The Information Commissioner’s Office has provided an update on its action to tackle cookie compliance, which has brought the vast majority of the UK’s most used websites into compliance with rules on the use of advertising cookies.

This has given an estimated 80% of UK internet users over the age of 14 – equating to around 40 million people – greater control over how they are tracked for personalised advertising, it said.

Its assessment focused on three key areas of compliance: whether non-essential advertising cookies were stored on users’ devices before users could exercise their choice to accept or reject them; whether rejecting non-essential advertising cookies was as easy as accepting them; and whether any non-essential advertising cookies were placed even though a user had not consented to them.

The ICO says that as a result of this work, 979 of the top 1,000 websites met the ICO’s compliance checks at the time of their most recent test, with only 21 websites identified as still failing.

Greater Manchester-based Squosh Compacting is set to scale its waste management technology.

The tech cuts carbon emissions, reduces costs and boosts recycling rates for businesses and public sector organisations. 

Its service mounts compactors directly onto collection vehicles, increasing bin capacity by at least 50%, reducing collection frequency and delivering significant carbon savings for clients.

 

Sedulo Group is celebrating a record year after recording revenues of £24.5 million.

The business advisory firm said revenues had grown 20% in the year to 31st October 2025 compared with the previous 12 month-period.

The EBITDA for the same period was £3.2m, an 18% increase on the previous year’s result of £2.6m.  The group is now operating at a run rate approaching £26m, it said.

Two-time Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownless OBE has joined Redrice Ventures as associate partner.

He’ll be co-lead of the Redrice Sports Collective, partnering with former tennis star Andy Murray.

Redrice provides capital, advice and connections to early stage businesses.

Brownless said: “As a founder and operator myself I’ve learnt plenty about entrepreneurship. I’ve experienced the challenges that many founders face.

“Redrice now gives me the platform to sharpen and scale that work, and to learn from one of the best teams in the space while backing a new generation of founders who are building companies that genuinely change (and lengthen) people’s lives.

“Teaming up with Andy feels exactly right. Two Olympic champions united by the belief that movement and wellbeing should be accessible to everyone.

“The ambition for the Sports Collective is big, and I can’t wait to get started. Excited for what’s ahead.”

French CRM firm Brevo has become Europe’s newest unicorn after announcing a £438m ($583m) funding round,

Paris-based Brevo is a customer relationship management company that was founded in 2012 by Armand Thiberge in India and France to help businesses of all sizes build stronger customer relationships.

The company, previously known as Sendinblue, has grown to our 600,000 customers around the world and surpassed $233m in ARR this October.

The latest fundraise sees General Atlantic and Oakley Capital join Brevo’s existing investors.

CEO Thiberge said: “Today marks a monumental milestone in Brevo’s journey: I am proud to announce a $583m funding round, officially welcoming Brevo into unicorn territory.

“A warm welcome to our new partners, General Atlantic and Oakley Capital.

“Our commitment remains stronger than ever: Product is our North Star. Every single day, we push ourselves to build a more powerful, intuitive, and impactful Brevo.

“Although we celebrate how far we’ve come… it still feels like day one at Brevo. The real journey starts now.”

Manchester-based eCommerce agency PushON has marked its 20th anniversary by reporting 40 per cent year-on-year revenue growth.

PushOn was originally founded in 2005 by Simon Wharton and Roy Wilding as a specialist SEO agency.

The agency quickly expanded into a full-service eCommerce offering, including website development, maintenance and digital marketing.

A breakthrough contract with Bench Clothing pushed PushON into Adobe Commerce (Magento) development, laying the groundwork for the agency’s eCommerce specialism.

High-profile work followed, including projects for Virgin Credit Cards, Hyundai, Silver Cross, Brandon Hire Station, Ryman, and the development of Nottingham Forest’s official site.

Wharton stepped down as managing director in 2017 to make way for Sam Rutley. Alex Hogan, who began as a PPC executive 10 years ago, is now an associate director.

Wharton said: “When Roy and I started PushON, we had the belief that we could do things differently and better, and that belief still drives the business today.

“Our culture has always been informal, open and collaborative. We give people opportunities, and they grab them.

“That approach has carried us through 20 years, and I’m proud that so many talented people have built long careers with us.”

US tech giant Qualcomm has acquired Elevear, a leader in AI-powered adaptive active noise cancellation and advanced audio technologies.

Elevear is based in Aachen, Germany, although co-founder Elfed Howells works out of the UK and is an alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University.

Howells said: “We are over the moon to become part of Qualcomm. What a journey, what a team, and what a result.”

