Bite-size news and insight from UK business and tech – including funding, deals and appointments
Published: May 26, 2026 at 4:57 pm
Concretene, a Manchester DeepTech firm that uses sustainable, UK-sourced graphene to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete, has been named a winner of the sixth Water Breakthrough Challenge by Ofwat’s Water Innovation Fund.
The project, Splitting Biogas, Multiplying Value, is a collaboration led by United Utilities with partners Tarmac, graphene producer Levidian and specialist application firms Concretene (concrete admixtures), ULEMco (hydrogen economy) and Carbon Ion (battery tech).
Four other water companies, Anglian, South-West, Wessex, Yorkshire, are included in the project, with the total award amounting to £9.5 million; Concretene’s share of funding is £1m.
This is a key milestone for the company, which is led by construction sector veteran Mike Harrison.
Published: May 26, 2026 at 3:43 pm
Climb26, the flagship business festival created by ClimbUK, returns to Royal Armouries Museum and Leeds Dock on 1st and 2nd July.
It will bring together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, operators and business leaders for two days designed to help ambitious businesses grow.
Recent industry data shows that all-female founding teams continue to receive only around 2% of UK venture capital funding, while London and the South East attract the majority of investment. Climb26 was established to help challenge those disparities by connecting founders from across the UK with investors, mentors, partners and peers in an environment designed to encourage meaningful conversations and real opportunities.
Over two days, attendees will take part in more than 40 workshops, masterclasses, open-mic pitch sessions, meet-the-buyer opportunities and curated networking events. Topics will cover raising investment, scaling operations, building high-performing teams, adopting emerging technologies and expanding into new markets.
Published: May 26, 2026 at 2:47 pm
As Manchester Digital reaches its 25th year, it has today announced details of its new Manchester Digital Festival for 2027.
The festival runs from February 8th-12th across various venues in the city region, anchored by a dedicated festival hub for the first time.
The new festival is the evolution of the Digital Skills Festival, which Manchester Digital ran for more than a decade. Originally focused on early careers, talent pathways and diversity in the workforce, it became one of the most significant tech events in the North. Now Manchester Digital Festival 2027 broadens that remit.
Manchester Digital Festival will take place across venues throughout Manchester city centre, with support from venue partners Bruntwood Sci Tech and St John’s with Department, hosting daily keynotes alongside a programme of roundtables, conferences and drinks receptions throughout the week. A wider programme of fringe events will also take place across venues throughout the city region.
Five themed days give the week its structure and the programme will bring together leadership sessions, industry discussions and networking that reflect the strength and capabilities of the region’s tech sector, spanning ecommerce, defence, cyber and AI, alongside themes of diversity, social mobility and future talent. Daily keynotes from some of the UK’s most inspiring tech leaders and speakers will sit at the heart of the week, alongside roundtables, community-led events and a festival dinner bringing together senior leaders from across the ecosystem.
Published: May 26, 2026 at 12:55 pm
Rob Lankey has been promoted to chief commercial officer at Afin Bank, overseeing the bank’s lending strategy and managing the specialist lender’s sales team.
Lankey initially joined Afin as director of credit during its launch phase last year. He then took on the role of national sales director at the start of this year, taking on responsibility for the sales team as it expanded with the appointment of a number of new BDMs.
This latest promotion means Lankey will help shape Afin as it reinforces its presence in the marketplace supporting hard-working borrowers let down by mainstream banks because they do not fit their restrictive lending criteria, such as the self-employed, workers with multiple incomes, qualified professionals, the high-net-worth and foreign nationals working in the UK.
Published: May 26, 2026 at 11:50 am
Nexco.ai, an AI startup building agentic co-workers for executive search, has secured pre-seed funding from DSW Ventures.
The investment will expand Nexco’s AI agent platform, deepening the candidate intelligence available to search consultants and freeing more of their time for client advisory work.
