Bite-size news in business & technology, from big breaking stories to funding, appointments & deals
Author: Jonathan Symcox
US private equity firm Carlyle has bought the Barclay family out of The Very Group.
The Nasdaq-listed company has completed a deal for the Liverpool-headquartered online retailer, which operates the Very and Littlewoods brands and offers customers flexible payment options.
The deal will see international media group IMI continue as a key stakeholder and concludes the Barclay family’s 20-year involvement in the business.
During that time, it has evolved from a traditional catalogue business into a purely online retailer.
Kainos Group plc has reported revenue growth in its latest half-year results – but profits dropped.
For the six months ended 30th September 2025, the Belfast firm – listed in London – said revenue increased 7% to £196.1 million, but adjusted pre-tax profit declined by 16% to £32m.
The software firm has a focus on public sector digitisation, healthcare digitisation and solutions for Workday – an AI platform for finance and HR management.
It said the drop in profits was “in part due to a full period of investment to support our Workday partnership, increased National Insurance costs and the use of contractors and third-party suppliers to provide short-term delivery capacity”.
The board also announced its intention to launch a further share buyback programme of £30m, to be executed over a period of six months.
Author: Jonathan Symcox
Private equity firm Permira has agreed a £2.7 billion deal to take listed JTC private.
JTC, based in Jersey, provides administrative services for investment funds and has grown to 38 global offices and more than 14,000 clients.
Following a bidding war with fellow PE firm Warburg Pincus, Permira’s sixth offer of 1,340 pence in cash has been accepted by the board of JTC.
Shareholders will now vote on the deal.
Applied Nutrition plc has reported a big leap in annual revenue and profits.
The sports nutrition, health and wellness brand said revenue was up 24.2% to £107.1m for the year ended 31st July 2025 – ahead of IPO guidance and in line with recently upgraded market expectations.
Adjusted EBITDA was up 18.8% to £30.9m, while unadjusted operating profit was up 18.6% to £28.1m.
Dirk Hahn, CEO at recruitment and human resources giant Hays plc, is taking medical leave having recently undergone surgery.
Hahn’s recovery is progressing positively, the firm said, and he is expected to return to the business early in the new year.
Michael Findlay, group chair, will become executive chair on an interim basis.
Intellectual property investment group Tekcapital plc has entered into a strategic alliance with Nexscient.
Tekcapital, listed on London’s AIM market, is focused on transforming university technologies into valuable products that can improve people’s lives.
LA-based Nexscient, listed in the US, is an innovator in artificial intelligence applications and intelligent enterprise solutions.
The deal will help it to identify and help acquire transformative intellectual property assets from research institutions worldwide.
Listed Ondo Insurtech’s subsidiary LeakBot USA Inc has signed a contract with Westfield Insurance.
Westfield will begin by deploying 10,000 LeakBot devices and connected services for homeowners’ insurance customers in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, states in which Ondo has existing client coverage.
Consistent with other commercial contracts, the agreement involves upfront payments ahead of anticipated shipments.
Risers:
ITV – +15.29%
Oxford Nanopore Technologies – +10.32%
Ceres Power Holdings – +4.78%
Goodwin – +3.77%
Ithaca Energy – +2.88%
Fallers:
Rightmove – -13.79%
International Consolidated Airlines Group – -8.98%
Baltic Classifieds Group – -7.83%
ME Group International – -7.38%
Auto Trader Group – -4.76%
Author: Patrick Killeen
Shares in Rightmove have dropped by over 14% today after the UK’s largest online property platform lowered its profit guidance.
The company, which is a member of the FTSE 100, has said it will ramp up investment in AI and digital transformation to strengthen long-term growth.
It now expects operating profit to rise between 3% and 5% in 2026, down from an earlier forecast of around 9%, reflecting what it described as “accelerated technology investment to build an even stronger platform”.
Independent 53-year-old travel agency Millington Travel has become the fourth business to join Hays Travel’s retail portfolio in 2025.
The Leicester-based company, which operates 14 branches across the Midlands, will continue trading under the Millington Travel name, with all jobs secured following the acquisition.
Led by Nick Bland and Nigel Armitage since 2005, the business has built a strong reputation for expertise in long-haul, cruise, and tailor-made holidays.
Hays Travel chair Dame Irene Hays praised the firm’s commitment to service and family values, calling the acquisition “a natural fit”.
Xeros Technology Group, the sustainable tech company behind innovations that reduce the environmental impact of clothing, has raised £3 million through a share placing and initial subscription at 1.75p per share.
The funding round, comprising over 171m new ordinary shares, will support the listed company’s next stage of development as it continues to commercialise its patented cleaning and fabric care technologies.
