Author: Patrick Killeen

Oxford Biomedica has confirmed it has received an unsolicited takeover approach from private equity giant EQT, sending shares up by more than 15% to 928p today. 

The life sciences group is now valued at around £1.13 billion, with its share price up 131.88% over the past year.

In a statement to the market, the MedTech said it is in preliminary discussions with EQT over a possible cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the company. 

However, it added that there is no certainty a firm offer will be made, or on what terms, and advised shareholders to take no action at this stage.

VIOOH has struck a strategic partnership with Atmosphere TV, expanding access to premium place-based video inventory across the UK, North America and Australia.

The deal gives advertisers programmatic access to 60,000+ venues generating over a billion monthly impressions, spanning restaurants, bars, gyms, airports and hotels.

Texas-based Atmosphere TV, which claims over 85% market share in North America’s place-based streaming sector, reaches 150m+ monthly viewers with more than 30 channels of audio-optional content.

UK startups and scaleups raised $23.6 billion in venture capital funding in 2025, up 35% year-on-year, marking the first annual increase in UK VC investment for four years. 

The rebound was driven by stronger late-stage activity and a record year for AI, with megarounds of over $100 million returning in force and Revolut topping the list with a $2bn raise at a $75bn valuation. 

According to HSBC Innovation Banking UK and Dealroom, AI startups pulled in $7.9bn, making up a third of all UK VC investment, while FinTech remained the most funded sector overall with $6.6bn across more than 300 rounds. 

The UK also maintained its position as Europe’s top VC market, with London securing $17.7bn alone and the wider ecosystem boosted by major hubs including Cambridge and Oxford.

ESA-backed InsurTech BirdsEyeView, which specialises in natural catastrophe modelling and exposure management for insurers, MGAs and brokers, has raised an undisclosed seven-figure investment round led by 24Haymarket.

Existing backers, including the European Space Agency and ACF Investors, also reinvested.

The funding will support new product development, hiring more climate scientists and expanding the London firm’s footprint in new regions, following 200% turnover growth and recent launches in the US and Australia.

The company’s WEATHER ANALYTIX technology uses large climate and catastrophe datasets with machine learning modelling to improve underwriting accuracy for fast-evolving risks such as wildfire.

London-listed Agronomics has made a further AU$3 million (around £1.47m) investment in Australian MedTech All G, which uses precision fermentation to produce animal-free human and bovine milk proteins such as lactoferrin.

The funding forms part of a minimum AU$10m round and will support commercial-scale production, regulatory work, patents and expansion into Asia and Europe.

All G has already secured key regulatory milestones, including clearance in China for recombinant bovine lactoferrin and GRAS status in the US, with launches planned in both markets in Q1 2026.

The firm will fund the deal via a convertible note and issue just over 10m new shares, taking its total investment in All G to around £8.9m.

Nasdaq-listed RedCloud Holdings has posted record preliminary annual results, with revenue rising 15% year-on-year to $53.7 million, beating its $51–$53m guidance range.

Transaction value is also up 31% to $3.2 billion for the London-based trade infrastructure firm.

It has today lifted its 2026 revenue guidance by 20% to $120m, citing momentum and expanding joint venture deployments.

The business is targeting further growth through new market launches and the commercial rollout of its RedAI agentic trading capabilities in February 2026.

Its share price is up by over 9% today.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Shares in Dunelm Group have fallen by almost a fifth today after the UK homewares retailer warned full-year profits are now expected to come in at the lower end of market expectations.

The update – and subsequent 17.6% share price dip – comes despite posting a solid first-half performance.

The retail giant’s total sales rose 3.6% to £926 million in the first half of its financial year, helped by continued growth in its core categories and stronger digital participation, with online-related sales accounting for 41% of total revenue. 

However, the group said trading became “more challenging” in the second quarter, with Q2 sales up just 1.6% to £498m, following stronger momentum in Q1.

Dunelm said the tougher performance was particularly evident around Black Friday and into December, as competition intensified across the market. 

Public Digital has appointed former DVLA chief Lesley Cowley OBE as its new chair.

