Greater Manchester has launched a new plan to take the city region from a leading UK innovation economy to a globally recognised innovation hub by 2035. 

The ambition is set out in the new 2035 Greater Manchester Innovation Plan, launched by Mayor Bev Craig and Innovation Greater Manchester Chair Andrew Hodgson at the Greater Manchester Innovation Expo 2026. 

Hosted by the GM Business Growth Hub, the event brought together hundreds of business leaders, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors to showcase our science and technology strengths and build partnerships for future growth. 

Author: Chris Maguire

Private equity-backed professional services group Leonard Curtis is expanding its Manchester presence with a move to a new 10,000 sq ft office at Eden in New Bailey.

The firm, which specialises in corporate restructuring, turnaround, funding and legal advice, will relocate from Riverside House on Irwell Street to the seventh floor of the 12-storey building.

The move follows a period of significant growth for Leonard Curtis, which has outgrown its existing Manchester headquarters.

The group has expanded through a combination of organic growth, acquisitions and the development of its service offering.

Following a majority investment from Pollen Street Capital in 2025, Leonard Curtis is pursuing an ambitious growth strategy, with plans to double group revenues over the next four years.

Work on fitting out the new 10,000 sq ft space is now being planned, with staff expected to move in later this year.

Dan Booth, CEO of Leonard Curtis and one of BusinessCloud’s Northern Leaders 2026, said: “This move marks an important step for us.

“While additional space is important, this is really about creating an environment that reflects the business we are building. Our people are at the heart of everything we do, and we want to create an environment where they can do their best work and continue to develop. Eden gives us the space and facilities we need for the next
stage of growth.”

Leonard Curtis has more than 30 years’ experience in corporate restructuring and employs over 350 people across a network of 30 offices.

Author: Chris Maguire

The Atom Valley Northern Gateway Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) has appointed Chris Cheap as its new managing director.

Cheap joins the MDC after almost 23 years at real estate advisory firm Avison Young, where he held a number of senior leadership roles both in the North West and nationally.

Northern Gateway is a key part of the wider Atom Valley Mayoral Development Zone, which stretches across Bury, Oldham and Rochdale.

The ambitious development is expected to play a central role in driving growth in advanced manufacturing, innovation, housing and infrastructure.

The wider Atom Valley vision is already taking shape, with the recent completion of the base build of the 30,000 sq ft Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Centre (SMMC).

The facility is located within the 25-acre Atom Valley Innovation District (AVID) at Kingsway Park in Rochdale.

Former ThinCats MD Ravi Anand has launched Ignite Funding Partners.

Ignite has entered the UK lending market to fund proven UK businesses, offering tailored lending facilities of between £1 million and £25m to support organic growth, acquisition, ownership transition and refinancing strategies.

Ignite focuses on the larger end of the SME market – proven businesses with strong management teams which are building momentum and scaling.

To support this, £500m of lending capital is being lined up from leading institutional investors, it says.

Birmingham firm MoniRail and its partners have secured £50 million funding to further aid development and commercialisation of its quantum navigation system for use on London Underground.

The firm’s tech has the ability to locate train and track faults precisely, where satellite signals can’t reach.

As part of the Government’s investment focus on quantum technology in the UK, MoniRail has been awarded a contract from Innovate UK as part of the Quantum Missions Primer Phase 2 initiative.

MoniRail’s project builds on previous Innovate UK SBRI Quantum Catalyst funding which demonstrated the project’s concept. The next phase of the project will focus on bringing the first commercial version closer to market.

MoniRail leads the consortium which brings together Imperial College London, University of Sussex and their spinout company Spectomiq Ltd, PA Consulting, Transport for London (TfL), GBRX, Durham University and QinetiQ. 

 

The British Business Bank’s Regional Angels Programme has announced a £2 million commitment to Cambridge Capital Group through the Haatch Angel Syndicate Platform, further expanding access to angel investment capital for high-growth businesses across the UK.

The commitment will be used to co-invest alongside CCG in every qualifying investment.

CCG is one of the longest-standing angel networks in Britain. Established in 2000, the Cambridge-based network focuses on technology-enabled investments and has deployed more than £50m into over 150 companies.

The latest commitment brings the total number of investment partners on the Haatch Platform to seven.

Preventative healthcare platform Emerald has secured an additional £1.4 million in fundraising – including backing from Innovate UK.

Emerald is helping to shift healthcare from reactive to proactive, and make it part of everyday life.

