Darktrace, the cybersecurity group which was acquired by US private equity giant Thoma Bravo, has made two appointments to its executive team.

Suman Raju has been appointed as CFO by the Cambridge-headquartered firm. He previously held CFO positions at spend management software company Ivalua, product discovery software group Crownpeak and digital economy business SAP Ariba.

Hein Hellemons, who most recently held the same position at Florida firm KnowBe4, has been named chief revenue officer. He is a veteran of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

They replace Cathy Graham and Denise Walter, formerly CFO and CRO, who have left the company in recent months.

IRIS Software Group, a global software provider of accountancy, payroll, HR and education solutions, has appointed Marissa Carlson as chief marketing officer.

Jonathan Priestley, who previously served as interim CMO, is assuming a newly created role as general manager, global accountancy solutions and transformation.

Carlson brings nearly two decades of experience scaling high-growth businesses and building high-performing marketing teams. She most recently served as CMO at TigerConnect and previously was CMO at Intelerad, where she built global brand recognition and drove the company’s rapid expansion in the US acute care market.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenAI have announced a multi-year strategic partnership worth $38 billion.

The deal provides AWS’s infrastructure to run and scale OpenAI’s core artificial intelligence workloads, starting immediately.

Under the agreement, which will have continued growth over the next seven years, OpenAI is accessing AWS compute comprising hundreds of thousands of state-of-the-art NVIDIA GPUs, with the ability to expand to tens of millions of CPUs to rapidly scale agentic workloads.

Barclays has marked the 10th anniversary of Eagle Labs, its nationwide network supporting entrepreneurs, with the release of a new report and the start of Entrepreneurs Week 2025. 

Since its launch in 2015, Eagle Labs has helped nearly 20,000 UK businesses, contributing an estimated £1.3 billion to the economy, creating 50,000 jobs, and raising more than £5bn in funding.

Now spanning 43 locations, the initiative connects founders with investors, mentors and industry experts to help them scale, secure investment and drive innovation.

Fast-growing global cybersecurity recruitment and executive search specialist Hubscale is primed for its next phase of expansion after moving to bigger HQ in Manchester city centre.

The firm has relocated to Tower 12 in Spinningfields after outgrowing its previous base.

Hubscale’s workforce in the city has grown from four to 18 in the past 18 months. Earlier this year, the company opened an office in Austin, Texas.

It works with clients across the UK, the US, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions and is on track to post revenues of £3.75m for the calendar year 2025, up from £1.58m in 2024.

Payments and banking platform Airwallex has crossed $1bn in annualised run rate revenue.

The achievement comes as the UK cements its position as one of Airwallex’s fastest-growing markets globally, with significant expansion occurring in revenues, clients and presence.

It took Singapore-headquartered Airwallex nine years to reach its first $500m in ARR – the next $500m came in just over one year. At its current growth rate of roughly 90% year-on-year, Airwallex says it is on track to double ARR again, surpassing $2bn within the next 12 months.

Airwallex’s UK revenue in the first half of 2025 grew by 109% versus the same period last year, with its overall headcount in EMEA growing by 35% over the same period.

To accommodate this rapid expansion, Airwallex has outgrown its Holborn office and has acquired a new EMEA regional headquarters in Fitzrovia. The new office occupies the entire first floor of the Wells & More building on Mortimer Street and, at over 16,000 sq ft, is more than double the size of its previous space.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Claire Lewis has stepped down as CEO of Baltic Ventures.

Lewis co-founded the Liverpool-based pre-seed tech accelerator five years ago with Carl Wong.

It has evolved from a not-for-profit – launched with the backing of a £4m investment from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – into an angel syndicate and tech accelerator with a portfolio of 30 companies and eight-figure follow-on investments. It has supported more than 200 founders to date.

Lewis, the former head of Tech North, said on LinkedIn that she is “ready for a change of rhythm… to take some time to rest and reset and to dedicate energy and focus to other areas and projects that I’m passionate about”.

Godel Technologies has announced the appointment of Joe Wolski as chief technology officer.

It says the appointment of UK-based Wolski supports its growth and innovation in AI and reflects its commitment to advancing digital engineering.

Wolski has served as technical director, CTO and chief strategy officer at ANS Group. He has also held non-executive and advisory positions with leading technology companies across Europe.

Winvia Entertainment PLC has floated on the junior AIM market of the London Stock Exchange with a market cap of £205 million.

The company, which operates prize draw brands BOTB and Click Competitions in the UK as well as online gaming in Romania, has raised £40m in the IPO.

The firm – which has expanded rapidly through a combination of organic development and targeted acquisitions – made £7m profit before tax last year with £153m gross revenue.

The proceeds of the placing are planned to be used to fund acquisitions in the UK prize draw sector. It said it is in discussions with several potential acquisition targets.

Risers:

Ceres Power Holdings – +9.17%

Goodwin – +6.91%

Senior – +5.72%

Airtel Africa – +4.70%

Dunelm Group – +3.13%

Fallers:

Anglo-Eastern Plantations – -4.29%

Bluefield Solar Income Fund – -4.04%

B&M European Value Retail – -4.04%

The Renewables Infrastructure Group – -3.48%

Frasers Group – -3.22%

The retail wealth management and investment business that previously operated under the Nutmeg brand is now offering its products and services under the J.P. Morgan Personal Investing brand.

In addition to managed investments, pensions, and ISAs, J.P. Morgan Personal Investing will offer a range of new products and services, including digital financial planning tools, dedicated relationship managers and, in 2026, a new DIY investment platform.

