A new flexible subscription model from Protein Works aims to help busy consumers stay consistent with their nutrition.

‘On Tap’ is a service designed to make it easier for customers to incorporate nutrition products into their everyday routines.

Subscribers can set up regular deliveries for products such as the Diet Meal 360 range, Whey Protein 360 range, Complete Meal 360 range, Savoury SuperMeals, Mushroom Coffee drink and ‘All In’ A.I Greens.

The launch comes during a strong period of growth for Protein Works, which generated £55.1m of annual revenue for the 12 months to August 31st 2025 and was recently acquired by world-leading dairy company Lactalis.

There is a battle between major UK fund managers to run a new £1 billion fund backing homegrown entrepreneurs.

Last month Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the UK Scale-up Fund – a first-of-its-kind vehicle dedicated to investing in scaling UK science and technology businesses – backed by a consortium of some of the country’s largest pension providers and supported by the British Business Bank as well as the Government’s Office for Investment.

Sky News reports that M&G Investments and Schroders are among the firms which have applied to manage the fund.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

eEnergy has made interim boss John Gahan its permanent CEO following a ‘turbulent’ summer.

Following the departure of Harvey Sinclair at the end of May – and a change of chair – then-CFO Gahan was appointed interim CEO of the firm, listed on London’s junior AIM market.

He reviewed the company’s sales pipeline and, concluding that this was materially overestimated, issued a sharp downgrade to its full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA expectations – from £38 million to £32m, and £4.5m to £1.7m, respectively.

He also launched a major restructuring programme to reduce operating costs from £6.3m to around £2m.

Love2shop, the UK’s market-leading multi-brand gift card retailer, has today announced a new strategic partnership with group payments pioneer Collctiv to launch its latest venture, Love2save.

Love2save is a brand new savings platform designed to simplify how UK consumers individually save money or pool money for shared collections. The platform empowers individuals or groups, whether friends & family or colleagues in the office, to seamlessly collect money together for important  milestones.

Once savings goals are achieved, funds can be instantly loaded onto a Love2shop Digital gift card or Love2shop Holidays gift card, and then redeemed across an extensive network of household brands, including Tui, Jet2holidays, Currys, Marks & Spencer and many others.

Powering this new venture is Collctiv’s unique group payments technology. Since launching in 2019, Collctiv – a regular star of our FinTech 50 ranking – has become the UK’s leading group payments platform, handling over £130 million in payments volume and serving more than 2.3m users across 175 countries.

Major changes are coming to Facebook and Instagram after Meta settled a high-profile trial in the United States.

The social media giant agreed to pay an $17 billion settlement to 29 US states which had brought a lawsuit accusing it of deliberately designing addictive products which led to mental health issues among young people – including anxiety, depression and suicide. It will also pay $1bn to Texas, which was not part of the lawsuit.

Led by California, the states also claimed that Meta regularly collected data on children under the age of 13 without parental permission, a violation of federal and state laws. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been due to appear as a witness in the jury trial – which began last week – while Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri was questioned.

The company denies wrongdoing but agreed to pay $17bn, to be divided among the 29 states, over the next 10 years.

Crucially, it also agreed to make significant changes to improve safeguarding on its Instagram and Facebook apps in ‘participating US states’. While the changes will not automatically be coming to the UK, the Government here said it is “following developments closely”.

North East technology leaders are calling for closer engagement with public sector commissioners and greater opportunities to test new technologies, following discussions about how procurement can better support regional businesses, innovation and social value.

The findings are published in Dynamo North East’s new Reimagining Procurement and Social Value report, which brings together feedback from a Leadership Forum involving stakeholders from across the region’s technology, public, private and voluntary sectors.

The report sets out three recommendations:

• Strengthen engagement between commissioners and the regional technology sector

• Support the testing and adoption of technology-led innovation

• Strengthen the evidence base for procurement and social value

Businesses across Greater Manchester will continue to benefit from tailored workforce development support after the Employer Engagement for Essential Work Skills (EEEWS) contract was extended until June 2027.

The extension will enable GM Business Growth Hub to continue delivering the programme beyond its initial term, helping more employers identify skills gaps, access training opportunities and invest in workforce development. The programme forms part of GM Business Growth Hub’s wider commitment to supporting business growth through skills development and workforce resilience.

Delivered by GM Business Growth Hub, the programme helps employers and individuals access training that supports productivity, career development and long-term economic growth. A team of specialist Skills Development Specialists work closely with employers to understand workforce challenges, identify opportunities for development and connect businesses with suitable training providers.

