High street retailer Poundland could enter administration within days – but there are hopes thousands of jobs could be saved as its management team works towards an MBO.

Ireland-based Martin Property Group, which this week bought car parks giant NCP out of administration, is backing a potential management buyout.

Poundland was bought for just £1 last summer from Pepco Group by investment firm Gordon Brothers but the latter is now seeking a buyer for the discount retailer.

Poundland employs nearly 12,000 people and operates almost 600 stores, predominantly in the UK but also in Ireland. Its managing director Barry Williams is leading the bid for a solvent takeover.

CMR Surgical has struck a £300 million investment deal which could lead to a full takeover.

The Cambridge-headquartered firm has agreed a strategic alliance with New York-listed Stryker to advance its robotic-assisted surgery technology.

Stryker announced the strategic equity investment of approximately £300m, with an exclusive option for it to acquire the remaining equity of CMR Surgical, alongside an exclusive US commercial agency agreement for the latter’s Versius portfolio.

CMR Surgical will continue to lead portfolio development and commercialisation in markets outside the United States.

The British Government has announced a series of measures which it says will protect the nation from the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI.

Ironically it has tasked frontier AI models with strengthening cyber defences, examining stronger legal protections and preparing for serious incidents involving autonomous AI systems.

It says the move builds on two pilots that have already helped identify and fix over a thousand potential cyber vulnerabilities across government systems, and detect potential cyber threats. 

 

LHV Bank Limited has appointed a former executive at Starling Bank as its new CEO.

The UK banking subsidiary of AS LHV Group said Damian Thompson will join on 4th January 2027, subject to regulatory approval. 

The digital-first bank will focus on expanding its lending, particularly to SMEs.

 

Scottish technology scaleup Snappy Group has secured a seven-figure funding facility with Virgin Money’s venture debt team as the business continues to scale its retail technology and marketplace platforms across the UK. 

The Dundee-founded company says this will strengthen its ability to invest across its product suite, support growing enterprise demand and accelerate the rollout of its technology to UK retailers.

Best known for its quick-commerce marketplace Snappy Shopper, Snappy Group has evolved into a broader retail technology platform, providing marketplace, order aggregation, white-label and retail media solutions to retailers across the UK.

 

Gateley has appointed Nige Tranter as its new CTO, reinforcing the professional services group’s commitment to innovation and AI.

A key priority will be supporting the rollout of the Jylo AI platform, which will provide Gateley’s workforce with secure access to leading AI technologies and enable the development of scalable, repeatable workflows that enhance productivity and collaboration.

Tranter has more than three decades of experience leading technology transformation and business change programmes at the likes of global law firms Orrick and Pinsent Masons, as well as Gulf Bank and Barclays.

intelliflo, a provider of financial advice software to UK businesses, has acquired Mabel Insights.

Mabel Insights operates the largest freely accessible database in the UK for managed portfolio services, spanning more than 80 asset managers and discretionary fund managers and over 3,000 risk-rated portfolios, covering both managed portfolio services and multi asset solutions. 

Offering portfolio comparison and analysis alongside cashflow modelling, risk profiling and digital fact-find, it gives advisers a single place to research investments, model client outcomes and produce clear, branded recommendation reports.

Mabel Insights is already integrated with intelliflo office, letting advisers move client details and portfolios between the two systems without rekeying, carry out whole-of-market research and due diligence, and bring the results back into their existing workflow. 

By acquiring the business, intelliflo says it can now invest in developing the proposition and deepen the integration.

Sava Technologies, a London-based health technology company behind a next-generation glucose microsensor, has raised $36 million (£27m).

The Series B funding was secured alongside an agreement appointing Ascensia, a subsidiary of PHC Holdings Corporation, as its commercialisation and distribution partner, initially in Europe.

The round brings Sava’s total funding to $68m. The round was led by Ascensia, with participation from institutional investors Balderton Capital, Norrsken VC, Simplyhealth Ventures, JamJar Investments, Pentland Ventures and others. 

