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.

FRP Advisory Group reported solid growth in the six months to 31st October, with revenue up 12% to £87.1 million and underlying adjusted EBITDA rising 3% to £23m.

Adjusted profit before tax increased 4% to £21.1m, while net cash rose 24% to £16.5m, supporting a 5% increase in the interim dividend to 2p per share.

The group continued to see steady demand across its advisory services, remaining the leading administration appointment taker by volume and expanding its corporate finance and financial advisory operations through new offices and selective acquisitions.

FRP said it enters the second half with an encouraging pipeline and remains confident of meeting full-year expectations.

Author: Patrick Killeen

ANNA Money has secured a £10 million growth debt deal with Flashpoint as it looks to accelerate expansion ahead of major changes to the UK’s tax reporting regime for self-employed people and landlords.

The AI-powered FinTech, which positions itself as an all-in-one platform combining business accounts, invoicing, payroll, taxes and admin tools, said the funding will help it scale at a time when Making Tax Digital (MTD) is reshaping how small businesses manage their finances.

The deal is with Flashpoint, an international tech investment firm with approximately $600m in assets under management, focused on technology companies originating from Europe and the Middle East and North Africa.

Tributes have been paid to Nick Smith, CEO of Elonex, who has died suddenly.

Elonex is a Birmingham-based manufacturer of LED display systems and an influential UK digital outdoor media owner.

A spokesman for the company described Smith as an ‘extraordinary leader, a loyal friend, and an inspirational presence’ and added: “His passion, integrity, and vision shaped our business and touched countless lives.”

Investor Shaf Rasul, chairman of SRA Ventures, said: “Nick was a rare kind of leader. Sharp, principled, and genuinely human. You could feel his energy in everything he built, and in the way he treated people.”

Among the tech names on the FTSE All-Share, Serco (+7.38%) led gains after a trading update that lifted profit and cash guidance for 2025 and set out stronger-than-expected initial forecasts for 2026, with the company also announcing a planned CFO succession.

Ceres Power (-6.06%) was among the sharpest fallers after a short-seller published a critical report questioning the outlook for its technology and commercial model. 

TT Electronics (-1.93%) slipped after DBAY confirmed it does not intend to make an offer for the company.

Elsewhere, Aptitude Software (+3.56%) and Molten Ventures (+4.39%) rose, while FinTech names such as CAB Payments (-4.92%) and AJ Bell (-2.19%) were weaker.

Manchester-based Started PR has brought together a global FinTech advisory board to publish its inaugural Started Advisory Board Report, focused on how the sector communicates and builds trust. 

The board includes Kimberley Waldron (managing director, Started PR and chair), Jason Mikula (publisher, Fintech Business Weekly), Jason Williams (CEO, The Fintech Power 50), Katie Ramsey (head of Fintech UK, Department for Business and Trade), David M. Brear (CEO, 11:FS Holdings), Susanne Chishti (founder and chair, Fintech Circle), Monica Millares (chief product officer, BigPay), David Savage (founder and host, Tech Talks), Raf De Kimpe (CEO, FinTech Belgium), Jas Shah (fintech strategist) and Sarah Kocianski (fintech expert and commentator). 

The report introduces the advisory board’s “Eight Rules for Fintech Communication” and new benchmark scores, including 5.1/10 for how well FinTech makes itself understood and 4.1/10 for how well communications land outside the industry. 

It also scored the sector 2.6/10 for communicating about failure, while rating the opportunity to improve at 7.6/10.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Pimberly has secured £5 million in venture debt funding from Virgin Money as the Manchester-based SaaS firm steps up its UK and US expansion plans.

The company, which provides Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) software, said the funding will help it continue scaling after a period of rapid growth.

Last year, it was a member of GM Business Growth Hub’s inaugural ASCEND programme and it recently won a King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

Warner Bros Discovery has told shareholders to reject a hostile takeover bid from rival Paramount Skydance, calling the approach “inadequate” and warning it carries “significant risk”.

The company is backing its agreed transaction with Netflix instead, announced in early December, while Paramount has tabled a $30-a-share offer that values Warner Bros at $108.4 billion including debt.

Paramount has argued its proposal has a better chance of clearing regulators, but Affinity Partners, the private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, has withdrawn its support for Paramount’s bid.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Serco shares have risen to a 10-year-high today after the government services contractor upgraded guidance for 2025, set out a stronger outlook for 2026 and announced a change to its senior leadership team.

In its scheduled trading update, the Hampshire-headquartered firm said it now expects revenue for 2025 of around £4.9 billion, up 3% at constant currency, including organic growth of about 1%.

Underlying operating profit is forecast to be around £270 million, ahead of previous guidance of roughly £260m, with a margin of 5.5%.

Alongside the trading update, Serco also announced that Mark Reid will join the firm as group CFO in March, succeeding Nigel Crossley, who will retire after 11 years with the company.

Reid joins from Proximus, the Belgian-listed telecoms group, where he is currently group CFO and previously served as interim CEO of its international division.

