Author: Jonathan Symcox

A failed neobank based in Manchester has re-emerged as a profitable FinTech infrastructure provider.

In 2024 Frost, which combined digital banking with energy-switching tools, closed all retail customer accounts after five years of operation.

Despite attracting more than 18,000 users and processing tens of millions of pounds in transaction volume, changes in the market forced the business to rethink its future.

At the time, founder Paweł Ołtuszyk told BusinessCloud that it would instead provide its core banking technology and customisable mobile app to other financial institutions in a B2B pivot, and that its staff of 10 would remain in place.

Now the full reinvention of the company into Keel – a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform shaped by first-hand operating experience – has been revealed.

 

Author: Tim McCloud, CEO, TMC Strategic Communications

It’s easy to look at all CEOs and think that they are all faced with the same pressures and challenges.

But the truth is that when you’re running a business you founded, something you have built from the ground up, you will have had a very different kind of journey from someone leading an established company.

As the business evolves, so does your role. Get ready for change.

In my early days as a business owner, I was much more hands on, with multiple roles and spinning a thousand plates.

What needed doing got done, often by me. Now my role is more about guiding the business and supporting teams.

It can feel like you’re further removed from the reason you founded the business as you move from a start-up to an established business, but that’s a sign of success.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Vodafone fell 8% today despite reporting total revenue growth of 8% in FY26 to €40.5 billion.

The telecoms giant expects to see profit before tax of almost £1.9bn, compared to a £1.5bn loss in FY25, as it simplifies its business.

It also recently announced plans to take full ownership of VodafoneThree after agreeing a £4.3bn deal to buy the 49% stake it does not already own. That deal is set to complete in the second half of 2026.

However investor sentiment was dampened by the decision to pause share buybacks to prioritise taking full control of the joint venture; disappointing results in Germany, its largest market; and missing its overall adjusted earnings forecast.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Intertek Group plc have jumped 7% today – the highest of any firm on the FTSE 100 – after Swedish private equity firm EQT made a fourth and final takeover bid of £9.4 billion.

The offer is made up of £9.24bn in cash, with the remainder made up by the final dividend for 2025 announced earlier this year should this be approved by shareholders at the firm’s annual general meeting on 20th May 2026.

EQT saw its third offer of almost £9bn – £58 per share in cash – rejected last week. Under public market rules, it has until Thursday to submit a firm offer for the FTSE 100 firm or walk away.

Author: Matt Hyde, CTO, CloudWize

Unlike a prompt-driven or conversational Large Language Model (LLM), agentic AI is goal-orientated. With access to knowledge, a set of defined instructions outlining what it’s trying to achieve, and the ability to connect to other tools and systems to collect the data it needs, this AI ‘brain’ can operate, reason and learn, without human intervention.

Let’s apply that to a real world use case such as accounts payable. Whereas traditional automation would struggle with inconsistent data across different invoice layouts, supplier-specific quirks or missing fields, a fairly straightforward finance agent could handle invoicing, expenses and reconciliations with ease, alleviating admin by 47%. I’ve also seen an incident outage agent reduce IT downtime by 30%, in what was again a simple use case. But of course the possibilities really are endless, with multi-agent orchestrations capable of handling complex end-to-end e-commerce orders, inclusive of customer fulfilment, for example.

Whatever the brief, AI agents can do much more than follow a script. They’re intelligent enough to follow intricate, multi-step activities, think independently, and handle variation. But this doesn’t mean they’re fully autonomous digital beings – if they were, you wouldn’t want them anywhere near your business.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in On the Beach dropped 17% in morning trading after it reported a poor set of half-year results.

The online travel retailer reported a loss before tax of £3.2 million for the six months ended 31st March, compared with profit of £4.5m in the corresponding period last year.

Revenues were £52.2m, down £7.2m, despite a rise in booked total travel value from £611.7m to £626.2m. Adjusted EBITDA halved to £6.4m (H1 25: £12.8m).

However it saw record H1 booking volumes of 324,000, growing by 7% and significantly ahead of the market ‘despite significant industry headwinds’. Its monthly active app users grew 29% while it recently launched its app in ChatGPT and said further AI integrations are set to follow in H2.

It argued that the results ‘demonstrate the resilience of the model given widespread demand disruption from the conflict in the Middle East since 1st March’.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Travel Seen has acquired a majority stake in luxury ski specialist Oxford Ski Company.

The social-first group is headed by industry expert Jen Atkinson and backed by Arete Capital Partners.

The deal follows a string of acquisitions in late 2023 and swoop for eShores in late 2024, taking collective total travel value to over £55 million.

