Bite-size news and insight from UK business and tech – including funding, deals and appointments
Published: May 8, 2026 at 4:10 pm
In 2023, I left my legal career to pursue art full-time.
For many people, that probably sounds like a reckless move.
Law is stable, respected and predictable. Building a business around watercolour painting is, on the face of it, none of those things.
But what I have learned since is that building a business, whatever industry you are in, is not simply about talent or hard work.
It is about visibility, connection and the willingness to put yourself in rooms where opportunities can actually find you.
When I first started building Wiktoria Anna Art, I thought the main thing I needed to do was improve my work. Paint more. Create more. Refine my ideas. Make everything better behind the scenes. And of course, the quality of the work matters.
But one of the biggest lessons I have learned is that a business cannot grow if nobody knows you exist.
That may sound obvious, but it is a lesson many of us resist, especially if we are more comfortable focusing on the work itself.
It is much easier to sit at home perfecting ideas than it is to introduce yourself at an event, speak about your business with confidence or follow up after meeting someone new.
Yet those moments have changed my business far more than I expected.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 1:10 pm
Over the past 20 years, I have founded three businesses, which all sit under my holding company, SK4 Holdings. These are LSC, Nurtured Childcare and Smile Society.
LSC, which I founded 20 years ago, is now the UK’s largest provider of specialist PPA cover and wraparound childcare for primary schools.
In 2021, we launched Nurtured Childcare after my wife and I struggled to find suitable childcare for our first daughter. It now operates 12 children’s day nurseries across the North of England.
Smile Society, our dental group, was founded in 2025 and currently operates four fully private dental practices.
Outside the group, I also own Cheadle Town FC, a non-league football club which plays in the North West Counties Premier League and Women’s National League.
For me, most days start with exercise. Fitness is very important to me, so I go to the gym three mornings a week before work. I also run, cycle, play padel regularly and aim for 10,000 steps every day.
I normally get into work at around 8am. The first 30 minutes are usually spent on emails before moving into meetings and the day’s priorities.
Because I lead three businesses, I have a heavy involvement in building the right leadership teams.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 12:14 pm
When I meet James Downes on Leadenhall Street in the heart of London’s insurance district, he is dressed smartly.
But I needn’t feel bad about my trademark BusinessCloud blue hoodie, jeans and trainers; for James wasn’t born in a suit.
“The Blitz was my cohort,” the House of Insurtech founder tells me later, referencing the London club that launched the New Romantic movement in the early 80s and was famed for the eclectic homemade fashion styles of its denizens.
Those Covent Garden Tuesdays helped launch the careers of Spandau Ballet and Boy George. When David Bowie visited, he recruited ‘Blitz kids’ to feature in his Ashes to Ashes video.
More on Bowie later. As for the Blitz, it was where James found a home.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 10:06 am
TalkTalk Business has announced plans to relocate to a new headquarters at Building 1, Exchange Quay, Salford, with an official opening in mid-May.
The move marks another significant milestone in its evolution as a fully independent managed network services provider following its formal separation from TalkTalk Group earlier this year.
Its modern, flexible layout includes increased meeting room capacity, enabling greater cross-team collaboration and supporting TalkTalk Business’s agile operating model.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 9:40 am
A listed HealthTech has requested the suspension of trading in its shares after failing to secure new funding.
Trellus Health plc said it had managed to extend its cash runway into mid-June 2026 through cost-saving measures including further reductions in compensation and the renegotiation of vendor contracts.
It had previously reduced its monthly cash burn to an average of $300k and secured an emergency loan from one of its co-founders.
The board has engaged corporate restructuring advisers to protect stakeholders’ interests, and the board is now evaluating all options including the sale of Trellus Health Inc., the company’s US subsidiary.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 9:08 am
Science Secretary Liz Kendall has named Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz as her preferred candidate for Chair of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Sir Leszek has held senior leadership roles across research, medicine and higher education. He served as Chair of Cancer Research UK from 2016 to 2023, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 2010 to 2017, and Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council from 2007 to 2010.
Last year, he was awarded a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for services to cancer research, clinical research, medicine and charities.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 8:57 am
The new corporate leadership team at Physiomics plc has painted a positive picture after ousting the previous board.
Physiomics is a mathematical modelling, data science and biometrics company which supports the development of new therapeutics and personalised medicine solutions.
