Author: Jonathan Symcox

The week’s best-read stories include:

• the jailing of Sam Wall

• soaring sales at gifting firm IMP & Maker following Dragons’ Den appearance

• record-breaking appearance in the Den from yuv

• smear campaign accusation levelled at listed Playtech

A woman has today been  jailed for 28 months for a ‘prolonged, deliberate and calculated’ campaign of online abuse against high-profile figures from the business and tech industry.

Sam Wall, 55, who describes herself as a digital strategist, was the subject of a BBC Panorama documentary earlier this year.

The documentary heard how she targeted Naomi Timperley and Brad Burton online by making a series of false claims against them.

Wall pleaded guilty to sending false messages and two charges of stalking in 2024 and was finally sentenced today (October 24) at Minshull Street Crown Court after five previous adjournments.

Both of her victims were in court as she was jailed for 28 months in relation to the offences against Mr Burton, and 24 months in regards to Mrs Timperley.

She’ll serve the sentences concurrently, meaning she’ll be eligible for parole in 14 months.

Risers:

London Stock Exchange Group – +4.39%

WH Smith – +3.33%

Marshalls – +2.72%

Trustpilot – +2.61%

Harbour Energy – +2.42%

Fallers:

Metlen Energy & Metals – -3.39%

C&C Group – -3.26%

Genus – -3.13%

Hochschild Mining – -2.88%

Fresnillo – -2.37%

Author: Dan Pell, vice president and country manager for UK&I, Workday

The UK workforce is on the cusp of a talent crisis. 

Even though the number of job vacancies in the UK fell by 1.2% between July and September 2025, behind this apparent decline lies another tension: a labour market where internal opportunities are shrinking, top talent is leaving, and confidence in leadership — particularly around AI strategy — is wavering.

This isn’t a caution; it’s a strategic gap. Organisations are struggling to define the skills they need and find the right talent, while also overlooking their best option: the people they already have. Much of this is related to how leaders communicate their AI vision and strategy. Indeed, leaders have a clear vision for what they plan to do with the productivity surplus, yet employees and job seekers alike are not on board with how AI is being deployed and feel unclear about what it means for their future. 

Without clear communication about a company’s AI strategy and its impact on roles and team structures, employee trust is suffering. These aren’t isolated challenges. They’re symptoms of a broader breakdown in trust and alignment. If left unaddressed, they will limit an organisation’s ability to retain talent, adapt to change, and sustain performance. 

Dementia detection service, MemoryTell, has been crowned the overall winner of the 2025 INVENT awards.

Organised by science and technology hub Catalyst in partnership with Bank of Ireland UK, the annual INVENT awards are a leading showcase of new entrepreneurial talent in Northern Ireland.

At an award ceremony held in the ICC Belfast yesterday, 12 finalists competed for the main prize, with MemoryTell taking home £25,000 from the total prize fund of £56,500.

Each category winner took home £5,000, with a further £3,000 for one Inclusive Innovation Winner and £2,000 shared between three Student Invent Winners.

MemoryTell combines compassion with forward-looking technology providing early dementia detection through use of advanced AI. This service differs from traditional dementia assessments in its use of real-time data output, providing fast and accurate detection. MemoryTell’s detection services are non-invasive, offering patients a dignified method of early diagnosis.

California ‘FinOps’ platform DoiT has bought Israeli firm CloudWize.

CloudWize is a multi-cloud security posture and compliance platform.

Its technology delivers a continuous ‘security graph’ for incident response investigations within Amazon Web Services. Its platform detects misconfigurations, compliance drift, and attack paths, and automates remediation through policy-as-code guardrails.

New research from ClearBank claims that large UK businesses now view embedded financial services as a strategic boardroom decision and business growth driver.

The research – ‘The embedded economy: Why brands are embracing financial services as a driver for innovation and growth’ – explores the attitudes of 200 senior business leaders at large UK-based corporates towards embedded finance and the potential for payments, accounts, and lending to enable new services, new revenue streams, and enhanced customer loyalty.

It found that despite growing enthusiasm for embedded finance’s potential to deliver these services, many companies are still held back by fears of regulatory requirements, technical complexity, and ongoing concerns around finding the right partner to deliver at scale.

Global technology provider Arrow Electronics has signed a new distribution agreement with cybersecurity specialist AlgoSec, covering the UK and Ireland.

Building on its existing agreement in the Netherlands, the move extends Arrow’s security portfolio, giving channel partners access to AlgoSec’s advanced network security policy management solutions.

AlgoSec helps enterprises align security with business processes by delivering unified visibility, risk analysis, and automating security policy changes across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Learning technology specialist Learning Pool has acquired Elucidat – a Brighton-based EdTech used by global brands including Tesco, Pret, Primark, Sharp, Metro Bank and Bupa.

