Bite-size news and insight from UK business and tech – including funding, deals and appointments
Published: July 8, 2026 at 5:17 pm
Shares in FTSE 250 firm Gamma Communications rose 7% today after the deadline for a potential takeover was extended.
Gamma, whose core markets are the UK and Germany – with additional presence in Spain and the Benelux region – completed a restructuring last year to slash annual operating expenses by £7 million.
Its valuation suffered, making it a target for acquisition. However the deadline for Epiris to make a bid, set for mid-June, was extended to today (8th July) – and has now been extended again to 5pm on 5th August 2026.
Two other PE houses have pulled out of a deal.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 4:14 pm
HR Path, a Paris-headquartered HR consulting, technology implementation and outsourcing specialist, has announced a nearly $1 billion funding transaction led by Ardian.
The investment will enable the group to accelerate its international expansion, pursue its acquisition strategy and strengthen its presence in strategic markets, including the United Kingdom.
The UK has become one of HR Path’s fastest-growing markets in Europe. Recent acquisitions, including IntSys, Three Plus Consulting, have significantly strengthened the group’s local capabilities across the Workday ecosystem.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 1:28 pm
A Greater Manchester manufacturer with a history spanning more than 150 years is turning to artificial intelligence to modernise its operations and unlock new growth.
Smith Bullough, a specialist producer of industrial bolts and fasteners, has adopted AI technology to improve the consistency, reliability and traceability of its manufacturing processes – a move expected to generate £100,000 in additional sales within the first year.
The project has also supported job creation and secured more than £19,000 in innovation funding, helping the business accelerate its transition from development to full commercial deployment.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 1:22 pm
Dogtooth Technologies, a pioneer in AI-powered robotic harvesting systems, has secured over £14 million in growth capital to accelerate the commercial deployment of its harvesting robots across the UK and international markets.
The funding is a mixture of equity from 24 Haymarket, EMV Capital and ACF Investors, grants from Innovate UK, and a venture leasing facility from Kineo Finance.
It will enable Dogtooth to expand commercial deployments, strengthen its technology platform and accelerate the adoption of autonomous harvesting systems across the global horticulture sector, helping growers build more resilient production systems and supporting long-term global food security.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Fleek has raised $25 million (£18.75m) to build the AI infrastructure powering the global secondhand clothing industry.
The Series B funding will accelerate development of its AI-native marketplace, expand its engineering teams, scale its technology platform and grow its global buyer and supplier network.
The investment was led by Burda Principal Investments, an early Vinted backer and lead investor in its Series C round, with participation from eBay, FJ Labs, and H14, alongside existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, HV Capital, Y Combinator, and more.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 11:56 am
Kord, an end-to-end platform making onboarding clients, identity verification, and payment processing simpler and more secure, has raised £6.4 million in Series A funding.
This latest round, bringing the company’s total funding to £9 million, was led by Guinness Ventures with participation from Beringea, SFC Capital, and angel investors. The investment will be used to continue growing the Kord team and drive product development to support new customer acquisition.
Regulated by the FCA, Kord is used by estate agents & letting agents, law firms & conveyancers, and financial services companies.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 11:29 am
Pregnancy and postnatal wellbeing app Carea has launched a new Contraction Timer designed to move beyond the traditional stopwatch model.
Founder Anastasia Shubareva-Epshtein’s own experience of antenatal depression inspired the feature, which has been developed with input from users and midwives.
It combines intelligent labour pattern analysis with integrated wellbeing tools to help women feel calmer and more in control during labour, better understand their labour progression and make informed decisions about when to seek medical advice or attend hospital.
The app also generates a clinician-friendly summary of contraction frequency, duration and intervals, supporting conversations between mothers, birth partners and maternity care teams.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 11:00 am
Axle Energy, an energy flexibility platform that turns EV chargers, batteries and heat pumps into grid-balancing capacity, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Energize Capital, with participation from existing investors Accel, Picus Capital and Eka Ventures.
As electrification, data centres and more variable renewable generation reshape power systems, grid operators and energy companies are looking for lower-cost ways to balance supply and demand without relying as heavily on expensive fossil-fuel generation at peak times.
Axle’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform enables OEMs, utilities and fleet operators to connect EV chargers, batteries and heat pumps to electricity markets, so hundreds of thousands of distributed energy assets can be coordinated to meet the needs of the grid. By making that flexibility available when and where it is needed, Axle unlocks capacity that already exists. The result is a lower-cost way to balance the grid that can help reduce energy bills while rewarding participating consumers and asset owners.
Axle currently coordinates more than 300,000 connected assets and manages more than 2GW of connected capacity, comparable in scale to a nuclear power plant. Through flexibility programmes run with Axle’s partners, consumers earn around £10 a month on average, with participants collectively earning millions of pounds last year.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 10:09 am
Spend management platform Payhawk has surpassed $100 million ARR – joining the roughly 250 private software companies worldwide to hit the ‘centaur’ milestone.
Bessemer Venture Partners estimates that these coveted ‘centaurs’ are around seven times rarer than the $1 billion-valued ‘unicorn’.
Over the past 24 months, Payhawk says it has rebuilt both its products and operations around autonomous AI agents, and its growth has accelerated as a result, turning $100m ARR into a proof point not just for its software, but for how an AI-native company is run.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 10:03 am
A British man has become an overnight multi-millionaire after cryptocurrency he ‘lost’ for more than a decade was recovered – with scores of UK investors also set to finally cash-in.
Legal firm CEL Solicitors claimed it has successfully reclaimed Bitcoin worth more than £3 million for the man, who wants to remain anonymous, a landmark achievement in cryptocurrency asset recovery.
