Author: Chris Maguire

Anisa Khan may have missed out on being crowned The Apprentice winner in 2025, but that has not stopped her business hitting £1m in revenue for the first time.

The 27-year-old former analyst at Accenture was runner-up to air conditioning boss Dean Franklin, who walked away with Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.

At the time, she said she ‘felt like my world had ended’, but the disappointment has not halted the growth of her business, Bombay Pizza.

She founded the business during Covid, putting her personal stamp on the industry with bold Indian-Italian fusion flavours.

Khan said: “A year ago, I received a call backstage at ‘The Apprentice: You’re Hired’, one year after filming and one week before the episode went live. That was the moment I found out I had not won the £250,000 investment.

“At the time, it felt like my world had ended. I made a decision that day. Every goal that Anisa on that show had set out to achieve, I was going to achieve without the investment.

“12 months on, Bombay Pizza has grown to 11 locations, surpassed £1m in revenue and now ships pizzas nationwide across the UK. Every single goal. Done.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Profit before tax plunged 75% at advertising and marketing giant M&C Saatchi – which currently doesn’t have a CEO – in 2025.

The group reported PBT of £4.6 million for the calendar year, down from £18.1m in 2024.

Total net revenue was £210m, down 9.2%, with an operating profit of £10.2m (2024: £22.5m), driven by the closure of its Australian media buying business in September 2025 and one-off items including restructuring costs.

Zaid Al-Qassab, a former CMO at Channel 4, left ‘by mutual consent’ at the start of the month. He joined in 2024 to help stabilise the business and it has introduced cost savings.

Dame Heather Rabbatts moved from non-executive chair to executive chair on an interim basis while it seeks a successor. Tech powerhouse Vin Murria OBE, a substantial and long-term investor in the business both privately and through her company AdvancedAdvT, was appointed deputy chair. She has seen takeover approaches rebuffed in the past.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The CEO of Auction Technology Group is to step down after more than a decade in the role.

John-Paul Savant will leave the group, which owns 10 marketplaces and connects auction houses with bidders globally, after a short handover period.

ATG, which also announced its half-year results this morning, said its board is at an advanced stage of its process to appoint a successor.

The London-listed firm recently rejected a remarkable 12 takeover bids from its largest shareholder FitzWalter Capital, the latest for £491 million.

FitzWalter, headquartered in London, slammed the company for failing to grant it access to conduct due diligence and accused the ATG board of ‘extreme value destruction’.

Gizmo, an AI-powered learning platform on a mission to make studying addictive, has raised £16 million in Series A funding. 

CEO Petros Christodoulou co-founded Gizmo with two friends and fellow University of Cambridge graduates, Robin Jack (CTO), and Paul Evangelou (CPO). 

Used by more than 13 million learners across 120+ countries, Gizmo is redefining how the world studies by transforming the mechanics of screen addiction into a force for personal growth.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The founder of essensys plc has agreed a deal to take the PropTech firm private with the backing of high-profile investors Sir Terry Leahy and William Currie.

Amid a restructuring of the business, essensys also this morning reported shrinking profits and falling revenues in its latest half-year results.

Mark Furness founded the firm in 2006 and it floated in 2019 at a valuation of £72.6m, raising £28m from investors. Its share price peaked above 300p in 2021.

It has a current market cap of £10.58m after shares dropped in early trading this morning following the announcement of the takeover agreement and results.

Author: Chris Maguire

Manchester-based taxi dispatch software provider Autocab has appointed Frans Hiemstra as its new CEO.

The appointment will see Safa Alkateb leave in June after 14 years to ‘explore a new entrepreneurial challenge’.

Hiemstra brings over a decade of experience working across international markets in taxi, fleet and private hire vehicle businesses.

Hiemstra said: “I couldn’t be more excited to work with the team to help Autocab’s continued growth.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Alexander Brennan has stepped back from his executive director role at listed Manchester firm Altitude.

After Nichole Stella left Altitude Group plc in July 2025 after eight years in the role, Brennan stepped up from his position of non-exec chair to support COO Deborah Wilkinson then also CFO Drew Whibley, who joined in September 2025.

The business subsequently reported a rise in annual revenues – and Brennan has now concluded his tenure as exec chair and returned to his role as non-exec chairman.

Author: Chris Maguire

Experienced Colin Greene has joined  maritime robotics startup ScrubMarine as a non-exec director and commercial advisor.

He used to work at Apple and met Steve Jobs on several occasions.

Greene said: “My investment thesis is pretty simple – great founder and team, amazing product innovation, and untouchable quality of execution. So happy to join the board of  ScrubMarine and be part of their journey.”

