Deel has announced a multi-year partnership with Arsenal, becoming the club’s official HR platform partner. 

The American global payroll and HR platform will support the club’s operations, streamlining the management of its workforce.

The agreement marks Deel’s first major venture into world sport and reflects the company’s ambition to grow its global presence. 

Deel branding will appear across Emirates Stadium and Arsenal’s digital channels, including all home fixtures across the Premier League, Women’s Super League (WSL), FA Cup and League Cup.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The married founders of Conveyd have raised £2.5 million seed funding to dramatically speed up the process of buying a home.

Having performed as a tenpin bowling professional in her teens, CEO Manasi Kulkarni is now looking to score a strike with the AI conveyancing platform, which she says is a world-first.

She and husband Stephen Cowley began their careers at Thoughtworks, where they each spent nearly a decade rebuilding outdated industries across finance, insurance and retail using ‘first-principles thinking’. They also set up the tech giant’s Barcelona office.

Kulkarni then joined Monzo, leading a team of more than 30 engineers building platforms and tools to enable fast and efficient customer service.

So did they always plan to found a business? Or did the notion take them by surprise?

 

Mills & Reeve’s Manchester office has been named the winner at the Hallé Workplace Choir Competition.

As the winners, the law firm’s choir will perform at Christmas Cracker concert on Friday 12th December at The Bridgewater Hall.

With the group ranging from newly joined trainees, long standing partners and business support teams, this was only the second year the Mills & Reeve choir has taken part in the Workplace Choir Competition.

Enterprise AI company Ageiro has raised £2.3 million in investment funding.

The company is building an agentic AI platform, described as “humanity’s last app”, that turns high-level business goals into autonomous digital execution, enabling organisations to deploy new capabilities faster and scale AI-driven digital workforces under human oversight.

The funding will be used to strengthen its decision-intelligence models, compliance and risk frameworks, and connector systems for regulated environments.

It will also support growth in go-to-market activity, including sales, partnerships and broader category-building to drive enterprise adoption.

Intelligent cloud-based transport management system Qargo, which helps European transport operators cut operating costs, has raised £24.6 million in Series B funding led by Sofina, with existing investor Balderton Capital also participating.

The round takes the firm’s total funding to $54m and follows rapid expansion across key European logistics hubs, as its AI engine automates workflows from order creation and route planning to invoicing and warehouse slot booking.

Since its May 2024 Series A, invoicing processed through the platform has grown from £420m to more than £1.9 billion annually and its customer base has expanded from around 100 to over 400.

The new capital will support team growth, market expansion and faster development of its AI-driven product capabilities, alongside continued investment in security and platform resilience.

Reddit has filed a lawsuit in Australia’s High Court seeking to overturn the country’s new social media ban for under-16s, arguing the law unlawfully interferes with free political communication implied by the constitution.

The San Francisco-based company said the ban should be declared invalid, or alternatively that Reddit should be exempt because it does not meet the legal definition of a social media platform.

The case, filed just days after the world-first ban took effect, names the Australian government and Communications Minister Anika Wells as defendants.

Reddit’s challenge significantly escalates opposition to the policy, adding the weight and resources of a $44 billion Silicon Valley company to what is likely to become a lengthy legal battle.

Card Factory has giving a profit warning ahead of its full year results.

The card retailer now expects adjusted profit before tax to be between £55 million and £60m, compared with previous expectations of £70m.

It warned that softer UK high-street footfall and pressured consumer confidence have reduced store sales performance during its key trading period.

Despite the tougher backdrop, Card Factory said progress against its long-term strategy continues, with its “Simplify and Scale” efficiency programme helping to offset inflationary cost pressures.

Trading in the Republic of Ireland and North America remains in line with expectations and the Funky Pigeon integration is on track, while the group plans to continue its share buyback and expects to declare a progressive full-year dividend.

The company has, however, seen its share price drop by nearly 25% already this morning to 73.73p.

London-listed Tribal expects FY25 adjusted EBITDA to be ahead, with revenue to be comfortably in line with market expectations, driven by strong second-half trading in its Student Information Solutions division and a return to growth in Etio.

