Bite-size news and insight from UK business and tech – including funding, deals and appointments
Published: April 6, 2026 at 9:40 pm
Fast-growing cybersecurity recruitment firm Hubscale has strengthened its Manchester headquarters.
In the last year, the company has grown from one office with nine staff to three offices around the world and 26 staff.
After securing an office in London, Hubscale has acquired the leasehold of a 3,825 sq ft office on the fourth floor of Annex, 15 Quay Street.
Elliott White, founder of Hubscale, said: “We’re really pleased to be moving into Annex. It’s a natural next step for us as the team continues to grow.
“Manchester’s been a brilliant place for us so far. There’s a strong talent pool here and a real sense of momentum, which fits how we like to work.
“The new office gives us the room to keep building the team, but just as importantly it’s somewhere people will actually enjoy being day to day.”
LEVEL advised Hubscale on the leasehold acquisition.
Joe Averill, managing director at LEVEL, said: “We’re delighted to have supported Hubscale in securing space at Annex.
“Manchester continues to attract high-growth, innovative businesses, and this deal reflects the ongoing demand for well-located, high-quality office space in the city centre.”
Freya Sharpe, commercial surveyor at JLL, said: “We’re pleased to have secured Hubscale as a tenant at Annex.”
Published: April 6, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Investor Mercia Ventures is the latest sponsor of BusinessCloud’s new Founder 250 list.
Mercia Ventures is one of the UK’s leading seed and Series A investors and is looking to back ambitious founders.
They join our three other sponsors – leading audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK, fast-growing law firm CG and property specialist OBI.
BusinessCloud’s Founder 250 list is searching for the UK’s top 250 founder-led or founder-influenced businesses that are truly moving the dial – whether that influence comes from a founder as CEO, chairman or in another board role.
To qualify, companies must have a significant UK presence, be cash-generative, and have been founded no later than 2024.
While not essential, judges will also favour businesses with a clear purpose, including B Corp status, ESG strategies or a commitment to charity or social impact initiatives.
The deadline for nominations is April 30.
Nominations have been pouring in since the list was launched last week while our new Naked Founder podcast entered Apple’s top 100 podcast charts.
Published: April 6, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Ten weeks ago, 20 candidates set out to become Lord Sugar’s latest business partner in the 20th series of The Apprentice.
The 2026 series started in Hong Kong and has also included tasks in Egypt and the Isle of Wight.
Now only five candidates, Priyesh Bathia, Pascha Myhill, Lawrence Rosenberg, Dan Miller and Karishma Vijay, remain to try to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.
On Thursday, the remaining five will have their business plans picked apart by Lord Sugar’s hard-nosed associates to see which two make it through to the grand final.
BusinessCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire looks at the remaining five candidates and predicts it will be a shoot-out between social media expert Karishma Vijay and established entrepreneur Dan Miller.
Published: April 4, 2026 at 8:14 am
Estate agent Kieran McCartney was good to his word when he walked from the competition after his team failed to secure victory as project manager.
McCartney had made the promise to Lord Sugar at the end of the previous episode and went ‘walkies’ when his team narrowly lost a challenge to create a new pet product for major UK retailers.
Student wellbeing adviser and keen baker Rothna Akhtar was also fired after ending up on the losing team and failing to secure any sales.
It leaves the final five candidates – Priyesh Bathia, Pascha Myhill, PR specialist Lawrence Rosenberg, Dan Miller and Karishma Vikay – all competing for Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.
Published: April 3, 2026 at 8:17 am
Sandy Lindsay has sold her remaining shares in Manchester-based PR and social agency Tangerine to co-CEOs Sam Gregory and Mary Harding.
Gregory and Harding have increased their shareholding to 36 per cent as a result, and the news comes just weeks after winning Head of Agency at the Campaign UK Awards.
Back in 2017, Tangerine made history when it became the first creative agency in the UK to go employee-owned.
Gregory said: “The co-CEO partnership that Mary and I have developed over the years is grounded in trust, unwavering support and a vision to make a difference.
“We have always shared a belief that our industry can be better and a determination to challenge the status quo and push it forward.
“That belief has shaped the business we’ve built: one that’s grown into a national and international force, powered by brilliant people and exceptional clients who share our ambition to stay ahead and do work that truly matters.
“Tonight, I’ll be raising a glass to all of you who’ve been part of the journey so far, but especially to Mary. I now pronounce us work wife and work wife!”
Published: April 3, 2026 at 7:28 am
Rochdale Development Agency (RDA) has appointed Rachel Laver as its new managing director.
Most recently, Laver served as chief executive officer at Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, where she championed sustainability focused investment, business growth and a culture of innovation.
Prior to this, she led the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) as CEO, delivering multi-million pound regeneration initiatives
She has successfully overseen £50m+ projects across the environmental, transport and education sectors, and is widely recognised for translating ambitious regional priorities into long-term, measurable outcomes.
Laver joins RDA at a pivotal moment, as Rochdale Town of Culture 2025 shines a national spotlight on the borough’s creative identity, community spirit and cultural ambition.