Scrubmarine was founded by 21-year-old engineer Rohith Devanathan and recently raised £740k in pre-seed funding from  PXN Ventures to scale its DeepTech platform for hull cleaning and inspection.

Optima Health, a provider of technology-enabled corporate health and wellbeing solutions, expects FY26 adjusted EBITDA to be ahead of market expectations by around 10%.

The AIM-listed firm said the recent acquisition of PAM, which completed on 26th March 2026, positions the enlarged group to capitalise on market opportunity and benefit from significant operational and cost synergies.

Author: Chris Maguire

Boohoo, which trades as Debenhams Group, has appointed experienced Nikki Tattersall as its new chief product officer.

She previously spent 15 years at ASOS and Daniel Finley, CEO of Debenhams Group, said she had an ‘outstanding track record’ across buying and product.

He added: “She brings a sharp instinct for what customers want – and what they don’t even know they want yet – alongside a proven ability to discover, build, and scale brands that truly resonate.

“This is a pivotal moment for our youth brands. As we accelerate their turnaround and enter their next chapter of growth, Nikki will lead product strategy across the portfolio – sharpening the offer, deepening each brand’s identity, and bringing us even closer to what our customers want now, and what they will want next.

“There is real momentum behind the group. With strengthened performance, an expanding marketplace model, and a loyal global customer base, we are building the foundations for what comes next.”

Tattersall said: “I’m thrilled to be on this journey and to unlock the huge potential in our youth brands as we shape what comes next.”

Author: Chris Maguire

Global recruitment specialist Oscar has relocated its Manchester HQ to the Globe Building in the city’s Enterprise City district.

The business has taken space on Level 1 at the landmark development, where it will accommodate their Manchester team.

LEVEL advised Oscar on the deal.

Matthew Southworth, managing director at Oscar, said: “This move marks an exciting step for Oscar as we continue to grow our Manchester headquarters.

“Enterprise City has a real momentum to it, bringing together innovative businesses in a collaborative environment.”

Joe Averill, at LEVEL, added: “We worked closely with Oscar to understand their brief and brought forward a select number of options aligned to their requirements. Enterprise City stood out as the clear choice.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The parent company of CurrentBody has reported its 2025 results – and it is good news for shareholders.

The Beauty Tech Group plc said in January that it expected revenues and adjusted EBITDA of at least £136 million and £35.5m respectively, compared with earlier projections of £128m and £32m.

Today it reported the final results, with total revenue coming in at £141m – 39.4% higher than 2024 – and adjusted EBITDA of £37.5m (+63.8%).

The Cheshire firm launched on the London Stock Exchange in October with a share price of 271 pence – valuing it at £300m.

It is down slightly in trading today but up 7% in the year to date and 8% on its IPO price.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Mercia Asset Management PLC has risen 10% so far today after it said this morning that it expects FY26 EBITDA to be ‘materially ahead of expectations’.

The regionally focused investor, which has over £2 billion of assets under management, pointed to notification of proposed increases to existing fund mandates, plus successful VCT and EIS fundraises, in the final three months of the year.

These totalled in excess of £200 million, which Mercia said “represents a strong and continuing endorsement of our asset management growth strategy, particularly in the context of the current turbulent market conditions”. 

Lua, billed as an operating system for human-agent collaboration in the workspace, has secured £4.3m in funding led by Norrsken22.

Additional investors include Flourish Ventures, 20VC, P1 Ventures, Phosphor Capital and Y Combinator along with notable angels Henri Stern (CEO Privy), Kaz Nejatian (CEO of Opendoor) and Med Benmansour (CEO of Nuitee).

Lua enables any team, regardless of technical depth, to build, own, and manage their own agent workforce from day one. The company is founded by Lorcan O’Cathain and Stefan Kruger, who met while scaling a FinTech business in East Africa – Lorcan as COO, Stefan as CTO.

Before Lua, Lorcan was MD of Zephyr Management’s Africa business, a leading VC/PE fund operating across Africa, India and Sri Lanka. Stefan was VP of Engineering at Paystack, joining before the Stripe acquisition.

Lua will use the funding to continue to build out its developer community and the Lua Implementation Network, a growing community of independent partners deploying Lua agent workforces in their own markets around the world.

Since launching its agent developer platform in October 2025, Lua has grown revenue close to 30% week-on-week. In February 2026 alone, more agents were built on Lua than in the entire cumulative period since launch.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Applied Nutrition plc have dropped around 5.5% in trading today after JD Sports Fashion plc said it is selling its holding.

