Female founder community The 51% Club has announced the return of its flagship IGNITE conference to the Midlands on 28th September 2026.

Founded in 2024 by Birmingham-based entrepreneur Tara Attfield-Tomes, The 51% Club says it has made a tangible difference to women-led wealth, influence and impact. 

In just two years, the organisation has amassed more than 2,000 members from across the country, with five local hubs based in Birmingham, Leamington Spa, Leicester, London, and Worcester. 

The theme ‘To Seven Figures and Beyond’ positions IGNITE26 as the most commercially ambitious female founder conference in the UK, bringing together 250 founders at Millennium Point in Birmingham for a full day of keynotes, fireside chats, and panel discussions focused on what it actually takes to reach that figure.

A Yorkshire startup that provides key workers with low-cost tickets for live events has raised a further £3.9 million to accelerate its international expansion.

Tickets for Good distributes surplus tickets donated by event partners to NHS workers, teachers, charity staff and people receiving Cost of Living support. 

The Sheffield-based company, which started trading in 2022, now has almost 750,000 verified members globally and has distributed over 1.25m tickets. Tickets for Good turns unused capacity into access to events, creating social impact whilst also creating commercial value for their event partners.

Tickets for Good was founded by its CEO Steve Rimmer, a serial entrepreneur and promoter within Sheffield’s creative and cultural industries, and the late Neville Mosey, a fellow music enthusiast who passed away in 2023 aged 37. 

Robbie Williams is an ambassador for the company, along with former Dutch international goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and music entrepreneur Hans Brouwer.

Emerge Digital has announced a new executive leadership team as the technology partner embarks on its next stage of growth and innovation.

The announcement comes as the Gloucestershire firm, which was certified a B Corporation earlier this year, reports a 40% increase in turnover to £4.5 million over the last 12 months. 

The business’ new leadership team includes CRO Mark Atkinson, the former professional rugby player who joined the firm in 2024.

Cardiff Capital Region will form an official strategic partnership with the National Wealth Fund in what promises to be a golden opportunity to accelerate investment and growth across South East Wales.

The partnership will give direct access to the National Wealth Fund’s investment knowledge, expertise and capital, to help develop and grow project pipelines, attract public and private finance and deliver key infrastructure to support growth and create high-value jobs.

Projects already receiving advisory guidance and support through similar partnerships include Clyde Metro in Glasgow City Region, The Sports Quarter in the West Midlands, a new zero-emission bus fleet in Greater Manchester and Mass Transit in West Yorkshire.

A technology firm that creates AI infrastructure, intelligent systems and products for organisations has announced its new home in Durham as the board takes shape.

Invent Group is the brainchild of experienced commercial strategist Malcolm Brechin, who has more than 25 years’ experience building and scaling businesses, and technologist Sam Whisker, who has spent his entire career developing progressive code that changes how organisations operate.

Taking on the roles of CEO and CTO respectively, they are now joined by chief strategy officer Richard Lowes – an experienced creative director with deep expertise in brand strategy and business development.

 

The CEO of listed SME finance platform Funding Circle is to step down after 14 years with the company.

Lisa Jacobs has informed the board of her intention to leave the role no later than September 2027. 

Jacobs joined Funding Circle in 2012 and was appointed CEO in January 2022.

 

PXN Ventures and the British Business Bank have announced an £80 million extension to NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, taking the fund’s total size from £100m to £180m.

The extension will allow PXN to invest in more of the North West’s ambitious businesses through to 2030, following significant demand during the fund’s first two years.

Since launching in 2024, PXN has received more than 3,000 applications and invested over £45m in 50 businesses, unlocking more than £50m of additional co-investment.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

THG Ingenuity has appointed Gemma Spence as its next chief executive officer.

Effective from December 2026, she joins the private company as it enters its next phase of growth as a proprietary commerce operating system.

Technology platform THG Ingenuity was split away from former parent company THG, a beauty and nutrition retailer listed in London, at the start of 2025.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

SmartFrame Technologies has entered administration.

Founded in 2015, SmartFrame had developed a patented image-streaming technology that aimed to change how images are published, protected and monetised online. 

The London firm, which starred in fourth spot on our MediaTech 50 ranking earlier this year, was used by Premier League clubs Manchester City FC, Everton FC and Brentford FC, along with New Zealand Rugby, Six Nations Rugby and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, plus leading photo agencies such as action press international, Sipa Press, Mirrorpix, IMAGO and ZUMA Press.

Publishers using SmartFrame include Reach, The Independent, the Mirror, The Scotsman, HuffPost, National World and Planet Sport.

Previous advertisers running in-image campaigns include Volkswagen, Samsung, Sony, Puma, Toyota, EA Sports, Etihad, Revolut, IHG and the Royal Air Force, many of them returning for repeat campaigns.

However it failed to secure further funding and appointed Henry Page and Shaun Walker of Mercer and Hole as administrators on 26th August.

Mobius, a pensions infrastructure platform, has appointed Lee Nicholls as CTO.

Mobius is entering its next phase of growth following its acquisition by Motive Partners, a deal which is subject to regulatory approval.

Nicholls brings extensive leadership experience across FinTech and financial services, with a strong track record in building and leading technology teams through periods of growth and transformation.

