OpenAI has scrapped the launch of its next ChatGPT model after safety testing raised concerns about the AI acting beyond users’ instructions. 

The news comes as the UK’s AI Security Institute finds that GPT-6 Astra conducted a vastly increased number of unsanctioned supply-chain attacks in a simulated evaluation, compared with previous OpenAI models.

The new model was supposed to debut this month inside ChatGPT and Codex, but it reportedly showed higher levels of deception than its predecessors during internal testing. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The biggest shareholder in Sheffield tech firm Tribal Group PLC is considering a takeover bid which would gazump a private equity offer set for a shareholder vote on Friday.

Tribal, led by CEO Mark Pickett, provides student information systems and digital platforms used by educational institutions and other organisations.

Yesterday shares in Tribal jumped 17% to 98p after Main Capital Partners increased its proposed cash offer to £231.2 million.

Under the terms of the revised offer, shareholders would receive 105p per share, compared with a total consideration of approximately £189.3m under the previous proposal.

Tribal’s board unanimously maintained its recommendation that shareholders vote in favour of the transaction at a general meeting scheduled for Friday.

However this morning Jenzabar, Inc, a higher education technology provider based in Boston, Massachusetts – which owns 26% of Tribal’s share capital – called for the vote to be adjourned and said it was considering tabling a cash bid of its own.

Insurance giant Aviva has extended its FinTech partnership with Founders Factory, the global venture studio and accelerator.

Aviva is investing over three years to build new startups focusing on insurance, wealth, property, asset management and cybersecurity. The new ventures will look to harness AI and frontier technologies to deliver new ways in how people manage and protect their money, health and family.

The decade-long strategic partnership has supported more than 60 startups to date, which have raised more than £500 million in investment since 2016.

These include Tembo, a mortgage lending platform that recently saw Aviva expand access through its workplace pension proposition following a successful pilot; and Marrow, a connecter of AI agents including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to insurers’ pricing, underwriting and policy admin systems.

Manchester AI firm PEAK AIO has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Nasdaq-listed US giant NetApp.

PEAK AIO was founded in Manchester by Mark Klarzynski and was designed to address some of the industry’s most demanding data-intensive computing challenges. 

The company’s core innovation, a next-generation metadata architecture and high-performance parallel file system, was developed to solve one of the defining infrastructure challenges of the AI era: enabling shared storage to scale alongside the GPU clusters that power modern AI workloads.

The deal, for an undisclosed amount, is subject to customary completion conditions, including regulatory approvals.

Investor Pembroke VCT plc, a London-listed venture capital trust, said it would generate a significant return for shareholders.

 

UK healthcare AI company DYAD has raised $10 million (£7.5m) to accelerate its expansion across the NHS and into new markets.

The Series A, led by Sangha Capital with participation from existing investors closed in April 2026, and was backed by a syndicate of technology investors including Bill Tai and Carbide Ventures.

DYAD is targeting one of healthcare’s biggest coordination challenges: longform unstructured data that requires human effort to both create and decode. 

Its primary care product BetterLetter services over 200 practices and focuses on the £300m annual burden of unstructured data transfer between secondary care and primary care.

A St Helens MedTech scaleup specialising in simulation training technology for surgeons has extended its capital raised to $20 million (£15m).

Inovus Medical partners with leading organisations such as the NHS, the Royal College of Surgeons England, and the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL) to deliver standardised surgical training to residents and surgeons in the UK and North America.

The company provides surgeons with lifelike models of human anatomy made from advanced ‘hydrogel’ materials. Its simulators are powered by its software platform, TOTUM, which allows surgeons to track their training and receive feedback from mentors online.

The funding will support the launch of new technologies focussed on flexible endoscopy, robotic surgery and advanced tissues that replace the need for training on pigs and cadavers. The funding will also support the introduction of the existing and expanded portfolio to new international territories with a focus on the rapidly expanding Middle Eastern and Asian markets.

Cambridge firm Luminance, a global leader in contract intelligence for enterprise, has appointed Don Riddick as its chief legal officer.

Riddick joins from amotivv, where he was founding principal and chief of strategy. Before that, he served as CLO and company secretary of Featurespace, where he led the legal function through its acquisition by Visa in December 2024.

At Featurespace, Riddick was a Luminance customer. He used the platform to replace weeks of contract research with instant answers, and teams from support to engineering could find service levels and commitments themselves rather than queuing at legal’s door.

Earlier in his career, he held roles at IBM Healthcare, McKesson and Total System Services. He holds patents in AI and blockchain, with a further patent pending in AI compliance.

County Durham-based Valius, a technology-enabled marketplace designed to make buying and selling SMEs easier, has raised a six-figure investment.

Valius is designed to simplify the SME acquisition process – one which can often involve searching across multiple brokers, listing platforms and other fragmented sources.

