Author: Chris Maguire

Manchester-based car finance FinTech Zuto has landed a majority investment from Bridgepoint to accelerate the next phase of its growth.

Zuto’s revenues are up 30 per cent year-on-year to £75m and the deal signals an exit for long-term investor Scottish Equity Partners (SEP).

Jim Wilkinson, CEO of Zuto, said: “This is a pivotal milestone in Zuto’s journey. We’re proud to be a high-growth, profitable fintech operating at scale – leading the way in our sector by combining technology with a progressive, people-first approach.

“The fact that Bridgepoint shares our vision and has invested with such confidence is hugely exciting. It gives us the opportunity to strengthen our position, scale our platform, support more customers and give them even greater control.”

“We are hugely grateful to SEP for the support and guidance they have given us.

“Their partnership, and belief in our mission, has played a huge part in shaping the business into what it is today, supporting the development of the progressive culture that makes Zuto so unique”.

Founded in 2006 and certified as a B Corp, Zuto has helped over 450,000 people in the UK find the right car finance for their needs.

The company achieved revenues of £75m and EBITDA of £12.5m in the last financial year to June 25.

 

The Sage Group plc has commenced a share buyback programme for aggregate consideration of up to £300 million which will run no later than 19th March 2026.

For the year ended 30th September 2025, the North East accountancy tech giant reported a 10% increase in revenue to £2.51 billion.

Underlying operating profit grew by 17% to £600m, while EBITDA increased by 15% to £694m.

Author: Chris Maguire

 The Beauty Tech Group, a global leader in the at-home beauty technology market, has said it’s ahead of its expectations in a positive trading update.

It follows the Cheshire company’s appearance on the London Stock Exchange in October with a share price of 271p – valuing it at £300m.

The group, which encompasses CurrentBody Skin, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser, has continued to perform strongly through October and into November.

Given the group’s continued strong performance, the board now anticipates that revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the year ending December 31^st will be ahead of current market expectations and will be no less than £128m and £32m respectively.

This is up on the previous market expectations of £117m revenue and adjusted EBITDA of £29.7m.

Kooth Plc, a provider of digital mental health services, has acquired US paediatric digital health company Kismet Health‘s telehealth platform.

The bespoke platform has been designed with interactive and age-appropriate tools to enhance engagement during teletherapy, principally for children aged 5-12.

Kooth is expanding its services to access a wider range of payers and funding opportunities by adding new capabilities for the 12-and-under age group.

Furthermore, Kismet’s pipeline includes a number of US states where Kooth is not currently active, enabling the company to grow its existing pipeline, and can enable digital mental health service delivery in rural areas.

Kooth, led by CEO Kate Newhouse, will acquire Kismet’s intellectual property along with four key Kismet team members with significant clinical, product, and technical experience.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The CEO of WH Smith has resigned after accounting inconsistencies in supplier income recognition within its North America division were identified.

An independent Deloitte Review said that there would be a net reduction in supplier income of approximately £22m and additional one-off inventory costs of around £20m in the division.

North America’s headline trading profit has been revised to £5m-£15m, down from the revised expectation of around £25m announced on 21st August 2025 and previous market expectations of £55m.

WH Smith PLC’s headline trading profit for the year ended 31st August 2025 is now anticipated to be between £100-110m.

Carl Cowling offered his resignation, and the board has accepted it. Andrew Harrison, CEO of the UK division, has taken on the group CEO role on an interim basis.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Lloyds Banking Group has acquired digital wallets provider Curve in a reported £120 million deal.

Lloyds and Curve confirmed this morning that the acquisition had gone through, but not its value.

It follows reports that Lloyds and Curve had agreed a £120m deal and that some shareholders were furious at the valuation.

The acquisition is expected to complete in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

In the circular to shareholders, Curve said: “We recognise that the value of this transaction falls short of the ambitions we all held for Curve, and we share the disappointment some of you may have in this outcome.

“Yet, the board strongly believes this transaction represents the best available path forward for Curve’s creditors and shareholders as a whole.”

However, shareholders voted down an attempt to remove chair Lord Fink and founder and CEO Shachar Bialick last month.

Condukt, a compliance platform for financial services founded by former employees at Revolut, has raised £7.6 million in funding.

CEO Paulo Guichard and Bhasker Rao met at Revolut Business, having held senior roles at SumUp and Square (now Block) respectively. 

