Author: Jonathan Symcox

A former boss of Inc & Co and his business associate have been banned from operating as company directors for a combined 23 years.

Scott Dylan, 41, has been banned for 13 years while David Antrobus, 39 and also formerly of Salford, allowed £13.9 million to pass through two companies using unauthorised bank overdrafts – with Dylan himself receiving £1.675m.

The duo opened bank accounts for the two companies in spring 2021 and made millions of pounds in transfers before the accounts were frozen by Barclays Bank, which subsequently demanded repayment. 

They subsequently defied the freezing injunctions, leading to contempt of court proceedings and jail terms for both.

Their bans as company directors begin on Christmas Day after a High Court ruling earlier this month.

Dylan was described by the judge as the “driving force” behind the operation, which was “little short of a scam”. There was “no legitimate purpose” for the removal of the funds, the judge added.

Author: Patrick Killeen

BGF-backed digital product consultancy hedgehog lab has acquired Edinburgh-based global innovation network Label Sessions.

The deal combines hedgehog lab’s AI delivery and product design and development expertise with Label Sessions’ methodology and a network of more than 500 innovation experts, with both firms confirming roles will be retained.

hedgehog lab, headquartered in Newcastle with operations in London, Leeds, Edinburgh and Sofia, has grown significantly over the past two decades and recorded its best-ever quarter earlier this year.

The consultancy counts Deliveroo, Under Armour, Aviva and AJ Bell among its clients, and secured investment from growth capital investor BGF in 2023 as it accelerated expansion.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Strix Group Plc has agreed to sell its Billi business to a new Australian entity for £110 million in cash, nearly tripling its money as the firm looks to accelerate debt reduction. 

The AIM-listed company, which is a global leader in kettle safety controls and water-heating components, said the disposal values Billi at an enterprise value of £110m on a cash-free, debt-free basis, subject to shareholder approval. 

The deal represents an approximate 3x return on the company’s original £38m investment when it acquired Billi in November 2022 and equates to around 47.8p per Strix share, a premium of about 18% to the recent share price.

Billi is a premium provider of instant boiling, chilled and sparkling filtered water systems and has continued to perform strongly under Isle of Man-headquartered Strix’s ownership, delivering double-digit growth at constant exchange rates. 

For 2025, the business is expected to generate revenues of around £47m and adjusted EBITDA of approximately £10m. 

TikTok’s US business is to be partially sold to American investors in a joint-venture deal which will see it avoid a ban in the country.

President Donald Trump had long threatened to shut down the Chinese-owned short-form video app, which has 170 million American users, in the United States over national security concerns.

Now ByteDance – owner of TikTok – has signed a deal to sell 45% of its US business to American investors Oracle and Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. It is expected to close in January. 

Another 5% will be held by other new investors, while 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance

The White House said tech giant Oracle, co-founded by Trump supporter Larry Ellison, will license a copy of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm as part of the deal. Oracle already manages TikTok’s data collected in the US.

Trump critics have said it is the latest example of affiliates of the US President being handed control of the nation’s biggest tech and media companies.

Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, wrote on Bluesky: “First Paramount/CBS and now TikTok. Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies. Americans deserve to know if the president struck another backdoor deal for this billionaire takeover of TikTok.”

Morelife, an NHS and public health partner specialising in weight management, lifestyle and preventative healthcare, has been acquired by digital health provider Voy.

The companies said the deal will enhance delivery across Morelife’s NHS-commissioned services and support more technology-enabled care pathways for obesity and other chronic conditions.

The business will remain operationally independent, while drawing on Voy’s experience in scaling digital healthcare to improve efficiency and expand reach, including into communities facing health inequalities and among people who are digitally excluded.

Voy says its digital-first model supports highly personalised care plans, while Morelife brings 20 years’ experience running behaviour-change programmes, including in some of England’s most deprived areas.

Author: Patrick Killeen

London-based consumer tech company Nothing has raised around £6 million ($8m) in its third community investment round, valuing the business at approximately $1.35 billion.