Nexco’s technology integrates with existing CRMs, deepening a firm’s candidate intelligence without disrupting the consultant–client relationship that defines the industry.
Published: May 26, 2026 at 10:01 am
Finova, the UK’s largest provider of cloud-based mortgage, savings and lending software, has appointed three directors who will be based in its new Manchester hub, with recruitment for the site now 80% complete.
Hemant Kumar joins as Research and Development Director, responsible for heading-up the development of Finova’s next-generation AI decision engine that will help define the company’s offering for the next decade. He brings more than two decades of experience leading technology modernisation across financial services, the public sector and healthcare. Joining from Accenture, he has a proven track record of scaling full-stack and data engineering teams and turning strategic ambition into shipped product.
Pete Craven joins as Director of DevOps. In this role, he will lead the platform engineering team responsible for building the secure, scalable cloud infrastructure underpinning Finova’s next-generation platform. With more than 13 years of experience driving large-scale cloud transformations, Pete has a strong track record of building high-performing engineering teams and robust DevSecOps architectures. He joins Finova following senior roles leading cloud strategy and delivery at technology consultancies and global brands including Slalom Build, Made Tech, Booking.com and IBM. During his career, he has architected mission-critical platforms for organisations ranging from the NHS and the Home Office to Sainsbury’s and Lloyds Bank.
Kelly Wilson joins as Director of Technical Delivery, where she will lead the teams responsible for technical delivery across Finova’s engineering-supported product suite. She brings a broad range of experience spanning financial services, consulting and education, most recently leading Salesforce programmes at London Stock Exchange Group. Prior to this, Kelly spent almost 15 years serving across both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, working in IT and supporting global communications operations.
Published: May 26, 2026 at 8:25 am
A new initiative designed to inspire and equip the next generation of women angel investors is launching in South Yorkshire next month.
The TECH SY x Lifted Angel Academy in South Yorkshire is a fully funded angel education programme delivered by Lifted Ventures in partnership with TECH SY.
The support is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, through the Tech Town status given to Barnsley Council, as well as funding through the British Business Bank and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
The programme will support up to 20 women from across South Yorkshire to learn the fundamentals of angel investing, gain confidence in assessing investment opportunities and connect with founders, investors and ecosystem leaders from across the region.
Published: May 26, 2026 at 8:15 am
Tata Consultancy Services has expanded its global cloud portfolio with the launch of SovereignSecure Cloud in Europe.
The IT services, consulting and business solutions giant says the bespoke offering is designed specifically for governments, public sector enterprises and regulated industries.
It combines sovereign cloud architecture with AI capabilities to enable sovereignty across data, operations and digital infrastructure.
The launch of TCS SovereignSecure Cloud in the EU builds on its rollout in India in 2025, followed by expansions into Kenya, East Africa and the Philippines.
Published: May 25, 2026 at 3:22 pm
TympaHealth, an ear and hearing health technology provider, has secured a £2m Innovate UK loan.
The money will be used to accelerate Tympa Assist, its world-first AI-powered guidance platform.
TympaHealth is a team of doctors and technology experts united by a mission to help the world achieve better ear and hearing health.
Founded by ENT surgeon Dr Krishan Ramdoo, TympaHealth raised £18.4m in Series A funding in 2023.
Published: May 25, 2026 at 2:51 pm
Fresha, a London-based AI-powered marketplace and business management platform for the beauty and wellness industry, is the latest UK firm to achieve unicorn status.
It follows the news that the firm has secured a £60m ($80m) primary growth investment from funds managed by KKR, valuing the company at over $1bn.
The investment marks a major milestone for Fresha, which began as a salon booking and scheduling tool in 2015 and has grown into one of the world’s largest beauty and wellness technology platforms, now used by more than 130,000 businesses globally.
Already profitable, Fresha has now raised $285m (£210m) to date and will use the new funding to accelerate international expansion, product development and AI innovation, as it continues its mission to transform how self-care businesses operate and grow.