Cowley, a non-executive director since 2022, brings extensive experience in digital infrastructure and public sector reform, including chairing Building Digital UK and previously leading Nominet.

She replaces Tim Brooks, who stepped down in December.

Public Digital, founded by the team behind GOV.UK and GDS, now operates across seven countries and was awarded the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2025.

Author: Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist, Wealth Club

November was always going to be an uphill struggle for the UK economy, but although activity was still super-sluggish the UK has not been completely defeated on its quest for growth.  

There will be sighs of relief in Downing Street that the economy has shown more resilience.

The performance was helped by car manufacturing whirring back into life, with production returning to normal levels at Jaguar Land Rover following the devastating cyber-attack mid-way through the month.

Although the FTSE 100 has raced to fresh record highs, lifted by enthusiasm for multinationals with global reach and defensive characteristics, for now investor confidence in the UK’s prospects don’t seem to be following the same optimistic path. 

A survey of Wealth Club’s high net worth investors shows that 68% say they are pessimistic about the outlook for the UK over the next 12 months.

While stagnation and slow growth look set to define the end of 2025, there are glimmers of optimism ahead, and we may already have passed the nadir of pessimism. 

While unemployment looks set to rise, which is causing wariness for consumer-focused sectors, inflation is cooling and interest rates have been cut. 

But fixing the UK’s productivity problem remains a big challenge and with no quick fixes available, significant growth is likely to remain elusive.

BT has partnered with easyJet to deliver 23,000 mobile connections across EE’s network, helping keep the airline’s crews, aircraft and airport operations connected across 35 countries and more than 150 airports.

The deal will support a range of connected devices including smartphones, iPads used by pilots and cabin crew for real-time flight information and training, as well as laptops and other hardware.

BT will also help easyJet improve customer communications through smart messaging updates.

All devices will use eSIMs, allowing easyJet to manage connectivity remotely, simplify logistics and enhance security across its European operations.

Author: George Holmes, managing director, Aurora Capital

That 0.3% uptick is a welcome sign that the economy is still moving, and for small businesses, any growth beats another month of stagnation. It should help confidence, especially for customer-facing firms that rely on households feeling secure enough to spend.

But SMEs should not read this as a broad-based recovery. The headline rise was helped by a rebound in manufacturing output, particularly a surge in car production following earlier disruptions, while construction activity declined again. 

Many small firms are more exposed to building work, local services and everyday customer spending than to big shifts in manufacturing.

Policymakers can’t treat one decent month as a mission accomplished; small businesses will continue to face high borrowing costs, increasing tax bills, and cautious customers. 

They need steady conditions and better access to finance so they can invest when demand improves, and ultimately help drive further growth in the months to come.

London-based cybersecurity startup Cyb3r Operations has raised $5.4 million (£4m) in a funding round led by Octopus Ventures, with follow-on backing from Pi Labs, taking total investment to $6.75m (£5m).

The company helps organisations manage third-party cyber risk by giving security teams continuous, real-time visibility across suppliers, SaaS tools, cloud services and AI applications.

The funding will support further platform development, deeper threat intelligence capabilities and expansion to more enterprise customers.

London-listed Hostelworld’s revenue is up 7% year-on-year for the second half of 2025, helped by higher booking values, stronger commissions and more efficient marketing spend.

The Dublin-based firm increased its effective commission rate to 16.7% as it rolled out its “Elevate” monetisation tool, while direct marketing costs fell to 45% of revenue.

Over the year, the business also delivered key strategic milestones including the $12 million acquisition of US events platform OccasionGenius, the launch of paid “Social Passes” and an early rollout of budget accommodation options.

For the full year, net revenue rose 2% to €93.8m and adjusted EBITDA is expected to come in at €19.9m.

Oxford Instruments expects adjusted operating profit for FY26 to land in line with its £5.5 million market expectations.

In Q3, order intake in its imaging & analysis division rose 2.4% on an organic constant currency basis, while advanced technologies continued to outperform with year-to-date orders up 44.5%, extending order book coverage well into FY27.