They founded Condukt in May 2023. The firm says it already powers compliance for the likes of Wise, Tide, Mollie, Rakuten, Shift 4, Flatpay and myPOS. 

It operates from London and Porto, with a team of former Revolut and Meta engineers.

The University of Gloucestershire has been awarded £2.5m by the Office for Students to open FutureSim – an AI-powered Centre of Excellence for Simulation and Technology-Enhanced Immersive Learning (TEL).

Opening at its Oxstalls Campus in April 2026, this major investment will transform the way students, professionals and employers experience simulation-based education, workforce development and digital practice.

FutureSim will bring together and expand the University’s existing simulation facilities into one integrated hub, featuring five modular zones designed to replicate real-world environments including clinical, community, forensic, custodial and outdoor settings. Existing buildings will be refurbished to deliver the new facilities in a way that is both environmentally sustainable and economically efficient.

The Centre will feature immersive environments, virtual patient pods and a Hydra command suite for crisis leadership, alongside state-of-the-art manikins, wearable technologies, XR/VR platforms and AI-enabled analytics. Learners will have the opportunity to practise, experiment and innovate in safe yet highly realistic environments that reflect the challenges and complexity of real-world professional practice.

Artios Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company targeting cancers, has raised £87 million in Series D funding.

The Cambridge MedTech, aiming to realise the therapeutic power of targeting the DNA damage response in cancer, said the oversubscribed financing would enable it to expand the clinical evaluation of its lead program, alnodesertib, to enrol additional patients in each of second-line pancreatic cancer and third-line colorectal cancer.

The program was recently granted US FDA Fast Track Designation for this purpose.

The proceeds from the financing will also be used to initiate a clinical trial targeting breast cancer. 

Legal funding specialist Heirloom Fair Legal has joined forces with insurance specialist M2 Recovery Ltd to launch the world’s first fully funded, no-win no-fee recovery solution for UK victims of cryptocurrency fraud – giving defrauded investors a genuine, risk-free route to reclaim their stolen digital assets.

For most victims, the path to justice remains blocked by cost. Recovery costs can exceed £250,000, and few funders or law firms can act entirely on a contingent basis.

This new partnership claims to remove those barriers.

Visualsoft is partnering with Shopify to help UK retailers bridge the gap between online and in-store shopping.

New research released jointly by the firms claims that almost nine in 10 shoppers (88%) already buy both online and in-store from the same retailers, showing that omnichannel behaviour is now the norm.

The partnership brings together Shopify’s point of sale and unified commerce platform with Visualsoft’s expertise in omnichannel integration and retail performance. “Together they will enable brands to run their entire business from one system, giving customers a consistent, personalised experience,” they state.

AuditBoard, an AI-powered global platform for connected risk, has launched a scenario planning solution.

The new tool aims to empower executive leaders and risk teams to shift their focus from reactive reporting to proactive anticipation.

Global supply chain, economic, and geopolitical landscapes are more volatile than ever, and risks are no longer easily predictable. Teams are facing increased pressure to manage this volatility – and must be able to efficiently assess a wide range of future possibilities.

The new tool directly addresses this need, enabling risk teams to establish a universe of potential scenarios, accelerating strategic decision-making by modelling the likelihood and impact of risk events.

FemTech startup Carea has launched a new Postpartum Mum Tracker, expanding its pregnancy and postpartum app to tackle one of women’s health’s biggest blind spots – postnatal care.

Founded by Anastasia Shubareva-Epshtein after her experience with postpartum anxiety, Carea has already attracted nearly 10,000 downloads. The new feature supports women through the often-overlooked months after birth, tracking both physical recovery and mental wellbeing.

Unlike most pregnancy apps that focus on the baby, Carea puts the mother first, monitoring everything from wound healing and breast health to anxiety, bonding and identity loss.

The tracker identifies patterns and flags when users may need additional support. Through Carea, users also have access to medical professionals, including consultant obstetrician Dr Gergana Peeva.

With one in five new mothers experiencing mental health challenges post-birth, and most offered only a single six-week check-up, Carea’s data-led approach aims to bridge a major gap in women’s healthcare.

Planet Smart, a London-based biomaterials startup, has raised $1m to take on one of the biggest hidden sources of plastic pollution: the fossil-based polymers inside nappies and sanitary pads.

Those hidden plastics in hygiene products are a massive but overlooked source of microplastic pollution. PlanetSorb biodegrades within six months, leaves no microplastics, absorbs more than 1a litre per gram (up to twice as much as traditional materials), and is cost-competitive, the startup says.

