Emerald has raised £1.4m pre-seed investment to ‘close the loop on preventive health’.

The HealthTech pairs every member with a dedicated GP who can review the personalised action plan and, where appropriate, diagnose, prescribe, and guide that person’s next steps.

It says that users build a cohesive and consistent story that moves with them – the antithesis of the fragmented system they’re used to. The journey starts with Emerald’s Baseline, a comprehensive blood test covering 115+ biomarkers, available at 50+ locations across the UK.

The round was led by Boost Capital Partners, with participation from Mark Fountain (Founder of HBS UK, acquired by AXA in 2024), Granatus Ventures, and a lineup of angel investors including Premier League footballers and successful tech founders.

The firm has also secured regulatory approvals.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust are using advanced digital technologies to develop a smart staff scheduling system that will ease complex rota planning, reduce clinician admin time and support staff wellbeing.

The work is the first phase of a new strategic agreement to collaborate using advanced digital technologies and AI to tackle practical challenges in the NHS, to improve staff wellbeing and resilience for even better patient care.

One of Europe’s biggest and busiest children’s hospitals, Alder Hey provides 24-hour care, balancing planned surgery with emergency demand. Making sure the right staff with the right skills are available at all times requires careful and complex rota planning.

Senior clinicians can spend considerable time each month managing rotas using manual spreadsheets, juggling annual leave, absences, working patterns and on-call rules, while maintaining staff wellbeing and service continuity.

As service demands continue to grow, the Trust identified the need for a modern, reliable scheduling system that frees up valuable clinician time, whilst supporting staff wellbeing, operational efficiency and patient care.

Under a new joint statement of endeavour, the Hartree Centre and Alder Hey have been exploring how advanced digital technologies can transform staff scheduling for the NHS.

In close collaboration with clinicians, the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation team has developed an AI-driven system that automatically generates balanced on-call schedules. By incorporating real-world factors such as annual leave, working patterns and staff skills, it can produce rotas that are fair, practical, and more predictable.

A user-friendly interface enables clinicians to review and adjust schedules quickly, maintaining human oversight while replacing manual spreadsheets with a more efficient and reliable approach.

Robinhood UK is launching a stocks & shares ISA.

It says the ISA combines zero platform fees, commissions, low FX fees and a 2% cash bonus, giving UK investors a simpler, more rewarding way to invest tax-efficiently.

Customers can earn 2% back on new eligible ISA contributions when they fund their account before 5th April 2026.

InsurTech Pembridge Life has launched webuylifepolicy.com, a secondary market for term-based life insurance in the UK.

The new platform provides a compliant, consumer-centric alternative for policyholders who intend to let their life insurance lapse, allowing them to sell their policies for a cash sum rather than walking away with nothing.

In the current UK market, when a customer decides they no longer need a term assurance policy, often due to a mortgage being repaid or a change in financial circumstances, the policy simply lapses. The customer receives no payment, the broker loses future commission, and the years of premium payments yield no residual value.

Webuylifepolicy.com provides an alternative solution this cycle by purchasing these policies, ensuring customers are not left entirely out of pocket and providing brokers with a Consumer Duty-friendly alternative to simple cancellation.

While new in the UK, the concept of life settlements is a well-established multi-billion-dollar industry in other global markets, such as the United States.

Net Zero Industry Wales, in partnership with Acre, has today revealed a new Clean Energy Investment Prospectus for Wales outlining the potential to unlock over £20bn of investment over the next decade.

The Prospectus acts as a ‘one-stop shop’ for investors and developers looking for new opportunities within the clean energy sector in Wales.

This builds on the momentum which has already seen Wales secure £4.6bn of global inward investment across 65 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects — strengthening its position in fast-growing sectors such as AI and semiconductors.

This is coupled with the Welsh Government’s recent Investment Summit, at which was announced £16bn of investment across various sectors and included commitments from RWE, Eni, and Vantage Data Centres for investment across Wales.

Video games developer Climax Studios has taken 24,000 sq ft of space at Lakeside North Harbour on the south coast.

The deal sees Climax relocate its headquarters to the 130 acre the Portsmouth business campus, further strengthening Lakeside’s occupier mix and its appeal to technology and creative sector businesses.

