Ocado (+16.77%) was the biggest winner on the entire FTSE All-Share today as it spiked following data from NielsenIQ, which showed that it leads in grocery retail growth over the last 12 weeks.

Evoke (+11.44%) rose substantially today on the back of the news that it is considering a potential sale to maximise shareholder value. The board has appointed Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc and Rothschild & Co as its joint financial advisers in connection with an upcoming strategic review.

Other risers today within the technology scene were Trainline (+2.96%), Paypoint (+1.69%) and TT Electronics (+1.49%).

On the flip side, Kainos Group (-6.81%) dropped today after a hugely successful month. It marks a stark contrast to the 28% jump it had experienced in the prior 30 days.

Auction Technology Group (-4.55%) also slid after releasing its annual report for FY25.

Other notable slips today included Ceres Power (-4.09%), Moonpig (-4.02%) and NCC Group (-3.21%).

UK robotics and AI firm Dexory has appointed its first chief financial officer in Bas Lustenhouwer.

Lustenhouwer’s background includes senior CFO roles and more extensive experience in investment banking.

He was previously CFO at Nivoda, a global B2B marketplace for the jewellery industry, and prior to that served the same role at fellow Dutch firm Klup, a social network for the over-50s.

The move comes as the company continues to build momentum following its £125m Series C funding raise in October, eyeing further global expansion.

Its real-time data and robotics platform is used by GXO, Maersk, DHL and others.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Scissero has acquired the managed services team of Robin AI in a move that the company says will create a London-based LegalTech powerhouse.

The combined business is to serve large international clients, including major investment houses, as well as FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 firms.

The deal significantly expands Scissero’s reach, boosting its client base to more than 100 companies, and combines its AI-enabled legal services and specialist knowledge in asset management and capital markets with Robin’s global footprint and established managed services customer base.

Robin was put up for sale in late October after falling short of its fundraising targets, putting nearly 200 jobs at risk.

Newcastle-based legal-AI startup AttiFin AI has raised £5 million in seed funding ahead of a planned launch in early 2026, aiming to build what it says will be Britain’s first enterprise-grade AI platform trained specifically on UK and devolved law.

The round lands as the domestic legal market continues to expand and LegalTech funding accelerates, with investors backing tools that can handle jurisdiction-specific complexity.

Backed by the founders of Scrumconnect, AttiFin is leaning on its team’s criminal-justice track record to shape a product focused on the nuances of UK legal practice.

The funding will support a Newcastle relocation and the hiring of at least 25 technical roles over the next year.

Kodiaq Technologies, a University of Cambridge spin-out developing organic, metal-free electrolytes for long-duration energy storage, has raised £850,000 from more than 20 high-net-worth investors.

The funding will help the company refine its UK-developed electrolytes, which it says can boost flow-battery energy density and cut the cost per unit of storage compared with lithium or vanadium systems.

Kodiaq’s capital-light plan is to retrofit existing flow batteries first, then co-develop next-generation systems with OEMs and integrators, aiming for pilot deployments ahead of a larger raise in mid-2026.

Bolt Insight has secured a £7 million funding round led by Pembroke VCT, with Pembroke putting in £3.5m alongside 212, Active Partners, Velocity and TIBAS Ventures.

The cash will be used to scale BoltChatAI globally and push the business beyond project-based research towards an always-on, AI-moderated insights platform, including a planned “assistant AI chief insights officer” for brands.

Led by former Unilever strategist Hakan Yurdakul and CTO Kerem Turgay, the business now employs around 50 people across London, Istanbul, Paris, New York and Singapore.

The company says its platform has already run more than 5m consumer interviews across 90 markets and counts 11 of the top 15 global CPG groups among its clients, with a reported 90% renewal rate.

Cloud Direct has named Leighton Searle as its new CEO, bringing in a long-time Microsoft leader with more than 25 years in the sector and almost two decades spent driving cloud, data and AI transformation at Microsoft.

He replaces founder Brett Raynes, who will move into an executive chair role and continue to steer strategy and product development.

The Bath-based Microsoft partner has grown to around 150 staff across the UK and South Africa, delivering 26% year-on-year revenue growth and holding top-tier Azure, Data & AI, Modern Workplace and Security accreditations.

Voltempo has appointed Simon Smith as CEO to lead the next stage of growth and delivery of its eFREIGHT 2030 project, which aims to build the UK’s largest depot-based electric HGV charging network.

The move comes as the Birmingham-based firm begins series production of its Megawatt Charging System HyperCharger, a key step in scaling ultra-fast charging for heavy freight.

Founder Michael Boxwell will move into a corporate development officer role focused on innovation, partnerships and policy engagement, while John Fox has joined as COO, bringing deep engineering and clean-mobility experience from Indra Renewable Technologies, Rolls-Royce and GE Aviation.

The refreshed leadership team is designed to accelerate commercial rollout in the UK and support international expansion in zero-emission transport infrastructure.

BGF has appointed Sagacity Solutions CEO and co-founder Anita Dougall as a non-executive director.

Dougall has scaled the consumer data intelligence business since 2005 and it ranked second in the Independent E2E Forum’s 100 fastest-growing female-led UK businesses in 2025.

Her background spans senior roles in investment banking at NatWest Markets and credit strategy leadership at One2One (now EE).

The board shake-up also sees long-serving non-executive director Alice Avis stepping down in April 2026, as BGF continues its wider push to back UK growth companies, including a £300 million commitment to female-powered businesses within its £3 billion investment pledge.

Club L London has reported a record FY24-25, with turnover rising 48% year-on-year to £65.9 million and gross profit up 62% to £37.8m.