Since launching in late 2024, the programme has supported hundreds of businesses and individuals across Greater Manchester. A total of 605 organisations have recommended training and skills development opportunities, with 95% of organisations progressing into training. More than 3,900 individuals have been referred to training providers, with over 1,000 people already starting training courses.

Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO is marking the third year of its IT apprenticeship programme with the recruitment of three new apprentices in Liverpool.

The apprenticeship, carried out in partnership with LeepTalent, was first rolled out in 2023 and gives candidates the opportunity to take part in an 18-month long programme, gaining a Level-3 IT qualification at the end. Once qualified, the majority of apprentices have gone on to join the firm’s IT team in a permanent position.

The roles are based across the firm’s Liverpool and London offices, alongside BDO’s 500-strong IT team which has more than doubled since 2020. They join more than 600 graduates, apprentices and industrial placement students who have started their careers at BDO in the last 12 months.

BDO is now one of Liverpool’s largest employers with more than 450 people split across its two city centre offices, including 25 in its IT department.

Next month it will welcome more than 20 additional trainees a mixture of apprentices, graduates and industrial placement students.

A Manchester company is betting that Britain’s growing SMEs are ready to outsource their entire back office as it sets its sights on £1 million turnover within 12 months.

Aurelian has launched with a new whole-business outsourcing model covering HR, finance, compliance, technology, marketing and operations, targeting companies which are growing but do not want to build a separate team for every function.

The company is seeking to tap into what it sees as a growing problem for businesses around the cost and complexity of building the infrastructure needed to support growth.

Aurelian estimates that a single SME attempting to replicate its full range of services through an equivalent in-house team could face around £300,000 a year in salaries alone, before taking into account employer National Insurance, pensions, recruitment, software, office costs and other employment overheads.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Applied Nutrition plc has beaten forecasts with its latest full-year results as its meteoric rise continues.

The Liverpool-based sports nutrition, health and wellness brand expects FY26 adjusted EBITDA to be ahead of consensus market expectations, increasing by 40% year-on-year to approximately £43.3 million (FY25: £30.9m).

Revenue is ahead of market expectations, having increased 50% year-on-year to £160m (FY25: £107m).

The results exclude the trade and assets of Nutrablend, which were acquired in June.

The group now expects total adjusted EBITDA for FY27 to grow year-on-year to approximately £49m (+13% year-on-year) and revenue to increase to approximately £205m, both ahead of current consensus market expectations.

Trading in its shares jumped 8% in early trading, giving Applied Nutrition a market cap of £868m.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group PLC, an AI-focused business delivering growth solutions to SMEs, has appointed Graham Duncan to the board of directors and as interim CFO.

He replaces Daniel Maling, who will transition to a non-executive director role.

Formerly a cash shell company known as Alteration Earth plc, it completed the reverse acquisition of Pri0r1ty AI in December 2024 and changed its name and focus.

In July 2025 it acquired Halfspace, a specialist data-led marketing and technology business serving the sports and entertainment sectors.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Investment firm AshGrove has completed a senior secured financing in yachting tech platform Voly as the latter makes its fourth acquisition since its private equity takeover.

€1 billion AshGrove specialises in bespoke capital and financing solutions for B2B software and services businesses.

Voly, which provides software and services used to manage the financial and operational requirements of yachts and other high-value assets, was acquired by Magenta Partners in 2021.

AshGrove’s financing is supporting Voly’s investment in Oceanskies, a major provider of maritime employment and yacht registration services, extending the group’s strength in yacht crew employment, payroll, HR, compliance and registration services.

Independent online pharmacy The Family Chemist has announced rapid growth, with turnover expected to reach £50 million this year – and ambitions to double that to £100m next year.

The business attributes its rapid growth – having outgrown four sites since launching its weight-management service and currently looking for another – largely to soaring demand for GLP1-s and the expanding role pharmacies are playing in weight management.

Clinical director Sunny Dhain claims the soaring demand of GLP-1 weight-loss treatments is changing far more than the way obesity is treated. Instead, it is fundamentally reshaping the role of pharmacists and the services they provide.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in FTSE 100 firm Melrose Industries have risen 10% today after it escaped criminal charges linked to a chemical incident in May.

The Birmingham-headquartered aerospace firm, which is listed in London, bought parts supplier GKN in 2018.

