Aquis Stock Exchange, the UK’s challenger market for listed companies, has announced the inaugural cohort of the Aquis IPO Academy, the UK’s only public markets readiness programme run by an exchange.

The Academy, in partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs, is a long-term investment in the UK’s growth economy at a pivotal moment for scaling businesses, aiming to act as an engine for IPO activity while addressing the perception gap around accessing public markets. 

It draws on the expertise of Barclays Eagle Labs and SIX, which acquired Aquis in 2025, combining domestic scale-up expertise with European IPO Academy experience.

The first cohort is made up of over 25 ambitious UK growth companies, half of which are founded by women.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Dutch FinTech Mollie has completed its €1.1 billion acquisition of UK rival GoCardless.

When originally announcing the deal in December 2025, the firms said that more than 90% of the consideration will be paid in shares, with the remainder in cash.

GoCardless was founded by CEO Hiroki Takeuchi, Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield and Matt Robinson in 2011. A few years later Takeuchi, its chief executive, was paralysed from the chest down following a cycle crash.

In the year ending June 2025, its last published accounts, it narrowed losses before tax to £24.2m, and recently posted its first profitable quarter. This followed a series of cutbacks. Meanwhile Mollie achieved EBITDA profitability in 2024 and reported €147 million in net revenue in 2025.

The deal creates Europe’s leading payments and financial services partner, with more than 350,000 business customers across 30+ markets. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Oxford BioMedica fell 15% today despite a recent positive half-year trading update.

In early August, the MedTech said H1 2026 revenues had grown 9% to approximately £80 million.

That followed the rejection of several takeover offers from Swedish private equity firm EQT for the cell and gene therapy developer.

However Oxford Biomedica, founded in 1995 and listed in London for 30 years, seems open to a take-private deal from other PE houses which may be more aligned with its business, CEO Frank Mathias said recently.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A Cambridge-based technology entrepreneur has donated £500,000 to far-right anti-immigration party Restore Britain.

Simon Galbraith, who describes himself as a tentative philanthropist, sits on the board of several companies.

After co-founding Red Gate Software in 1999, he served as its CEO for more than two decades. He is now chairman of the database management company, which sold a majority stake to US private equity firm Bregal Sagemount earlier this year.

He has chosen to back the new political party of Rupert Lowe, former chairman of Southampton FC, who registered Restore Britain earlier this year after a public spat with Nigel Farage saw him  leave Reform.

Lowe has the backing of Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk, who shares all the former’s posts on his social media platform X.

Made Smarter Yorkshire has offered a new programme to provide funding and education for cybersecurity to UK manufacturers as part of a larger £400,000 grant.

Partnering with Sheffield Hallam University, the programme aims to help businesses gain basic accreditations, and train ‘Cyber Security Champions’ within manufacturers, employees who are tasked with reviewing an organisation’s weaknesses and building a cyber-oriented culture more broadly.

The programme comes at a time of increasing risk to the UK manufacturing industry in particular which, based on industry surveys, saw nearly a third of firms targeted in attacks last year.

UK-based CloudClevr has today announced the acquisition of Flow Automated Intelligence (Flow AI) from SCC, marking the next step in its M&A strategy and significantly expanding its capabilities across AI, automation and data.

Flow AI is an established digital transformation managed services business with more than 20 years’ experience across document services, business process automation and information management.

The acquisition brings approximately £8m of additional revenue and around 90 colleagues into the wider CloudClevr business.

Flow AI will also form the foundation of CloudClevr’s new digital transformation practice, which will be built around two core pillars: AI & Automation Services and Data Services.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

NorthEdge has completed its ninth technology exit with the sale of Distology to Foresight Group.

The lower-mid-market investor first backed cybersecurity vendor Distology, led by Founder 250 star Hayley Roberts, in 2021.

It marked the Stockport firm’s first institutional capital raise.

Roberts recently appeared on our podcast The Naked Founder and was also a Northern Leader in 2025.

Five Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) between the University of Salford and businesses across the region have received a ‘Very Good’ grading from Innovate UK, recognising collaborations that have helped organisations innovate, develop new capabilities and drive business growth.

KTPs are funded in part by Innovate UK and bring together a business, a university and a dedicated KTP Associate to solve strategic business challenges through research and innovation.

The University of Salford has been involved in the programme since its launch in 1975, when it was one of the original pilot universities, and has spent more than 50 years helping organisations translate research into real-world impact.

The projcts are:

Creating healthier workplaces through sound – working with acoustic consultancy KP Acoustics, researchers developed an intelligent soundscape system that creates personalised, adaptive sound environments to make workplaces healthier, more comfortable and less distracting. The partnership combined expertise in acoustics and human perception to turn research into a prototype with commercial potential.