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon brand is the principal shirt sponsor for Manchester United’s men’s, women’s, and academy teams.

A spokesman for Qualcomm said: “By integrating Elevear’s innovations into our Snapdragon sound platforms, we’re reinforcing our commitment to delivering premium, personalised, and immersive audio experiences for consumers worldwide.”

KKR has completed the £4.7 billion acquisition of Spectris plc.

The deal was agreed in the summer following a bidding war between US private equity companies KKR and Advent.

It has now completed after the court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement was delivered to the Registrar of Companies today. Trading of Spectris shares on the London Stock Exchange’s main market has therefore been suspended.

Spectris CEO Andrew Heath will retire at the end of the year, with Andrew Williams set to take over as interim CEO.

 

Liverpool is set for ‘transformational’ regeneration after Mayor Steve Rotheram revealed plans to create a Mayoral Development Corporation.

The MDC will fast-track schemes in partnership with Liverpool Council leader Liam Robinson via devolved powers which could see 17,500 homes and 5 million sq ft of commercial space delivered in the next 15 years.

The proposed development zone, which would be the first of its kind in the region, would focus on building on the momentum created by Everton Football Club’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium at Liverpool Waters.

This zone, which would encompass 174 hectares of mainly brownfield land from the River Mersey to the city’s Pumpfields and commercial business districts, would also bring together a trio of major schemes.

The Central Docks development, including a new urban park, backed by a £55 million government grant – alongside £26m direct investment from Peel Waters – is due for completion in 2028.

The emerging £1 billion development at King Edward Triangle will also be encompassed within it, as well as Liverpool’s first major Grade A office scheme in a decade at Pall Mall.

The proposal builds on the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel’s Final Report, published last March, which recommended steps to establish a regeneration delivery vehicle.

Five Wealth, a Manchester-based wealth management firm, has appointed Glenn Urquhart as its new COO.

Bringing over 20 years’ experience in financial services operations, strategic planning and transformation, Urquhart joins Five Wealth from Verso Wealth Management, where he was head of operational service delivery.

He will lead on the implementation of process and technology change as well as the potential integration of acquisitions.

The news follows a period of significant progress for the firm, including surpassing £1bn in assets under management (AUM) in 2025.

Plans have also been set to double AUM again within the next three to four years.

A new landmark investment summit will showcase the North of England on the global stage, to unlock new investment and jobs for regions across the North.

The Great North Investment Summit is announced today by The Great North, a partnership founded by northern mayors to create prosperity and opportunity.

The Summit will take place on Monday 18 May 2026, ahead of UKREiiF, The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum, in collaboration with UKREiiF, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Office for Investment (OfI).

The Summit will be dedicated to promoting the North’s investment opportunities, which could add £118bn to UK PLC with the right investments.

SEED Innovations reported a NAV of £11.2m (6.0p per share) as of 30th September 2025, as the AIM-listed investor pivots towards humanoid robotics and AI.

The Guernsey-based firm has also appointed Jim Mellon as its non-executive chair and its cash stood at £3.1 million.

The business is finalising an adviser hire to support deal flow, as it looks to pursue selective investments as the robotics market nears real-world adoption.

AJ Bell has reported a record year, with revenue up 18% to £317.8 million and profit before tax rising 22% to £137.8m, highlighting the strength of its scalable platform model.

Customer numbers jumped 19% to 644,000 and assets under administration hit £103.3 billion, driven by £7.5bn of net inflows and supportive markets, while its in-house investments arm grew AUM 31% to £8.9bn.

Shareholders are set to benefit from a 14% increase in the total dividend and a new share buyback of up to £50m.

The Manchester-based firm now plans to step up brand and product investment in FY26.

Retail group Princes Group will join the FTSE 250 Index on 22nd December, less than two months after its IPO.

The Liverpool-headquartered firm listed on the London Stock Exchange on 31st October with a market capitalisation of £1.16 billion.

It exports its products to more than 60 countries and has more than 8,000 customers globally across large food retailers, B2B partners and the foodservice industry.

Eloise Veljovic has been recruited by Palatine as their new head of investor relations.

She joins from Pomona Capital, where she spent the last two years as a director, responsible for investor relations in Europe and the Middle East.

Prior to joining Pomona, Veljovic also worked at Alpstone Capital and Hollyport Capital.

She will work closely with the Palatine partners across their three fund strategies: Buyout, impact and growth credit.

Veljovic said: “Palatine have a strong reputation with investors based on their returns and their open and transparent method of working with their investors which has been borne out by their recent successful fundraise for their fifth buyout fund.”