The funding follows a period of rapid growth for the smartphone and hardware maker, which launched its first device, the Nothing Phone (1), in 2022 and has since shipped millions of products globally across smartphones, audio and wearables.

The company says it surpassed $1bn in lifetime revenue in 2024, recording year-on-year growth of 150%, and closed a $200m Series C round last year at the same valuation.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Currys has reported a strong first-half performance, driving its shares up 8.93% so far today.

Group adjusted profit before tax surged 144% year-on-year to £22 million, while free cash flow rose 68% to £84m.

Revenue increased 8% to £4.23bn, with like-for-like sales up 4%, supported by growth in both the UK & Ireland and the Nordics.

Its share price has risen to 137.9p today and it has a market cap of £1.15bn.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The acquisition of Alphawave IP Group plc by NASDAQ-listed Qualcomm Incorporated for around £1.8 billion has completed.

The firms agreed the deal in June. The addition of Alphawave Semi, which is headquartered in London and Toronto, is part of tech giant Qualcomm’s expansion into data centres.

Tony Pialis, CEO and co-founder of Alphawave Semi, will lead the Qualcomm data centre business.

 

The Bank of England has cut its base rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.75% after a tight 5–4 MPC vote, saying it expects inflation to be “closer” to its 2% target early next year.

Interest rates are now at their lowest level in almost three years.

Governor Andrew Bailey said: “We’ve passed the recent peak in inflation and it has continued to fall, so we have cut interest rates for the sixth time, to 3.75% today… with every cut we make, how much further we go becomes a closer call.”

Some policymakers argued rates should have been held due to persistent services inflation and the risk of “lasting changes in wage and price-setting behaviour”, while other members backed the cut amid worries about weakening consumer demand.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves welcomed the move, saying: “This is the sixth interest rate cut since the election – that’s the fastest pace of cuts in 17 years, good news for families with mortgages and businesses with loans. But I know there’s more to do to help families with the cost of living.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Fuse Energy has been valued at almost £4 billion in just its third year after raising an additional £52 million in funding.

Europe’s fastest-growing energy company, based in London, said it will accelerate international expansion with the money – beginning with Ireland, Spain and the US.

The round was led by global investors Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon Capital. It featured new investors, including Revolut founder Nik Storonsky’s QuantumLight, and included participation from every major existing backer.

The company was founded in 2022 by ex-Revolut executives Alan Chang and Charles Orr. 

 

Belfast-based Fibrus Networks has won a £34.6 million UK government-funded Project Gigabit contract to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to more than 9,000 rural homes and businesses across Northern Ireland, with work starting immediately.

The rollout is aimed at hard-to-reach communities that have struggled to access fast, reliable connectivity.

It also builds on the firm’s previous involvement in Project Stratum, which extended high-speed broadband to 81,000 premises across Northern Ireland.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Blackmont Legal has begun offering specialist services to OnlyFans creators and adult-content agencies on the back of rising demand for representation, as growing numbers of people turn to subscription platforms to generate income.

The Manchester-based law firm is seeing increased requests from creators who are effectively running full-scale businesses but often lack access to proper legal and financial advice. 

With some top creators earning more than £20,000 a month, the company has raised concerns that the rapid growth of the sector is leaving many vulnerable to agencies using improper contracts, low pay and poor working conditions.

Frontier IP portfolio company Dekiln has secured a major boost after its chief executive, Dr Aled Roberts, was named one of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s inaugural Green Future Fellows, an award that brings £3 million of funding.

The backing will be used to scale the Manchester-based firm’s kiln-free tile technology to industrial production, including plans for a pilot plant capable of producing up to 1,000 square metres of tiles per day.

Dekiln’s ceramic-like materials avoid energy-intensive kilns, delivering tiles with a carbon footprint around 94% lower than conventional alternatives while using more than 95% recycled content.

Frontier IP holds a 24.8% stake in the business, which completed its first commercial installation following a £693,000 equity raise in 2024.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Stockholm-headquartered InsurTech Lumera has entered into an agreement to acquire Acuity, a Devon-based consultancy specialising in pensions and workforce reforms for public sector pension schemes.