Activist investor Mike Whitlow, now executive director of the listed firm, praised the professionalism of the wider team during its review of operations.
The firm also praised the professionalism of CEO Dr Peter Sargent, who was among those removed from the board, and said he had been “accommodating and supportive throughout the transition process”.
It added that discussions are ongoing regarding the extension of his contract with the company, which runs out later this month.
More than three-quarters of shareholders who voted agreed to remove former chair Dr Jim Millen, Dr Sargent, Shalabh Kumar and Dr Tim Corn, and to appoint Whitlow, Ian Bagnall and Nicholas Tulloch in their place.
This morning the firm rejected “recent unfounded market speculation concerning alleged substantial exit packages payable to former personnel”, adding: “The board confirms unequivocally that the company has made no payments outside of contractual entitlements to former directors or employees.”
Published: May 8, 2026 at 8:25 am
The founder of essensys plc has been successful with his bid to take the PropTech firm private.
A vehicle led by Mark Furness and backed by high-profile investors Sir Terry Leahy and William Currie recently agreed an £11.3 million deal with the independent board of essensys plc.
This morning the firm stated that the vehicle had secured agreement from the holders of 98% of its shares, declaring the offer unconditional.
“Bidco (the vehicle) will have significant control over essensys and will be in a position to ensure the approval or rejection of ordinary and special resolutions of essensys and to determine its overall direction,” it stated.
“Following the offer being declared wholly unconditional, each of Jon Lee and Sian Herbert, the independent non-executive chairman and independent non-executive director of essensys, respectively, has resigned from the essensys board with immediate effect.”
essensys said a date would be set to cancel its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s junior AIM market and re-register as a private company.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 8:10 am
Intertek Group plc has rejected a third offer of almost £9 billion from Swedish private equity firm EQT.
EQT’s offer, for £58 per share in cash, was revealed earlier this week and followed the rejection of previous proposals of £51.50 and £54 per share.
London-headquartered Intertek operates a network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices in more than 100 countries.
Intertek is evaluating the potential separation – either through a sale or demerger – of its energy & infrastructure business from its testing & assurance business.
Published: May 8, 2026 at 12:07 am
The City of London Corporation, through its digital verification initiative, is calling on tech firms to input into a blueprint to support the development of digital verification services that will lead the financial sector’s fightback against fraud and protect consumers.
The digital verification service is proposed as a voluntary system that securely connects identity providers with other financial services businesses requiring identity checks.
Under the proposed model, individuals would verify their identity once with a trusted provider. That verification could then be securely reused by other financial services organisations who would support secure data transmission to confirm their identity via the orchestrator, reducing the duplication and administrative burden for firms and consumers.
Once implemented, the verification orchestrator will play a crucial role in detecting and preventing fraud, including by leveraging cryptographically verified identities. Once suspected fraud is flagged on the network, the system will flag this to other firms, limiting fraudsters entry points into the financial system.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 2:15 pm
Two entrepreneurs who experienced both the highs and lows of NHS care have raised £2.1 million in pre-seed funding to build Asterix Health.
The workforce solution hires UK-registered GPs to support primary care remotely through a proprietary technology platform.
Julian Titz and Max Thilo founded the company in 2024 after both navigating serious health conditions. Max was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Julian is currently awaiting surgery for a bicuspid aortic valve repair.
Frustrated by lack of access to timely and preventative care caused by chronic workforce shortages, and the downstream impact on patients, the two founders — who met on the Entrepreneurs First programme in London — decided to solve the problem.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 2:02 pm
Palatine Growth Credit is supporting the continued ambitious expansion of private company data provider Beauhurst as it prepares for the next stage in its scale-up plan.
Founded in 2010, Beauhurst provides in-depth intelligence on every private company in the UK and Germany.
Its platform is used by major UK banks, Big Four advisory firms, legal firms, government departments and other leading organisations.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 1:53 pm
Quantum Motion has raised £117 million to deliver quantum computing’s ‘transistor moment’.
The Series C round was co-led by DCVC and Kembara, with participation from new investors the British Business Bank and Firgun, alongside existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises, Inkef, Bosch Ventures, Porsche Automobil Holding SE and Parkwalk Advisors.