The firm is also offering shareholders the chance to participate in a £2m follow-on subscription and a £1m retail offer, both at the same issue price.
Global EdTech and assessment solutions provider RM has signed a three-year contract with Trinity College London to deliver digital e-marking services for the awarding body’s internationally recognised music and drama exams.
The partnership will use listed Oxfordshire-based firm’s cloud-based e-marking platform, enabling examiners to assess performance videos securely online, apply detailed marking criteria and provide richer, more personalised feedback to candidates.
The system also allows for multiple students to be assessed independently within the same video
Scottish business systems specialist Eureka Solutions has been acquired by Pine Services Group, part of the Evergreen family of managed IT and software companies.
Founded in 2004, the East Kilbride-based firm is a provider of cloud-based ERP and integration solutions for mid-market organisations, with expertise in Oracle NetSuite, Sage 200 and iplicit systems.
The deal strengthens Pine’s international presence and marks its first acquisition in Scotland, expanding its reach into the UK’s fast-growing ERP market, which is projected to hit $81.3 billion by 2026.
Eureka Solutions’ 74-strong team will continue to operate under its existing brand, building on its track record as a five-time Sage Developer of the Year and Oracle NetSuite 5-Star Partner.
A new report from global growth consultancy Think & Grow has revealed that women hold just 18% of board positions across the UK’s fastest-growing technology scale-ups, despite 94% of board members acknowledging the importance of diversity.
Over a third of companies (36%) surveyed have no female representation at board level, exposing a major gap between intent and implementation.
The report, Breaking and Remaking the Next Generation of High-impact Boards, shows that early-stage companies significantly trail listed tech firms, where women make up 41% of FTSE 350 tech company boards due to stricter diversity rules.
The findings suggest that scale-ups are missing out on both performance and innovation gains linked to diverse leadership teams.
University of Cambridge spinout Cambridge Photon Technology (CPT) has raised £1.56 million to advance its photon-multiplier technology, which increases the efficiency of silicon solar panels by converting wasted sunlight into usable energy.
The funding includes £926,000 in equity investment and a £630,000 grant from Innovate UK, with backing from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Spectrum Impact, Tybourne Capital, Providence Investment Company and SourceSquared.
CPT’s innovation acts as a “drop-in solution” that fits into standard solar modules without redesign, converting high-energy photons normally lost as heat into infrared light that panels can absorb.
The company plans to use the investment to accelerate product development and bring its breakthrough technology to market.
Financial data specialist FE fundinfo has acquired Oxfordshire-based Contengo, which provides advanced performance reporting, analytics and data migration tools for independent financial advisers (IFAs).
The deal will see Contengo’s technology integrated into FE fundinfo’s Nexus platform, creating a new command deck that gives advisers real-time insights and streamlined access to client and business data.
The move will look to enable IFAs to deliver faster, more personalised advice through enhanced data connectivity and AI-driven portfolio performance analysis.
Midlands-founded Rem3dy Health has raised £1.4 million in new funding from Borski Fund and Future Planet Capital Regional.
The announcement was made during Birmingham Tech Week’s Scale-Up Summit and will accelerate global expansion and R&D for the company’s Nourished brand, which uses 3D printing technology to create personalised nutrition products.
Healthcare innovator Trellus Health plc has signed a 12-month contract with one of the world’s largest clinical research organisations (CROs) to use its Trellus TrialSet platform.
The agreement, focused on immunology and inflammation, aims to optimise recruitment and enrolment for two late-stage clinical trials by helping identify and support participants with lower resilience.
This is the listed firm’s second major CRO partnership and it includes upfront and milestone payments tied to participant engagement and recruitment outcomes.
It follows Trellus’s earlier Patient Support Program agreement with Johnson & Johnson.
Ethtry PLC has confirmed receipt of an additional £1.305 million from the outstanding balance of its £3.24m share subscription announced last month.
The company, which very recently changed its name from Igraine PLC, will issue 522m new ordinary shares, which are expected to be admitted to trading on the Access segment of the Aquis Growth Market on Tuesday.
This brings the firm’s total issued share capital to 2.21 billion ordinary shares.
Global data engineering company Innodata reported third-quarter revenue of $62.6 million, up 20% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA rising 17% to $16.2m.
For the first nine months of 2025, the company, which helps major technology firms develop and deploy generative AI solutions through high-quality data, platforms and services, saw revenue reaching $179.3m, a 61% annual increase.
The firm has also promoted Rahul Singhal to president and chief revenue officer and added Daniel H. Callahan and General Richard D. Clarke to its board.
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