Published: April 2, 2026 at 4:12 pm
Manchester-headquartered delivery tech firm Sorted Group Holdings is set to be sold for £1, subject to shareholder approval.
The news comes just two years after Location Sciences completed its reverse takeover of the delivery tech platform Sorted in a £66.73m reverse takeover deal.
Since the acquisition, the board has undertaken a significant restructure, including reducing staff numbers from 90 to 37, closing its London office, and selling its Clicksit App for £775,000.
In a statement to the LSE this morning, the company said: “Notwithstanding the above progress, as a Software as a Service business that remains in its growth phase of development, it remains apparent to the board that the business continues to require significant cash consumption in order to scale and reach profitability in the medium term.
“The board believes that committing further significant investment towards enhancing elements of the business is not in the best interests of shareholders.”
The disposal will take place in the form of the sale by SHL to the buyer of the entire issued share capital of SGL for a nominal cash consideration of £1 and become an AIM ‘cash shell’.
Published: April 2, 2026 at 4:10 pm
Tributes have been paid to Eamonn Boylan OBE, former chief executive of Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).
Boylan led GMCA and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) from 2017, and TfGM from 2019, through the defining years of English devolution.
Under his leadership, both GMCA and TfGM became trailblazers for devolution, unlocking new powers and responsibilities for Greater Manchester and taking buses back under public control for the first time in 40 years.
He also steered the city region through the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack in 2017 and the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2023, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to local government.
He retired from GMCA in 2024, going on to serve as interim chief executive of Manchester City Council and Homes England.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “This is a devastating loss, and my thoughts today are with Eamonn’s family, friends, and all those who knew him.
“Eamonn was the public servant’s public servant, and a giant of English devolution. He led from the front but was rarely in the spotlight, taking every opportunity to lift up and empower those around him.”
Published: April 2, 2026 at 1:02 pm
The chairman of Physiomics plc has been accused of ‘personally derailing’ a boardroom coup and putting himself before the needs of the company.
Physiomics is a mathematical modelling, data science and biometrics company which supports the development of new therapeutics and personalised medicine solutions.
Non-executive chair Dr Jim Millen is set to become executive chair ‘for as long as is needed’ when CEO Dr Peter Sargent departs on 29th May 2026.
Dr Millen was formerly the CEO of the Oxfordshire company from 2016 to 2024, during which time he grew the business from total income of under £300k to a peak of over £900k, as well as securing a major contract with long-term client Merck KGaA and kicking off the company’s personalised medicine initiative.
However last month Physiomics was forced to cancel a share placing and retail offer when an activist shareholder group – led by Michael Whitlow – sought to replace its entire board and accused corporate leadership of “severe erosion of shareholder value” via dilution.
A revised placing and retail offer was then announced. An insider told BusinessCloud that the dissident group has confidence in the operational team – but trust had been eroded in the corporate leadership.
Now sources have informed us of what they call a “disheartening sequence of events”.
Published: April 2, 2026 at 9:09 am
Circular economy eCommerce group Huddled is to rebrand as Peeko while it has also revealed changes in its leadership team.
Huddled Group plc, which is listed on London’s junior AIM market, will consolidate all of its existing websites into one single destination store under the new brand.
Huddled said the move will significantly reduce the company’s operating costs.
The Leigh-headquartered group acquired the Discount Dragon, Nutricircle and Boop Beauty brands with the mission of selling surplus stock and therefore reducing waste. It says that millions of perfectly good products go to waste every year due to packaging changes, excess production and cancelled orders.
Mike Ashley, previously a non-executive director at Huddled, stepped into the CEO role last summer and will now move to a part-time consultancy position and step down from the board with immediate effect.
COO Paul Simpson has also stepped down from the board and will transition to a consultancy role. Simpson co-founded Food Circle Supermarket (now Nutricircle) in 2017 with just £4,000 of startup capital from his parents’ garage and completed a 100% exit to Huddled in April 2024.
Published: April 2, 2026 at 8:59 am
Business technology solutions provider Brother UK has appointed Julie Harrison as chief commercial officer to its senior leadership team.
Harrison previously serves as head of commercial and business planning, a role she has held as part of a career spanning more than three decades with the business.
She brings extensive experience across commercial operations, including promotions, rebates and bid management, as well as sales forecasting and budget planning.
Based in Tameside, Greater Manchester, Brother UK provides print, scan and labelling technology to home users and organisations of all sizes through a partner-led go-to-market model.
Published: April 2, 2026 at 8:36 am
Monzo is pulling out of the United States to focus on the UK and Europe.
The digital bank launched in the US in 2020 with a debit card but withdrew its application for a banking licence the following year.
Despite initially claiming it still had “big ambitions” for the region, it has now taken the decision to close its accounts for existing customers by June. It has stopped onboarding new customers.
Published: April 2, 2026 at 7:59 am
Tracsis plc, a Leeds-based transport technology provider, has acquired Vesputi GmbH.
The bolt-on acquisition expands Tracsis’ digital ticketing capability and establishes a small operational foothold in the German public transport market.