The British Business Bank invested £40m as the London firm becomes the UK’s best-funded quantum computing company.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 12:55 pm
After a 20-mile bike ride followed by lunch, I spend a couple of hours working in the afternoon to set myself up for the week ahead.
Staying on top of what’s happening in the business means there are no surprises in my inbox on Monday morning.
I’m in bed by 9pm, ready for my usual wake-up time of 4.30am.
As an ex-sportsman, morning exercise is non-negotiable.
I’m never going to roll out of bed, grab a coffee and get to my desk without walking, lifting or cycling first.
After I’ve checked the bank balance, it’s time for our daily stand-up meeting.
I always knew the final score when I played rugby, and I thrived on that accountability.
I expect clear headline numbers from every department, from credit control to new sales.
Everyone knows what ‘good’ looks like and can ask for time out or support if needed.
After using the same transport management system since 2007, we’ve recently upgraded to Journease Go, a web-based platform that helps streamline booking, planning and communication.
It’s a big change, so I spend the day with the integration team, making sure the rollout stays on track and delivers the improvements we need.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 11:16 am
National Car Parks (NCP) and JustPark have announced a partnership that will offer both their customers a greater range of options when choosing where to park and how to pay.
The two long-established UK parking companies are joining forces across an initial 79 sites, integrating NCP’s prime, centrally located car parks within the JustPark marketplace, making it easier for drivers to pre-book and pay for their parking sessions.
The 14 million-plus drivers who use the app and website will now be able to reserve parking in NCP car parks as well as pay on arrival. NCP users will also be able to use the JustPark app to drive up and pay in their car parks, adding a new payment option on site.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 9:16 am
Rise at Seven is leaving Sheffield and trebling its presence in Manchester as it eyes global expansion.
The search-first content agency, founded seven years ago in the South Yorkshire city, has consolidated its two northern offices into a single flagship space on Princess Street in Manchester city centre.
It has 100 employees based there across a creator studio, gym and event space.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 9:03 am
Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has backed a London firm looking to transition the recruitment sector’s reliance on CVs to real-world experience using AI.
Ethos is aiming to shift the focus from static credentials to real-world expertise and says traditional platforms capture the wrong data as a CV is just a list of where you’ve been, not what you can actually do.
The company also tackles the problem of fake or AI-generated CVs, which make it harder to confirm a candidate’s real skills.
The firm’s CTO Daniel J. Mankowitz is a former research scientist at Google DeepMind. His co-founder James Lo previously worked in growth and transformation at the SoftBank Vision Fund – he was part of the turnaround team at WeWork during its 2019 IPO collapse – and at McKinsey.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 8:33 am
A high-power ultrafast charging tech firm which warned it could go bust last year has been crowned a unicorn in a fresh round of funding.
Cambridge-based Nyobolt warned in early January 2025 that it could run out of funds in late Q1 2025 if it didn’t raise investment.
Last summer it raised £23 million to allay those fears. Now it has raised a further £44m, at a $1 billion valuation, in a Series C round led by Nasdaq-listed Symbotic, a leader in AI-enabled robotics technology for the supply chain.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 7:54 am
Listed accountancy firm MHA plc has reported strong revenue growth and earnings ahead of expectations for its latest financial year.
The professional services provider of audit and assurance, tax, accountancy and advisory services said group revenue was up 12% to £251 million for the year ended 31st March 2026.
Adjusted EBITDA grew 12% to £46m.
In August 2025, MHA completed the acquisition of Baker Tilly South East Europe, establishing a presence in Cyprus, Greece and South East Europe.
On 7th April 2026, following the period end, it completed the acquisition of Moore Stephens LLC and Moore Stephens Consulting LLC, extending the group’s footprint into the Middle East.
Published: May 7, 2026 at 7:49 am
Touchstar plc swung to a loss in 2025 after undergoing a restructure.
The Manchester-headquartered firm, which has supplied mobile data computing solutions and managed services to industrial sectors since 1982, reported 1% grown in revenue to £6.8 million.
Annual recurring revenue rose 5.2% and now represents 47% of total turnover.
However pre-tax profits of £388,000 in 2024 became losses of £1.3m in 2025.
Touchstar has served blue chip organisations such as Tata Steel, Wincanton Logistics, GSK, Certas, Calor, and Lakeland with its solutions, which include fire and security, rugged mobiles and proof of delivery.
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