Mavis Technologies, an assistive technology company, is set to transform the lives of blind and partially sighted people.

The Northampton firm has launched its revolutionary AI smart glasses, Mavis Viaro and Mavis Itero, which feature a range of life-enhancing capabilities that will provide increased independence and confidence for people who are blind or have low vision.

Designed through lived experience and developed specifically for blind and partially sighted users, the technology addresses a rapidly growing and underserved need in the UK and beyond. 

An estimated two million people in the UK currently live with significant sight loss, a figure expected to rise to more than four million by 2050. At the same time, traditional support solutions remain under pressure, with long waiting lists for guide dogs and many mainstream technologies still not built with visual impairment as the primary user need.

Mavis Technologies was created to solve that gap.

Founded by visually impaired computer scientist and engineer David Sikharulidze, the company was born from both academic research and personal determination. Living with high myopia and a lifelong risk of retinal detachment, Sikharulidze understood first-hand the daily barriers faced by people with sight loss. 

 

Orbital Industries has raised $50 million (£37m) in Series B funding, led by Plural.

The company is building industrial hardware from the atoms up to address the physical constraints of AI infrastructure.

Orbital Industries designs, engineers and manufactures physical infrastructure, using AI to accelerate how new technologies are discovered and brought to market. 

Transition Ventures, an early stage investment firm whose team has founded companies worth over $15 billion across software, hardware and deep tech, has closed a $150 million Fund II, taking its assets under management to over $300m.

The firm is founded on the belief that the most important companies of the next decades will be built at the intersection of AI and the physical world, leveraging the latest technologies to replace legacy systems with cleaner and more efficient alternatives. 

Transition Ventures has been an early investor in a number of notable companies, including Olix, Applied Atomics, Seneca and Upway.

Social impact measurement platform Thrive has announced the appointment of leading social value economist Dr Daniel Fujiwara as its first head of economics.

Fujiwara is set to lead its dedicated in-house economics team.

He co-authored HM Treasury’s Green Book supplementary guidance on wellbeing and is internationally recognised for his work on wellbeing valuation, social value and econometrics. He previously founded Simetrica, the social value research consultancy now part of Simetrica-Jacobs.

Zilch has appointed Florence Quirici as chief corporate affairs officer, joining the executive leadership team to lead global communications and public affairs.

Quirici joins from the Conservative Party, where she served as senior business advisor, and previously held senior public policy roles at Bloomberg and Standard Chartered.

The appointment comes as Zilch prepares for its next phase of international growth following the acquisition of Fjord Bank and the launch of its European banking licence.

With almost 6 million registered customers, over £7 billion in retail sales processed to date, and over £200 million annual revenue run rate, the company is gearing up to extend its model beyond the UK.

Commsworld, one of the UK’s largest independent network providers, has moved to strengthen its senior leadership team with the appointment of Melony Buchanan to the new role of Chief Revenue Officer.

Buchanan will lead the Edinburgh-headquartered company’s revenue strategy, with a clear focus on geographical, proposition and partnership expansion as part of a UK-wide growth roadmap. This roadmap will be centred around the continued evolution of the company’s portfolio to meet the changing needs of its customers in both the public and private sectors.

With more than 30 years of industry experience, Mel’s previous management positions range from Regional Sales Director to Managing Director of complex IT businesses.

Most recently at Capita, as Client Partner for Local and Regional Partnerships, she led strategy and delivery across its public sector portfolio, having previously overseen the highly-successful Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) as Managing Director.

Independent full-service marketing agency CNS Media has relocated its Manchester operations to a new office at Colony, Piccadilly as the business continues its growth across media, digital and creative services.

The move places the agency in the heart of Manchester city centre, just minutes from Piccadilly train station, providing improved access to clients, recruitment opportunities and collaborative working facilities.

Founded in Chesterfield in 2006, CNS Media now operates across Chesterfield, Manchester and Birmingham with a team of more than 43 specialists.

The new Manchester office comes following a period of sustained growth for the business, including recent promotions and new hires.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

IQE plc has raised £81 million, including substantial strategic investment from a US semiconductor firm, as revenue falls and losses deepen.

The Cardiff-based company is a supplier of compound semiconductor wafer products and advanced material solutions.

Following the conclusion of a strategic review, IQE announced a £45m strategic investment from MACOM Technology Solutions Inc. in the form of £30m of equity and £15m in new non-interest bearing convertible loan notes. 

Concurrently, IQE and MACOM also entered into long-term supply agreements while the latter’s COO Robert Dennehy and vice president David O’Carroll will be appointed as non-executive directors of IQE. 

The remainder of the fundraise comprised a £23m redemption and reinvestment of convertible loan notes by existing noteholders, as well as a £13m placing and retail offer.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Computacenter plc, an independent technology and services provider headquartered in Hertfordshire, has acquired Government Acquisitions Inc for an enterprise value of up to $92 million (£69m).

The acquired company is an IT solutions reseller focused on the US federal government market and the transaction has been cleared by the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

It is expected to close on 1st June 2026.