Chris – not his real name – originally purchased his first Bitcoin in December 2011, when a single coin was valued at just £2.94. The transaction was made via the UK’s first Bitcoin exchange, Britcoin, which was then renamed Intersango.
He lost access to his crypto wallet when Intersango went bust. But he’s finally had the total amount returned to him at its current market rate.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 8:43 am
Luffy AI, a pioneer of neuroplastic AI in real-time adaptive control, has raised £8.1 million in a Series A funding round.
The firm was co-founded by former nuclear physicists with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
The round is led by BGF and joined by MIG Capital AG through its MIG Fonds, the Munich-based deep tech VC. Existing investors Bow Capital, Chrysalix, Momenta and UKI2S have also followed on.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 8:18 am
Revenues doubled at Brave Bison Group plc in its latest half-year period while profits also rocketed.
The marketing and technology group saw new revenue for the six-month period ended 30th June 2026 hit £23.7 million, up 97% year-on-year. This was ahead of budget and board expectations.
Adjusted EBITDA for H1 was £4.2m, up 87%, and in line with expectations. Unaudited net cash was £4.7m at the period end, it stated to the London Stock Exchange.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 7:56 am
Ofcom has today fined Virgin Media £28 million for putting customers on millions of calls through unreasonable effort, hassle and difficulty when trying to switch to another provider.
The regulator said its rules state that the conditions or procedures telecoms providers have in place must not act as a disincentive for customers who wish to cancel their contract.
However an investigation uncovered deliberate call-dropping tactics, excessive and unnecessary call transfers and putting customers repeatedly on hold for no reason.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 7:00 am
Women entrepreneurs are driving some of the UK’s most exciting businesses – and the organisations backing them are continuing to outperform the wider market.
For the sixth consecutive year, signatories of the Investing in Women Code have directed a greater proportion of funding to female-founded businesses than the wider market, reflecting a shared recognition that backing women is not only the right thing to do, but the most economically sound thing to do.
The Code, a government-backed commitment to improve access to finance for women-led businesses, has grown from just 12 signatories in 2019 to more than 330 organisations today, including most major UK retail banks, venture capital firms, angel investors, and lenders. New signatories in 2026 include Nationwide and Innovate U.
The findings, published today as part of the Code’s annual report, come as Government works to unlock the UK’s full entrepreneurial potential by ensuring talented founders can access the finance they need to start and scale businesses, regardless of gender.
Published: July 8, 2026 at 7:00 am
YFM Equity Partners has invested £3m from its British Smaller Companies VCTs in NextWave, an AI consultancy serving Tier 1 global financial services firms across banking, asset management, insurance and FinTech.
Many of NextWave’s senior consultants have held senior roles in financial services firms, meaning they understand clients’ operational and regulatory realities from the inside, not just in theory.
The business has also built its own delivery tools and software accelerators that allow it to work faster than a traditional consultancy, reducing the time-to-value for clients.
Published: July 7, 2026 at 3:21 pm
A major summit designed to strengthen connections across the North’s technology ecosystem is coming to Sheffield this October.
With a mission to fuel collaboration, innovation and global competitiveness, The Northern Tech Summit will bring together more than 500 entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers and decision makers from across Northern England to take part in the unique two-day event with a clear theme: collaborate to compete.
Organised by TECH SY, the first confirmed speaker at the event is internationally recognised data and ecosystem expert Yoram Wijngaarde, the founder of Dealroom. During the event, Yoram will discuss his journey, which saw him leave a successful career in investment banking in London and New York to launch the global data intelligence platform that tracks and monitors high-growth companies and venture capital ecosystems.
The event will take place at the iconic Crucible Theatre between 21st – 22nd October.
Published: July 7, 2026 at 3:19 pm
The parent company of CurrentBody has achieved a £400 million valuation for the first time.
The Beauty Tech Group plc launched on the London Stock Exchange In October 2025 with a valuation of £300m.
Its latest trading update, announced this morning, has seen it hit a new benchmark after its share price rose 9% today. It is 26% up in the year to date.
Published: July 7, 2026 at 2:41 pm
NCC Group plc shareholders have been boosted after an £185 million announcement by the Manchester cybersecurity firm this morning.
NCC said it would return £185m to them – representing a total return of £225m since the sale of its Escode division – leading to a 6% spike in its share price.
The new return will be via a combination of a £170m tender offer, with shareholders invited to tender some or all of their ordinary shares at 145 pence apiece, alongside a new £15m general share buyback programme.
Published: July 7, 2026 at 2:11 pm
Nscale is to accelerate its global build-out of AI infrastructure after signing a $900 million revolving credit facility.
The London firm said the liquidity will also accelerate its capital deployment across the US, Europe and APAC.
The facility was syndicated across a group of leading financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, MUFG, RBC Capital Markets, Bank of America, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho, SMBC, TD Securities and KeyBank N.A.
Published: July 7, 2026 at 1:29 pm
Chiron, an AI-driven platform enabling healthcare organisations to deliver personalised care beyond the clinic, has completed a £900,000 seed funding round.
The investment was led by specialist healthcare investor THENA Capital, with participation from Arāya Ventures.
It will support Chiron’s next phase of growth across UK healthcare providers, lay the commercial and regulatory foundations for future expansion into the United States, and further develop its AI platform which empowers people to become active partners in their own care.
Originally spun out of Founders Factory with support from Reckitt, Chiron has received multiple innovation awards and has been recognised as a finalist in global programmes run by Bayer and GSK.
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