Author: Jonathan Symcox

Mercia Asset Management PLC has said it expects EBITDA to be ‘materially ahead of expectations’ for the last financial year.

The regionally focused investor, which has over £2 billion of assets under management, pointed to notification of proposed increases to existing fund mandates, plus successful VCT and EIS fundraises, in the final three months of the year.

These totalled in excess of £200 million, which Mercia said “represents a strong and continuing endorsement of our asset management growth strategy, particularly in the context of the current turbulent market conditions”. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Audioboom has revealed that it is in takeover talks with several parties.

In October the global podcast company appointed J Goodwin & Co and Rockefeller Capital as joint financial advisers to carry out a strategic review.

This morning – as it also reports a rise in annual revenues and profits, and a record fourth quarter – it said it had engaged with several interested parties including global media organisations, US and European peer companies and media-focused private equity investment institutions.

“The company is [now] in discussions with a small number of parties who are considering making a cash offer for the company’s entire issued and to be issued share capital,” it stated.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

CAB Payments has agreed an increased £287 million takeover offer from American payments giant StoneX – but any deal will require the blessing of substantial activist investor Helios Consortium.

The Fortune 500 firm, listed on New York’s Nasdaq exchange, had previously seen a £241m bid rejected by CAB’s independent board of directors, which does not include Helios.

Prior to that CAB’s independent board rejected two rival takeovers from Helios – the latter for £213m. After the previous StoneX offer of 95 pence per share was rejected, Helios accused the independent board – which does not include Nitin Kaul and Henry Obi CBE, who represent the interests of Helios – of acting against the interests of shareholders.

In retaliation, CAB accused Helios of “launching an unsolicited firm offer for CAB Payments at an unrecommendable value” which it said was “highly opportunistic”.

This morning CAB said that it was recommending the fresh StoneX offer, which is for 110p per share in cash and represents a premium of 52% to CAB’s closing share price of 72p on 30th January 2026, the last business day before the Helios Consortium first announced a possible offer.

 

IntelliAM AI plc, listed on the challenge Aquis Exchange, has reported a rise in annual revenues.

The provider of AI-driven software solutions for the manufacturing and engineering sectors said group revenue grew by 35% to approximately £5.25 million for the year ended 31st March 2026.

Annual recurring revenue grew 100% to £1.65m.

It expects an adjusted EBITDA loss of £925k, ‘reflecting the material levels of investment during the period’.

Cash at year end was £100k, with short term receivables of £1.4m and undrawn overdraft facilities.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A Forbes 30 Under 30 founder who moved the HQ of his startup TraqCheck to London has raised £6 million in Series A funding.

Jaibir Nihal Singh featured on the publication’s Asia AI list in 2025. He is co-CEO with Armaan Mehta, who also co-founded the firm and is – according to LinkedIn – now based in Los Angeles. They maintain an office in New Delhi.

TraqCheck is aiming to replace traditional HR software with AI agents, transforming talent sourcing, screening and background verification.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

James House has been appointed to lead loyalty tech firm Reward following its $230 million takeover by Rezolve Ai in February.

Reward was founded in 2001 by Gavin Dein and operates across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Its cloud-based API platform integrates content, advertising and commerce to deliver experiences for customers. It is behind many bank loyalty programmes seen today from brands such as Visa, NatWest Group and Barclays.

Reward also works with the world’s largest retailers such as McDonald’s, eBay, Deliveroo and Amazon. 

Last year it won backing from Dragons’ Den star Touker Suleyman, who struck a partnership that brought his clothing brand Hawes & Curtis into the company’s global retail network.

Reward – formerly known as Reward Insight – was recently bought by Nasdaq-listed Rezolve Ai PLC, a global provider of AI-driven conversational commerce and payments infrastructure.

Now Mastercard and BNP Paribas veteran House, previously chief commercial officer of the firm, has been appointed to lead it.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Allica has reported record financial results as the digital bank for established SMEs marked a third consecutive year of profit.

Underlying pre-tax profit in 2025 increased 34% to £43.7 million, even with £30m of strategic investment in new products and ‘go to market’.

Gross revenue rose 27% to £371.3m while its Active Business Reward Account customers grew 133% to over 14,000.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Wayve, a UK-based leader in AI for autonomous driving, has extended its Series D round with a $60 million investment from leading tech companies.

In February the firm announced it has raised $1.2 billion in Series D investment, with a potential further $300m from investor Uber to support the development of Wayve-powered ‘robotaxis’ on the Uber network.

Now Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Arm and Qualcomm Ventures have joined the investment round with the combined $60m injection.

HousingAI, a new AI knowledge platform built specifically for the social housing sector in England, has appointed Phil Shelton as chief executive ahead of its official launch in spring 2026.

Shelton brings more than two decades of experience in housing technology, having built and led software businesses focused on improving operational performance, compliance and decision-making within housing organisations.

Aryza, a Dublin-based provider of AI-enabled automation software across the credit & debt lifecycle, has acquired Umbrella Tech, a Toronto-based leader in voice-based agentic AI for financial services.

