, private healthcare settings and health systems globally, while expanding how it supports clinicians throughout their workflows. 

This includes helping with the administrative work that surrounds a patient visit, resulting in faster completion of follow-up tasks alongside improved clinical note-taking. The roadmap also includes building the regulatory and clinical safety foundations required to support these capabilities.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Mission Group PLC climbed 10% today despite this morning’s announcement of a change to its CEO and chair roles.

Non-executive chair David Morgan MBE intends to step down from the board at the end of the year. Current CEO John Carey will move to executive chair.

Morgan’s tenure has seen the group rebuild its balance sheet and also strengthen its board and senior leadership team, culminating in the appointment of group CEO Carey – although it issued a profit warning at the start of the year.

Mission has since undergone a strategic growth plan focused on the simplification of its agency portfolio and cost base, AI innovation and the expansion into select new growth markets. 

This morning the company also reported its results for the six months ended 30th June 2026.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Oxford Biomedica shares rose 6% today after it reported half-year results.

The listed cell and gene therapy pioneer, which is targeting profitability, reiterated previous full-year guidance as it reported a 9% increase in revenues to £79.8 million for the six months ended 30th June 2026.

With 17 new clients signed in H1 2026 – more than 30% above the total number signed during FY 2025 – it said adjusted operating EBITDA improved to a £2.5m loss from £3.9m in H1 2025, driven by stronger revenues and continued cost discipline.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The Leeds Digital Festival is set to go region-wide in the coming years after a decade of major expansion in its home city.

The 11th edition of the annual festival, which now counts more than 200 events under its umbrella, is taking place this week and next.

This is the first edition under the directorship of Deb Hetherington after founder Stuart Clarke MBE moved to a chair role in its organising body Leeds Digital and handed the reins to Deb Hetherington.

Hetherington wears many hats, with specialisms in developing innovation ecosystems through real estate as well as advising growing companies. She has served as an executive director at Leeds Digital since 2019.

She was joined on stage at the launch of this year’s Leeds Digital Festival by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin – and there was a special significance given her plans in the coming years.

A founder who nearly lost his company in 2019 before selling it two years later has launched an exit preparation platform.

Leigh Wells, based in Warwick, founded data consultancy Comma Group and sold it to Amplifi in March 2021.

Having watched others arrive at the table unprepared, he is building The Founders Exit – described as an AI-native platform that helps owner-led businesses become exit-ready before they enter a live sale process.

Northumberland-based Dragonfly Advanced Materials has secured £500,000 in investment from Northstar Ventures, alongside a £500,000 grant from Innovate UK’s investor partnership programme, to support the scaleup of its novel aerogel manufacturing technology.

A Newcastle University spinout, Dragonfly’s innovation has the potential to reduce production costs and unlock new industrial applications for one of the world’s most advanced materials. 

The patented process also reduces reliance on expensive, environmentally challenging solvents, while using a simplified, scalable manufacturing approach. 

The funding will be used to increase production capacity, grow the sales and development team, and support continued work with industrial partners as Dragonfly progresses joint development opportunities towards future licensing agreements.

Car Finance 247, one of the UK’s leading digital motor finance platforms, has appointed Alan Smith as its new commercial director.

Smith joins Car Finance 247 with more than two decades of experience across the motor finance and automotive sectors. He will lead the company’s commercial engagement with lenders and also assume responsibility for the B2B segment of the business, supporting the growing team on its dealer introduced relationships and proposition.

Smith previously spent 11 years at Evolution Funding Ltd, where he held a number of senior leadership positions and played a key role in developing lender relationships and distribution strategies. Prior to that, he served as operations director at Jigsaw Finance for three years and spent six years with Pentagon Group as group finance & insurance manager.