Founded in 2019, Sava has developed a wearable built on its proprietary microsensor technology, which measures molecules just beneath the skin, painlessly and continuously. While starting with glucose, the platform is designed to track other biomarkers too, opening the door to continuous sensing well beyond diabetes.

Sava says it now has the capital to scale manufacturing and the infrastructure to bring its first product to market.

 

Local leaders will be handed dedicated research and development funding for the first time under plans unveiled by Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

In a major speech at the Innovation Nation Summit in Manchester, the Prime Minister set out his vision to make Britain the best place in the world to innovate, build and grow.

He argued that the next generation of breakthroughs should not only be discovered here, but developed, scaled, and commercialised here too.

The R&D funding will be complemented and sit alongside new Good Growth Funds – a single, flexible, long-term growth budget.

The Government said it will also commit £1 billion through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) over the next four years to support high-growth innovation clusters in the Industrial Strategy’s priority sectors across the UK.

No.10 North will also be tasked with bringing forward new partnerships between clusters in the Industrial Strategy’s eight growth-driving sectors, building on the success of the Cambridge and Manchester collaboration.

 

Fuse Energy co-founder and CEO Alan Chang has backed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s pledge to curb non-compete clauses in employment contracts.

The PM said the restrictions had ‘gone too far’ and were holding back innovative UK companies.

Chang, who co-founded Fuse Energy with Charles Orr in 2022, shared his own experience of how the clauses can prevent businesses from recruiting talent.

He said: “Greg Wilk, who is now CTO at Fuse, joined us from a top hedge fund before Fuse, who had a six month non-compete, during that time he was not allowed to work at any official capacity, he got so bored he built a VR app that made a grand total of $600 in revenue.

“If Greg was allowed to join earlier, Fuse would have been much more valuable today, energy costs would be even lower, and we would have been one step closer to energy abundance.”

Chang and Orr were  included in BusinessCloud’s Founder 250 list.

Myprotein, the UK and Europe’s No. 1 sports nutrition brand and part of the global THG portfolio, has teamed up with Krispy Kreme for a new collaboration.

The first product from the partnership is an Original Glazed doughnut-flavoured whey protein milkshake inspired by the iconic taste of Krispy Kreme.

Launching exclusively on Myprotein.com across the UK and EU from October 8, the product will then move into UK retail, including 730 Boots stores and five Boots wellness destinations.

Neil Mistry, CEO of THG Nutrition, commented: “This is the first of several flavours and products we have planned together, combining Myprotein’s sports nutrition expertise with Krispy Kreme’s flavour credentials.”

Anthropic has banned users from being unnecessarily cruel to its artificial intelligence chatbot Claude as part of a major update to its usage policies.

The US technology company, which is led by CEO Dario Amodei, has introduced rules prohibiting sustained and needless abusive behaviour towards its AI models.

The changes, which take effect on 12th November, mean users who repeatedly subject Claude to extreme abuse without a legitimate purpose could have their conversations terminated.

However, Anthropic stressed that the restrictions would not apply to ordinary frustration, criticism, creative writing or legitimate testing of its technology.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Laura Harrison has grand ambitions for her business Education Lifeguards.

The mum-of-two taught English in schools both at home and abroad, and grew frustrated at how much of teachers’ time is spent on admin.

After launching the online tutoring business from Rochdale, she built out the platform’s capabilities using AI. Today it features most major subjects and its USP is the high level of qualification of the teachers.

For Founder Friday Laura discusses her early exposure to entrepreneurship; why education is dear to her heart; joining the Exchange programme at Campfield; and juggling motherhood and life with building a startup.

With a little help from her Grandma June…

The UK’s data protection watchdog is stepping up scrutiny of artificial intelligence agents amid concerns about the risks posed by increasingly autonomous technology.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has confirmed enquiries involving OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic and the UK’s AI Security Institute as it examines how AI agents interact with external systems and handle personal information.