Before joining Mobius, he spent more than five years as CTO of InvestCloud, where he oversaw the development of its digital wealth technology. He also spent more than 18 years earlier in his career at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, where he became CIO of EMEA global markets technology.

The Citation Group, an international provider of compliance software and services for SMEs, has appointed Steve Homan as its new chief technology and data officer.

Homan joins the Wilmslow-headquartered company with more than 25 years’ experience in PE-backed SaaS businesses. He built a marketplace from the ground up at The Instant Group, led a 220-strong engineering team at Metapack through to its successful sale, and is currently co-founder of AI My Site.  He has also held senior technology roles at Daily Mail Group and Fitness First.

His appointment brings hands-on AI-native engineering practice into the heart of the business, including new AI-powered capabilities already taking shape across the group’s product suite – from AI-assisted content creation in its eLearning platform to brand new AI features in its HR software.

He takes over from Nic Sheen, who is retiring from full-time executive work after five years with the group.

Tech investor Molten Ventures plc has announced the first close of its Growth Fund at £175 million.

The fund is a continuation of Molten’s existing investment strategy of Series B+ investments, with a track record of more than 40 deals and over £700m invested in the past 10 years. 

The fund offers private institutional capital the opportunity to invest at scale through a private fund structure, while benefiting from the public vehicle’s platform and governance.

The British Business Bank has committed £75m as its cornerstone investor. Molten Ventures has committed the remaining £100m of the first close and will continue to seek additional investors, with the aim of growing the Growth Fund to a target of £350m. 

Reward, a global leader in customer engagement and commerce media – and part of the Rezolve Ai group of companies – has appointed Matthew Keylock as chief data & analytics officer.

Keylock brings nearly three decades of experience at the forefront of data, analytics and AI.

Most recently, he was global chief data & analytics officer at Mars Petcare, where he built and led its global data and analytics function across the business. He previously held senior global roles at Yoox Net-A-Porter Group and dunnhumby.

HousingAI has appointed Ben Yexley as head of sales and Chris Galley as researcher to help deliver its ambitious growth plans.

The AI-powered knowledge platform, built specifically for the social housing sector in England, was launched earlier this year.

Bringing 13 years’ experience in property technology, spanning businesses from pre-seed start-ups to scaling companies, Yexley will lead HousingAI’s sales growth while supporting housing associations and local authorities in their AI journey.

With more than 15 years’ compliance and research experience across social housing, residential property, higher education and professional membership organisations, Galley will monitor sector developments, assess AI-collected material, manage information sources and develop the review processes behind HousingAI’s evidence-based content. This research, review and curation process will help ensure the platform’s knowledge base is accurate, current and relevant.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

FTSE 250 firm Gamma Communications has reported its latest half-year results ahead of a £1 billion take-private deal.

London private equity house Epiris recently agreed terms with the board of the technology firm, which is seeking shareholder approval for the takeover.

Gamma, led by CEO Andrew Belshaw, is a European business communications tech provider which employs more than 2,000 people.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The CEO of Oxford Metrics plc has stepped down for health reasons.

Imogen O’Connor has served the smart sensing and measurement technology group – serving the life sciences, entertainment, engineering and manufacturing markets – for the last 25 years. She was appointed to lead it three years ago.

Stefan Lampa has been appointed as her successor and as a director of the company and is expected to join in early December 2026.

Gary Bullard, non-executive chair, will act as interim CEO until his appointment takes effect.

Blackbird plc, developer of browser-based collaborative video editor elevate.io, the technology licensor and the developer and seller of market-leading cloud native video editing platform, Blackbird, has appointed Adrian Wilding as non-board interim CFO.

He has held senior roles across software, payments, fintech and SaaS businesses, including businesses at a similar stage to Blackbird plc.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Vassili Philippov has spent his life immersed in science so when he sold his first business for $38 million, that’s where he turned his attention.

After moving to the UK from St Petersburg, he founded MEL Science to improve science education and give children a lifelong love of the subject.

With the rapid rise of machine learning, he handed over the business to a new CEO and began to look at where this revolutionary technology could have the most impact.

So why did he settle on language learning? How does his Glite app move far beyond the micro learning of Duolingo with its focus on 1,000-day learners? What mistakes did they learn from along the way? And why is learning science vital for everyone – not just those who will work in the lab?

I met up with him at The Hoxton in Holborn, London, on Founder Friday to find out.

A new travel technology platform is launching to help hotels, villas and unique stays connect with vetted travel creators.

Founded by South Wales marketing strategist Rachel Haines, Hotel Collab has been created to solve a growing challenge in hospitality marketing: how hotels manage creator interest, influencer requests and content partnerships in a more structured and professional way.

 

The University of Birmingham is commercialising a ‘game-changing’ platform that extracts and analyses real-world healthcare data from any source, with results within minutes.

Dexter AI taps into analysable datasets from electronic health records across primary and secondary care, claims data, private prescriber records and other sources. 

The platform enables medical researchers to rise to the challenge of delivering actionable insights and testable hypotheses, quickly and securely. It reduces the time needed for epidemiology studies, drug safety and effectiveness studies, clinical audits and clinical trials. 

It is based on software developed by Professor Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar, Dr Krishna Gokhale and Professor Joht Singh Chandan at Birmingham’s Department of Applied Health Sciences.