The group also completed the sale of its NanoScience business in early January, generating £48.5m of net cash proceeds.

Alongside this, Oxford Instruments said its pension contributions have now stopped and it is progressing with its £100m share buyback programme, with £41.2m of the first £50m tranche completed by the end of December.

AI-powered job-hunting platform Shoutt.ai has raised £525,000 from SFC Capital and angel investors to help freelancers find personalised work opportunities more efficiently.

The platform uses an always-on AI agent to scan the web 24/7 and alert users to highly relevant gigs quickly, helping them cut down the time spent trawling job boards and marketplaces.

Founded by Saleem Yaqub and Jonathan Eadie, the London-based startup operates a ‘freemium’ model with transparent pricing and no hidden fees, letting freelancers upgrade only when they spot opportunities worth pitching for.

The funding will support product development and help Shoutt.ai scale its service to a growing global freelance market.

VoiceRun has raised $5.5 million in seed funding to help enterprises deploy voice AI systems that are reliable in production.

The round was led by Flybridge Capital Partners, with participation from RRE Ventures and Link Ventures.

The Cambridge startup has built a developer-first platform that lets engineering teams keep ownership of their code while using shared infrastructure for speech-to-text, large language models, text-to-speech and telephony.

The company says it can cut voice agent build times from months to days, with tools for deployment, testing and performance monitoring built in.

Author: Patrick Killeen

BGF has appointed Ben Barker as its new chief investment officer (CIO), with the long-serving investment leader stepping up from his current role as head of portfolio. 

Barker, who joined BGF in 2016 and has overseen portfolio, exits and value creation activity since 2023, takes up the position with immediate effect and will join the BGF board, reporting to CEO Andy Gregory.

He previously worked at banking giants HSBC, Halifax and Lloyds, as well as sitting on the board of multiple businesses as a non-executive director. 

In his new role, Barker will be responsible for overseeing investment activity and portfolio management across all areas of the business, as the London-based firm continues to focus on disciplined investing and supporting management teams to deliver long-term returns. 

Author: Patrick Killeen

SaleCycle has acquired French conversion optimisation firm BEYABLE in a deal designed to create one of Europe’s most advanced full-funnel conversion platforms for eCommerce brands. 

The Gateshead-based firm was backed by BGF in 2018 to support innovation and international expansion.

This acquisition is positioned as the next step in building a European-owned MarTech alternative to global marketing suites.

The combined offer will bring together identity resolution, behavioural intent scoring, on-site personalisation and A/B testing, alongside remarketing across channels including email, SMS, WhatsApp and RCS.

It is in an attempt to help brands convert more visitors and generate measurable revenue.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Grok, the AI tool on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, will no longer be able to ‘undress’ images of real people in jurisdictions where it is illegal.

The climbdown follows widespread condemnation of the tool, which is being used by thousands to remove the clothes of women and children in images.

X disabled the image generator for free users – meaning only those who had logged personal details with X could use it – but the pressure intensified further after Malaysia and Indonesia became the first countries in the world to block access to Grok outright. Yesterday California confirmed that it was probing the spread of sexualised AI deepfakes, including of children, generated by the AI model.

“We now geoblock the ability of all users to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X in those jurisdictions where it’s illegal,” X said in a statement.

“We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing.”

Author: Patrick Killeen

EdTech Tapestry has announced a new partnership with school data management specialist Wonde, enabling schools to securely connect their management information system (MIS) directly to their Tapestry account. 

The integration will allow the thousands of primary schools already using the platform to automatically sync data via Wonde, cutting down on manual updates and reducing admin for teachers and early years teams.

Cloud-based data management solutions provider Wonde is headquartered in Newmarket and already used by over 30,000 schools across 60 countries.

Meanwhile, Tapestry, which was launched in 2012, is used in more than 14,000 schools across over 40 countries and recently ranked 3rd in BusinessCloud’s EdTech 50. 

It was launched through Foundation Stage Forum by husband and wife Helen and Steve Edwards.