Gary Tipper, group managing partner, said: “I am confident Eloise will help us strategically position Palatine for future growth across all our fund strategies and ensure we are able to successfully raise further vintages for our buyout, impact and growth credit funds.”

Veljovic will formally take up her position at Palatine in January 2026.

Author: Chris Maguire

Zally CEO Patrick Smith has spoken of his ‘regret’ over 11 previous business failures.

The award-winning entrepreneur said he’s been completely ‘open’ about leaving a trail of unpaid creditors earlier in his career following several business failures.

Smith founded Zally three years ago in Manchester and recently moved its HQ to San Francisco as it prepares for a US raise.

The startup is on a mission to help people to authenticate themselves without the need for passwords.

In recent months, Smith has been attracting the sort of attention he probably wouldn’t want.

It started when a newspaper article from his native Norway began to do the rounds, cataloguing 11 of his previous business failures.

It’s important to stress that they date back more than a decade and to a period of Smith’s life that he preferred not to talk to me about and doesn’t go into detail about on LinkedIn

The article sparked a flurry of calls to me and was the subject of much debate in Manchester’s tech ecosystem.

Smith said: “It relates to events from more than a decade ago, which I have been open about and (have) always taken full responsibility.

“Some of the businesses I ran in my early twenties were dissolved, leaving creditors unpaid, which I wholly regret.”

An engineering group has confirmed that it is in talks to acquire graphene specialist Versarien plc after it served a notice of intention to appoint Leonard Curtis as administrators this week.

Versarien plc has been close to administration throughout 2025 and said in late September that it would run out of cash by November.

It looked set to be saved as a fellow listed company agreed a provisional £200,000 takeover deal in October – and that company has now been revealed to be Time To ACT.

That deal fell through, but talks are ongoing following Versarien’s update earlier this week.

Manchester ‘baby tech’ firm Dote has named Avril Murphy as its new CEO.

The company, which produces baby monitoring technology products, was founded in 2018 by Ste Senior to minimise stress for modern-day parents and raised £1.15m in seed funding in 2024.

Murphy said: “I’m honoured to share that I’ve been appointed CEO of Dote as we prepare for our global launch in 2026.

“I’ve spent my career launching and scaling consumer technology brands globally—across baby, beauty, and connected home.

“I’ve seen the highs and lows of building companies, experienced some succeed spectacularly and others struggle to survive.

“But I can honestly say: I’ve never been more excited about a company’s potential than I am right now.

“What Ste Senior and the team have built with Dote is extraordinary. We’re at this incredible inflection point where AI technology, genuine market need, and the right partnerships have all converged.

“We’ve personalised every aspect of modern life except the one that matters most – raising our children. That’s what we’re changing.

“I won’t lie – this is a lot of pressure. Taking the helm as we transition from startup to commercial business, executing a global launch, building a world-class team – it’s enormous. But I’m absolutely committed to doing what it takes.

“I’m grateful to Ste for trusting me with this role, to our investors who believe in the vision, and to our incredible team.”

Future plc has unveiled a boardroom reshuffle alongside full-year results that show the specialist media group’s revenue and EBITDA dropping slightly.

The FTSE-listed owner of titles spanning tech, gaming, homes and lifestyle said chair Richard Huntingford will step down after the annual general meeting in February 2026, ending an eight-year stint leading the board.

He will be replaced by Mark Brooker, currently a senior independent non-executive director, who has more than three decades of experience across capital markets and platform businesses, with senior executive roles at Betfair and Trainline, and has sat on Future’s board since October 2020.

The announcements were made as the London-based company published its annual results.

Revenue fell 6% year-on-year to £739.2 million, while adjusted EBITDA slipped 7% to £223.4m and adjusted operating profit dropped 8% to £205.4m.

Operating profit fell 9% to £121.9m and profit before tax slipped 11% to £91.9m.

Frasers Group plc has reported an increase in half-year revenues but falling profits.

Mike Ashley’s listed retail group reiterated its full-year profit guidance of £550 million to £600m despite a “challenging consumer environment”.

Describing performance in the 26 weeks ended 26th October 2025 as “a solid first half”, it added: “Although trading has improved compared to last year’s Budget-affected period, it is still weaker than FY24, with excess inventory in the sector continuing to weigh on the wider market.”

In a swipe at the UK Government and unions, the firm added: “As noted in our letter to the Unite Union General Secretary Sharon Graham on 3rd October 2025, given the significant cost increases imposed on retail by the Labour government, it would be reckless and irresponsible for Unite to implement a strike whilst demanding further above inflation wage increases. 

“We await the Union’s response to our latest communication following a breakdown in talks and urge them not to repeat their previous politically motivated actions against the group.”