Developing quieter propulsion technologies – led by Professor Torija Martinez of the Salford Acoustics Innovation Institute, the project partnered with Greenjets to develop innovative tools that help engineers design quieter electric propulsion systems for drones and future aircraft. By making it possible to predict and mitigate noise from the earliest stages of the design process, the project has strengthened the University’s expertise in this rapidly growing field while enabling Greenjets to incorporate noise considerations throughout the propulsion system development cycle. This allows the company to identify optimal, cost-effective designs at an early stage, reducing the need for expensive redesigns and accelerating the development of quieter, more sustainable aviation technologies.

Driving digital transformation in construction –  the University partnered with engineering supplier Valves Instruments Plus (VIP) Ltd, to help the business adopt Building Information Modelling (BIM), enabling its products to be specified much earlier in construction projects.

Improving building performance through thermal innovation – partnering with Farrat, the project translated pioneering work on thermal bridges into practical tools that help architects and engineers reduce heat loss in buildings. The project strengthened the University’s expertise in sustainable construction while laying the foundations for continued collaboration in retrofit and low-carbon building design.

Using AI to improve legal services – the project worked with Irwin Mitchell to embed artificial intelligence and data science within one of the UK’s leading law firms. By developing new machine learning tools and building in-house expertise, the partnership is helping the firm make better use of data to improve client services, support business decisions and drive future growth.

Pulsant, a UK data centre and digital infrastructure platform, has unveiled a £1m investment in its Birmingham data centre to support future demand for AI in the city.

Infrastructure upgrades to the 2,405m2 facility – acquired from Europe’s largest independent IT solutions and services provider Specialist Computer Centres PLC (SCC) last year – will support the surge in advanced computing.

The site, five miles southeast of the city centre, has been fully integrated into Pulsant’s UK-wide Edge infrastructure platform, which interconnects 14 regional data centres from Edinburgh to Fareham on the South Coast.

It provides local businesses with secure, high-speed infrastructure, alongside access to more than 1,600 technology providers, including international carriers.

The investment also includes upgraded security and a full refurbishment to improve the experience of people working in the data centre – both from Pulsant, and regional businesses who keep their own infrastructure on site.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A Salford motion capture startup has been bought by Oxford Metrics plc.

Captive Devices was founded in 2024 by a trio of former Epic Games engineers – including Fred Isaac (pictured) – and received support from GM Business Growth Hub’s Innovation Service in securing innovation grants.

A developer of professional head-mounted camera systems and software, it enables markerless facial performance capture, used in visual effects, games and virtual production.

Oxford Metrics is a smart sensing and measurement technology group serving life sciences, entertainment, engineering and manufacturing markets.

The acquisition adds specialist facial capture to its platform Vicon, which has an established market leadership in body tracking.

 

The Government has launched the first public service procurement competitions under its £100 million Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme.

The scheme was announced by Chancellor John Healey at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in North Carolina.

It seeks to back innovative British AI companies to develop solutions to some of the UK’s biggest challenges, from boosting NHS productivity and strengthening national security to improving cyber resilience and expanding the computing infrastructure that will power future growth. 

The Government has also established the AI Economics Institute, a world-first. This will seek to strengthen understanding of AI’s economic impacts, helping ensure policymakers have the evidence needed to maximise AI’s opportunities and respond to its challenges. 

The Chancellor has confirmed that the UK now plans to open up AIEI to international cooperation with G7 countries, focused on information and evidence sharing.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

FTSE 250 firm Gamma Communications is set to go private in a £1 billion deal.

London private equity house Epiris has agreed terms with the board of the technology firm, which will now seek shareholder approval for the takeover.

Gamma, led by CEO Andrew Belshaw, is a European business communications tech provider which employs more than 2,000 people.

Two other PE houses entered takeover discussions this summer but pulled out.

Gamma, whose core markets are the UK and Germany – with additional presence in Spain and the Benelux region – completed a restructuring last year to slash annual operating expenses by £7 million. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Scan.com has closed $220 million (£162m) in combined equity and debt financing after doubling revenue over the past year to surpass a $165m (£122m) annualised run rate.

Valued at over $100 billion, the US medical imaging market is one of the largest segments of American healthcare. It is also slow, expensive, fragmented and still largely offline, with 85% of scans still booked via fax or phone. Patients often wait weeks for a scan, and a national shortage of radiologists and technologists adds further pressure on the system.

Scan.com’s data shows that the same MRI can cost a few hundred dollars at one centre and several thousand at another a few miles away, where price is a poor guide to quality. At the same time, it says, some centres are booked weeks out, while scanners nearby sit idle, and the marketing and administrative cost of filling them lands on patients too. 

The problem is not a shortage of machines. It is that nothing connects the patient to the right one at the right time.