Headquartered in London and founded in 2015 by William Zeqiri and Nick Miller, Fresha is one of the fastest-growing beauty and wellness platforms in the world.
Published: May 25, 2026 at 9:35 am
THG has admitted to an admin error over its Ingenuity demerger.
Shareholders have now been asked to vote for a ‘procedural rectification’ in relation to last year’s demerger of Ingenuity at next month’s AGM.
THG Ingenuity’s demerger into a standalone business from the profitable THG Beauty and THG Nutrition divisions was confirmed at the start of 2025 after 88.71% of shareholders voted for it at the company’s general meeting.
Last week, THG announced it would be holding its AGM at THG Studios on June 24, but what caught the eye of shareholders in the notice to the London Stock Exchange was a mention of the Ingenuity demerger.
The exact wording is very complicated and heavy on legalese but several shareholders asked BusinessCloud to investigate.
Nobody from THG wanted to comment publicly, but the admin error has been described as a routine oversight that should have been filed at the time of the Ingenuity demerger.
Published: May 22, 2026 at 11:37 am
Autotrader, the UK’s largest automotive marketplace, saw its share price slump by more than 8 per cent on the back of its full year results.
The company’s share price ended Thursday on 452.60p – a fall of 43.70p.
Analysts say the results were short of forecasts and set against continued pressure in the used car market.
On Friday at 11.30am the share price stood at 454p.
Published: May 22, 2026 at 11:34 am
After working with Steven Bartlett and THG’s Matt Moulding, Alex Ayin has launched his own high performance business – Tomorrow’s Potential – for founders and CEOs.
In a far-reaching interview with Chris Maguire, Ayin spoke about the lessons he’s taken from working with some of the UK’s highest profile entrepreneurs.
Ayin joined Manchester-based Social Chain,in 2015, helping it grow to over 250 employees across five global offices and a multi eight-figure turnover.
He said the experience taught him about the importance of culture.
“Get obsessive about culture,” he said. “Understand who comes in. I was there from the very early days. The first 50 people determine the trajectory of the company.
“We made some mistakes in hiring people in the early days and we didn’t fire them quick enough.
“Fire much quicker than you think and analyse based on a set of character traits that we now have.”
Ayin said leaders should spend x10 longer on recruitment and measure candidates against metrics like ‘bias for speed’ and ‘independent learning’.
Published: May 22, 2026 at 11:29 am
In today’s founder story Charlotte Ridley has written movingly about how the death of her father inspired her to set up Memorify Technologies.
Her grief at her father’s loss was compounded by the fact that she also lost access to his digital memories.
In the article she shares the 6 things she’d tell her younger self.
Here are the five things she learned in addition to the impact of her dad’s death.
1. You don’t need to know it all
2. Listen to advice, but don’t always take it
3. Know your worth
4. Resilience is built
5. Make it personal
Published: May 21, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Wandering among the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip, the music is occasionally interrupted by the gunning of a pickup truck or sports car with a particularly enthusiastic driver.
Meanwhile, barely making a sound, a robotaxi picks its way through the traffic.
Waymo is currently testing such vehicles in London but the proliferation of the Zoox taxis in Vegas – a subsidiary of Amazon – takes me aback on my trip to Dell Technologies World. Yet when asked by a friend whether I’d like to jump in one, I am quick to decline.
It is not the only ‘wow’ moment. Heading into the conference one day this week, a humanoid robot jogs up and gazes quizzically at me.
Stumped for something to say, I utter: “Hi, little guy…”
We humans may still struggle to interact with lifelike machines – and trust driverless taxis – but we will quickly have to become comfortable with the notion of working with a virtual ‘colleague’.
Published: May 21, 2026 at 10:57 am
Primer, a London-based payments startup, has announced a $100m (£75m) Series C funding round.