Founded in the city over 35 years ago, Climax Studios, part of the Keywords group, is one of the UK’s most established development studios and works with global brands including Sony, Microsoft and Ubisoft.

The studio has played a key role in major franchises, including Age of Empires IV, Flight Simulator and Assassins Creed.

Schneider Electric has appointed David Hall as the zone president of the UK and Ireland (UK&I).

Hall, who has spent nine years with the company, will focus on spearheading strategic growth across the UK & Ireland as the energy landscapes in both markets undergo a rapid transformation.

He previously held the post of senior vice president for industrial automation strategic accounts.

Double Olympic gold medallist Matt Richards is spearheading the launch of Sponza, a new SportTech platform designed to modernise how brands discover, connect with and activate athletes.

Richards reached the top of international swimming early in his career, becoming one of the youngest Olympic gold medallists in British history at Tokyo 2020 before going on to secure a second Olympic title and multiple world-level medals in recent years. 

Yet despite competing – and winning – at the highest level, he experienced firsthand how slow, opaque and relationship-dependent sponsorship processes can be.

Vistar Media, a global provider of technology solutions for out-of-home (OOH) media, has appointed Oliver Goodge as enterprise sales director, EMEA.

In this newly created role, Goodge will lead the expansion of Vistar Media’s enterprise solutions across the region, partnering closely with media owners and retailers to modernise digital out-of-home (DOOH) operations and drive new revenue growth.

Rebecca Griffin has been appointed chief risk officer at specialist lender Afin Bank. Joining from 118 118 Money – where she held the same role – Griffin brings over 15 years of financial services experience.

With a foundation in accountancy at some of the UK’s big four firms, Griffin transitioned into compliance and finance spending almost 12 years at Hinckley & Rugby Building Society, helping to build the mutual’s compliance function and rising to CRO.

Afin Bank helps underserved borrowers who can struggle to get mortgages because of their unique circumstances, such as the self-employed, qualified professionals, high-net-worth borrowers and people from overseas living and working in the UK on a valid work visa.

New York firm XR has acquired UK business affairs specialist Telly Traffic.

London-based Telly Traffic works with many of the UK’s leading agencies and production partners.

XR says the move brings nearly two decades of TV clearance and delivery expertise directly into its platform, rather than treating business affairs as a manual back-office task.

The combined offer is specifically designed for advertisers and agencies that need to move faster across channels without increasing their compliance exposure.

Paraglide, an agentic AI product for accounts receivable, has raised a £3.6 million seed round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and DN Capital, with participation from Born Capital and The Nordic Web Ventures.

The funding will support the London startup’s expansion across Europe as demand for agentic automation in finance operations grows.

Built for high-volume B2B finance teams, Paraglide deploys AI agents that automate two-way billing communication across the AR lifecycle.

The agents respond to customers’ billing questions, chase overdue invoices, and take action across the financial stack to reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and improve cash flow.

Qflow has raised £2 million from Nasdaq-listed Autodesk, Inc.

The London startup said this marks a major step in its ambitious plan to link construction data back with design intent and builds on its existing product collaboration with Autodesk Construction Cloud.

Founded by Jade Cohen and Brittany Harris, Qflow reconciles construction data on real-time material quality, quantity and supply-chain intelligence back into design data.

It strives to enable construction teams to identify and resolve material-related issues before they cause delays, rework, or budget overruns.

Incard, a financial platform for high-growth digital companies, has raised £10m Series A funding.

The firm says the move that will bring greater financial control and agility to more eCommerce brands, agencies, affiliates and resellers.

The funding round was led by Smartfin, with participation from Founders Capital, MountFund and top-tier angel investors.

Incard directly addresses a problem that CEO Theo Cesarini and his co-founders Soraya Tribouillois, Liam Seskis and Matteo Martino experienced first-hand as serial entrepreneurs.

The banking system is fragmented, and owner-founders are often juggling between various apps, systems and spreadsheets to keep track of their cashflow, invoicing and ad spending. Incard’s co-founders decided to create a solution that would do this in one place, and in a way that keeps pace with the growth of digital businesses. The company is building what it describes as a financial operating system, an orchestration layer that sits on top of banking, payments and financial tools, and adapts them to the way modern digital businesses actually run.