This summer, GKN’s Garden Grove site in California was evacuated after a ‘thermal issue’ was discovered in one of three tanks containing methyl methacrylate, a chemical used to manufacture high-strength aeroplane cabin windows. Once that was lifted, a restricted zone was kept in place around the facility.

Despite reports estimating that the incident affected more than 50,000 nearby residents, investigations by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office found no injuries, leaks or contamination resulting from the incident.  It has said that no criminal charges will be filed.

The firm is set to launch a $100m compensation scheme – remaining open into 2027 – which will “reimburse [residents and businesses] eligible for costs associated with the evacuation, including hotel stays, meals, transportation, loss of wages, and loss of use”.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The acquisition of sports nutrition brand Huel by food giant Danone in a deal worth €1 billion has been cleared by UK competition regulators.

The deal was originally announced in March but last month the Competition and Markets Authority launched a merger inquiry which could have potentially scuppered it.

In the UK, the two businesses overlap in the supply of ready-to-drink meal replacement products to grocery retailers – Danone through its Alpro Meal-to-Go (M2G) meal replacement offering and Huel through its RTD ‘complete nutrition’ products.

The CMA found evidence that two businesses had monitored one another’s products and competed directly for customers.

However, it continued: “Taken together, the evidence indicates that whilst the merged entity will have a strong position in RTD meal replacement products and that the parties pose a degree of competitive constraint on each other, sufficient competitive alternatives will remain to constrain the merged entity.

“On this basis, the CMA has found that the merger would not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of  competition… in the supply of RTD meal replacement products to grocery retailers in the UK.”

 

 

Itoflow, an AI platform helping professional investment teams scale research and portfolio management, has raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Balderton Capital and including angel investors such as Cleo founder Barney Hussey-Yeo.

Founded this year, Itoflow is building AI agents that learn how each investment firm researches opportunities, manages risk and reviews portfolios. The platform does not impose a particular investment philosophy: it turns each team’s own approach into governed workflows that can operate continuously across global markets and asset classes, including equities, bonds, ETFs, commodities and digital assets.

Built from the ground up, its agentic infrastructure gives Itoflow greater control over the security and reliability of agents designed to operate for months or years as markets change.

Co-founder and CEO Aditya Jha spent nine years as a quantitative researcher at JPMorgan, RBC and most recently Tower Research Capital. The wider founding team previously built large-scale infrastructure at Apple, Google and Microsoft and also brings quantitative research experience from JPMorgan.

Public Digital, a global digital transformation consultancy, has appointed Alex Jones as senior director in its global impact team, strengthening its senior expertise in AI and technology-led transformation.

Jones joins PD after more than 20 years leading digital, data and technology work across the UK government and internationally through roles in global development.

Most recently, he served as interim director of the Government’s AI incubator, i.AI, leading the development of AI applications for public services and building partnerships with Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic.

He previously served as executive director for insights, research and AI at Ofsted, head of emerging futures and technology at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and as head of evidence and transformation at No.10, where he advised the Prime Minister and Cabinet and founded 10DS, its first data science team.

Clarus Networks Group has appointed Stuart Castell as chief revenue officer as the business accelerates its global growth strategy and strengthens its position in enterprise connectivity and low Earth orbit technology.

Castell returned to Clarus earlier this year as commercial director, having previously worked with the business and built much of his career in satellite communications and technology. He has held several C-suite positions and has also founded, owned and operated his own successful satellite communications business.

Phones 4u founder John Caudwell and former Marks & Spencer boss Lord Stuart Rose have joined over 150 business leaders & parliamentarians calling on ministers to ‘stop the creep of taxes on Britain’s businesses’.

The two men are the most prominent of a wave of influential backers of founder group Helm’s Stop the Creep campaign, alongside Christos Angelides, CEO of fashion retailer Reiss, and Charlie Mullins, who founded Pimlico Plumbers.

In an open letter they say they want the Government to make the Autumn Budget on 28th October the moment it delivers on its pro-growth promises.

 

Board Intelligence, the board technology and advisory firm, has appointed Christopher Tacey-Green as its first chief technology officer.

He joins from international bank and wealth manager Investec, where he was head of engineering.

A former founder who has built and scaled technology from the ground up, Tacey-Green combines deep expertise in AI, cloud, and machine learning with over ten years’ experience leading high-performance development teams.

Board Intelligence recently expanded into AI-powered legal technology with the acquisition of Juristic in July 2026 and the promotion of Anders Gröndahl to senior vice president, AI transformation & performance.