The company is forecasting net cash of at least £5 million by 31st December, up from net debt of £3.2m a year earlier.

Its shares have risen by 8% to 67.52p so far this morning.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Listed data firm 1Spatial is set to be taken private in an £87 million cash deal.

The board of the Cambridge company is recommending that shareholders vote through a takeover by VertiGIS, a London-based provider of geographic information systems.

The offer of 73 pence per share represents a premium of 57% to the closing price of 46.5p yesterday.

The companies claim to have already received support from 1Spatial’s largest shareholders, representing 33.8% of the share capital of the business.

1Spatial, led by CEO Claire Milverton, manages geospatial data, supporting clients to build a solid data foundation – ensuring data is current, complete and consistent – across utilities, telecommunications, national mapping agencies, government departments, emergency services, defence, census bureaus and transportation organisations.

Gavin Snell has been appointed as the first non-executive chairman of Leonard Curtis.

He has recently led two successful PE exits and will join an experienced executive team in CEO and BusinessCloud Northern Leader Dan Booth, COO David Brown and CFO Paul Birks.

He’ll also be working with Pollen Street Capital, a fast-growing private capital asset manager which acquired a majority stake in Leonard Curtis earlier this year.

Leonard Curtis, which is headquartered in Manchester, has over 30 years’ experience in providing restructuring, legal, funding, M&A advisory and business services to SMEs and corporates throughout the UK and offshore.

CEO Dan Booth said: “We liked Gavin from the start. He is naturally engaging and tells us he is not afraid to roll his sleeves up – proven by his outstanding track record in delivering profitable growth in previous roles.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A trio of Manchester retail tech figures have come together to launch Rove.

The AI SaaS platform aims to revolutionise how brands, distributors and retailers expand into international markets.

Simon Boyd’s experience spans the full supply chain, from senior roles at Kingfisher, Tesco and Phones4U to building international businesses like CAT Phones, which reached $85 million in revenue across 60 countries, and Smoothskin, which grew to $150m in retail sales and launched in 70 markets.

Ben Davies is a serial entrepreneur with two decades of experience building technology and FMCG businesses. He founded Vypr, a product intelligence platform that helps leading brands make faster, data-backed decisions, and where he remains part of the senior leadership team.

Adam Warburton is a product and technology leader with more than 15 years of experience in digital innovation and was previously chief product officer at Co-op and chief product & technology officer at Vypr.

An equine-technology platform said to be transforming horse management, welfare and performance, has secured a multi-million-pound strategic investment from UAE-based Capiteq.

Equiyd, headquartered in Cheshire, is scaling its AI-powered digital identity and performance analytics platform across the $350 billion global equine industry.

With the world’s largest structured equine dataset, the business is expanding internationally and accelerating development of new tools including predictive health monitoring and its upcoming Smart Course Walk feature.

The North’s largest festival dedicated to digital and tech skills will return to Manchester from 2–6th February 2026, with a brand new AI Futures Day to help industry and educators prepare for an AI-driven economy.

Delivered by industry body Manchester Digital, the week-long Digital Skills Festival will once again bring together leading North West tech employers, universities, colleges, students, graduates and career-changers across the city centre.

Alongside AI Futures Day, the programme includes Future Innovators Day, Digital Her: Driving Diversity, Talent Day and Digital Leaders Day & Digital Skills Feast.

With Manchester’s tech economy now worth around £5 billion, the festival aims to unite tech leaders, educators and new talent to rethink early career routes, respond to AI’s impact on roles and ensure opportunities are accessible to people from every background.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd has announced that former BT chairman Philip Jansen will succeed Lord Paul Deighton as chairman of the board when he steps down on 31st December 2025.  

Jansen brings with him more than 30 years of global leadership experience. Currently chair of WPP plc, he has previously held the chief executive roles at BT Group, Worldpay Group and Sodexo. 

Heathrow says Jansen’s significant experience working with private investors as well as successfully leading a business within a highly regulated environment means that he is ideally placed to help prepare the airport for its next phase of modernisation and oversee the airport’s future strategy. 