The Incard platform gives users access to business banking, corporate cards with built-in rewards, and connected banking accounts in a single interface. Companies can extend the platform with tools from the Incard App Store that are suitable for their industry and growth stage. Users can also access invoicing and spend management, alongside cashback on key business expenses. Additional tools support treasury, working capital and other financial needs.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The chair of ZOO Digital Group plc  is to step down from the listed Sheffield company.

ZOO, which works with some of the world’s biggest streaming platforms on subtitling and dubbing content, is eyeing a return to profit after slashing $7.7 million from its annual cost base.

Gillian Wilmot CBE, who joined the board in July 2019, has decided to step down no later than the company’s 2026 AGM. Mickey Kalifa, who joined the board in October 2017, will also step down as a non-executive director in line with best practice corporate governance as he approaches his maximum nine-year tenure.

Their departure dates will be announced in due course, ZOO said.

Former Channel and Capital Radio figure Nathalie Schwarz, currently a NED and senior independent director of the company, will assume the role of chair with effect from Wilmot’s departure.

Last summer BusinessCloud spoke with frustrated freelancers who claimed the firm had not paid them for work completed, with one even involving a lawyer. 

Multiple translators and linguists working for ZOO claimed they have had to repeatedly chase invoices, with some considering legal action after months of silence.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

An investor in CAB Payments is considering making an improved £213 million bid for the FinTech.

Helios Consortium saw a $1.05-per-share offer for CAB Payments rebuffed last month and said it is seeking recommendation for an improved $1.15-per-share bid.

That would represent a 21% premium to the volume weighted average share price for the 30-day trading period ended 30th January 2026; and a 37% premium to the 90-day average.

The FinTech floated in 2023 with market cap of £851m but has endured torrid time as a listed company. Its share price plummeted more than 70% in the first three months of public trading.

However after reporting that it expects to deliver a stronger-than-expected performance for FY25, its share price has begun to rebound at the start of 2026.

Author: Chris Maguire

BusinessCloud has continued where it left off last year with a record-breaking start to 2026.

A total of 66,800 people visited our website in January – up nearly 25 per cent on the same month last year.

It builds on a record-breaking 2025 for BusinessCloud, which saw a 71 per cent increase in website visitors to 818,000.

January also saw BusinessCloud join forces with the UK’s largest community of board advisors to hold a series of exclusive UK-wide masterclass business events in 2026.

VirtualNonExecs is the UK’s largest community of board advisors, giving corporate partners unparalleled access to the boardrooms of over 50,000 SMEs and the first event will take place in Leeds on February 25^th.

January also saw reporter Patrick Killeen depart BusinessCloud after 14 months for pastures new.

Symcox is the joint owner of Rochdale-based BusinessCloud alongside executive editor Chris Maguire. They were joined last year by executive chairman Frazer Durris.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

FitzWalter Capital has opted against making a final bid to buy Auction Technology Group.

FitzWalter, ATG’s largest shareholder, recently slammed the company for failing to grant it access to conduct due diligence.

On 16th January 2026, FitzWalter announced that it was considering making an offer at a price of 400 pence in cash per ATG share after its previous 12 bids were rejected.

With a deadline of 5pm on 2nd February for any firm and final offer fast approaching, FitzWalter said the financial terms would not be improved – and this morning said it would not formalise a final bid.

A former Revolut duo have raised £4.3 million seed funding for their crypto startup Bleap.

Joao Alves and Guilherme Gomes worked at the FinTech giant as lead operations manager and product manager, respectively.

Alves claims to have scaled Revolut’s card issuing programme, from issuing less than 5m cards in five years to issuing 100m+ cards in the following three years. 

The duo said they saw a growing disconnect between modern user interfaces and the infrastructure moving money behind the scenes.

Bleap uses blockchain technology as the settlement layer, effectively rebuilding this infrastructure from the ground up.

 

Video games legends have joined a £1.8 million seed round into Levellr.

Founded by Tom Gayner and Ben Barbersmith in 2021, Levellr reflects the founders’ experience at YouTube, Octagon and MyCujoo, addressing the community and audience challenges they saw first-hand.

CTO Barbersmith is a former senior technology partner at YouTube. The tech he has built uses AI to help brands and games studios understand and monitor Discord.