Bite-size news and insight from UK business and tech – including funding, deals and appointments
Published: March 17, 2026 at 8:23 am
Creator economy platform Deaku has raised £480K in a pre-seed round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from prominent creators including Rob Landes, Charles Berthoud, Rob Van Impe and Mario Joos – the latter the strategist behind many of MrBeast’s viral videos.
Founded by childhood friends Oscar Ferguson (a former NHS doctor) and Harrison Chapman, Deaku is building an AI-powered workspace designed to replace the fragmented stack of tools creators currently rely on with one connected platform combining strategy, analytics, collaboration and AI.
The funding will support product development, engineering hires and go-to-market partnerships with leading creator-economy voices.
Published: March 17, 2026 at 8:20 am
Fintel, an AIM-listed provider of FinTech and support services to the UK retail financial services sector, has reported strong full-year growth.
For the year ended 31st December 2025, revenue increased 10% to £85.9m, supported by £7m year-on-year inorganic growth.
SaaS & subscription revenue was up 9.6% to £48.7m, with recurring revenue streams now representing 57% of revenues.
Adjusted EBITDA growth was 16.6% to £25.9m.
Published: March 17, 2026 at 8:17 am
Revenue and profits flowed at Water Intelligence plc in 2025.
The London firm is a multinational provider of minimally-invasive, technology driven, preventive maintenance solutions for ageing water and wastewater infrastructure.
For the year ended 31st December 2025, group revenue increased by 9% to $90.4 million, supported by good growth across owned US and international corporate locations.
It also reported strong adjusted EBITDA growth of 15% to $16.5m and adjusted profit before tax growth of 9% to $9.2m.
Meanwhile Bobby Knell, non-executive director for the last eight years, has informed the board of his intention to retire and stand down on 31st March 2026.
Published: March 17, 2026 at 8:12 am
A dramatic rise in its visibility within AI models is driving growth at Trustpilot.
The London-listed global review platform – which is headquartered in Denmark – reported profitability ahead of expectations as its CEO said “authentic human feedback has never been more critical” amid the rise of AI.
Full-year revenues for 2025 were £261.1 million, up 24%, while adjusted EBITDA was £40.7m, a rise of 69%, and profit before tax was £14.1m, up 172%.
A strategic focus within the business drove a dramatic rise in Large Language Models (LLM) exposure, with click-throughs from AI search up 1,490%, Trustpilot said.
The site ranked as the fifth most cited domain globally on ChatGPT in January 2026, according to Promptwatch.
Published: March 17, 2026 at 7:44 am
The CFO of SThree plc, a global STEM workforce consultancy, is stepping down after nearly five years with the company.
Andrew Beach will step down from the board at the conclusion of the company’s Annual General Meeting on 29th April 2026.
He has agreed to continue within the business until the announcement of the company’s half year results on 21 July 2026, to support a smooth and orderly transition.
Damian Fehrenberg, currently senior VP finance USA, will become interim CFO from 30th April 2026 whilst the process to identify a permanent successor is completed.
Published: March 17, 2026 at 7:35 am
Accenture has completed the acquisition of London AI firm Faculty.
Faculty, which was founded in 2014 and has worked with Dublin-headquartered Accenture since December 2023, helps public and private sector clients to deploy AI solutions in the UK and other key markets.
The deal, announced in January, saw Faculty become the first tech unicorn of 2026 after it was bought by Accenture in a deal worth more than $1bn.
With the acquisition completed, Faculty CEO and co-founder Dr Marc Warner has expanded his role to also become chief technology officer of Accenture and join the company’s Global Management Committee.
Published: March 17, 2026 at 7:10 am
The UK is investing £2.5bn in fusion research and development in pursuit of providing commercial fusion energy.
On Monday, the government launched its Fusion Strategy and revealed details of its £20m cornerstone investment into Starmaker One, a UK fusion investment fund – backing British innovation and attracting the best technologies to UK shores.
The current conflict in the Middle East has highlighted the need for the UK to end its dependence on fossil fuel markets and accelerate the transition to clean homegrown power.
Fusion holds the potential to revolutionise the energy system and ensure lasting energy abundance and security.
The government say Britain is the first country in the world with a clear path to commercial fusion energy and will support over 10,000 UK jobs by 2030, drive investment, and give industry the confidence to take fusion from the lab to the grid, ready for deployment.
