A Leeds-based digital security specialist which counts Leeds United among its client base has secured a £2.7 million investment from investor Maven Capital Partners.

Xentra provides IT solutions across cybersecurity, safeguarding and compliance to the education and SME markets.

Its subscription-based solutions help organisations to assess, implement and manage their security infrastructure around the clock.

The business supports over 90 customers including Leeds United, Leeds Bradford Airport, Vista Technology Support, JT Atkinson and education providers such as Shaw Education Trust.

The funding round includes investment from the Maven VCTs and NPIF II – Maven Equity Finance, which is managed by Maven Capital Partners as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II).

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Half-year profits have plunged 75% at global STEM workforce consultancy SThree plc.

The London-headquartered firm says costs associated with its cutbacks are responsible for the drop. Revenue for the six months ended 31st May 2026 fell 8%.

SThree operates major hubs across Europe, the United States and Asia.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Frasers Group’s £1.7 billion bid to buy Hugo Boss has moved a step closer after it acquired more shares to pass the mandatory bid threshold of 30%.

Frasers has acquired a further 3.69% of the share capital and voting rights of the legendary German fashion designer. It now holds 30.28% – passing the threshold for required bids under the German takeover code.

Frasers said its cash offer of €38 per share remains open for shareholders to accept. The initial acceptance period for the offer will end on Monday 27th July.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

OCS Group has agreed a £3.1 billion cash swoop for fellow facilities management giant Mitie, a member of the FTSE 250 index.

Ipswich-headquartered OCS, backed by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), said the deal – expected to complete in Q1 2027 – would create a combined business with £8.5bn revenue. 

The deal will require the approval of at least 75% of Mitie’s shareholder base.

The firms stated that an enlarged group would be better placed to serve and safeguard some of the UK’s most complex and critical built environments across government, defence, healthcare, national infrastructure and commercial markets.

It would also create more capacity for investment in technology and operations, they said.

 

Fhunded, Lancashire County Council’s (LCC) early-stage investment programme, has used its third anniversary to share details of the positive impact it has had on the county’s startup and scaleup economy.

It claims that its investor community has injected over £35m of funding into Lancashire’s early-stage business ecosystem since being launched in July 2023.

This represents 47% of all the total amount of verified equity investment raised by Lancashire businesses during this period.

Venture capitalists from many of the UK’s leading funds have now taken part in Fhunded’s ‘meet the investor’ events, including PXN, Par Equity, Seneca Partners, YFM, River Capital, Northern Gritstone, Mavern, DSW, Jenson Ventures, ACF, Mercia, Puma Ventures, EHE, Deepbridge and Solidbond.

Government-backed organisations such as the British Business Bank and Innovate UK have also partnered with Fhunded on Lancashire events, as have several major banks and other institutional investors.

Netcall plc, which seeks to automate customer engagement, expects to report FY26 results in line with market expectations, with another year of strong, profitable growth and increased cash generation.

For the financial year ended 30th June 2026, revenue is anticipated to increase by 20% to £57.7m (FY25: £48m), including organic growth of 12% alongside contributions from recent acquisitions.

Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to increase by 23% to £12.1m (FY25: £9.8m), with the adjusted EBITDA margin rising to 21% (FY25: 20%).

Revolut has been granted an independent Authorised Deposit-taking Institution (ADI) licence by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), marking its official launch as a licensed bank in Australia and its first banking entity in the APAC region.

The London-headquartered firm, which has more than 75 million customers worldwide – including a million retail customers and thousands of businesses in Australia – is the first global FinTech to secure a full unrestricted ADI licence.

The regulatory milestone is backed by Revolut’s commitment to invest nearly AUD$400 million into the local market over the next five years.

The expansion adds Australia to Revolut’s established fully licensed banking footprint across the UK, EEA and Mexico.

Voxshell, a Cranfield University spinout, has closed a £800,000 seed funding round from DSW Ventures, with support from Innovate UK, to accelerate ChopMesh, its proprietary meshing platform for engineering simulation.