Following the updates, its share price has spiked by 6.9% to 269.6p – a 10-year-high. It has a market cap of £2.7bn.

Author: Joe Morris, sales director, SmartSearch

Paddy Power Betfair has agreed to pay £2 million following a Gambling Commission investigation that found it failed to intervene when customers exhibited signs of problematic gambling behaviour.

The action is not just an isolated event; it is a critical learning experience for the entire UK gambling sector.

The Commission’s finding regarding ‘over-reliance on automation’ highlights a major weakness: compliance technology must evolve beyond static ID checks.

The key takeaway here is that operators are expected to apply Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) dynamically, especially when harm indicators, whether social responsibility or potential money laundering, become visible.

If your automated systems cannot instantly access and verify comprehensive, multi-layered data (such as triple-bureau information and ongoing customer monitoring), then the intervention will always be too late.

We believe many gambling companies require practical guidance on how to bridge this gap between minimum compliance and robust, real-time protection.

Towards, a provider of accessible mental health services, has announced a strategic partnership with Doctor Care Anywhere.

The partnership will see patients with digital healthcare provider DCA given the option to choose Towards for immediate access to high quality therapy, delivered both in person and online. 

The collaboration is set to significantly reduce barriers to mental health support by combining DCA’s extensive patient reach with Towards’ unique service model. 

The core strength of the Towards service is its high-street located, accessible model. Unlike traditional services, Towards offers a walk-in service at convenient high-street locations; zero waiting lists; and flexibility of delivery, with patients having the freedom to choose between confidential face-to face sessions at Towards’ high-street centres or convenient online therapy, catering to their specific needs and preferences. 

Former Chancellor George Osborne has been appointed managing director and head of OpenAI for Countries, a London-based role focused on helping roll out AI technology and infrastructure internationally.

Osborne said THAT the ChatGPT maker is the “most exciting and promising company in the world right now” and praised its “exceptionally impressive leaders”.

The move follows rival Anthropic hiring former UK chancellor and prime minister Rishi Sunak as an adviser in October.

OpenAI has been stepping up UK engagement, including an initiative announced in October to work more closely with the British government on domestic data storage capabilities.

Author: Patrick Killeen

An AI platform aimed at modernising how companies and law firms capture and protect patents has raised a $20 million (£15m) Series A round led by Atomico, with Index Ventures doubling down and Norrsken VC and Daphni also participating.

Ankar AI said it will use the funding to grow its team and expand further into the US, taking total funding to $24m.

The London-based business is positioning itself as an “operating system” for patents, arguing that while AI can help teams assess novelty, draft claims and evaluate prior art faster than ever, adoption has been held back by fragmented tools and a lack of trust in how AI is used in sensitive workflows.

Co-founders Tamar Gomez and Wiem Gharbi previously built software at Palantir in Europe and the US, which the company says has shaped its approach to secure patent retrieval, claim-level reasoning, LLM governance and AI safety inside enterprise-controlled environments.

Frontier IP plans to raise around £870,000 through a placing and a director subscription priced at 15.5p per share.

The company said the funds will support working capital to help deliver near-term milestones and realisations, launch a fully operational South Cambridge Science Centre and selectively back portfolio companies.

It also warned the fundraising alone won’t cover 12 months of operating costs without portfolio realisations, so it will review its cost base in early 2026 and is considering further funding options, including another raise and potential debt.

All Things Considered Group has begun trading on AIM today under the ticker ATC, with its previous admission on the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market cancelled.

Alongside the move, the music services business raised £8.6 million before expenses through a placing and subscription of 6,880,000 new shares at 125p, valuing the company at around £29.3m.

ATC said the funds will support investment in artist representation and services and accelerate development of its proprietary data platform focused on improving direct-to-fan engagement.

The group works with more than 900 artist clients and plans to use the proceeds to strengthen its team, invest in technology and data integration, and expand merchandise and wider service operations.

Kelso has raised £2.1 million through a placing of 59,333,331 new shares and a subscription for 8,999,999 new shares, both priced at 3p.

The new shares represent about 18.27% of the company’s existing issued share capital and will be used to expand itss investment portfolio into opportunities it believes offer a better risk-reward balance.

Admission of the shares to the FCA’s Official List and the LSE Main Market is expected at 8:00am on Friday.

Essentra has acquired Device Technologies LLC, a family-owned US specialist in cable protection products, for an initial cash consideration of $6.7 million, with up to $1.2m more in deferred contingent payments.

Based in Massachusetts and operating for more than 40 years, Device Technologies makes products such as grommet edging, shielding gaskets and cable sleeving, which Essentra said complement its electronics, cable management and access hardware ranges.

The business generated around $6.5m of revenue in 2024 and Essentra said the deal values it at 6.6x EBITDA for the last 12 months to June 2025, with a targeted 15% return on invested capital within three years.

It expects the acquisition to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities and create cross-selling opportunities into EMEA and APAC.