The Liverpool firm, founded by fitness enthusiast Thomas Ryder in 2014, recently reported record half-year results 18 months after it floated in London.

Selling at a price of £2.15 per placing share – which in aggregate represent 9.1% of the company’s issued share capital – gross proceeds from the placing will amount to approximately £49 million.

 

Yorkshire Software as a Service firm Adventoris has strengthened its team with four new hires and three internal promotions as the business scales following 18 new client wins and growing demand for its flagship platform, SwiftCloud.

The new appointments span business development, implementation and customer support, taking total headcount to 42. Andy Lau joins as business development executive, Cameron Mercer as implementation consultant, Adam Quinn as customer success manager, and Aleksi Zamfirov as first line customer support engineer.

Alongside the new hires, Adventoris has promoted three team members to support its next phase of growth. Joe Tully, previously marketing manager, has been appointed as head of marketing, with former marketing assistant, Niall Smithson, taking on the marketing manager role. Finn Waterhouse, who initially joined the firm as a junior developer, has progressed to a developer role.

SwiftCloud is a B2B eCommerce platform which helps businesses save time, reduce manual order processing and increase both monthly sales volumes and average basket values. The platform supports over 220 major clients including Tilda Rice, Pepsi Co. and STAEDTLER, across a range of sectors.

The British Business Bank has agreed to make a £100 million commitment to Apposite Healthcare Growth I, a fund investing to support the growth of health technology companies, primarily in the UK. This will be the British Business Bank’s largest fund commitment to date and is the Bank’s first commitment to Apposite Capital.

Apposite Capital is a specialist healthcare and life sciences investor. Apposite Healthcare Growth I will invest in innovative companies across medical products, diagnostics, life sciences tools, digital health, and pharmaceutical outsourcing services.

The fund aims to address the shortage of scale-up capital for UK life sciences companies approaching a growth inflection, which aligns with the Bank’s strategy to create deeper pools of scale up funding.

An entrepreneurship programme delivered by Catalyst has achieved an 86% entrepreneurial intention rate among participants from underrepresented groups across Northern Ireland, according to independent research commissioned by the organisation.

The independent report, produced by the National Centre for Family Business at DCU Business School, draws on participant survey data from Hello Possible, an entrepreneurship development programme delivered by Catalyst and funded by the Department for the Economy (DfE), alongside interviews conducted with past programme participants.

Hello Possible has been designed to help individuals across Northern Ireland explore self-employment and business creation as a credible pathway, equipping participants with the desire, confidence, capabilities and practical tools required to progress from early-stage curiosity to validated business opportunity. The programme is built on 10-year tested MIT entrepreneurship education structure and methodology.

The research, which examined participants from programmes in Cushendall, Enniskillen, Magherafelt, Portadown and east Belfast – found that 86% of people left the Hello Possible programme strongly interested in starting their own business, while 81% sought to develop their business idea further and 69% signed up for further entrepreneurial learning.

On completing the programme, over two thirds of participants reported greater confidence in their own entrepreneurial skills, 96% said their problem-solving skills had improved and 70% said the programme would help their wider circle of friends or community.

The Hello Possible programme is a Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework focused on understanding customers and validating market need before building solutions – recognising that in an increasingly AI-driven world where technology is accessible, market focus is the critical differentiator.

Participants explore their strengths, values and motivations while developing problem-solving skills, before testing their ideas with real customers in a structured, low-risk way.

ClearBank, the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking – now celebrating its 10th year – has reported its results for 2025.

In the UK, ClearBank reported another year of strong performance, delivering its third consecutive year of profitability and continued growth in fee-based income. UK normalised revenue grew 32% to £117.7m in FY 2025, supported by strong demand across embedded banking, agency banking, FX and multi-currency services. UK pretax profit rose 53% to £12.2m, up from £8.0m in FY 2024.

At group level, normalised revenue increased 34% year-on-year to £121.6m, reflecting strong growth in fee income and transaction volumes. This performance underlines the group’s continued shift towards high quality, recurring income streams that are less sensitive to interest rate movements.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Mercia Asset Management PLC has said it expects EBITDA to be ‘materially ahead of expectations’ for the last financial year.

The regionally focused investor, which has over £2 billion of assets under management, pointed to notification of proposed increases to existing fund mandates, plus successful VCT and EIS fundraises, in the final three months of the year.

These totalled in excess of £200 million, which Mercia said “represents a strong and continuing endorsement of our asset management growth strategy, particularly in the context of the current turbulent market conditions”.