It also said it had secured data protection improvements from 10 of the world’s largest AI foundation model developers: Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Cohere, DeepSeek, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Stability AI.

The UK has signed a first-ever ‘industrial tech corridor’ agreement with Germany.

The government said the deal – backed by leading German firms Allianz, Bosch, RWE and Siemens – will unlock investment, jobs and opportunity for British business by helping them to strike partnerships.

The flagship initiative under the Kensington Treaty – the UK-German bilateral friendship agreement – comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham visits Berlin.

Both countries will share a pot of some €20 million (£17m) to help accelerate joint research on quantum – one of the defining technologies of the future which the government says has the potential to add more than £200 billion and some 100,000 jobs to the UK economy by 2045. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Oxford Metrics plc has agreed a cut-price deal for the technology of London’s Move AI.

The Oxfordshire-based smart sensing group has acquired the assets of the 3D motion data firm ‘following a competitive bid process’.

Move AI combines artificial intelligence, computer vision and an understanding of human biomechanics to convert video into detailed 3D motion data without the need for markers or specialist suits.

It has worked with videogame giants EPIC Games, Ubisoft and Sega; entertainment giants Disney, Sony and Paramount; sportswear leader Nike; and social media firm Meta.

The firm reported revenue of £1.1 million in the year ended 31st December 2025. However consideration for the acquisition is just £525,000 in cash – or £725,000 inclusive of immediate transaction expenses.

Move AI’s technology, intellectual property, patents, specialist team and customers will transfer to Vicon, the group’s motion capture division.

One reason for the seemingly low acquisition cost is reduced industry-wide investment across film, television and games. In a separate announcement this morning, Oxford Metrics reported revenue below market expectations due to “lower demand for new virtual-production stages, delaying several large contracts”. 

FuelHub, a premium meal prep company, has announced three senior appointments as it continues to strengthen the team supporting its next phase of growth. 

The appointments come as FuelHub – founded by Northern Leaders and Founder 250 stars Michelle and James Laithwaite – continues to scale at pace.

The business has achieved 98% compound annual growth over three years and £6.5 million in turnover for the financial year ending April 2026.

 

Universal Quantum, a UK company building large-scale quantum computing systems for real-world use, has secured over $100 million (£75m+) in Series A funding – marking the largest Series A ever raised by a quantum firm headquartered in the UK. 

The funding will accelerate the company’s global expansion, as well as the development and commercialisation of its modular technology, advancing a path towards fault-tolerant quantum computing. 

The round was co-led by DCVC and Firgun Ventures, with participation from EDBI, Artal (advised by Invus), Integral GlobalTech, Main Sequence, Hostplus, NGS Super, IAG Capital, EdenBase, Eigenstate.holdings, and Dave Baszucki (founder and CEO of Roblox), as well as other existing and new strategic investors including Nauta Capital and The Venture Collective.

 

AI talent platform Dex has appointed Secret Escapes co-founder Tom Valentine as chief operating officer and Progression co-founder Jonny Burch as head of design.

Dex matches fast-growing tech firms with software engineers. Its founder Paddy Lambros said early-stage tech businesses should turn to former founders when it comes to hiring, with AI changing how companies fundamentally go from zero to one. 

As AI agents expand what leaner and more experienced teams can achieve, Dex believes that new recruits with sound human judgement to find the solutions to complex problems, the initiative to take action, and the willingness to take responsibility for outcomes, have increasingly become the most valuable skills in the hunt for top talent. 

 

PlannerPal, an AI workflow for financial advice and wealth management firms, has raised $6 million (£4.3m) in a round led by Mercia Ventures. 

Existing investor Ada Ventures, which led PlannerPal’s pre-seed round in February 2024, is also taking part, alongside a group of strategic fintech investors and angels.

PlannerPal has grown rapidly as the sector looks beyond stand-alone AI tools towards technology that can work with the client data and systems they already have and is now used by over 250 UK advice firms, including 20% of the UK’s top 20 wealth managers.