Managed IT and cloud services provider Arc has appointed Mark Darrah as its new CTO, succeeding Matt Clayden after 25 years of leadership. 

Darrah brings more than 25 years of experience in the technology and managed services sector, having previously founded and led NITC, which Arc acquired in October 2024. 

As CTO, he will oversee strategic technology leadership, enhance service capabilities and integrate customer project delivery across the business.

The London-based firm’s CEO, James Clayden, praised the appointment as a key step in the company’s growth, citing his “leadership, vision and deep understanding of the MSP landscape” as instrumental to Arc’s expansion.

London-based consultancy Thistle Initiatives has appointed Scott Friedrichs as its new CEO following the addition of four new partners and CFO Alex Knight. 

The former PA Consulting Group veteran brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in consulting, having previously served as senior managing director and global head of life Sciences at North Highland Consulting. 

He was also SVP/director Americas at Chaucer/BIP Group, where he built a $10 million US consulting business.

The 70-person advisory firm, which provides consulting across regulatory compliance, financial crime and change & transformation, plans to broaden its focus beyond compliance to management consulting.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Salford-based refill-station startup H2Origin Refills is set to expand its network of smart water refill points after securing new investment from water hygiene specialist HydraClean.

The backing for the firm, which was on the GM Business Growth Hub’s first edition of its ASCEND Programme, follows earlier backing from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).

The funding will accelerate the rollout of its technology across public spaces, workplaces, universities and leisure destinations as demand for sustainable, refillable alternatives to bottled water rises.

Reading-based HR, payroll and benefits software provider Ciphr has appointed Karen Williams as its new chief revenue officer to lead commercial growth as it looks to strengthen its market position. 

Williams joins from IRIS Software Group, where she served as vice president of group operations and previously held a number of senior leadership roles over 15 years, including head of accountancy sales, interim managing director of the accountancy division and MD during the company’s first North American expansion. 

At Ciphr, she will oversee all revenue-generating functions, including new business, business development, renewals and revenue operations, working alongside CEO Sion Lewis, her former colleague at IRIS.

Homemove, a PropTech platform which aims to simplify home-moving, has acquired long-established property website Home.co.uk.

Founded in 1995, Home.co.uk is one of the UK’s original independent property search and analysis websites. 

The platform will remain free to list for estate agents, which Homemove says is a key principle in its mission to build a smarter, fairer alternative to the incumbent portals. It also says they will now benefit from enhanced listings and new revenue opportunities through Homemove’s connected services platform.

A former head of operations at Monzo has joined online casino business MrQ.

Lyndsey Edgar has been named COO at the UK firm, while Adam Ryan (ex-FinTech marketing leader) has joined as CMO, Katie Harbron (ex-Flutter, Sky Bet) as CPO and Toby Bentall (ex-Oddschecker) as CFO.

MrQ says it is ‘bringing Monzo-grade product thinking to one of the most outdated industries in consumer tech’ with the move as ‘most online casinos run on bloated third-party platforms, stitched together by committees and slowed by compliance red tape… MrQ is building everything in-house – from the product stack to the player experience’.

Founded in 2018, MrQ has scaled without venture backing or external shareholders, and been profitable from day one.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has invested more than £930,000 over the past three years to enhance its data capability in an attempt to create smarter, safer and more efficient rail and road networks. 

The regulator has spent around £460,000 on new data systems, tools and consultancy, alongside £470,000 on staffing dedicated data roles as part of a wider effort to modernise how it gathers and analyses information.

Retail-focused customer experience platform Voyado has reported a 40% year-on-year increase in its UK customer base, driven by major new retail partnerships and rising demand for AI-powered personalisation tools. 

Recent clients include Never Fully Dressed, The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, John Smedley, ThruDark, Pooky Lighting and Menkind.

The Stockholm-founded company, valued at £260 million, is expanding rapidly across Europe following investment from Viking Global Investors. 

In the UK and Ireland, it has also entered a strategic partnership with XCM as well as maintaining 25% annual growth, fuelled by strong customer retention and international expansion.

Derby-based startup Vigilant AI.ai has secured £585,000 in pre-seed funding, led by venture capital firm Haatch, alongside contributions from the East Midlands Combined County Authority and the British Business Bank. 

The company builds AI “teammates” – generative AI systems designed specifically for regulated industries, helping businesses use AI safely and compliantly.

The funding will help the business expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, finalise pilot programmes and prepare for a wider commercial rollout in 2025.