Founded by experienced business acquisition specialists Paul Griffiths and Andrew Botham, the platform already features hundreds of UK businesses for sale.

County Durham-based Growth Capital Ventures (GCV) made the investment through GCV Invest, its private investor network.

The network previously backed high-growth businesses including Atom Bank, QikServe, Intelligence Fusion and n-gage.io.

Middleton Enterprises has invested £335,000 in Lifesaver Power, a sustainability-focused portable phone charging business, as demand for on-the-go power continues to accelerate across festivals, sporting events, live venues and other high-footfall environments.

Lifesaver tops up mobile phone batteries by dispensing reusable power banks, charged using renewable energy. Its revenue increased 85% year-on-year to June 2026, with the business recording more than 55% year-on-year revenue growth over the past three years.

The company has also just recorded the biggest week in its history, dispensing approximately 57,000 power banks across its network.

Middleton Enterprises is the family office of entrepreneur and investor Jeremy Middleton, co-founder of HomeServe, which was acquired for £4.1 billion.

The investment will support the expansion of Lifesaver Power’s charging network across the UK, with the business looking to double its number of machines, strengthen its presence in existing venues and expand into new permanent locations and sectors.

Lifesaver is already deployed across some of the UK’s largest live environments, including Wembley Stadium, The O2, Cheltenham Festival, Winter Wonderland, and London Zoo, as well as major festivals and sporting events.

Ditto, a free app that turns recorded medical consultations into a clear written summary, is being rolled out to families affected by childhood cancer through a new partnership with Young Lives vs Cancer.

Social workers at the UK charity will introduce the app to families at their first meeting after diagnosis, starting with centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield, Cambridge and Oxford.

Every day in the UK, 12 children and their families receive the life-changing news that they have been diagnosed with cancer. The programme eventually aims to reach all families affected by children with cancer in the UK, and will be available to those outside of the initial roll out locations.

Research shows that parents and patients struggle to recall up to 80% of the information communicated in consultations. Ditto has worked with Young Lives vs Cancer and their patient and parent voice board to rebuild the app so that the support it provides matches the challenges families face. Those discussions surfaced the scale of the communication burden carried by parents, who often field more than 25 check-in questions a day from grandparents, siblings and other carers about how their child is and the latest updates.

The app is free and available across the UK to any parent or patient who wants it, whether or not cancer is part of the picture, and the partnership connects families to it at the point they need it most.

After an appointment, the app also surfaces information from the Children & Young People’s Cancer Association when relevant. Families can keep the summary, understand it and send it on to whoever needs to know.

Pharmacy2U is making it easier for millions of NHS patients to manage their prescriptions, with NHS App users now able to use their NHS login details to register with the UK’s largest online pharmacy and access its services.

Today’s update means the NHS App’s 15 million active users can use the same login details to sign up for Pharmacy2U, giving them greater choice and control over how they manage and receive their medication.

Once registered, patients will be able to access Pharmacy2U services including free tracked delivery to their door, personalised reminders to re-order, prescription status updates and order tracking.

Patients can either sign into Pharmacy2U directly using their NHS login and request NHS prescriptions directly through the Pharmacy2U website or app, or, after registration they can continue to order repeat prescriptions within the NHS App.

In both cases, the patient’s GP will review and authorise medication requests before an electronic prescription is sent securely to Pharmacy2U. It is then checked, dispensed and delivered free and fully tracked to the patient’s door.

iwoca has reported a record year of growth and lending in 2025 and announced an expansion of services in new areas to provide SMEs with a range of products to help them understand, access and manage credit.

Revenue increased by 56% to £366 million in 2025, up from £234m the previous year. Across its markets in the UK and Germany, the company provided £1.5 billion in funding, rising from £952 m in 2024, across around 100,000 SME loans funded in 2025.

iwoca has now lent over £6bn to small businesses since 2012.

iwoca is reinvesting these profits into solving more problems for SMEs. The company today announces the launch of its Business Credit Card, which will give UK SMEs access to flexible credit for day-to-day spending and unexpected costs.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Listed company Checkit has ended a formal sale process initiated six months ago after failing to agree a take-private takeover.

The Cambridge firm had put itself up for sale amid frustration at its market cap valuation and the focus on ‘short-termism’ in public markets.

However it is now playing a more optimistic tune as it will remain a PLC for the foreseeable future.

An augmented workflow and smart sensor automation company for frontline workers, Checkit has been listed on the public markets since 1997 and its share price peaked at 64 pence in 2021. 

Prior to the commencement of the formal sale process in March this year, it had been trading around 14p. News of the sale process saw it climb as high as 26p and remain in the 20s.

However this morning’s news has caused it to lose 27% of its valuation in early trading (with shares prices at 16.5p). 

The firm also reported its results for the six months ended 31st July 2026 this morning.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

An online pet supplies store which took millions of pounds in orders has been ‘shut down’ following an Insolvency Service investigation, two years after its predecessor company was also wound up.  

