Author: Jonathan Symcox

Rise at Seven is leaving Sheffield and trebling its presence in Manchester as it eyes global expansion.

The search-first content agency, founded seven years ago in the South Yorkshire city, has consolidated its two northern offices into a single flagship space on Princess Street in Manchester city centre.

It has 100 employees based there across a creator studio, gym and event space.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has backed a London firm looking to transition the recruitment sector’s reliance on CVs to real-world experience using AI.

Ethos is aiming to shift the focus from static credentials to real-world expertise and says traditional platforms capture the wrong data as a CV is just a list of where you’ve been, not what you can actually do.

The company also tackles the problem of fake or AI-generated CVs, which make it harder to confirm a candidate’s real skills.

The firm’s CTO Daniel J. Mankowitz is a former research scientist at Google DeepMind. His co-founder James Lo previously worked in growth and transformation at the SoftBank Vision Fund – he was part of the turnaround team at WeWork during its 2019 IPO collapse – and at McKinsey.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A high-power ultrafast charging tech firm which warned it could go bust last year has been crowned a unicorn in a fresh round of funding.

Cambridge-based Nyobolt warned in early January 2025 that it could run out of funds in late Q1 2025 if it didn’t raise investment.

Last summer it raised £23 million to allay those fears. Now it has raised a further £44m, at a $1 billion valuation, in a Series C round led by Nasdaq-listed Symbotic, a leader in AI-enabled robotics technology for the supply chain.

Listed accountancy firm MHA plc has reported strong revenue growth and earnings ahead of expectations for its latest financial year.

The professional services provider of audit and assurance, tax, accountancy and advisory services said group revenue was up 12% to £251 million for the year ended 31st March 2026.

Adjusted EBITDA grew 12% to £46m.

In August 2025, MHA completed the acquisition of Baker Tilly South East Europe, establishing a presence in Cyprus, Greece and South East Europe.

On 7th April 2026, following the period end, it completed the acquisition of Moore Stephens LLC and Moore Stephens Consulting LLC, extending the group’s footprint into the Middle East.

Touchstar plc swung to a loss in 2025 after undergoing a restructure.

The Manchester-headquartered firm, which has supplied mobile data computing solutions and managed services to industrial sectors since 1982, reported 1% grown in revenue to £6.8 million.

Annual recurring revenue rose 5.2% and now represents 47% of total turnover.

However pre-tax profits of £388,000 in 2024 became losses of £1.3m in 2025.

Touchstar has served blue chip organisations such as Tata Steel, Wincanton Logistics, GSK, Certas, Calor, and Lakeland with its solutions, which include fire and security, rugged mobiles and proof of delivery.

JD Sports Fashion plc reported sales growth in its last financial year – but profits fell.

Sales were up 10.5% to £12.7 billion in the 12 months to 31st January 2026.

Profit before tax dropped 12% to £629m.

North America is now its largest region, at nearly 40% of sales.

Manchester-based Silvia Health has appointed Kyle Yeldon as a non-executive director.

Yeldon spent 13 years at NHS England, most recently as head of primary care services, overseeing national primary care transformation and systems handling over £10 billion in public funds.

He now runs KSY Consulting, advising HealthTech organisations on NHS navigation and market entry.

Silvia Health builds structured menopause care tools for NHS primary care and private clinics. It is preparing for NHS pilot activity and private clinic partnerships, with Silvia Lite available now via early access.

Genasys, a modern policy administration platform for insurers, MGAs and brokers, has appointed Becky Downing as COO.

She joins the InsurTech 50 leader from By Miles, the UK pay-per-mile motor insurer, where she was COO with responsibility for customer experience, operations and people.

Downing has spent over a decade as an insurance operator and founder. She was the founding CEO of buzzvault, the connected home insurance proposition that raised one of the largest InsurTech seed rounds in European history from White Mountains Insurance Group, and that went on to commercial partnerships including with Munich Re Digital Partners.

She also served as venture director at Admiral Pioneer, seeding and scaling new businesses inside Admiral Group.

Evaran has launched today – bringing together software providers CareLineLive, MOA Benchmarking and Health Metrics under a new, unified care technology platform.

The company has been created to help care providers manage services, compliance, reporting and oversight through more connected systems.

CareLineLive, founded by Josh Hough, is based in Sussex, while the other two platforms are headquartered in Australia.

Hough will serve as managing director of Evaran Europe.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

ZigZag has expanded its global presence with the acquisition of French firm Shipup.

ZigZag is a returns network for retailers. It featured in third on our recent RetailTech 50 ranking.

Its partner retailers will now be able to service each stage of the post-purchase journey – from the moment an item is bought through to a completed return – in the ZigZag platform.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Techspace has petitioned for Aircall UK to be wound up.

The workspace firm claims to be a creditor of the UK subsidiary of the French unicorn, which launched into this country with great fanfare in 2020. A hearing is set for 13th May.