The company’s founders say their technology bridges the “GenAI trust gap” by allowing financial and regulated firms to adopt AI tools without compromising governance or compliance

Huddersfield-based SaaS firm Adventoris has been selected to develop and manage a new B2B trade ordering platform for Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I – the producer of Lucozade, Orangina and Ribena. 

The project will use the company’s SwiftCloud platform to modernise the drinks giant’s wholesale ordering system, allowing trade customers to view products, check availability and place orders 24/7 via a branded online portal.

The partnership follows a competitive selection process, with Adventoris chosen for its strong record in the food and drink industry – its clients already include PepsiCo, AG Barr and Hallgarten & Novum Wines. 

The platform, due to launch in early 2026, will streamline Suntory’s order-to-billing process and provide real-time insights for customers.

Founded in 2012, Adventoris employs around 50 people at its Huddersfield headquarters and serves more than 220 clients across the UK.

A new study on leadership in private equity firms has found that companies with strong inclusive leadership practices significantly outperform their peers. 

Businesses with mature inclusion strategies were found to be 14x more likely to achieve high performance, while 83% of respondents said inclusion and wellbeing are essential for attracting and retaining talent. 

Nearly half of employees (49%) said they would consider leaving their current employer for a culture that prioritises psychological safety. 

The research, conducted by Inclusion Live, also revealed major perception gaps between leaders and staff, with leaders twice as likely to feel supported to perform at their best.

Businesses with the most inclusive cultures are also 3.78x more likely to execute in the areas and ways of working that deliver the elements needed for a strong exit value and swift sale.

THG Studios has launched SMASH – a padel court designed to bring together sport, technology and creativity. 

Built in collaboration with Google Cloud, the court uses real-time analytics and performance tracking to create data-driven content opportunities for brands and players. 

The facility, located within the company’s Manchester site, will host its launch on Thursday with a tournament, live demonstrations and a fireside chat with Alan Pardew. 

Partners include Slazenger, Havwoods and Myprotein, which have each contributed to the design and experience of the venue. 

The court will also serve as the setting for a new YouTube content series focused on padel, due to premiere in early 2026.

AIM-listed SaaS firm Dotdigital Group has seen its share price rise by 6% in the first half an hour of trading today after reporting a strong year of growth and profitability as it continues to scale globally and invest heavily in innovation.

For the year ended 30th June 2025, the London-based company delivered revenue of £83.9 million, up 6% from the previous year, with profitability slightly ahead of market expectations.

Adjusted EBITDA rose by 10% to £26.8m, while adjusted profit before tax increased by 13% to £19m.

The business, which is behind an AI-powered customer experience and data platform, finished the year with a cash balance of £36.2m, following the $20m initial payment for its June acquisition of Social Snowball.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Next 15 has confirmed that it is in discussions to sell its PR and marketing divisions amid media speculation of a potential £230 million swoop.

Sky News reported that private equity firm Epiris is eyeing a £230m swoop for several of the London-listed tech and data-driven growth consultancy’s divisions.

The potential deal is said to include PR firms MHP Communications and Outcast, marketing company M Booth and Activate, a demand generation specialist.

Sky said Epiris, based in London and which owns restaurant chains Las Iguanas and Cafe Rouge, had approached Ares Management to help finance any potential bid.

The speculation follows a period of transition at the consultancy, which issued a profit warning this year and saw long-serving boss Tim Dyson retire in June after 33 years in charge.

In August we reported how Next 15 is to permanently cease operations at its Silicon Valley venturing arm Mach49, a unit acquired in 2020, after it uncovered ‘potential serious misconduct’ there in June.

Vianet, an international provider of data, business insights and payment solutions through hardware devices and software platforms, has reported an increase in half-year EBITDA.

For the six months ending 30th September 2025, the group increased EBITDA by 11.6% to £1.73 million – in line with expectations.

Oxford Metrics plc has appointed a new non-executive chair.

The sensing and software company has appointed Gary Bullard with immediate effect, succeeding Roger Parry CBE.

Bullard is currently non-executive chair of Gooch & Housego plc, a global photonics and advanced materials company, and AFC Energy plc, a developer of hydrogen fuel cells and ammonia crackers for zero-emission power generation, both of which are listed on AIM.

He spent a large part of his career in global roles at IBM and BT Group plc, including UK MD at the latter, and served as UK CEO at Logica plc.

London Stock Exchange Group plc has commenced a £1 billion share buyback programme.

 The company has entered into an agreement with Citi which will see the investment bank purchase the shares on its behalf up to the value of £1bn.

Purchases will commence immediately and will end no later than 25th February 2026.

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.