Bristol-based Symmetry has reported a strong financial performance for the 2025/26 financial year, completing its first year of employee ownership with turnover of almost £3m and profit of £449k.

The SaaS business, which operates the bluQube cloud-based accountancy platform, said revenue was supported by a stable revenue base, strong customer retention and continued demand from both new and existing customers.

Monument Bank, ‘the bank for the mass affluent’, has appointed Xavier De Pauw as director of lending.

De Pauw joins from Kennek, a VC-backed FinTech that he co-founded to build private credit infrastructure connecting non-bank lenders with institutional capital.

The platform onboarded approximately 30 lenders managing £1 billion in loans, specialising in UK bridging and development finance.

Earlier in his career, De Pauw co-founded MeDirect Bank, a PE-backed, ECB-regulated challenger bank focused on mass-affluent clients, deploying €6 billion across asset-backed structures, residential mortgages, leveraged finance loans and covered bonds.

As CEO of MeDirect Bank Belgium, he built the lending, credit investment business and digital mass-affluent savings & investment businesses while contributing to growing the group to 250 employees across three countries. He grew MeDirect Bank Belgium from zero to €1.5 billion in client deposits and investments over four years.

Friends, family and former colleagues of Abi Godfrey will today (May 28th) complete the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge in her memory. Godfrey, a director of Grant Thornton’s North West corporate finance business, died in February just two weeks after giving birth to her first baby, Leo. A £500,000 campaign has been launched to support Leo and his family. It currently stands at £83,000. You can donate here 

London has reclaimed its position as Europe’s leading tech ecosystem, overtaking Paris in the latest Dealroom Global Tech Ecosystem Index 2026 . 

Ranked fourth globally, the city remains one of the world’s top hubs as competition intensifies in the race to lead the next wave of AI and deep tech innovation.

The UK capital’s return to the top spot is driven by stronger venture capital investment, continued unicorn creation and its depth across sectors, reinforcing its position as Europe’s most established startup ecosystem. 

Mykor, a biotechnology company transforming industrial and agricultural waste into scalable low-carbon construction products, has secured £4 million in funding.

The round was led by Clean Growth Fund, with participation from the British Business Bank’s South Investment Fund via The FSE Group, Green Angel Ventures, and support from Innovate UK’s investor partnership programme. 

The latest raise brings total funding secured by the Bristol company to £7.5m, including £5.5m in equity investment and £2m in grant funding.

Go Swag, a tech-powered platform modernising corporate gifting, has raised £3.75 million in a funding round led by Mercia Ventures.

Go Swag enables global brands to deliver premium, on-brand gifts worldwide, and works with over 1,000 companies, including Meta, Apple, ElevenLabs, Netflix and n8n. With a 30-person team based in Glasgow, Go Swag has achieved five consecutive years of triple-digit compound annual growth (112% CAGR) and is now expanding into the United States.

Techstart Ventures and strategic angel investors joined the round, which brings its total funding to $6.2m.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Mia Drennan is representing the UK in the 2026 EY World Entrepreneur of the Year finals in Monaco this week.

Drennan, founder and CEO of GLAS, is among finalists from 46 countries.

Before GLAS, she built BNY Mellon’s EMEA Trustee and Agency business and held senior finance roles throughout the industry.

“Entrepreneurship has given me freedom, confidence and the ability to believe I can do anything I put my mind to and overcome any challenge that comes my way. It has helped me discover how resilient I am,” she said.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Pure Data Centres Group has secured £2 billion in financing.

The London firm is one of the fastest-growing hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure platforms across Europe and the Middle East.

The financing includes a £1.6bn facility secured against Pure DC’s Dublin and Amsterdam campuses, alongside an increase in its corporate-level financing to around £410m. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in Manchester spinout company Nanoco have dropped 55% in trading today after it said this morning that it is looking to delist from the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

Nanoco Group plc, headquartered in Runcorn, develops and manufactures cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials. These are used in monitors, TVs and infra-red sensors.

In 2024 it began cutting jobs in an attempt to preserve cash as it explored a sale via financial advisor CDX Advisors. However in January this year it said it had terminated that process and it said this morning it would seek shareholder approval to delist.

Thorntons has advised Hosel, an innovative golf comparison marketplace platform described as ‘Skyscanner for golf’, on a successful £500,000 fundraising round.

The round was led by London-based venture capital firm Ascension Ventures.

The transaction was supported by Thorntons’ Ventures and Innovations team, who provided strategic legal advice throughout the fundraising process.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Pets at Home has seen its shares rise 8% in trading today despite reporting a big drop in profits in its latest annual results.

New CEO James Bailey painted a positive picture. A former boss at Waitrose, he was appointed to lead a turnaround following the sudden departure of McGowan, a former McKinsey consultant and Sky executive with no retail experience.

He has been in post for just a few weeks. Sarah Pollard, formerly of PZ Cussons, has also taken over the CFO role from the retiring Mike Iddon this month.