Customers of Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland were unable to access their apps or online banking services for several hours today.

Lloyds Banking Group, which has 26 million customers, started experiencing problems just after 11am this morning.

A spokesperson said early this evening that “all our services are back up and running” after customers took to social media to vent their frustrations that the problems had persisted throughout the afternoon.

Having apologised for the inconvenience caused, Lloyds advised those who were still experiencing issues to “please leave it a few minutes and try again”.

 

Dr Arnabu Basu, CEO of Durham tech innovator Kromek, will speak at a new tech founder-focused event at this year’s North East Technology Festival, TechNExt.

Taking place at Durham Business School on Wednesday 17th June, the Startup Hub has been curated by Jamie Hardesty, director of ecosystem development, Sunderland Software City, and will bring together entrepreneurs from across the North East to explore the realities of building technology companies.

It aims to move beyond polished startup mythology to focus on the genuine challenges, decisions and pressures involved in growing a company.

Flok Health, the world’s first AI-operated physiotherapy clinic, has raised £9.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A round.

The round was led by Albion VC, with participation from existing backers Eka VC and Form Ventures, as well as new investors Mercia Ventures. 

Flok Health’s pioneering clinic is the first and only AI platform in Europe to deliver entire healthcare pathways autonomously without requiring human oversight. The tech is currently available to millions of NHS patients across the UK, offering on-demand appointments for back pain with zero waitlist, via a simple mobile app.

Oxford Quantum Circuits has raised £260 million in a Series C funding round.

The British Business Bank committed £100m to the round, one of Europe’s largest for a quantum computing company.

The round was led by Bullhound Capital, and included investment from Invus, Mastercard, COFIDES, Rokos Capital Management, IHAG, Fulcrum Asset Management, Pentland Ventures, Magdalen College Oxford, Adaptive Capital Partners, Firgun and 18 West.

BGF has backed Bristol-based eSignature software platform Signable with a multi-million-pound investment.

Founded in 2012, Signable provides a secure and compliant way for businesses to manage electronic signatures and digital workflows. The platform is trusted by organisations across a range of sectors, with particular strength in regulated industries where auditability, compliance and ease of use are critical.

The investment will support Signable’s next phase of development, with a focus on expanding its offering in qualified electronic signatures, enabling the platform to support more complex use cases and evolving customer requirements. This will strengthen its position within regulated sectors such as legal, property, and financial services, while continuing to serve SMEs as a core part of the business.

Signable has grown organically since launch, building a diversified customer base across regulated and document-intensive sectors, including organisations such as Allegiant, Smart Pension, and Drewery Property Consultants, alongside well-known brands such as Aardman and Krispy Kreme, building excellent customer loyalty and long-term relationships. The business has developed a strong reputation for transparent pricing, responsive customer support, and a product that is easy to adopt and scale, underpinned by a people-first approach.

Manchester-founded Patchworks has launched AI Studio, introducing AI-powered platform agents designed to help businesses build and manage integrations using natural language.

The technology allows users to generate workflows, mappings and connectors from prompts, with the longer-term vision of reducing integration implementation from weeks to hours.

The first phase of AI Studio introduces the ‘Implementation Agent’, a built-in platform agent designed to accelerate integration delivery and reduce technical complexity.

Features include Flow Builder, Smart Mapping and Connector Builder, allowing users to generate flows, automate schema mapping and create connectors directly from prompts and API documentation.

Customers of Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland have been unable to access their apps or online banking services today.

Lloyds Banking Group apologised after thousands of customers experienced problems.

“We’re aware some customers are having issues with our app and online banking. We’re really sorry about this,” Lloyds Bank posted on X.

“We’re working hard to fix it and will let you know as soon as we’re back to normal.”

The group, which has 26 million customers, started experiencing problems just after 11am this morning.

It recently issued compensation after an IT malfunction exposed the personal data of nearly half a million customers in March.

GC Business Finance has delivered a record year through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, directly injecting over £26m of Start Up Loan funding into ambitious businesses across the UK in the 2025/26 financial year.