Oxford Ski Company specialises in curating high-end ski experiences at both chalets and hotels in the world’s best ski resorts for ultra-high-net-worth individuals in the UK and worldwide.

CEO Mark Gibbins and Rupert Longsdon, founder and chairman, will remain at the helm and retain a meaningful equity stake.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Paymentology has secured £130 million backing from two private equity firms.

Apis Partners and Aspirity Partners have invested in the London FinTech, which saw sales rise 117% in 2025.

The transaction brings together two investors with deep experience in the payments industry and a shared focus on advancing payments infrastructure. They believe that issuer processing represents one of the most significant opportunities in the sector.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Swedish private equity firm EQT has made a fourth and final bid of £9.4 billion to acquire Intertek Group plc.

The offer is made up of £9.24bn in cash, with the remainder made up by the final dividend for 2025 announced earlier this year should this be approved by shareholders at the firm’s annual general meeting on 20th May 2026.

EQT saw its third offer of almost £9bn – £58 per share in cash – rejected last week. Under public market rules, it has until Thursday to submit a firm offer for the FTSE 100 firm or walk away.

Activist investor PrimeStone has urged Intertek to engage with EQT and give it ​supervised due diligence access, as well as to take a more realistic ​approach to assessing its fair value. It said that “the view that £65 [is fair value]… seems disconnected from reality”.

Another investor, Palliser Capital, told BusinessCloud that the latest proposal from EQT “represents an attractive opportunity for shareholders that compares favourably, on a risk-and-time-adjusted basis, to the outcomes achievable through the strategic review [if Intertek was to split its businesses]”.

It added: “We strongly urge the Intertek board to engage with EQT now to establish a constructive dialogue, allow any required due diligence to take place and secure a favourable transaction for shareholders.”

Reports suggest that other investors have urged Intertek to hold its nerve and rebuff EQT’s advances.

Author: Steve Rowbotham, founder & CEO, Navigator

My dad told me my life would change when I became a father. I smiled, nodded, thanked him for the wisdom and had absolutely no idea what he meant until my son arrived.

There is no amount of reading or preparing that gets you there – you only understand it by living it.

Founding a company is exactly the same. I’ve spent time in environments that demand everything from you – particularly rowing for Team GB at the Olympics – and I still walked into building Navigator without truly grasping what it would ask of me.

You can talk to founders and study the frameworks but none of it fully lands until you’re the one making the calls and discovering at close range how to carry the weight and what you’re actually made of. It becomes apparent that the gap between knowing something intellectually and understanding it in your bones is wider than most people realise.

Here’s what I was least prepared for, though, and it isn’t what most people would expect. It wasn’t the difficulty, the pressure, the sleepless nights or even the moments where the path forward wasn’t clear. All of that I had braced myself for, at least in theory. What I genuinely wasn’t ready for was the generosity.

Author: Varun Bhanot, founder & CEO, Magic AI

There’s a version of this job that looks, from the outside, like a calendar full of important meetings and sharp decisions made with total clarity. The reality is something messier and more interesting than that.

Every week looks different – investor conversations one week, deep in hiring the next, then pulled back into product or working through a growth question that’s been sitting unresolved for longer than it should have been – and any sense of routine feels almost illusory.

And yet there is one fixed point every Tuesday. Without exception, my day starts with the C-suite and then opens out to the whole company. That rhythm matters more than it might sound. When everything else is in constant motion, having a moment in the week that everyone can orient around isn’t just useful – it’s necessary.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

E.ON has announced its planned acquisition of OVO, the UK residential energy supplier.

The transaction represents a significant investment by Germany-based E.ON Group into the UK market. It said the deal will accelerate consumer energy flexibility.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £2.6 million funding round in Edinburgh-based Esk Film Services.

The global entertainment technology company produces high-end live experiences for blue-chip brands such as Netflix, Paramount and BAFTA. The business specialises in licensing iconic IP from rightsholders and transforming it into impactful, live entertainment formats providing services to promotors and venue operators on an international scale.

The company has also developed a proprietary media control system, combining bespoke hardware and software to deliver reliable, high-quality audio-visual playback for live entertainment. Created in-house in response to repeated failures with incumbent solutions, the system is designed to deliver dependable synchronisation and performance in medium to large venues internationally.

Funding was provided by the Maven VCTs and the British Business Bank’s Investment Fund for Scotland, which is also managed by Maven.

BGF-backed hedgehog lab has announced a series of promotions among its senior team, as the Newcastle-headquartered global product design consultancy continues to set itself up for ambitious growth over the next few years.