Profit before tax for the premium womenswear and lifestyle brand jumped to £14m from £3.1m, pushing margins from 6.9% to 21.1%, while net assets grew to £16.6m.

The performance was driven largely by international expansion, with especially strong growth in the US, Australia, the Middle East and several European markets supported by localisation efforts.

Investments in infrastructure and technology, including a dedicated US third-party logistics facility, have helped improve delivery speeds and customer experience as the brand scales globally.

Listed independent technology group Cohort plc has posted a solid first half, with revenue up 9% to £128.8 million, helped by growth across most of its businesses.

Adjusted operating profit dipped slightly to £9.7m and margins eased to 7.5%, largely due to a mix shift in Sensors and Effectors and planned lower-margin deliveries on a major Italian sonar programme.

Management kept full-year expectations unchanged and lifted the interim dividend 10% to 5.8p.

EMV Capital has backed another raise for portfolio firm Wanda Connected Health Systems, which has closed at £860,000 following strong US commercial momentum.

The funding combines £600,000 in equity, a £260,000 loan facility and a further £600,000 from exercised warrants, and will be used to scale operations with key US customers and deepen product development.

After the round, EMV Capital holds 16.5% of Wanda, valuing its stake at about £1.7 million, while EMV-syndicated third-party holdings in the business have risen to 29.6% – worth roughly £3.1m.

Wanda says demand is being driven by US health plans and employers seeking better chronic-disease and GLP-1 management, with the company targeting more than $5m ARR by the end of 2026.

The firm has also appointed former Greenbrook Healthcare founder Michael Steel as chair.

Lloyds Banking Group has named Peter Fitzgerald as its new chief investment officer, taking over from Kevin Doran who departs early next year after leading the group’s investment proposition.

Fitzgerald will run investment strategy and fund management across Scottish Widows and the recently acquired Schroders Personal Wealth arm, as Lloyds pushes for a stronger, more integrated customer offer.

He joins the FTSE 100 firm from Aviva Investors, where he was CIO for Multi-Asset & Macro, overseeing a global team managing more than £100bn.

With 25 years in multi-asset investing and macro strategy, he also brings senior experience from BNP Paribas Wealth Management and Insinger de Beaufort.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Cambridge-based Nu Quantum has closed an oversubscribed £45 million Series A funding round.

The round was led by National Grid Partners, with participation from Gresham House Ventures and Morpheus Ventures, as well as continued backing from Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital, Ahren Capital, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, East Innovate, NSSIF and Sumitomo (Presidio Ventures).

The fresh capital will be used to accelerate the firm’s push toward fault-tolerant, distributed quantum computing – a route the company believes is the most realistic way to unlock the projected $1 trillion quantum computing market

Author: Jamie Roberts, managing partner, YFM

The most successful initial private equity meetings share a counterintuitive trait: they feel less like presentations and more like a conversation over coffee. Yet founders repeatedly make the same missteps, mistaking polish for preparation and performance for partnership potential.

It’s not Dragons’ Den. It’s not a bank meeting. It’s a two-way chat between people who could, if all goes well, be working together for years. And while every meeting is different, the same themes, and the same mistakes, pop up again and again.

Our investment team conducts hundreds of first meetings annually.

So what works – and what doesn’t?

Project Four Building Safety Experts (P4) has reported that annual turnover is up 53.6% from £2.83 million in 2024 to £4.35m in 2025, driven by rising demand for Building Safety Act consultancy and growing repeat work. 

The firm says expansion of its national technical team and its focus on practical compliance advice have helped it win bigger mandates across the UK. 

Now in its ninth year, P4 operates from Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and London, with Birmingham next on the roadmap for 2026. 

The business has more than 200 active clients and a target of £11m turnover by 2030.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Made Tech has seen its revenues rise significantly for the six months to 30th November, with it spiking by 27% year-on-year to £27.7 million.

The London-listed firm, which provides digital, data and technology services to the UK public sector, also expects adjusted EBITDA to climb a third to around £2.4m, helped by better operational efficiency despite a higher-than-ideal contractor mix.

Cash generation also stayed solid, leaving the group with net cash of £11.9m and no debt, reinforcing the “capital-efficient, technology-enabled platform” model it has been pushing over the last two years.

The board now expects FY26 trading to be “significantly ahead” of market expectations, guiding to revenue about 10% higher than forecasts and pointing to improving EBITDA margins.

Optima Health Plc has reported an increase in half-year revenues – but EBITDA was down ‘reflecting the impact of National Insurance increases and plc costs’.

Optima – founded in 1947 and headquartered in Sheffield with bases in several UK cities – is a provider of technology enabled corporate health and wellbeing solutions.

For the six months to 30th September 2025, revenue was £59.5 million, 17% up on the previous year.

Adjusted EBITDA was £8.3m, down from £8.7m in HY 25.

During the period, it acquired Irish firm Cognate Health, the group’s first acquisition outside of the UK.

Listed IT managed services provider Redcentric plc has reported a fall in half-year profits – but profit before tax was up.

The Harrogate-based firm, which is in the process of selling its data centre division for £127m, reported £66.8m revenue for the six months ended 30th September 2025 – down 3.6% on the prior year.

Profit before tax was £1.9m, up 18.7%.

The company appointed Michelle Senecal de Fonseca, formerly a non-executive director, as CEO in May 2025 after Brian Woodford had lasted just two months in the role.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Netcall plc has acquired Jadu, a Leicester-based provider of digital experience platforms, in a deal worth a potential £19.2 million.

The initial consideration is for £15.2m, with a £4m potential earn-out.

Netcall, headquartered in Bedford, is a listed provider of intelligent automation and customer engagement software.

It says the deal expands its presence in UK local government from around a third to a half of local councils, while also supporting international growth via an established US partner channel and customer base.