Delivered across almost 2,500 loans, the funding has supported entrepreneurs across a wide range of sectors and areas throughout the UK.

As an alternative lender focused on supporting founders who may otherwise not be able to secure finance, the GCBF team has placed a particular focus on targeting founders who are typically underrepresented in the provision of finance. Of all loans directly provided over the last financial year, 39% went to female-founded businesses and 23% went to founders from ethnic minority backgrounds, exceeding the national average.

Operating as a Business Support Partner for both the North West, along with nationally, GCBF has helped businesses throughout the whole of the UK access vital funding. Outside of the North West, London received the highest proportion of funding at 11.4%, followed by the South East (11.2%), the South West (8%), and the East of England (7.1%).

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The CTO of Collctiv says he will champion consumers when he joins an array of big names on the Bank of England’s Payments End User Forum.

Pete Casson, who co-founded the Manchester FinTech with CEO Amy Whitell, has been appointed to one of three forums set to shape the future of retail payments in the UK.

Part of the BoE’s National Payments Vision, the other two forums are the Payments Innovation Design Group and Payments Academic Advisory Group.

Joining Casson on the Payments End User Forum are organisations including Tesco plc, the Federation of Small Businesses, Which? and The Pennies Foundation. The others forums include figures from the likes of Google, GoCardless, PayPoint, Amazon, Worldpay and Revolut.

Foreign exchange and currency risk management Lumon has acquired the business and assets of Fiscal FX, marking a major milestone for Lumon as it continues to expand its breadth and quality of service.

Fiscal FX represents the seventh acquisition by Pollen Street Capital-backed Lumon since 2018. The acquisition completed on 1st June and will help accelerate growth in Lumon’s corporate division both internationally and in the UK.

Fiscal FX, a London-based foreign exchange and international payments specialist, has built an exceptional reputation since it’s foundation in 2019, particularly focusing on SMEs and owner-managed businesses.

Over the past six years, Fiscal FX has seen consistent, organic growth, developing a loyal client base of more than 600 corporate accounts across the globe. The company has handled almost £1 billion worth of transactions since its inception thanks to outstanding client retention and reliable, recurring revenue.

easyGroup is entering mainstream online retail with the launch of easyShop.com, a new online marketplace set to go live later this year.

easyShop will bring retailers together into a single shopping destination. It will launch initially across 21 European countries. 

The easyShop domain will be operated by eCommerce and marketplace technology company OnBuy, and powered by its proprietary OnCommerce platform, which provides the infrastructure and operational framework required to support cross border trade at scale. 

EdTech unicorn Multiverse has announced a partnership with Synthesia, the world’s leading AI video communications platform.

Under the partnership, Synthesia’s AI video platform will be formally integrated into Multiverse’s AI Learner Toolkit — a suite of tools its learners can explore to scope, build and deliver AI projects inside their organisations.

Learners across Multiverse’s programmes will now have additional resources and guidance to implement Synthesia as a tool to design and deploy AI video solutions for their employers, alongside a range of other no-code, low-code and generative AI tools.

Learners have already begun applying Synthesia independently to drive real business impact across industries.

Author: Chris Maguire

The CEO of Debenhams Group has said the company’s turnaround strategy has reached an ‘inflection point’ after the online retailer announced it had returned to growth.

Debenhams Group – which is made up of Debenhams, Karen Millen, boohoo, MAN and PLT – reported group GMV (gross merchandise value) up 0.5% year-on-year.

May trading was particularly strong with GMV growth of around 8%.

Performance was most notable across the Debenhams brand and PrettyLittleThing, with improvements also achieved in Boohoo, BoohooMan and Karen Millen.

The return to growth has been supported by materially improved profitability and significantly improved cashflows.

The board is confident it will deliver double digit Adjusted EBITDA growth and free cash flow in FY27.

Daniel Finley, group CEO, said: “Debenhams Group has returned to growth, and Q1 marks the inflection point we have been working towards.”

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Events business Hyve has been acquired in a £1.3 billion private equity takeover.