Aircall UK’s confirmation statement is overdue at Companies House.

The Aircall parent company recently announced $204 million annual recurring revenue for 2025 – representing 26% year-on-year growth – and a seventh consecutive quarter of positive EBITDA.

Halo Drive, a Glasgow startup building ‘vehicle-aware AI’ for commercial fleets, has raised £250,000 in SEIS funding.

The round was supported by early-stage investor SFC Capital.

The investment will enable smarter, safer and more efficient connected and automated mobility, founder Terry Sunny told BusinessCloud.

The startup is now actively progressing pilot deployments, deepening collaboration with OEM partners, and bringing autonomous vehicle technology closer to real-world adoption.

Cambridge University spinout Barocal has raised $10 million seed funding from World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and IP Group.

Barocal has patented solid-state cooling and heating platform technology designed to replace century-old vapour-compression systems at cost parity – all while reducing emissions.

The technology targets the $450bn global heating and cooling market, addressing the rapidly growing demand for cooling in data centres.

The funding will be used to make key hires and accelerate commercialisation.

The recipients of The King’s Awards for Enterprise have been announced, celebrating the achievements of outstanding businesses from across the UK and recognising their vital contribution to economic growth and improving lives.

This year marks a significant milestone for the Awards, as they celebrate 60 years since the first honours were conferred in 1966. The programme has since recognised more than 8,000 UK businesses.

A total of 186 awards have been issued with one company, Bristol-based Tailfin, being recognised for two Awards. The Awards span a diverse range of sectors and celebrate the ambition, ingenuity, and success of the UK’s business community.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

French GP platform Doctolib has acquired London-based peer Medicus and plans to invest more than £100 million in the UK.

The deal will see Doctolib deliver their combined technology, AI and services to the clinical and administrative teams of GP practices across the country.

Its plans include the hiring of 150 people and establishment of a full R&D centre in London to drive innovation in primary care.

Reach plc revenues hit by Google shift

Publisher Reach plc has reported a large drop in revenues across both digital and print for the first quarter of its financial year.

The firm – behind the Mirror, Express, Daily Star as well as leading regional publications such as the Manchester Evening News – saw an 8.1% fall in digital revenue compared with Q1 FY25.

Of that, there was a 10.5% fall in indirect revenue. It blamed ‘ongoing disruption in search and referral volumes’ – mainly a lessened Google presence.

Print revenue was down 6.6%, with overall group revenue 6.9% lower.

Trainline plc has reported robust trading performance for the 12 months ended 28th February 2026.

Net ticket sales were up 7% to 6.3 billion, while revenue grew 2% to £453 million.

Adjusted EBITDA for the period was £177m, up 11%.

Author: Roshni Bandesha, head of ESG & sustainability, BGF

In a volatile economic and geopolitical environment, tech businesses can be tempted to focus solely on their bottom line.

When key markets like the US are looking to minimise the importance of ESG, it can feel easier to turn a blind eye to environmental and social commitments and instead focus on immediate profitability.

But, as investor scrutiny on governance and data practices intensifies, those UK tech companies that are taking it seriously will unlock a competitive advantage. ESG commitments and certifications, like B Corp, are not only evidence of good business, but they can be a precursor for stability amidst volatility.

For us, ESG strategy isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s a clear indicator of good business. That’s why in 2023, we became B Corp certified ourselves.

B Corp is an incredibly rigorous process that addresses every area of the business, including Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers. While a challenging process, we believe it is a marker of value creation – and so do plenty of our portfolio companies.

GC Business Finance, a responsible lender supporting SMEs across the UK, has appointed Aaron Malins as director of business finance.

Established in 2002 as part of The Growth Company, GCBF has a strong track record of supporting SMEs that struggle to access funding from mainstream lenders.

It currently manages a number of leading SME-focused funds, including as national Business Support Partner for the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, along with smaller loans for the Bank’s Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.

Malins brings over two decades of experience across finance, lending and advisory. He previously served as CFO of Manchester-based regulated consumer finance firm DSG, as well as managing director of its lending division Unity Auto Finance.

LIFT – Lancashire’s annual innovation and technology festival – will take place on 11th June at Burnley Football Club’s Turf Moor stadium.

LIFT 26 will feature speakers from London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Cumbria, Cheshire and Sunderland.

Among them are Alex Heerema, an investment manager at VC firm Ascension; Sarah Barber, managing partner at Jenson Funding Partners; serial entrepreneur James Butcher, a founding member of Lancashire’s Fhunded Angel network; Jane Theaker, a life sciences investment consultant from SpinXperts; Toby Biollo, a tech investment specialist from HSBC Innovation Banking; and rock guitarist-turned-music tech founder, Hazel Savage, who sold her Musiio AI business to SoundCloud in 2022 and currently heads up the Leeds Angels syndicate in West Yorkshire.