Gross initial consideration for the deal is £5.1m and includes net cash of £700,000, funded from Tracsis’ existing cash resources, with additional consideration of up to £2.1m.
Published: April 1, 2026 at 3:37 pm
The biggest tech stocks winner on the FTSE 100 index in March was IG Group Holdings PLC.
The only other tech and engineering stocks on the London Stock Exchange’s premium index to gain value in the month were BAE Systems, The Sage Group, Entain and Vodafone Group.
The biggest tech, investment and engineering losers on the index were M&G, Rolls-Royce Holdings and Rightmove.
Published: April 1, 2026 at 3:36 pm
The top three winners on the FTSE 250 index in February were tech and investment stocks, specifically Trustpilot Group PLC, Raspberry Pi Holdings PLC and Trainline PLC.
The biggest losers on the London Stock Exchange index which have an association with the tech sector were finance firm Shawbook Group Plc, telecoms company Gamma Communications PLC and technology retailer Currys PLC.
Published: April 1, 2026 at 1:00 pm
London Stock Exchange Group has announced a multi-year cloud collaboration with Dell Technologies.
The deal will see LSEG optimise its existing on-premises infrastructure and build a new private cloud platform.
The new platform will strengthen resilience and performance across a number of LSEG’s data & analytics and markets platforms that operate outside of LSEG’s existing public cloud environments.
Published: April 1, 2026 at 12:21 pm
Scotland’s industry-led technology accelerator STAC has completed its second investment round, backing three companies whose technologies sit at the heart of national priorities – from quantum computing and housing management to offshore wind infrastructure inspection.
The £772,000 round, co-invested by STAC Invest syndicate, brings investment to Quantcore Technologies, Vuabl and Airspection.
All three have completed STAC’s intensive 18-month accelerator programme with Vuabl and Airspection establishing their first HQ’s at thebeyond, STAC’s 22,000 sq ft technology hub at Skypark in Glasgow.
Quantcore Technologies receives £250,000 from STAC Invest in a £2.5m co-investment round. A spin-out from the University of Glasgow, Quantcore is the only company in the UK manufacturing niobium-based superconducting circuits, operating from the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre. Its technology is central to the quantum hardware supply chain that UK government strategy now explicitly depends upon.
Vuabl receives £222,000, co-invested by STAC Invest. The company has developed software that uses the LIDAR sensors built into modern smartphones to scan properties and generate comprehensive condition reports, covering 3D modelling, energy performance (EPC ratings), structural condition and early detection of damp or mould.
Airspection receives £300,000. The company has developed an autonomous drone that harnesses wind as energy to fly in extreme weather conditions, hovering with precision over offshore wind turbines to carry out structural inspection and maintenance surveys. It removes the need to send engineers into hazardous environments and dramatically cuts the cost and time of inspection at scale.
Beyond offshore wind, the technology has clear applications in surveying critical national infrastructure, power lines, railway networks and coastal assets, immediately following extreme weather events, enabling faster damage assessment and recovery at low cost.
Published: April 1, 2026 at 11:47 am
Semarion, a University of Cambridge spin-out company from the Cavendish Laboratory, has raised £2.9 million.
The firm combines materials engineering and cell biology to tackle unmet drug screening needs.
The fundraise was led by Parkwalk, and joined by The FSE Group, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Oxford Innovation Finance, Found Capital, Cambridge Capital Group, and Start Codon.
The investment will facilitate commercial expansion and scale manufacturing of the company’s SemaCyte platform which enables adherent cell models to be handled as assay-ready, barcoded reagents for more flexible, data-rich, scalable drug discovery.
Semarion’s technology has already been adopted by leading global pharmaceutical organisations, including top 10 pharma companies, across the US and Europe, with multiple pilot programs progressing towards broader commercial rollout.
Published: April 1, 2026 at 11:37 am
Databricks has announced plans to invest more than $850 million in the UK over the next three years, significantly expanding its presence.
The data and AI giant will quadruple its London office footprint with a new 137,000-square-foot headquarters which will act as the company’s new EMEA hub.
Databricks has a growing UK and Ireland team of over 500 people, and this is expected to surpass over 1,000 people over the next few years.
Strategically located in Fitzrovia, the expanded space continues to place Databricks at the heart of the UK data and AI ecosystem, strengthening partnerships with many customers in the region, including Unilever, Rolls Royce, Nationwide, Virgin Atlantic, Department for Education, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Octopus Energy and Flo Health.
Its local customers include over 50% of the FTSE 100 Index.
Published: April 1, 2026 at 11:14 am
UK running specialist SportsShoes.com says building a native app has driven up revenues and deepened customer loyalty.
The retailer – founded in 1982 and now a £100 million-plus business – developed the app as part of a broader shift away from legacy systems towards a composable digital architecture.
SportsShoes.com says the move improved commercial performance and reduced reliance on paid acquisition, without increasing internal headcount or compromising brand control.
Since going live, the app has attracted close to 300,000 downloads and, at peak periods, can account for up to 20% of total revenue.
App users consistently outperform web-only customers, with higher conversion rates, higher average order values and increased purchase frequency, the firm says.
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