This includes plans for the UK to be the first to offer a market framework to attract and support private investment in fusion energy. This would provide confidence to investors and ensure a fair deal for consumers.
The strategy builds on the government’s record £2.5bn investment in fusion research and development secured at the Spending Review.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 4:41 pm
PropTech Vertical, based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, has appointed Dan Alvarez as its new group chief revenue officer.
Vertical delivers smart energy solutions that simplify energy management for landlords, students, and residential customers.
Alvarez has over 30 years of experience of transforming and driving scalable growth within a number of UK businesses including Vitrifi, Vorboss and Glide, where he specialised in building structured, high-performing operations and fostering collaborative team cultures.
He will oversee all customer, revenue, and marketing related functions across the group’s portfolio of brands including The Student Energy Group, Do Energy and Tickd.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 2:38 pm
ThinCats, the leading alternative finance provider to mid-sized SMEs in the UK, has appointed Dan Houman as senior director, origination.
Focused on owner-managed businesses, Houman will be based in Yorkshire and work with SMEs across the county and the North East to help them access the funding they need to grow.
He has held senior roles at Virgin Money, OakNorth and Santander.
His role will help strengthen collaboration across the Shawbrook Group’s lending platforms, giving regional businesses access to a wider range of funding solutions.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 1:35 pm
Manchester tech unicorn Matillion has appointed a chief revenue officer.
The firm, builder of the AI data automation platform ‘Maia’, said Tim O’Neil will bring deep expertise in enterprise data software from leadership roles at Alation and ThoughtSpot.
Matillion said organisations including Merck, EDF and GE Healthcare are using Maia to automate data workflows that previously demanded significant manual effort — freeing their teams to focus on building data products rather than managing pipeline complexity.
Maia works natively within ecosystem platforms, integrating tightly with Snowflake, AWS and Databricks, and leveraging AI labs models, like Anthropic, to deliver automation where enterprises already operate.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 12:29 pm
Maven Capital Partners has completed a £15 million investment in Chorus Intelligence.
The fast-growing investigation software specialist, founded in 2011, has a 15-year track record of developing and deploying digital investigation software, used by law enforcement, government agencies and corporations.
Based in Woodbridge, near Ipswich, the company recently launched the Chorus Intelligence Suite, which is being rapidly adopted across its key UK and US markets.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 11:37 am
The UK government is investing £45 million for a 1.4MW mission-focused supercomputer named ‘Sunrise’, a key first step in establishing the country’s first AI Growth Zone at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Culham Campus in Oxfordshire.
As announced in the Fusion Strategy, Sunrise is targeted for operation in June this year and is primed to be the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy. Funded by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Sunrise will tackle key fusion energy challenges in areas such as plasma turbulence, materials development and tritium fuel breeding, while delivering spillover benefits to other clean energy technologies and the UK’s broader net zero ambitions.
Sunrise will also strengthen essential AI capabilities at Culham Campus and across the UK’s high-performance computing landscape, contributing to the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and AI for Science Strategy.
Sunrise will see AMD, DESNZ, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Dell Technologies, Intel, UKAEA, the University of Cambridge, and WEKA working together.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 9:54 am
An American payments giant is preparing a swoop for UK FinTech CAB Payments.
StoneX, a Fortune 500 firm listed on New York’s Nasdaq exchange, is considering a bid for CAB Payments, which has endured a torrid time as a listed company.
CAB has rejected two rival takeovers from shareholder Helios Consortium and StoneX said it was hopeful of winning the support from the company’s shareholders, including Helios, before it tables the bid officially.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 9:46 am
Unseen Group has announced the completion of its 11th acquisition with the addition of employee content platform Seenit.
Seenit is an employee-generated video platform used by companies including Amazon and Vodafone to create authentic content that supports talent attraction, retention and development.
Unseen Group combines assessment technology, psychometric design, candidate engagement and onboarding, and recruitment support solutions to help employers deliver fair, data-driven and high-impact recruitment and development experiences.
Zac Williams, CEO of Unseen Group, said: “Seenit is a perfect fit for our refined employer-led offering and further solidifies Unseen as a leading provider of talent tools, spanning from candidate engagement, through to screening, assessments, onboarding and employee development.”