Voxshell was created to support the advanced manufacturing sector. While additive manufacturing and next-generation design tools have unlocked product geometries that were impossible to build a decade ago, the simulation infrastructure needed to validate and refine these designs hasn’t kept pace.

By incorporating AI-accelerated processing, ChopMesh automates workflows in which legacy tools require human intervention, generating geometrically faithful meshes substantially faster.

Having spun out of Cranfield University in April 2024, Voxshell already has paying customers and pilots underway with a number of tier-one aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Alongside the investment, Clive Scrivener joins Voxshell as non-executive chair. As the former CEO of Prodrive, Scrivener is currently chair at Oxa, the Oxford autonomous vehicle spinout. He has also held multiple other chair and non-executive roles in scaling technology businesses, including CloudNC.

Propel Healthtech West Yorkshire is inviting innovators with ambitious healthtech solutions to apply for the final accelerator cohort of 2026.

Delivered by Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, in partnership with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, successful applicants will benefit from a comprehensive six-month programme designed to accelerate commercial growth and NHS adoption, including expert business development support, regulatory guidance, one-to-one mentoring, masterclasses and direct access to NHS organisations, investors and industry partners.

The programme launched in November 2025 following £4.5 million through the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Investment Zone, part of a wider £160m Investment Zone, designed to accelerate innovation, attract investment and strengthen the region’s health and life sciences sector.

Over the next four years, the programme will support hundreds of innovators, helping businesses grow within West Yorkshire while developing technologies that improve patient care, tackle healthcare challenges and create high-value jobs across the region.

Applications close on Friday 25th September at 4pm.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

FTSE 100 listed UK property group Segro has rejected a third takeover offer from a US firm ahead of a deadline for submitting a concrete bid.

Segro, which slammed Prologis over its initial £12.6 billion all-share approach last month, turned down a second offer earlier this month then a third approach valued at £13.5bn – and sweetened with a £2.7bn cash element.

Segro owns a portfolio of warehouses and data centres – mainly in the South East of England – and has benefited from the growth of online shopping.

Craneware, a provider of healthcare financial performance solutions, has been hit by a cyber security incident.

The AIM-listed firm said it is responding to a cyber security incident involving unauthorised access to a subset of its data environment.

The company’s incident response plan has been activated, it said, including the appointment by its board of external cyber security and forensic specialists. 

 

accesso Technology Group plc, a technology solutions provider for leisure, entertainment and cultural markets, has appointed Philip Wood as a non-executive director of the group.

Wood brings over 25 years of experience as a finance leader in the listed software sector. He served as CFO of Aptitude Software Group plc, the listed enterprise software company, from January 2007, and was appointed deputy CEO and CFO in 2019, a role he held until his retirement from the board in July 2023.

In those roles, he helped lead Aptitude’s transition towards a subscription and SaaS-based business model and brings significant experience of listed software businesses, financial discipline and strategic execution.

Earlier in his career, Philip spent seven years as group finance director of AttentiV Systems Group plc, overseeing its flotation in 2004 and its subsequent acquisition by Tieto Corporation in 2005.

From 2021 to 2024, he served as an independent NED at SmartSpace Software plc, stepping down on the company’s take-private acquisition.

Concurrent Technologies Plc, a designer and manufacturer of computer products, systems, and mission-critical solutions used in high-performance markets by some of the world’s major OEMs, has appointed Emma Ciechan as CFO with effect from 5th October 2026. 

Ciechan joins from DS Smith, formerly a London-listed global manufacturer of sustainable packaging with revenues of £6.8 billion and approximately 30,000 employees, where she most recently served as finance director of the paper, recycling & capex and paper sourcing & procurement divisions.

Prior to DS Smith, Emma was group financial controller at Guardian Media Group plc and held leadership roles at News UK and Kantar.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

One man and his team are quietly working across British prisons preparing inmates for life on the outside with laptops they can use in their cells.

The service is transforming lives, saving taxpayers millions and often starts with a game of chess.

