Houlihan Lokey has appointed Mark Ward as a managing director in its business services group.

Based between Manchester and London, Ward will focus on expanding the firm’s IT services coverage, working closely with senior colleagues.

He joins from DC Advisory, where he advised clients across IT consulting, software development, data analytics and managed services, and previously held roles at Clearwater International and PwC.

The appointment further bolsters the New York-listed firm’s European platform in business services M&A and corporate finance.

Sage has reported a strong start to FY26, with first-quarter revenue rising 10% year-on-year to £674 million.

The growth has been driven by continued momentum across its cloud-based products, with Sage Business Cloud revenue increasing 15% to £574m.

North America led regional performance with 13% growth, alongside increases in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

The listed North East-based tech giant will continue to invest in AI-driven innovation to support productivity for small and mid-sized businesses.

Revenues rose at AIM-listed Dotdigital in the last six months of 2025, with total group revenue up 4% to £44.2 million.

Recurring revenue from the core CXDP business increased 11% to £37.3m, accounting for 84% of total revenues, while forward-looking contracted ARR grew 13% to £75.4m.

The London-headquartered business, which provides cross-channel marketing automation technology to marketing professionals, ended the period with £36.1m in cash.

This followed a $20m consideration payment for the Social Snowball acquisition, which has delivered around 30% annualised ARR growth since completion.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Orreco has acquired Jennis, the women’s health and performance platform co-founded by Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill. 

The Galway-based SportTech says the move creates the ‘most advanced, women’s performance ecosystem in the world’. 

The deal brings together Orreco’s proprietary AI platform with its FitrWoman product, Jennis’ hormone-intelligent IP and DDSA’s elite computer vision technology, which is already an Orreco-owned business. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Listed firm Big Technologies has reported a drop in annual revenue and EBITDA after agreeing a £38.5 million settlement with disgruntled former investors.

The company – trading as Buddi – said both revenue and EBITDA were expected to be marginally ahead of FY25 market consensus, coming in at approximately £49.7m (2024: £50.3m) and £24.6m (2024: £27m) respectively.

It said the drop in EBITDA reflected a change in margin mix and investments made in strengthening the group’s management. Following cost-saving action, these are expected to be cost neutral in future periods, it added.

It had a strong balance sheet at the year-end with cash of £93.4m; including the initial payment of £31.5m paid in relation to the recent settlement of the Buddi litigation, cash at 31st December 2025 would have been £61.9m.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Northcoders has reported a challenging trading year after major changes to the UK Government’s skills funding system led to a sharp fall in funded learners across the sector.

The AIM-listed technology training and consultancy group posted unaudited revenue of £5 million for 2025, down from £8.8m the previous year.

It pointed to structural reforms introduced by the Department for Education that disrupted regional procurement and funding allocation schedules.

Despite the revenue decline, the Manchester-based firm said it maintained strong gross margins through disciplined delivery and careful management of direct costs, alongside a deliberate move away from lower-margin funded provision adopted by some parts of the training sector.

Northcoders also secured Department for Education contracts in Lancashire and with the Greater London Authority during the year.

Counter, its challenger consultancy brand led by managing director Amul Batra, delivered strong growth during 2025.

Mobile consultancy Apadmi is forecasting 20% revenue growth in 2026 and is kicking off the year with new client work. 

Building on a firm foundation of growth in 2025, which included acquisitions in Poland and the Netherlands as well as new client wins across Europe and Asia, Apadmi is already off to a fast start in 2026. 

Among the new clients are Britain’s largest organic food brand Yeo Valley Organic, leading consumer and trade tile seller Topps Tiles and omni-channel retailer Matalan. 

The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) is modernising how music played in public is tracked, reported and used for royalty distributions through its expanded partnership with technology provider Audoo, leader of our latest MediaTech 50 ranking.

Following the successful launch of the collaboration in May 2024, IMRO and Audoo have strengthened their work together to bring greater transparency, accuracy and ease to how background music usage is reported across Ireland.

Live music reporting was also deployed across a number of music festivals in Ireland throughout 2025. IMRO is an early adopter of music recognition technology, integrating anonymised data collected through Audoo’s systems directly into its royalty processing operations.

At the centre of this innovation is the Audoo Audio Meter, a discreet, plug-in device that automatically identifies and securely reports music played in public environments. This real-world data helps ensure that royalties are distributed accurately and fairly to rightsholders.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Australian scaleup AutoGrab has raised £40 million, co-led by UK investor Octopus Ventures, to expand into the UK and across Europe.

The Melbourne-founded automotive data intelligence platform said the Series B capital raise values the company at around £116m and follows co-founder Chris Gardner’s relocation to London.

The funding will accelerate AutoGrab’s expansion across the UK and Europe while deepening its position in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

UK FinTech Vennre has raised £7 million pre-Series A funding to expand in the MENA region.

The wealth creation platform aims to enable HENRYs – High Earners, Not Rich Yet – to access private market opportunities.

The round, a hybrid of equity and debt structure, was co-led by Vision Ventures and anb seed Fund, with participation from Sanabil 500, Ace & Co, Plus VC, and strategic individual investors from the private banking, technology and entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Raylo, developer of subscription infrastructure for electronics brands, has announced a partnership with LG alongside a £30m fundraise which will accelerate its expansion across device categories and international markets.

The partnership enables UK customers to access LG’s premium TV and audio products on a subscription, offering lower monthly prices and the flexibility to upgrade as new technology comes to market.