The deal brings together two leading learning technology providers, combining Derry-based Learning Pool’s analytics and platform capabilities with Elucidat’s expertise in scalable, AI-assisted content creation.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Climate intelligence startup Mondra has raised £10 million in Series A funding to accelerate its expansion into Europe and strengthen its AI-driven platform for managing food supply chain resilience.

The round was co-led by AlbionVC and Planet A Ventures, with participation from Swisscom, PeakBridge, Ponderosa Ventures and Green Circle Foodtech Ventures.

The investment will fund the London-based firm’s move into key European markets, including the Netherlands, Germany and France, as well as support the development of new tools for managing supply chain disruption and climate risk alongside emissions tracking.

Mondra’s platform uses digital twin technology to map complex supply chains, helping food companies and retailers track carbon emissions, price volatility and climate-related risks across their networks.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Professional cricketer Marie Kelly has won a University Campus of Football Business Sports Entrepreneur Competition for her tech-enabled baseball cap.

The 29-year-old – who represents The Blaze and the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred – wowed the judges with her business, Versatail, a venture focused on developing caps designed specifically for women and girls in sport with trademarked technology to adjust the ponytail opening to suit a desired height and style.

Kelly wanted to solve an issue which has persisted with her and fellow players during her cricketing career. Her aim is to see female players being comfortable on the field, enabling them to perform to their highest potential.

The competition – inaugurated by UCFB to celebrate a decade of inspiring the next generation of sports business professionals in Manchester – gave aspiring sports innovators aged 18-30 based in the UK the chance to win £50,000 in value to support their business ideas with the potential to make a real impact in the industry.

Author: Patrick Killeen

AI startup Gradient Labs has launched in the US as it looks to bring its financial services-focused support technology to a wider market.

Founded in 2023 by former Monzo employees Dimitri Masin, Neal Lathia and Danai Antoniou, the company builds AI agents designed to automate customer operations in regulated sectors without breaching compliance standards.

Its software is already used by European fintechs including Zego, Plum, Nala and Sling Money, reaching more than 32 million end-users.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Reedah El-Saie, founder of EdTech Brainspark Games, secured funding from Dragons’ Den stars Sara Davies, Deborah Meaden and Touker Suleyman on last night’s episode.

The London-based entrepreneur, who pitched her multi-award-winning business, impressed some of the Dragons with her AI-powered, immersive educational mobile games platform.

El-Saie said she has secured several grants from Innovate UK as well as funding from ‘super angels’ in the gaming industry, while also putting £400k of her own cash into the business, which remained pre-revenue at the time of filming. She was seeking £10,000 for 1% of the company.

Peter Jones, who has a strong background in the education sector – advising government, for example – said the only way it could really succeed would be to become embedded in the National Curriculum, while Steven Bartlett also questioned the business model.

However the other Dragons were more receptive. Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden quickly agreed to accept her offer, while Touker Suleyman played hardball by offering her the £10k for 5%, alongside a space in his own office – before climbing down to 1% in an unexpected U-turn.

 

UK  investment platform, AJ Bell, revealed its customer numbers increased 19 per cent by 102,000 to nearly 644,000 and record platform assets under administration of £103.3bn, in the financial year to the end of September 2025.

CEO Michael Summersgill said: “I am delighted to report a year of record growth, surpassing £100bn in platform AUA and attracting over 100,000 new customers to our low-cost, easy-to-use platform propositions, supported by market-leading customer service.

“This excellent growth marks a significant milestone for the business and reflects the continued success of our dual-channel model, enhancing our growth opportunity within the platform market.”

“We’re so pleased to have someone with Touker’s experience on board,” they say.

Jones congratulates Touker on his investment and says he has a good pair of founders to work with there.

Meaden is more positive but is also OUT.

Suleyman is on the fence. He says the business as pitched is uninvestable.

He knows there’s a lot of work to do. He offers the £100k… for 20%.

They accept the offer!

Suleyman is on the board of a co-living business, and sees opportunity in that area.

Bartlett says technology needs to be well-capitalised and he thinks a £100k investment would be down the drain within a year. He’s OUT.

Jones and Davies agree. They are also OUT.

Touker’s view: “You’ve got to add a lot more features to this app to be a credible business.”

The friends are looking to move into recommendations in other areas, such as a handyman or plumber.

Jones points out that agencies do checks such as DBS, employment and landlord references.

But what are the checks they are carrying out? Purely anecdotal, it seems.

The free app has 100,000 downloads and there are 700-900 rooms on the platform at any given time.

Effectively shared contacts on social networks can vouch for the people seeking to flatshare.

There is also a paid version with premium features.

They are looking for £100,000 for 5% of the business.