The platform provides individuals with tools, insights and support to continuously understand their health, empowering them to spot issues sooner and act before problems become serious.

This approach brings together comprehensive testing, health data, ongoing GP support, treatment and prescriptions all in one place, creating a connected picture of a person’s health.

The latest funding combines a £700,000 grant from Innovate UK, Emerald’s second award from the organisation, with a further £700,000 in venture capital investment secured following the award.

The round was backed by all existing investors, alongside new investors including Sequel and Highgoal – with Emerald’s valuation rising from its previous funding round.

Offers365, a Manchester-headquartered performance marketing network, has secured fresh investment from NPIF II – GC Business Finance & River Capital Smaller Loans, which is delivered by the consortium as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II).

Founded in 2019 by Seun Olabisi, Offers365 provides an end-to-end performance marketing service across email, social and native platforms. The team’s core offering supports clients from across a number of industries as they look to expand CRM systems, helping to build audiences through data acquisition to drive new leads.

It is now working with over 250 partners and over 100 brands. It has also expanded its footprint, with offices in Amsterdam and the UAE.

A founder aged 19 has raised £1 million to create Chaos – described as the first operating system for music.

Chaos, founded by Ruhan Verma, is a unified space for music creators to collaborate, communicate and create. It includes the sharing of files, feedback and lossless live writing rooms.

A self-taught musician and producer, Verma spent years watching creative work get fragmented across endless messaging threads, disconnected files and siloed software, making collaboration cumbersome and attributions an uphill battle. 

 

Skyfly Technologies, a British developer of electric and hybrid-electric vertically capable aircraft, has closed a $10 million (£7.5m) seed round.

The round was led by specialist growth equity investor HICO Investment Group, with participation from Archangel, Europe’s only dedicated next-generation defence technology fund. 

The firm says the investment will take the Axe, Skyfly’s two-seat electric aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like an aeroplane, from flying prototype to certified production aircraft in customers’ hands.

 

US cybersecurity firm Chainguard has opened a regional headquarters in London and pledged to invest $200 million across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Chainguard aims to help organisations prevent AI software supply chain attacks. It says it is adding 200 new roles across engineering, sales and customer service in the region.

 

Oxfordshire has set out a 10-year ambition to create 20 unicorn companies, attract more than £1 billion a year in venture and growth investment and create 30,000 net new innovation-linked jobs, as it looks to build greater global scale from one of the world’s most concentrated innovation economies.

The new Equinox 2035 Strategy, launched at the House of Commons yesterday, also sets an ambition to attract investment from 10 Tier 1 US venture capital funds and 10 UK pension funds, establish six global corporates with a permanent Oxfordshire presence and rank the county among the world’s top three innovation-intensive clusters per capita.

Equinox is an Oxfordshire-wide partnership bringing together businesses, universities, investors, government and communities behind a shared direction for the county’s innovation economy. The University of Oxford provides the Equinox secretariat, convening partners, advocating for the region and activating collaboration across the ecosystem.

Hosted by Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds, the House of Commons event heard from Professor Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and chair of the Equinox Council; Dr Olga Kozlova, director of innovation and engagement, University of Oxford and CEO of Equinox; and Peter Leek, chief scientific officer at Oxford Quantum Circuits.

Oxfordshire already has around 3,000 high-tech businesses employing some 30,000 people, alongside major science and innovation assets including Harwell and the UK’s first AI Growth Zone at Culham. Companies including Moderna, BMW Group and the Ellison Institute for Technology have invested in the county.

The University of Oxford has supported the creation of more than 350 companies through its innovation partner, Oxford University Innovation, which since 2011 has collectively attracted more than £8 billion in investment. In the first half of 2026 alone, Oxford spinouts raised €908 million, more than Germany’s entire university ecosystem combined (€864 million), and representing 20% of the entirety of investment in spinouts across Europe.

The launch follows new analysis from Public First and the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board highlighting the exceptional research intensity and spinout performance of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, alongside the opportunity to build greater global scale across capital, commercialisation, talent and infrastructure.

The Equinox strategy sets out what that opportunity could mean for Oxfordshire: connecting its research, businesses, talent, investment and innovation assets more effectively; creating a clearer front door for international investment; helping more companies start, scale and grow; and ensuring that growth creates jobs, skills and opportunities for people across the county.

Digital Catapult has appointed Jonathan Tudor as CEO.