The company already has three letters of intent and two purchase orders from European hygiene brands.

Work is underway on a refreshed and expanded version of the Leeds Tech Map – almost five years after the original design became a fixture across offices and meeting rooms throughout the region.

Leeds tech ecosystem builder Stuart Clarke MBE, who featured on our Northern Leaders list again this year, is behind the updated map which will again provide a visual snapshot of the city’s tech ecosystem.

Leeds-based tech firms are now invited to put themselves forward for inclusion through a competition called ‘The Techs Factor’.

To be considered, businesses must have a software development element at the core of their work and the majority of their tech team based in Leeds. All businesses that make it onto the final map will receive a printed copy when the new version is launched in February 2026.

Company directors and persons with significant control of a business will have to verify their identity with Companies House from today.

It is aiming to make it harder for people to set up companies or appoint directors using fake or stolen identities, while making it easier to expose disqualified directors and link multiple directorships to one person – helping to identify criminal networks.

Not complying with identity verification requirements on time is deemed as an offence and Companies House says it will take enforcement action against those who don’t do so – including financial penalties, referral to The Insolvency Service and prosecution through court.

TMT ID, a mobile data and identity intelligence company, has secured a £30 million investment from BGF as it plans to expand in the United States.

The London firm’s customer base has surpassed 260 organisations, ranging from small businesses to global technology leaders. 

Demand for TMT ID’s services has driven 30% growth so far this year compared with 2024, it said. Revenue from its identity and fraud product suite, which includes ‘know your customer’ and age verification, is up 80%.

This investment represents the first institutional partnership for TMT, which has been largely self-funded to date. 

Pollen Street Group has reported its quarterly results for the period ended 30th September 2025.

The alternative asset manager, which invests within the financial and business services sectors, said it continues to deliver strong progress in fundraising and deployment across both private equity and private credit strategies.

Total Assets under Management reached £6.7 billion as at 30th September 2025, up 9.9% from £6.1bn at 30 June 2025 and up 32% from Q3 2024 (September 2024: £5.1 bn).

Fee-paying AuM increased to £5.1bn as at 30th September 2025, up 9.7% from £4.7bn at 30th June 2025 and up 41.7% from Q3 2024 (September 2024: £3.6bn).

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Nanomaterials trailblazer Nanoco has seen its share price drop 2% in early trading after it reported its annual results.

The listed Runcorn firm, behind cadmium-free quantum dots used in monitors, TVs and infra-red sensors, is suing electronics giant LG after winning $150m in a legal dispute with Samsung in 2023.

For the year ended 31st July 2025, revenue decreased to £7.6m (FY24: £7.9m), while adjusted EBITDA improved to £1.5m (FY24: £1.2m) due to a reorganisation which saw the firm reduce its gross monthly cash cost base to £500,000 (FY24 Q4: £700,000). Reported cash at the period end was £14m (FY24: £20.3m).

During the year it completed a share buyback, fulfilling a commitment to return £33m to shareholders.

Nanoco also reported contracted organic and licence revenue of £7.6m for FY26 (FY25: £6.7m).

It said that it remained positive following the appointment of Dmitry Shashkov as CEO, Jalal Bagherli as non-executive chairman and Jai Subramanian as global head of business development during the period.

It added that it continues to explore a potential sale of its trading business: “Following an extensive reach-out process, we remain in discussions with several parties, assessing options which will deliver the best value for shareholders and wider stakeholders.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The takeover of TT Electronics Plc by Swiss electronics firm Cicor Technologies Ltd has been amended after a major shareholder said it would reject the £287 million deal.

DBAY, which owns a 16.5% stake in TT and saw three takeover bids of its own rejected, said recently that it is “not supportive of the acquisition”, which was for 100 pence in cash plus 55p in Cicor shares.

Now the boards of Cicor and TT have revised the terms to give shareholders the option of cashing out their shares in TT in entirety.

“The revised offer follows constructive engagement with the TT directors and TT’s major shareholders. While Cicor firmly believes that the original offer represented full and fair value for TT, it acknowledges the concerns of some TT shareholders that cannot, or otherwise do not wish to, hold Swiss-listed shares,” said TT.

Any shareholder who cashes out their shares in entirety will receive 150p per share, while the original deal is effectively still available to those who wish to take a stake in Cicor.