Author: Patrick Killeen

Trustpilot shares jumped more than 10% today after the review platform reported a strong FY25 performance, with bookings expected to rise 22% year-on-year to $291 million (£217m).

ARR is forecast to climb 28% to $296m (£220m) and the group said adjusted EBITDA is projected to come in ahead of market expectations.

The Copenhagen-based business, which is listed in London, also highlighted its focus on trust and integrity, saying it implemented new AI-enabled fraud detection and removed 7.8m fake reviews.

The company’s full-year results are due on 17th March but today’s announcement saw its share price rise by 10.3% to 207.6p.

It comes as a welcome boost for the firm, which has seen its stock drop by over 21% in the past 12 months, although its market cap still stands at £828m.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Redcar-based EnviroTech Nova Pangaea Technologies has appointed experienced energy executive Stewart Stewart as its new CEO.

Stewart brings more than 30 years of experience commercialising breakthrough low-carbon technologies and scaling venture-backed businesses across the UK and the US.

In his new role, he will lead the business through its next phase of growth, including the development of its first commercial-scale plant, as the company works to decarbonise the aviation sector.

The firm, which was founded in 2008, is behind a novel process for producing sustainable aviation fuel from waste biomass.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Summa Equity has acquired workforce safety technology provider Peoplesafe from mid-market private equity firm ECI Partners in a deal that will support the company’s international expansion.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Surrey, Peoplesafe protects more than 350,000 workers and generated £22.6 million in annual revenues in its last financial year, with core operations across the UK, US and Canada.

The business supports employers in safeguarding lone and frontline workers operating in complex, remote and hybrid environments.

Its customer base spans both the public and private sectors, including organisations in healthcare, real estate, retail, utilities, industry and professional services.

Web Summit has announced plans to create 60 new jobs after surpassing €100 million in revenue in 2025, almost doubling since 2023 and rising sharply from €17m in 2020.

In a LinkedIn post, CEO Paddy Cosgrave described the past few years as transformative for the bootstrapped events business, crediting its team for scaling the conference to a “historic” level despite industry-wide challenges.

The new roles will span sales, engineering, production and finance, with opportunities available across Dublin, Lisbon and globally in remote, hybrid and office-based formats.

Cosgrave also acknowledged the difficult year faced by many tech conferences, expressing gratitude for Web Summit’s growth and offering support to others in the sector.

BusinessCloud has attended and reported on the last two annual Web Summit events in Lisbon.

London-based EnviroTech Verna has raised $4 million in an attempt to help organisations move beyond biodiversity reporting and deliver long-term nature recovery projects.

The round was led by Berlin-based NAP and Zurich-based Übermorgen, with backing from UK investors including Vanneck, Love Ventures, Concrete Ventures and Climate VC.

The startup’s software brings together existing nature data to help businesses plan, implement and monitor recovery projects over decades, rather than stopping at disclosure.

Within a year of launch, the company surpassed $1m in ARR and now supports more than 3,000 users across 100 organisations.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Apadmi has appointed Tim Klein Haneveld as managing director of its Benelux operation.

The move strengthens the mobile technology consultancy’s presence in the Netherlands as it continues to grow globally.

The appointment is a key milestone in the integration of mobile specialist Pinch, which joined the Apadmi Group in July last year, bringing together a combined Benelux team of more than 70 specialists based in a central Amsterdam office.

With the deal now complete, the Greater Manchester firm now employs more than 450 practitioners globally.

It delivers mobile and digital products for major international brands including Domino’s Pizza, Vodafone and Intratuin, and the expanded Benelux operation boosts the company’s ability to support clients from strategy through to long-term mobile performance across multiple European markets and sectors.

Klein Haneveld brings more than a decade of experience helping leading Benelux organisations transform how they engage customers on mobile.

He has led the creation of award-winning mobile apps for major publishers and broadcasters such as DPG Media, Mediahuis and FD Mediagroep, with products used daily by millions of people across the region.

The Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) is expanding its Tech4Youth initiative to Northern Ireland, providing free devices, digital literacy workshops and online access support to young people aged 11–16 to tackle digital exclusion.