Joe Thompson, hedgehog lab’s chief technology officer (CTO), has joined the company’s board. Joe has more than 25 years’ experience in the tech sector, and has been with hedgehog lab for the last two, having previously held senior roles at Xoomworks – part of global consultancy Accenture.

Ryan Scaife, previously hedgehog lab’s chief financial officer, has taken on an expanded role as the business’s new chief financial & operating officer (CFOO). He has been with hedgehog lab for more than three years, having previously held similar positions at Netsells and Epiphany Search.

Aimé Watson Bachini has also been promoted to director of people, as hedgehog lab steps up its plans to grow its headcount in the months ahead. Aimé has been with hedgehog lab since 2020, leading on HR, talent acquisition, and the development of its culture.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Nscale has raised an additional $790 million in financing to reinforce the continued development of its AI data centre in Narvik, Norway.

The financing has been committed by ABN AMRO, DNB, Eksfin, Nordea and SEB. It includes an additional $790m uncommitted accordion feature to fund a further 115MW expansion at the Narvik AI data centre.

Nscale recently raised $2 billion in Series C funding – led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries – and secured a $1.4bn delayed draw term loan. Former Deputy Prime Minister and Facebook executive Nick Clegg has also joined its board.

JustGiving has launched an AI-enabled fundraising coach to help fundraisers to achieve their fundraising goals – a first for the UK market.

Called Hope, the new fundraising coach will provide bespoke guidance to users of the UK’s largest fundraising platform, advising them on how to increase awareness and support for their challenge throughout their fundraising journey.

Internal research from JustGiving shows that the period after creating a fundraising page can be quite daunting for fundraisers who have committed to raise money for a good cause but aren’t sure how to reach their target. However, JustGiving data shows that every share a fundraising page receives is worth £63 in donations on average, highlighting the benefits to fundraisers of proactively promoting their challenges.

Hope has been developed to address this by providing support to fundraisers through their whole fundraising journey, helping them to generate and sustain momentum to drive more engagement and donations.

The tool operates through a dashboard with an integrated chatbot and is designed to deliver a human-first experience. Responsible use of generative AI is built in at key points to engender trust and confidence in the coach, ensuring it adds genuine value for fundraisers without unnecessary automation.

Hope will do this through capabilities including recommendations of personalised outreach messages, tailored advice on how to increase the visibility of fundraising pages and how to optimise on-page content.

Fundraisers are first asked a short series of questions to help Hope understand what help they need and the potential donors they want to reach. Hope then uses this information to provide tailored advice – helping to coach the users through their fundraising journey.

Lancashire-based Cegedim Rx, the leading provider of software and technology for pharmacists, has expanded its senior leadership team with the appointment of Andy Gent.

The appointment will see Andy, who has more than 12 years of experience within health technology, take the role of product director.

Having previously worked for the community pharmacy technology specialist for four years until his departure in 2023, Andy has also held roles across primary and secondary care with Optum (formerly EMIS) and TPP.

As product director Andy will be responsible for leading the continued development of Cegedim Rx’s award-winning system, Pharmacy Manager.

Propel Healthtech West Yorkshire has launched its second cohort of innovators, bringing together founders, partners and stakeholders from across the region’s health innovation ecosystem.

Following a record number of applications to the six-month accelerator, Propel has welcomed 30 new innovators to the programme, with an even split across its Start-Up and Scale-Up pathways.

The cohort reflects the breadth and strength of the region’s health innovation sector, with companies working across areas including artificial intelligence (AI), mental health and patient pathway transformation.

Together, these innovators represent an increase in the number of solutions designed to address key challenges across our local health and care system, including improving outcomes, enhancing experiences and supporting more efficient systems.

ThatRound, a platform bringing structure and transparency to UK early-stage fundraising, has closed a pre-seed round of funding.

The round was led by founder Bradley Jones and completed by a group of 20 angel investors from Aligned Syndicate. The round closed in two weeks and carries EIS qualification.

Since launch, over 500 founders have signed up while more than 1,500 structured funding applications have been submitted through the platform.

The funding will be used to expand ThatRound’s AI matching capabilities, develop its LLM-powered learning engine, and hire three new roles: an account executive, marketing executive and AI lead. The business has grown from a one-person operation to a team of nine in under a year.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Newcastle robotics firm Wootzano has resumed trading after the Court of Session in Edinburgh halted liquidation proceedings.

It followed the confirmation of approximately £237 million in contracted distribution agreements in a report submitted to the court.

The court granted a sist – a Scottish legal mechanism that pauses the liquidation process and allows a company to continue trading – in what is understood to be a rare outcome in UK insolvency cases.