Lord Paul Deighton steps down after nine years in post. He oversaw a multi-billion-pound investment programme during his tenure, which has transformed Heathrow into a premier global hub and worked alongside the leadership team to successfully navigate the business through COVID and its recovery.  

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined password manager provider LastPass UK Ltd £1.2 million following a 2022 data breach that compromised the personal information of up to 1.6 million of its UK users.

The ICO found that LastPass failed to implement sufficiently robust technical and security measures, which ultimately enabled a hacker to gain unauthorised access to its backup database. There is no evidence that hackers were able to unencrypt customer passwords as these are stored locally on customer devices and not by LastPass.

The incidents occurred in August 2022 when a hacker gained access first to a corporate laptop of an employee based in Europe and then to a US-based employee’s personal laptop on which the hacker implanted malware and then was able to capture the employee’s master password.

The combined detail from both incidents enabled the hacker to access LastPass’ backup database and take personal information which included customer names, emails, phone numbers, and stored website URLs.

Cycle Exchange, the UK’s leading resale platform for premium pre-owned bikes, has raised £2.4 million to accelerate its next phase of growth.

Founded by passionate cyclist Matt Connelley to offer a trusted destination for high-spec pre-owned bikes, the business now provides a range of refurbished road, gravel and mountain bikes, plus parts and accessories, both online and through its South West London hub and growing network of partner outlets.

The new funding will enable the business to scale its UK footprint, expand refurbishment and servicing capacity, as well as invest in its technology platform to streamline procurement and optimise pricing.

Consumer payments platform Zilch has secured a payments services licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), allowing it to bring more payment methods and products in-house and innovate faster, including around emerging technologies like stablecoins.

The licence follows two significant product launches – Zilch Pay, due to go live in H1 2026 with a one-click checkout to capture more consumer spend; and Intelligent Commerce, an AI-powered platform turning live engagement data into real-time insights.

With FCA authorisation, the London-based FinTech gains earlier access to regulatory roadmap discussions, product testing and deeper commercial partnerships.

The company has also secured Principal Membership of Visa and recently raised over $175 million in debt and equity, as well as becoming the Official Way to Pay for Arsenal FC.

Birmingham-based field service management software provider Joblogic has acquired Arantico and Invida in deals that significantly expand its footprint across the UK and Ireland.

Backed by recent investment from Vista Equity Partners, the acquisitions add over 100 customers and around 60,000 end users, extending the company’s reach across the facilities management ecosystem and connecting contractors, building owners and property managers on a single platform.

Arantico strengthens Joblogic’s presence in Ireland with its mobile-first solutions for contractors, while Invida, which will continue operating as a distinct business unit, deepens capabilities in estates and facilities management for major clients including Cambridge University and NHS Trusts.

Customers across all three businesses will benefit from increased product investment, improved compliance and visibility, as well as enhanced customer support as Joblogic pursues further strategic acquisitions in 2026 and beyond.

Yonda, a global tax automation platform helping businesses stay compliant across borders, has raised its first institutional funding round, bringing total investment to $15 million (£11.2m).

Led by Kennet Partners with participation from NYO Capital and Portfolio Ventures, the funding will be used to enhance the platform and accelerate expansion into new industries and tax jurisdictions.

As companies scale internationally and face increasingly complex VAT, GST, and Sales Tax rules, Yonda automates compliance from registration through filing and remittance, reducing risk and operational burden.

The London-based company has grown over 100% year-on-year, now serving more than 350 clients worldwide, including eCommerce, SaaS and AI businesses across the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Singapore.

OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its new chief revenue officer, where she will lead global revenue strategy across enterprise and customer success.

Dresser brings deep experience in scaling workplace products, having guided Slack through its Salesforce integration and previously built major global sales organisations at Salesforce.

Her arrival comes as businesses worldwide move from AI experimentation to full-scale adoption, with workers reporting significant time savings and improved productivity.

OpenAI is already supporting this shift through ChatGPT for Work and its API platform, now used by more than one million business customers including Walmart, Morgan Stanley, Intuit, Databricks, Target and Lowe’s.