The move targets a region with some of the UK’s highest digital poverty rates, particularly in rural areas where 17% of premises still lack decent broadband.

Tech4Youth focuses on supporting young people facing additional barriers, including disabilities, caring responsibilities or experience of the care system, helping improve access to education, skills and employment opportunities.

The expansion builds on earlier success in the region, where 60 laptops were distributed last year.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Astoriom has appointed Will Edwards as its new CEO, as the company prepares for its next phase of international growth.

Edwards succeeds Lori A. Ball, who is stepping into a board role after leading the business through a period of expansion.

Headquartered in Rochdale, the business specialises in safeguarding high-value scientific research and consumer product samples, providing services spanning sample stability storage, biorepository solutions, validation services, storage design and disaster recovery.

It was founded over 30 years ago and operates environmentally controlled storage facilities across the UK, Ireland and the US.

Edwards brings more than two decades of international leadership experience across storage, logistics and technology.

Most recently, he served as CEO of Spectrum Storage Group, and has previously held roles at global organisations including Google and Bain & Co.

The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is set to rename itself UK Private Capital, subject to member approval at its AGM this week.

The new name is intended to better represent the full spectrum of private equity, venture capital and private credit firms the association represents, which collectively back around 13,000 UK businesses, employ 2.5 million people and generate 7% of UK GDP.

BVCA chief executive Michael Moore said the change will provide greater clarity for investors, media and policymakers as the sector’s role in driving growth, innovation and jobs has expanded.

The rename, which will formally take effect on 27th January if approved, aligns with its Strategy 2030 ambition to be the home of the entire private capital community.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Amazon is facing growing scrutiny from independent retailers who claim the eCommerce giant has listed and sold their products without consent.

The news comes even as the online marketplace pursues legal action against AI startup Perplexity for shopping on its platform without permission.

The concerns centre on Amazon’s “Buy for Me” feature, launched in April last year, which allows some customers to purchase items not sold directly by the company but available on other retailers’ websites.

Goalhanger has appointed a trio of senior leaders, with Andy Hodgson joining as CFO, Chloe Straw as director of operations and Emily Kent Smith as editorial director.

The hires are designed to strengthen the company’s financial, operational and editorial capabilities as it scales, with all three reporting to co-founders Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport.

Their arrival follows a record-breaking 2025 for the podcast and production company, which surpassed 750 million full-episode streams in a single year and now delivers more than 70m monthly streams across its network.

Goalhanger has also secured a major partnership with Netflix for The Rest Is Football and seen multiple accolades.

Palatine has announced a series of senior promotions, including the appointment of James Painter and Tom Wildig as partners.

Painter, a key figure in Palatine’s technology team, has led investments including Bluprintx and supported multiple acquisitions and exits across the portfolio, while Wildig has specialised in business services, most notably overseeing the successful transformation and exit of NRG Group and Suntera.

Elsewhere, Greg Holmes has been promoted to senior investment director in the impact team and Connor Fazakerley to associate in the growth credit team.

European online marketplace Fruugo reported strong Christmas trading, delivering 25% year-on-year festive sales growth in the six weeks to 24th December 2025.

The Ulverston-based eCommerce platform saw particularly strong demand across categories including seasonal decorations, cosmetics, vehicle parts and hair care.

It comes after the company reported disappointing 2024 results and could mark the beginning of a turnaround.

The performance also follows Fruugo’s strategic decision in 2024 to pause onboarding new sellers, prioritising seller quality, compliance and long-term sustainable growth.

Chief executive Fergal Gara said the results validate the company’s shift toward tighter controls and trust-led marketplace operations as it builds for its next decade of expansion.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Liverpool star Cody Gakpo has invested in a company which is using AI to build a ‘European health operating system’.

The Dutchman, who played in the 4-1 FA Cup victory over Barnsley at Anfield on Monday night, has joined several other angel investors – including prominent entrepreneurs – into Zurich-based Ahead Health.

The $6 million seed round was led by RTP Global, with VC firms Tiny.VC and Pareto 20 also participating.