Acuity has long-standing relationships with some of the UK’s largest and most influential pension schemes, including the NHS and Civil Service Pension Schemes, as well as central government departments.

Following completion of the acquisition, the business will join Lumera’s UK organisation, expanding the group’s UK workforce to around 165 employees. Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Oxford-based A&B Smart Materials has closed an oversubscribed £1.5 million pre-seed round to accelerate development of fully biodegradable superabsorbent polymers used in products like nappies, sanitary items and water-retaining agricultural materials.

The funding will be used to optimise performance and cost while moving towards industrial-scale demonstrations, as the company targets replacing synthetic SAPs in a market it expects to reach $17 billion by 2035.

The round was backed by existing investor Sake Bosch and new strategic investors Caesar and Living Hope VC, with additional support from Archipelago Ventures, Triple Impact Ventures, the Cranfield University Seed Fund, Oxford Seed Fund and angels linked to Cambridge Capital Group and Oxford Innovation Finance.

Founded by CEO Amaury van Trappen and CTO Dr Benjamin White, the company is based at the University of Oxford’s Begbroke Science Park and says its biopolymer approach is already nearing commercial performance in hygiene and agricultural applications.

Cardiff-based Credas has grown its customer base by more than 40% over the past year and now verifies over five million people annually. The firm has also made senior hires including Neil Williams as CTO and Jon Parish as compliance officer, alongside expanding its customer success function to support scaling.

The Cardiff-based identity verification technology provider helps regulated businesses securely capture and verify customer identity and compliance information through digital ID and due diligence software.

Its customer and partner network includes HomeLet, Let Alliance and Goodlord, Co-op Legal, Crunch Accounting and TaxCalc, plus a strategic collaboration with Bright, while it has also joined industry groups including OPDA, the Future Property Transaction Group and ADVP.

It plans to launch a “Compliance Wallet” at the start of 2026 and has rolled out new products in 2025 including Director ID, Credas Payments and Credas Lettings.

Workspace Group has appointed Tom Edwards-Moss as CFO designate, with the former Hibernia Real Estate Group chief executive set to succeed Dave Benson, who announced plans to step down in August.

Edwards-Moss brings extensive real estate and financial experience, having previously served as CFO of Hibernia REIT and spent nearly nine years in investment banking at Credit Suisse.

He is expected to join Workspace after completing his notice period at Hibernia, with Benson remaining in role until the transition is complete.

PureTech Health has appointed Robert Lyne as CEO with immediate effect, after he served as interim chief executive since July 2025.

Lyne said the near-term priority is securing funding for its newest founded entity, Celea Therapeutics, with a deal expected to close in the first half of 2026, after which the company’s operational run rate is expected to reduce significantly.

He also said the company plans to pursue financing for Gallop Oncology in 2026, while moving to a streamlined structure with lower overhead and a more disciplined, capital-efficient investment approach.

Lyne joined PureTech in January 2024 as chief portfolio officer. He is an experienced leader of UK-listed life science innovation and venture capital companies, having previously served as CEO of Arix Bioscience plc.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A shareholder revolt at Monzo could yet see TS Anil continue as CEO beyond February 2026 and oust Gary Hoffman as chair.

According to insiders quoted by the Financial Times, investors Accel and Iconiq have hired lawyers to look into ways to reverse the decision to replace Anil and oust Hoffman, who has chaired Monzo since 2019. The revolt is said to have the backing of investors holding more than 40% of the company’s shares.

They are also said to want greater representation on the board, with Eileen Burbidge the only investor currently represented.

The development comes as Monzo secures a European banking licence to expand on the continent.

London-listed Blackbird is raising around £500,000 through a subscription for 22,222,222 new shares priced at 2.25p, with net proceeds of about £470,000 to strengthen its balance sheet, fund marketing for its browser-based video editor elevate.io and provide working capital.

Executive chair Ian McDonough said the company has made strong progress since September, engaging marketing teams and creators and highlighting time savings from elevate.io’s collaborative workflow.

The business said it has added new features including integrated live review, text-to-speech, AI image generation and digital asset management, and introduced a token system aimed at improving retention and conversion from free to paid users.