Funnyfuzzy Tech UK Co., Ltd traded via the website www.funnyfuzzy.co.uk, selling various products for pets. The latest version of the website was linked to a Hong Kong-registered company, Funnyfuzzy HK Tech Limited.

An Insolvency Service investigation found the company had filed dormant accounts despite evidence showing more than £6.3 million in incoming payments between August 2023 and January 2026. 

The company refused to engage with investigators on the basis that it operated outside the UK, even though it sold products to UK residents and used a contractor in the UK to deal with customer returns. The company failed to provide any records. 

Investigators found no evidence of the company at its registered UK address on Devonshire Street in London. It has now been wound up in the High Court.

However, as of this morning the website still appears to be live and taking orders. It claims to have a customer review rating of 4.86 out of 5.

Monzo is in talks over a sale of both its entire business and a minority take in a blow to London’s public markets.

The City has long courted Monzo, one of the UK’s flagship digital banks, as a potential listing candidate.

However Sky News has reported that New York-listed Nu Holdings – parent company of Brazil’s Nubank, Latin America’s largest FinTech – is in talks over a cash-and-shares takeover offer worth between £8-10 billion.

In parallel, Monzo is in talks with several private equity firms about selling off a minority stake of up to 15% – should the Nubank deal fall through – which would allow it to accelerate growth. 

Author: Chris Maguire

OneDome, the AI-powered property and FinTech platform, has launched a national TV campaign on Channel 4.

The idea for OneDome was born out of founder Babek Ismayil’s frustrating experience of trying to buy his first home in London.

Ismayil, who previously worked for J.P. Morgan, spent months viewing properties before finally finding the perfect family home – only for someone else to buy it at the 11th hour.

The experience cost him thousands of pounds and inspired him to launch OneDome, with the aim of making the homebuying process simpler and more joined-up.

The Channel 4 campaign is designed to introduce a national audience to the concept of integrated homebuying, bringing the different stages of purchasing a property together in one place.

Ismayil was included in BusinessCloud’s Founder 250 list.

Author: Chris Maguire

What do you do when the team of a world-famous model with 59m Instagram followers calls with an urgent request?

That was the scenario facing Anne Dempsey, who launched occasionwear and fashion brand Anne Louise Dempsey from her spare bedroom in 2020.

The company previously caused a stir when Holly Willoughby and Amanda Holden both stepped out in the same ALB dress on the same morning.

Now Dempsey, who was included in BusinessCloud’s Founder 250 list, has revealed how Bella Hadid’s stylist came calling for an ALB – but there was a problem.

She recalled: “The cape they needed was sold out. Not ‘low stock’. Gone.

“This is the part of running a small brand nobody sees on Instagram. It’s not the glamour of a celebrity request — it’s the two hours that follow it, chasing suppliers, refreshing inboxes, willing the impossible into a ‘yes’.

“I called our factory. Explained the situation. And they didn’t just say they’d try – they turned it around and got it done in time.

“That’s the bit I want to shout about. Not the name, not the moment — the team behind it. Because a founder can build the vision, but it’s the people who show up when the deadline is impossible that actually make it real.”

Author: Chris Maguire

Fuse Energy has published a policy manifesto setting out the changes it believes are needed from Government to unlock ‘energy abundance’ in the UK.

Fuse Energy was founded in 2022 by former Revolut executives Alan Chang and Charles Orr, who were included in BusinessCloud’s Founder 250 list.

The company aims to eliminate many of the inefficiencies in traditional energy models that it says drive up costs for consumers.

Its manifesto calls for a series of reforms including enforcing planning decision deadlines, as well as backing the removal of VAT on household electricity.

Author: Chris Maguire

Gymshark, the cult fitness community and apparel brand founded by Ben Francis, is preparing to open its first-ever public gym.

The Gymshark Lifting Club (GSLC Miami) will open in Miami’s Wynwood district, marking another significant expansion for the global fitness brand.

Gymshark already operates a Lifting Club at its UK headquarters, but that facility was created primarily for employees and their associates.

Francis, who was included in BusinessCloud’s Founder 250 list, shared a photo of himself at the site of the new Miami gym on Instagram and said: “I’ve seen this come to life over the last few months and I genuinely can’t wait for all you to experience it.”

Author: Chris Maguire

Serial entrepreneur Craig Brennan is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his first business, LSC.

What started in 2006 as a children’s football coaching business for under-fives has grown into a national provider of specialist PPA cover and out-of-school clubs.

Today LSC works with hundreds of primary schools across the UK and has grown to a team of 280 people.

Brennan, who was included in BusinessCloud’s Founder 250, hasn’t stopped there.

He went on to launch Nurtured Childcare, which now operates 12 nurseries across the North of England, and owns 50 per cent of a private dental group.