In the coming weeks, all J.P. Morgan Personal Investing clients will have access to a new Wealth Planner feature, which gives them a view of their current total wealth, alongside tailored suggestions for how they could move closer to their goals.

Clients will be able to use the digital guidance tool to explore the potential impact on their goals and finances before taking action, so they can customise their strategy to suit them and make decisions with greater confidence.

Saepio, a provider of cyber security services and solutions, has acquired offensive security specialist Ruptura.

The deal will enable Saepio to better serve its clients in testing resilience against cyber threats by bringing Ruptura’s penetration testing – known as pen testing – into its suite of services.

The firms say the acquisition is a logical next step for Saepio after a successful partnership in which Ruptura conducted pen tests for its clients to ensure that Saepio’s cyber security recommendations are resilient and robust.

Tom Heenan, Ruptura’s founder and MD, will continue to oversee the high quality of penetration testing and will become Saepio’s director of offensive security.

Optima Health has reported a 17% rise in half-year revenue to £59 million for the six months to the 30th September. 

The growth was supported by new contract wins, strong demand for workplace health services and two strategic acquisitions that have expanded its reach both in the UK and internationally.

The Glasgow-based company provides occupational health, wellbeing and employee assistance services to public and private sector clients, using digital platforms to deliver health assessments, case management and mental wellbeing support at scale. 

In April, it completed the acquisition of Cognate Health in Ireland for up to €9m, marking its first move outside the UK. 

The business has since been rebranded as Optima Health Ireland, allowing the company to serve multinational clients with operations across both countries. 

It also acquired Care first, a provider of Employee Assistance Programmes from the Priory Group, expected to add around £3.7m in annual revenue.

Optima is also mobilising its £210m contract to deliver medical assessment services to the UK Armed Forces and has begun investing in new technology to enhance its platform, improve customer experience and increase operating margins.

AI diagnostics company Renalytix has reported a 30% rise in annual revenues to $3 million for the year ended 30 June 2025, driven by growing adoption of its FDA-approved and Medicare-reimbursed kidneyintelX.dkd test for early-stage chronic kidney disease. 

The London-listed MedTech achieved a 54% reduction in EBITDA losses through tighter cost controls, improved margins and operational efficiencies, while also completing oversubscribed fundraises totalling £18.5m over the past 12 months.

Partnerships with Tempus AI and MVP Health Care have expanded access to kidneyintelX.dkd testing across the US, with over 18,000 patients tested to date. 

With Medicare now reimbursing $931 per test, the business said it expects to strengthen financial resilience and scale national access as it moves into FY2026, targeting new US regions including Arizona, Florida, Texas and New York.

Author: Patrick Killeen

LegalTech TrialView has raised £3.1 million in growth funding led by Elkstone Ventures as it looks to expand internationally and accelerate the development of its AI-powered dispute resolution platform.

The investment marks a major milestone for the Dublin-founded business, which has so far been self-funded and profitable, reaching over £2m in ARR within the last three years. 

The now-London-based company’s technology is already used by 15 of the UK’s top 20 law firms and has featured in some of the world’s most high-profile legal cases, including the $6 billion Russian Aviation litigation and major proceedings in London’s Commercial Court.

TrialView’s platform uses AI to mine documents, streamline workflows and surface critical evidence – helping legal teams, judges and arbitrators manage and present cases more effectively from start to finish.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Furniture search platform ufurnish.com has appointed former O2 UK and Verizon Consumer Group chief Ronan Dunne as chairman.

The appointment follows what the company described as “meteoric growth” since launching in 2019.

The platform now connects over five million users with more than 2.7m products from 100+ furniture retailers, using AI to help shoppers discover and compare items across the UK market.

Dunne, who is currently non-executive chairman of Six Nations Rugby and KoreLabs, and a non-executive director at Marks & Spencer Group, will succeed outgoing chairman Pat McCann.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The chair of Cykel AI PLC has resigned despite narrowing losses.

Nicholas Lyth has left the company, which is focused on building AI agents, with immediate effect. Michael Chan will assume the role of chairman on an interim basis pending the appointment of a permanent chair.

The London firm’s products claim to interact with any UI, website or API using natural language commands. Following the launch of autonomous recruitment agent ‘Lucy’, it built a sales agent called ‘Eve’ then a research agent named ‘Samson’.

It reported its first revenue of £4,107 in the six-month period to the end of July, while narrowing losses from £4m to £1.2m.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Social Chain owner Brave Bison has made a move to buy M+C Saatchi Performance (MCSP) from M+C Saatchi plc in a deal worth £50 million.

The marketing and technology company said the proposal, which is currently non-binding, would combine MCSP with its existing performance marketing division to create one of the largest independent digital media groups outside of the US.

Together, the two businesses would have a strong presence across the UK and Asia-Pacific, with very little overlap between their operations.

InvestAcc Group has completed the acquisition of a business segment from AJ Bell.

Specialist pension administrator InvestAcc, listed in London, said it has acquired the pension administration client books which formed part of the AJ Bell non-platform business for a maximum consideration of £25m.

An initial cash consideration of £17.5m has been paid and £1m of ordinary shares have been issued to AJ Bell. The deferred consideration, of up to £6.5m, will be payable in the first half of 2026, subject to the achievement of specific client transfer targets.     

Author: Jonathan Symcox

DCC plc has completed the divestment of its UK and Ireland tech business for £100 million.

The Irish sales, marketing and support services conglomerate, founded in 1976 as a venture capital firm and listed in London, is undergoing a restructure announced last year to simplify its business.

Looking to focus on its energy business, earlier this year it sold its healthcare division for £1 billion – and it has now divested its Info Tech business in the UK&I to German-based private equity group Aurelius.