Scan.com was founded as National MRI Scan in 2017 by clinicians Dr Khalid Latief and Jasper Nissim, alongside Charlie Bullock (CEO), Oliver Knight (COO), and Joe Daniels (head of front-end and UX).

Renalytix plc, a precision medicine diagnostics company focused on kidney disease, has announced a fundraise to support its new strategic collaboration with Quest Diagnostics.

The company intends to raise a minimum of approximately £9.5 million gross proceeds through a placing and subscription of new ordinary shares, including a retail offer.

The multi-year agreement with Quest will make kidneyintelX.dkd blood testing available to physicians and patients in the United States.

 

British businesses can now access the full benefits of the UK’s membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The UK signed the CPTPP in 2023, and it entered into force in 2024 with the first countries that had ratified.

Canada is the final country to have ratified the UK’s accession, so from today businesses have access to all 11 CPTPP member countries, with economies worth almost £10 trillion in 2025.

The agreement is expected to deliver around £2 billion a year to the UK economy in the long run, the Government said.

The Athena Festival is calling for urgent action as the share of UK equity investment secured by all-female founder teams remains unchanged.

In October the festival will bring hundreds of founders, investors, funders and business leaders to Leeds to unlock more co-investment, strengthen regional funding networks and establish clearer routes to capital for female founders.

Following years of discussion and initiatives intended to address the gender funding gap, all-female founder teams received just 2% of UK equity investment in 2025, the same average share recorded across the past decade. 

This was despite a 35% increase in equity funding during the year as the market recovered. The figures underline a stark reality: the gender funding gap is not closing.

Organisers say that in an environment where the economy is stalling, and political upheaval has become commonplace, it is calling out to UK PLC to say that gender-led funding initiatives should not be seen as optional, but rather essential to unlocking the potential of female-founded businesses and driving £310 billion of additional UK economic growth.

Taking place at Nexus, Leeds, on Wednesday 7th October, the Athena Festival will bring together female founders and those with the capital, influence and decision-making power to turn awareness into measurable action.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

For Henry Dunne, the idea that would become Microneedle Solutions (MNS) started while he was studying at the University of Leeds. 

In March 2022, during his final year, he joined forces with co-founder Ian Bartenev to tackle one of healthcare’s oldest challenges: replacing syringe injections with a simpler, pain-free alternative.

Together they developed Miracus, a microprojection patch platform designed to deliver medicines and vaccines through the skin without the need for a traditional needle.

Leeds has been central to their journey. After receiving early support through the University of Leeds Spark programme, the company moved into Nexus, where access to specialist facilities, researchers and experienced mentors helped turn an idea developed by two students into a funded biotech business.

“What makes Leeds special is its combination of scale and accessibility,” says Dunne. “It is a major city with excellent universities, hospitals, businesses and infrastructure, but its innovation community remains connected enough that people genuinely know and support one another.”

That collaborative approach is helping to strengthen West Yorkshire’s reputation as a centre for health technology. The sector is championed by Leeds Digital Festival, which returns this September, and brings together businesses, researchers and entrepreneurs from the digital, engineering and life sciences sectors to share ideas, forge new partnerships and showcase innovation.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The CEO and co-founder of Atom Bank seems set to be replaced in the coming weeks.

Mark Mullen co-founded Atom as Britain’s first digital-only bank with Metro Bank founder Anthony Thomson in 2014. Thomson stepped down as chairman in 2018 and Mullen was featured on our Founder 250 list this year.

Following what it called ‘pre-IPO’ funding rounds in previous years, this summer the North East firm worked with advisers at Jefferies on a sale process which attracted interest from several private equity firms and at least two building societies.

It had hoped that the auction would value it between £600m and £1 billion, but no firm bids were received and it was abandoned in June.

Sky News reported that Mullen is expected to be replaced on an interim basis by Andrew Marshall, the company’s CFO. Now Atom has responded to those reports.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

System1 Group plc has rejected another £43.1 million takeover bid from fellow listed firm Brave Bison.

The board of the marketing effectiveness research company, founded 25 years ago, said it had rejected the third offer from Brave Bison, which is its largest shareholder.

The first approach from Brave Bison, parent company of SocialChain, was an all-share affair, while the second contained a cash component. The third increased the cash component but not the value of the offer.

This week Brave Bison reported a doubling of revenue and adjusted EBITDA in its latest half-year results – to £23.9m and £4.5m respectively.

For the six months ending 30th June 2026, it also grew adjusted profit before tax to £4.1m from £1.9m.

Data relating to 8.7 million people was exposed in a cyber attack on Manchester Airports Group on Thursday.

The group said email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registrations and postcodes of customers at Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports had been compromised.

MAG said the incident had not resulted in any operational disruption and that neither it nor the system accessed hold customers’ bank or payment details.