The round was led by Sofina, with participation from Peak XV Partners, and continued backing from all existing investors, including Balderton, Accel, ICONIQ, Tencent, and Speedinvest.
The company has clients in 30 countries and plans to grow US revenue to more than a third of its business by 2028 and will hire up to 50 roles in the region to support that expansion.
Trusted by leading companies including Get Your Guide, Dialpad, Rail Europe, Printful, Lime, and loveholidays across eCommerce, travel, FinTech, and digital platforms, Primer has raised $170m (£126m) from investors.
Primer was founded in 2020 by ex PayPal and Braintree employees Paul Anthony and Gabriel Le Roux on the premise that payments needed a single, unified infrastructure layer before they could benefit from the intelligence built on top.
In 2021, Primer was valued at $425m after closing a $50m Series B fundraise.
Published: May 21, 2026 at 10:21 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 at the age of 34, has topped £70,000.
A total of 363 supporters have so far pledged £73,505, which will be used to support her baby son, Leo, and her family.
Abi died in February just two weeks after giving birth to her first baby, Leo.
It’s hoped the total will be given a significant boost next Thursday (May 28th) when colleagues at Grant Thornton will join friends and members of Abi’s family in taking part in the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge in her memory.
You can donate here
Published: May 21, 2026 at 10:19 am
Autotrader’s big week continues with the news they’ve grown revenues by 4% to £624m in the last financial year.
The news follows the opening this week of their new 130,000 sq ft HQ at Manchester’s Circle Square.
Nathan Coe, chief executive of Autotrader, said: “We continued to grow both revenue and profits this year, despite a challenging backdrop.
“Our competitive position has strengthened, with six times more time spent on Autotrader than all our main competitors combined.
“We remain committed to using our brand, technology and proprietary data to benefit car buyers and retailers.”
Published: May 20, 2026 at 9:38 pm
AI workloads are rising faster than legacy infrastructure and national grids were designed to absorb, leading to a ‘data centre reckoning’ in Europe.
In EMEA specifically, the squeeze is sharper because capacity is constrained not only by technology, but also by planning rules, land use and grid bottlenecks.
Cities such as Amsterdam are openly restricting data centre expansion due to space and electricity network scarcity, while London-facing grid constraints are now a mainstream policy issue. Companies such as London-based Nscale are raising extraordinary amounts of funding to build facilities dedicated to serving the energy needs of AI.
David Holmes, global industries CTO at Dell Technologies, is at the forefront of the change. “The vertical markets that we cover in my overall organisation are healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, retail and energy – but my focus is very much around energy,” he tells me at Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas.
“Our remit is understanding how we can apply technology to solve the problems of the energy industry, working with our partners. What we’ve seen over the last two years is AI becoming part of the conversation.
“How do we sustainably build the energy ecosystem that’s going to support the massive scaling of AI over the coming years? How do we enable this incredible driver of economic growth to deploy whilst ensuring that the energy ecosystem is reliable, resilient, affordable and sustainable?”
Published: May 20, 2026 at 8:24 pm
Marks & Spencer suffered a sharp fall in its annual profit following last year’s high-profile cyber attack.
The retailer was forced to halt all orders through its website and apps following last April’s hack.
According to the company’s annual results, profits were hit by £131.3m in costs related to the cyber incident.
The retailer said pretax profit dropped 29 per cent to £364.6m in the 52 weeks to March 28, from £511.8m the year prior.
Adjusted pretax profit fell 24 per cent to £671.4m from £881.1m, but sales grew 25 per cent to £17.37bn from £13.91bn.
M&S’s share price rose by just over 5 per cent on the back of Wednesday’s results, which were ahead of forecasts.
M&S said: “Performance in 2025/26 was a year of two halves: significant operational impact from the cyber incident during the first, followed by a return to sales and profit growth in the second.”
“Despite the disruption, M&S made further progress on its transformation, enabled by a strong balance sheet.”
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