The acquisition significantly expands Aryza’s Agentic Collections & Recoveries intelligence, integrating human-like conversations into its existing conversational AI and digital collections platform, Aryza Engage.

This enables organisations globally to automate collections operations, customer service, and compliance journeys with speed and accuracy, 24/7, across 100+ languages.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The CEO has been ousted from the board of a cryptocurrency investment firm backed by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Jai Patel has been replaced by David Galan at Stack BTC plc, which counts former short-lived Tory Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as its executive chair.

Paul Withers has also been appointed as chief strategy officer. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Standard Life plc has entered into an agreement to acquire insurance and pensions giant Aegon UK plc for £2 billion.

The pensions provider said the transaction will be funded through a combination of debt, cash and the issue of new ordinary shares in Standard Life.

The cash consideration will be £750m, financed through a combination of £650m debt issuance to be issued prior to completion and cash resources; while Aegon will be issued with 181.1m new shares, representing 15.3% of the group’s enlarged share capital.

The deal creates the UK’s largest retirement savings and income business, with 16 million customers and assets under administration of £480bn.

Made Tech Group Plc has been awarded a new three-year Strategic IT and Security Delivery Partner contract with the Government Digital Service – part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Made Tech, a provider of digital, data and technology services to the UK public sector, said the total contract value was £19 million.

Under the contract, Made Tech will act as the Strategic IT and Security Delivery Partner to GDS, supporting the delivery of the next generation of technology used by GDS staff. The programme is intended to improve collaboration and productivity, strengthen security, and reduce overall cyber risk exposure.

GDS has been a client of Made Tech since 2018. Following the contract award, the group’s year-to-date sales bookings have increased materially to £54m.

Online retailer THG saw its share price jump by more than 13 per cent today

The Manchester-headquartered retail giant saw its share price rise from 30.08p to 34.98p – the highest since February 26, when it reached 35.42p.

THG was the day’s second highest riser in the FTSE 250, behind only Ceres Power Holdings.

In March CEO Matt Moulding said the company was ‘on the front foot’ after publishing its results for 2025.

Forbes today unveiled its 11th annual 30 Under 30 Europe List.

The list aims to spotlight the continent’s most dynamic young innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers.

This year’s list marks a defining milestone, as the first edition composed entirely of Gen Z honorees.

Ticketmaster has launched an app in ChatGPT which it says will transform how fans find events.

As fan behaviour evolves, discovery is no longer limited to search engines or social platforms, the firm says, with more fans turning to AI platforms to find events, compare options and make decisions in real time.

Ticketmaster is at the forefront of shaping this shift with its app in ChatGPT, it says, “ensuring your events are discoverable in these emerging spaces and piloting new ways to reach fans at the moment decisions are made”.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The Liberal Democrats are demanding an inquiry into Nigel Farage’s promotion of a Bitcoin company.

The Reform UK leader promoted Stack BTC in a video alongside short-lived Tory Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who is executive chairman of the Aquis-listed company.

Last month the MP for Clacton joined Blockchain.com in backing Stack BTC, while soon afterwards the firm raised around £2 million through a share placing, subscription and retail offer, with Farage investing a further £60,650 through the subscription – taking his total investment to £215,000 and holding to 6.3%.

Now the Lib Dems have called for the Financial Conduct Authority to investigate Farage’s promotion of the £2m deal in the video.

They say his actions may amount to “attempted interference in the cryptocurrency market” or “attempted market abuse”.

A spokesman for Farage told the BBC the event was a “photo call”, adding: “Mr Farage is embracing the 21st Century. He bought the [£2m] crypto on behalf of Stack and not personally.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The UK is set for its first electric vehicle battery recycling plant.

Altilium has been awarded £18.5 million in grant funding through the UK government’s DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund, delivered by the Department for Business and Trade in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) and Innovate UK. 

The funding will support the construction of Altilium’s new ACT3 recycling plant in Plymouth, Devon. Construction of the facility is expected to commence in summer 2026, with commissioning planned for the end of 2027. 

The Plymouth-based firm, founded by a trio of investment and commodities professionals, says the facility will have the capacity to process 24,000 EV batteries per year and recover critical minerals from them.

My Digital, a leader in contractor payroll, is now targeting the national payroll market.

Founded in 2015 and based in Stockport, My Digital has spent a decade building deep, battle-tested expertise in high-frequency, high-complexity payroll.

Processing payments for more than 300,000 employees every month – with individual customers running pay for up to 10,000 workers in a single weekly run – the platform is now set to become a springboard for something bigger.

Dan Moss – who joined the company when it was founded in 2015 and rose through roles spanning product design, head of product and COO, before becoming CEO in late 2024 – is leading that expansion.

With recurring revenue exceeding £3.5 million and accelerating cash generation, the business is preparing to launch its My Digital Payroll product to the broader bureau and accountancy market at Accountex in London this May.

Finseta plc, a foreign exchange and payments solutions company, has raised £900,000 via a placing and subscription of shares.

The firm, which offers multi-currency accounts to businesses and individuals through a technology platform, intends to raise up to a further £100,000 by way of a retail offer.