Founded in 2024 by ex-Google executives, medical doctors and HealthTech builders, Ahead Health combines preventive check-ups such as MRI scans, advanced blood tests, and CT-scans into a single platform to democratise access to sophisticated preventative healthcare. 

Finova has appointed Lewis Harris as Head of Strategic Solutions, bolstering its commercial leadership.

Harris joins from roles at Salesforce, nCino and HSBC, bringing deep experience in banking, FinTech and large-scale digital transformation.

He will work closely with sales director Daniel Broadhurst to shape Finova’s pre-sales strategy and translate market and customer needs into scalable technology solutions.

The hire follows a series of senior appointments over the past year and supports the firm’s ambition to become the UK’s leading end-to-end mortgage and savings technology provider.

Karavel has secured £1.25 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by Fuel Ventures to accelerate the development of its AI-powered compliance platform for highly regulated industries.

The London-based startup helps legal, compliance and marketing teams replace fragmented, manual processes with AI-driven ad reviews, real-time regulatory horizon scanning and automated gap analysis.

Founded by former Revolut and ClearScore leaders Pedro Sousa and Nav Garcha, the business is already making its mark, with customers completing compliance reviews up to three times faster and significantly reducing legal costs.

The funding will support product development and expansion across the UK and Europe.

Author: Chris Maguire

Journalist Jon Robinson announced he’ll be taking on a new role as the first Head of News at Citypress.

Citypress is the UK’s biggest employee-owned PR consultancy, having transitioned to an EOT model in 2021.

Robinson’s last day at City AM is today and it brings the curtain down on a stellar 13-year career in journalism.

The experienced reporter joined City AM as the paper’s first UK editor in January 2024 and has clocked up nearly 2,000 articles.

THG acquired City AM in a pre-pack deal in 2023.

He’ll be taking up his new role as the first Head of News at Citypress on Monday.

 

A record 56,615 new UK technology companies were incorporated in 2025, up 17% year on year. 

According to analysis by RSM UK, nearly every region saw record tech incorporations, with particularly sharp growth in Wales, the West Midlands and the North West, although skills shortages appear to be holding back growth in parts of the South East. 

RSM said the figures highlight the UK tech sector’s continued appeal to entrepreneurs and investors, supported by government backing in areas such as AI, startup funding and tax incentives. 

However, the firm warned that failing to attract and retain skilled talent could limit future growth if barriers to overseas recruitment and graduate retention are not addressed.

Author: Patrick Killeen

JD Sports Fashion has announced a new global agreement with digital commerce platform provider commercetools to enhance the use of AI platforms.

The deal will allow customers to search for and purchase products directly through AI platforms such as Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, without leaving those apps.

The move comes as major AI firms in the US begin to enable direct purchasing ahead of a wider global rollout.

Launching first in the US, the London-listed retail giant will partner with commercetools and payments specialist Stripe to become the first retailer to deploy their joint Agentic Commerce Suite (ACS).

Gamma Communications plc anticipates reporting FY25 financial performance in line with market expectations.

The FTSE 250 firm, a channel partner network connecting major technology vendors with tens of thousands of SMEs, large corporates and the public sector, has announced the launch of a share buyback programme within existing shareholder authorities of up to £42.5m in FY26 and an intention to launch a further £42.5m share buyback in FY27, returning up to £85m in aggregate.

Closing net debt at 31st December 2025 was £9.4m, compared with net cash of £153.7m a year earlier, following the acquisition of STARFACE in February 2025 for £152.2m, a share buyback of £45.1m (completed in H1 2025) and the payment of £18.9m of dividends in the year.

Gamma said it continues to generate significant operating cash flow with liquidity supported by its £130m multicurrency revolving credit facility, of which £97m remained undrawn, and will continue M&A activity when appropriate.

The firm has also announced the appointment of Chris Jagusz as a non-executive director.

Jagusz spent two decades at BT Group before holding senior executive positions at Eurotel, Daisy Group, SSE Telecoms (now Neos Networks) and Azzurri Communications. His most recent executive role was as CEO of Redcentric plc; since then, he has held roles at a number of private and private equity-backed companies and currently retains chair positions on smaller businesses which operate in the telecommunications and technology sectors.