Cambridge-based Coracle is in 90% of prisons in England and Wales. Ahead of International Chess Day on Monday, CEO James Tweed says prisoners are often reluctant to learn at first, but something happens when they start to play the game. 

Author: Chris Maguire

PE-backed ProofID, the pure-play identity security specialist delivering advisory, implementation and managed services, has appointed Neil Evans as its first Chief AI Officer.

The newly created role will lead Manchester-based ProofID’s transformation into an AI-native business.

He will be tasked with building the company’s AI-native delivery capabilities internally, developing new AI-powered service offerings for customers, and positioning ProofID as the recognised leader in AI-enabled identity services across EMEA and the Americas.

Evans brings more than 30 years of technology leadership spanning software engineering, product innovation and C-suite roles across enterprise software and professional audio.

A UK firm has raised £30 million in Series A funding to develop low-cost drone interceptors.

Greenjets believes it can become the UK’s next aerospace ‘prime’ – primary contractor – which essentially puts it at the top of a supply chain.

The round was led by Blossom Capital with participation from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and existing investors including Tanglin Ventures and NSFO Family Office.

The announcement comes days after Greenjets was named one of three companies selected by the Ministry of Defence under the Low-Cost Air Defence Effectors (LCADE) programme to develop a British low-cost drone interceptor. 

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

When Erin Meryl McGurk was growing up in South Manchester she could not have imagined where she is today.

The pupil at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls is now building an AI startup in Silicon Valley after securing backing from the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator.

“Growing up in South Manchester and going to AGGS, I did not see many people, especially women, taking the route I’m taking now – building a technology company, raising from Y Combinator, and moving to Silicon Valley,” she says.

“I’d love to make that path feel more visible and possible for girls who are where I was a few years ago.”

GetBusy plc, an AIM-listed provider of SaaS platforms incorporating AI to regulated professionals, announces that Dr Miles Jakeman is today stepping down as chairman and director.

He leaves GetBusy after nine years, with Paul Huberman appointed as his successor with immediate effect.

Huberman has been a non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee since 2020.  He is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser, and was previously finance director at three companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, Asda Property Holdings plc, Regent Inns plc and Grantchester Holdings plc.

He is currently a non-executive director at London-listed Town Centre Securities plc and a director of several private companies.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Eagle Eye Solutions Group PLC has recovered from the loss of a major contract in the United States last year.

Last June the loyalty and promotions platform announced that it had lost its contract with Neptune Retail Solutions (NRS), leading to a drop in its share price to almost 200 pence.

However it implemented cost efficiencies and has expanded its client base with major enterprise wins in the US and Europe.

Now it has reported annual results ahead of its recently upgraded market expectations.

British mobility tech startup Tyred has raised £2.5 million to make bike ownership simpler, smarter and more reliable for riders and fleet operators in the UK and across Europe.

To do this, Tyred is building a connected ownership platform for cycling, bringing together maintenance, repairs, insurance, warranty management and finance into a single digital experience.

Cycling has become an increasingly important part of urban transport but unlike for cars the ownership experience remains fragmented, with riders often relying on disconnected providers for servicing, insurance and repairs. Tyred aims to solve that issue through an all-in-one platform that stays with riders and their bikes throughout the lifetime of ownership.

This service will be supported by proprietary IoT devices embedded within bikes and collecting real-time performance data that powers predictive AI models. The technology enables wear-and-tear monitoring, proactive maintenance and richer insights that could ultimately reduce insurance costs and improve reliability for riders.

Tyred has already established one of London’s largest specialist bike maintenance operations, servicing more than 100,000 bikes over the past year. Among its customers is shared mobility operator Lime, for which Tyred provides maintenance and battery-swapping services across a fleet of around 50,000 bikes in London.

The new investment will accelerate product development, support expansion across the UK and lay the foundations for European growth as Tyred scales its platform for both consumers and commercial fleet operators.

The funding round includes investment from venture capital firms Raw Ventures and Ada Ventures, alongside a group of angel investors, including Anton Buzdalin, who was the lead investor in London proptech startup Dwelly.