Hellman & Friedman has moved for the B2B brand, which is behind EdTech conference Bett and events across FinTech, healthcare, MarTech and commerce.

The deal, expected to complete by the end of the calendar year, secures a 3x return for previous owners Providence Equity Partners and Searchlight Capital Partners.

Author: Chris Maguire

Gigaton, the London-based AI company formerly known as Carbon Re, has raised £19.3m ($26m) in Series A funding led by Plural.

Gigaton is replacing the control software that runs energy-intensive industries and is already deployed by several of the world’s largest cement producers, including Adani Cement, Heidelberg Materials and Holcim, which are saving more than $1m per year in energy costs and emissions.

The Series A raise included participation from 2150, Semapa Next and existing investors Planet A Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, UCL Technology Fund managed by AlbionVC with UCL Business, and Clean Growth Fund.

It brings Gigaton’s total funding to more than $35m (£26m).

This will fund a five-fold increase in its workforce and expansion into the steel, glass and chemicals sectors, enabling its mission to strengthen industrial control and reduce emissions.

Josh Vernon, CEO of Gigaton, said: “We have built Gigaton to deliver real cost and carbon savings now while building the AI infrastructure these industries need in a fully autonomous future.”

Gigaton spent five years inside control rooms, understanding exactly why existing systems fail.

Wise is being investigated in Brussels over concerns that the platform has been used for money laundering.

Shares in the London FinTech dropped massively on Monday after the public prosecutor’s office in Belgium said it had been investigating the firm since last year.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which first reported the story, said the alleged transactions amounted to €500 million and were linked to fraud, corruption and drug trafficking.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Currys has named its next CEO when Alex Baldock departs for Boots this autumn.

Baldock joined the electrical retailer in 2018 amid heavy debt and declining sales and turned around its fortunes, exiting Carphone Warehouse, selling its Greek operations and rebranding the group.

Set to leave for the health and beauty retailer on 31st August, he will be succeeded by Fredrik Tønnesen. The latter will become CEO on 3rd August 2026.

Northstar Ventures has invested £250,000 via the North East Spinout Inspire Fund in Gnosis Health, to support the development and launch of AI-powered digital healthcare assistant MAXine, designed to transform the management of Parkinson’s disease.

The investment forms part of a £570,000 seed round alongside £320,000 from SFC Capital, leveraging a £550,000 Innovate UK investor partnership grant, bringing total funding to £1.1m.

Gnosis Health is a spinout of the universities of Newcastle and Plymouth. Its MAXine healthcare assistant matches a patient-centric solution to an urgent clinical need.

Integrating data from wearables, patient reported outcomes and behavioural patterns, MAXine provides real time insights to patients and clinicians. It offers continuous, adaptive monitoring that enhances self-management and improves care team communication.

The platform has demonstrated strong patient engagement in pilot studies, plus a potential 25% reduction in patient care costs.

Hey Savi has launched the UK’s first agentic commerce experience with native checkout powered by PayPal.

The brand’s agnostic fashion search platform for women makes it easier for shoppers to find, compare and buy must-have styles without leaving the app.

Debenhams Group – which includes brands Debenhams, Karen Millen, Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing – is the first retailer in the UK to bring end-to-end AI-powered shopping to UK consumers.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A former star of London FinTech once touted as a potential unicorn before being rescued from administration has rebranded following a merger last year.

Railsr – once known as Railsbank – had developed APIs which make it easy for developers to integrate banking and card functionality into their products and services. 

It was acquired for just £500,000 by a consortium led by D Squared Capital in a pre-pack administration deal in 2024, a far cry from the $1 billion valuation it once sought in funding negotiations: in October 2022 the company had raised $46 million at a $250m valuation.

The company, which subsequently raised £20m to return to growth, then merged with private equity-owned Equals Money last year – with the combined company co-branded under both names.

Now, after a year of significant double-digit growth under CEO Ian Strafford-Taylor which saw it surpass £58bn in annual transaction volume, it has rebranded to Equals.