Building on collaborations with Dyson, PlayStation and Apple, Raylo enables major brands like LG to launch and scale their own subscription offerings on its proprietary infrastructure, spanning AI-based credit underwriting, financing and device lifecycle management. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Partners at YFM Equity Partners have completed a management buyout of the private equity firm.

Managing partner Jamie Roberts led the MBO alongside Eamon Nolan, head of fundraising and investor relations, and COO Marcus Karia.

The trio have bought Dave Hall and David Bell, the leaders of a previous MBO 13 years ago, out of the business.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Manchester FinTech Powdr has partnered with managed IT services and technology solutions specialist Red Rock, as the business looks to help scaling companies make better decisions backed by stronger systems.

The collaboration brings together two companies on GM Business Growth Hub’s ASCEND scaleup programme.

The partnership will see Powdr provide financial clarity and forecasting, while Red Rock ensures the technology underpinning it is secure, scalable and well supported.

This is in an attempt to reduce friction for growing teams and free up time to focus on running the business.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A new report from the Invest in Women Taskforce has found that the number of women angel investors has risen 60% in three years.

However the rise from 5,000 in 2022 to more than 8,000 today only equates to 14.1% of the 50,000 total angel population – just 0.1% higher than three years ago.

The Women Angel Investors report was compiled in collaboration with Beauhurst and the UK Business Angels Association.

ElevenLabs has launched The Eleven Album, a new AI-powered musical release created in collaboration with a roster of high-profile artists.

The company has used its Eleven Music model to generate fully original, studio-quality compositions. 

Spanning genres including rap, pop, R&B, EDM and cinematic scoring, the project brings together established names such as Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel and Michael Feinstein, alongside producers and next-generation creators exploring new ways to make music with AI.

The London unicorn said artists used the technology in different ways, from generating compositions to write over, to experimenting with new genres or speeding up production, with every track described as fully original.

Zenith Energy has strengthened the legal team supporting its claimant subsidiaries in ongoing arbitration proceedings against the Republic of Tunisia.

The AIM-listed international energy production and development company has appointed Andrea Pinna, a partner at international disputes firm Pinna Goldberg, to support its case being brought before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) under the UK-Tunisia Bilateral Investment Treaty.

Pinna, who is based across Paris, London, Washington and Dubai, specialises in international commercial and investment arbitration and has acted in more than 50 arbitration proceedings across sectors including oil and gas, joint ventures and M&A disputes.

The wider legal team is being led by Professor Thomas Clay alongside other counsel from Charles Russell Speechlys Paris and Essex Court Chambers.

Hargreave Hale AIM VCT has launched a new fundraising offer of up to £30 million, made up of a £20m raise and a £10m overallotment.

The VCT currently has £129.5m in net assets and a portfolio of more than 54 companies, but said the prolonged decline in AIM valuations has pushed it into a more diversified mix of holdings including Marlborough-managed equity funds and blue chip bonds.

Over the five years to December 2025, the VCT delivered a NAV (net asset value) total return of -39.5%, while continuing to target an annual dividend equivalent to 5% of NAV.

Wealth Club’s Nicholas Hyett said the sell-off in AIM has damaged most AIM-focused VCTs, but argued it has also left Hargreave Hale with a lower-risk portfolio, with 17.6% in main market listed companies and 16.4% in blue chip bonds.

MyARC has launched a next-generation platform designed to help fitness creators scale, monetise and grow their businesses, while also confirming a $2 million funding round backed by Araya Ventures, Morgan Stanley, Techstars and G Fund. 

Founded by Peter Monteza, alongside co-founders Nikhil Shah and Arohan Subramonia, the platform aims to solve a long-standing challenge in online fitness by enabling creators to deliver personalised training and nutrition plans at scale.

The new platform includes tools for automated personalisation, no-code app creation, subscription-based monetisation and always-on community engagement, helping creators grow revenue and serve more users globally. 

The London-headquartered startup has already supported creators generating millions in platform earnings and attracted thousands of daily active users worldwide. 

The company said the new funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand creator tools and support international growth.

Formula E has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud, naming the tech giant as its new principal artificial intelligence partner in a multi-year agreement designed to accelerate innovation across the championship.

Building on an official partnership first signed in January 2025, the deal will see Formula E integrate more Google Cloud technologies, including Gemini models, to improve performance, streamline operations and enhance the fan experience globally.

Formula E has already used Google’s AI tools to support projects such as the “Mountain Recharge” initiative and has rolled out a new strategy agent in live broadcasts to deliver real-time insights and predictions for viewers.

Ceryx Medical has appointed Mark Strong, a medical devices executive with decades of global leadership experience in heart failure therapy development, to its board of directors.

Strong has held senior roles including VP of R&D at Abbott, Boston Scientific and HeartWare, and was most recently CEO of Heart Failure Solutions, bringing expertise in developing and commercialising cardiovascular technologies.

The appointment comes after the business completed a successful first-in-human trial of its cardiac rhythm management device, which is designed to improve the efficiency of the failing heart and activate the body’s own repair mechanisms. 

Heart failure affects more than 20 million people across Europe and the US and remains the leading cause of hospitalisation in those over 65, with around half of patients dying within five years of diagnosis.

Ceryx, which is headquartered in Cardiff, has attracted backing from MedTech investors including BGF, ParkWalk and the Development Bank of Wales.

It works to develop bioelectronic devices that restore the body’s natural pacing rhythms and improve outcomes for patients worldwide.