He takes on the role from David Bletso, who has served as interim CEO since April and will resume his role as CFO.

Digital Catapult is a research and technology organisation for frontier digital technologies. It is uniquely positioned as a trusted partner across the UK innovation ecosystem and directly supports the UK Government’s Digital and Technologies Sector Plan.

 

Robert Samuelson, co-founder and COO of Zegona Communications plc, has passed away unexpectedly.

The experienced telecoms and media executive founded Zegona with fellow former Virgin Media colleagues in 2015 after it was acquired by Liberty Global.

Eamonn O’Hare, chairman and CEO of Zegona, paid tribute to Samuelson.

“Robert was my co-founder, a trusted colleague and, above all, a dear friend. I will miss him deeply.”

Manchester SportTech Rezzil has raised $10 million (£7.5m) in strategic growth funding to expand globally.

The round brings together new strategic investors alongside continued backing from existing partners the Premier League and Simba Investments.

New strategic investors include Borussia Dortmund star Jobe Bellingham, brother of Real Madrid’s Jude, and world-renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon.

Jobe’s investment forms part of a broader strategic partnership with the Bellingham family, under which Rezzil will deliver technology supporting future digital initiatives.

They join an existing investor group that includes Thierry Henry, Cesc Fàbregas, Vincent Kompany (through Plankton and Smallfish Ltd), Tyrone Mings, Michail Antonio, Anthony Watson and Marcus Smith, creating a unique mix of corporate and strategic investors backing Rezzil’s global ambitions.

RegTech scale-up CoComply has raised £1.9m to accelerate development of its external workforce compliance platform and drive growth in the UK and internationally.

Unlike traditional compliance tools, CoComply helps mid-market and large organisations uncover and manage their external workforce, including workers hidden within supplier contracts. It identifies how people are engaged, determines which compliance checks are needed and combines technology with expert classification to help organisations reduce risk and engage workers with confidence.

The investment round was led by NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), Haatch, a UK venture capital firm backing ambitious founders with capital and hands-on support to accelerate growth, and management and other investors.

These include Richard Law, former CEO of GBG and an experienced technology investor whose portfolio includes Vypr who becomes chair; Seb Timpson, co-founder of financial data and intelligence business With Intelligence, which was acquired by S&P Global for $1.8bn in November 2025; and Stephen Cann, CEO of Bollin Group, whose brands include Mountain Equipment, Sprayway, Ronhill and Bridgedale.

Plans for a new West Midlands Accelerator Cluster were announced today at the Leadership Breakfast that opened Birmingham Tech Week. 

The initiative will support entrepreneurs and growing businesses in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, future mobility and digital innovation.

Unveiled by Andy Hague, CEO of TechWM, the initiative will connect business growth programs across multiple locations, anchored by a new NatWest Accelerator site at the University of Wolverhampton. It is intended to create the first coordinated cluster of its kind in the region.

Laura Keir, CEO of Speke-based lifestyle nutrition brand Protein Works, has been named Business Woman of the Year at the 2026 Women of the Year Awards.

The award recognise her leadership and entrepreneurial success in building one of the UK’s fastest-growing food and beverage businesses.

Keir was named the overall winner from 16 finalists, following more than 400 nominations, at the annual awards, which celebrate outstanding female achievement and leadership across business and wider society.

A startup whose innovative powder transfer valve solves some of the key challenges facing pharmaceutical and other manufacturers has raised over £2.4m to commercialise its technology.

Medcotec has secured funding from NPIF II – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), alongside LYVA Labs, the Liverpool City Region Seed Fund which is managed by AXM Venture Capital, and private investors.

The Daresbury-based business is already working with a leading pharmaceutical company as well as other manufacturers that use powder systems. The funding will enable it to carry out further trials and build its team. Its first product, the Helyx valve, is designed to be safer and more cost‑effective than existing powder transfer systems, particularly for shorter production runs.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

ePayments Systems Ltd has entered special administration six years after an anti-money laundering investigation forced it to suspend its services.

In 2020 a review by the Financial Conduct Authority identified weaknesses in the London firm’s AML systems and controls, which led to customers being unable to conduct transactions or access normal electronic wallet services.

At the time, a Financial Times report said the firm counted the adult entertainment, affiliate marketing and crypto industries among its most important clients, and said it was ‘one of the biggest digital payments companies in the UK’ with over a million digital individual accounts and 1,000 business accounts.