Emily Forbes, founder of Seenit, said: “From my first meeting with Zac, it was clear our missions were aligned and that Unseen was building something ambitious.”
Published: March 16, 2026 at 8:43 am
Sweden-based legal AI startup Legora has been valued at $5.5bn after announcing a $550m Series D fundraise.
The round was led by Accel, with participation from existing investors Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, ICONIQ, Redpoint Ventures, and Y Combinator, as well as new investors, including Alkeon Capital, Bain Capital, Firstmark Capital, Menlo Ventures, Sands Capital, Starwood Capital and Salesforce Ventures.
The investment will be used to accelerate its expansion across the US.
Legora (formerly known as Leya) was founded in 2023 and has built an AI platform for lawyers.
In the last 12 months, the LegalTech startup has grown from 40 to 400 team members across Stockholm, London, New York, Denver, Sydney, and Bengaluru.
Last year, Deloitte Legal and Legora announced a strategic relationship in the UK that will see the two organisations collaborate to drive the next wave of legal transformation.
Published: March 16, 2026 at 8:39 am
A shareholder revolt is aiming to oust the entire board of Physiomics plc.
Physiomics is a mathematical modelling, data science and biometrics company which supports the development of new therapeutics and personalised medicine solutions.
On Friday the Oxfordshire company’s directors received a request requiring the board to convene a shareholder meeting from Michael Whitlow, who holds approximately 13.68% of its shares.
Published: March 14, 2026 at 7:33 am
A campaign to raise £500,000 in memory of Abi Godfrey, a director of Grant Thornton’s North West corporate finance business who died last month aged 34, has already hit £40k.
The money will be used to support her baby son, Leo, and her family.
On May 28 her former colleagues at Grant Thornton will be taking part in the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge in her memory.
A JustGiving page aiming to raise £500,000 was launched by Alex Parry and has already raised more than £40,000
More than 100 people have now donated, including £10k from Keely Woodley and £5k from Pete Jennings.
You can donate here
Published: March 14, 2026 at 7:22 am
Rajan Gill was the 10th candidate to be fired in The Apprentice.
Gill, who proudly describes himself as the only tradesman candidate in this year’s show, was part of the losing team tasked with creating a virtual reality demo in order to secure investments.
Project manager Lawrence Rosenberg brought Gill and Levi Hodgetts-Hague back into the boardroom after his team secured £55,000 in investment, compared to the winning team’s £205,000.
Speaking after the show, Gill, whose company – AV Installations – specialises in TV mountings, said: “Opportunities like The Apprentice provide every candidate with the same platform. What really matters is how each of us chooses to use it — how we show up, how we contribute, and how we make the most of the moment.”
There are now 10 candidates vying for Lord Sugar’s £250k investment and mentorship.
Published: March 13, 2026 at 12:56 pm
Synap was making waves in the Leeds tech scene as far back as 2018 with its revision platform for students.
Fast-forward eight years and two pivots and the EdTech 50 star now provides technology for administering exams as well as supporting students with their work.
Speaking to Founder Friday on top of Bruntwood SciTech’s Platform building, Dr James Gupta – who co-founded the platform to help with his medical studies in Leeds – explains why the West Yorkshire city is a great place to start a business.
With universities – including Ivy League institutions – employers and regulated sectors using the platform, as well as private EdTech and tutoring companies, he says the creative and agile startup transforms into a military-style operation on exam day – which is a “nice mix”.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he says.
The EDM (electronic dance music) and Metallica fan also tells us how he likes to unwind when not working on the business – he and his wife spent two weeks at music festivals last year!
Published: March 13, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Before founding StructureFlow, I spent eight years as a corporate lawyer at Slaughter and May and Farrer & Co, advising on highly complex, high-stakes transactions.
These were multi-billion-pound deals involving layers of entities across multiple jurisdictions, with ownership, control and risk constantly shifting as negotiations evolved.
To manage that complexity, we relied on structure charts, timelines and diagrams. They were essential. They imposed order on something that would otherwise be overwhelming. But they were also static and slow to build. Worse, every time a deal changed, someone had to rebuild the picture.
Documents and diagrams made things readable, but not truly navigable. They flattened dynamic relationships into snapshots. As structures evolved, those snapshots quickly became outdated.
That’s where risk crept in. Not because anyone was careless, but because the tools weren’t built for constantly shifting complexity.
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