Author: Patrick Killeen

Shares in Oxford Instruments plc have dropped 9.3% today after the tech products provider reported a slowdown in first-half revenue and orders across its imaging and analysis division.

The FTSE 250 constituent, which encountered a similar scenario in June upon selling Oxford Instruments NanoScience for £60 million, has cited global economic uncertainty and the impact of tariffs for the revenue decrease.

It also said contrasting order trends between its two divisions led to a mixed performance.

Market turbulence hit order intake in imaging and analysis harder than expected, while strong demand in compound semiconductors helped drive double-digit growth in its advanced technologies unit.

At a group level, order intake rose just over 1% on an organic constant currency basis compared with the prior year, with a 3% decline in the first quarter offset by nearly 6% growth in the second.

However, first-half revenue is expected to be down around 8% organically and 10% on a reported basis.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Shares in IP Group plc have risen 14.31% in early trading on Monday after the investment firm said it could receive future revenue linked to a series of obesity drug candidates being developed by US MedTech Metsera Inc.

Metsera was recently acquired by Pfizer in a deal worth up to $7.3 billion.

The FTSE 250 constituent, which primarily backs science and technology businesses, said it has financial exposure to a number of Metsera’s obesity programmes following its 2023 acquisition of Zihipp – a former IP Group portfolio company spun out of Imperial College London.

The London-headquartered investor owns and exclusively licenses to Zihipp intellectual property relating to several of Metsera’s compounds, including its lead candidate MET-097i, as well as MET-233, MET-034 and MET-067.

Under the licensing agreement, the company is entitled to milestone payments and tiered royalties in the low-single-digit range on eventual sales of the drugs, should they reach approval and commercial launch.

Author: Conny Kalcher, chief customer officer, Zurich Insurance

Our dashboards are glowing with metrics. We track conversion funnels, analyse click-through rates, and optimise for customer lifetime value. In our pursuit of data-driven perfection, we have engineered businesses for incredible efficiency.

But in this race to automate, we risk creating a critical vulnerability in our operating system: an empathy deficit.

While we’re busy optimising the customer journey, we must remember the destination for our customers isn’t just a transaction, but also a feeling of being seen and understood. This isn’t a soft-skill issue; it’s a commercial blind spot, and it’s costing businesses more than they realise.

The future of business is not a fully automated one. It is one where technology amplifies our best human qualities. The brands that will win are not those with the smartest AI, but those that use AI to make their people smarter, more connected, and more empathetic.

In this new technological era, our humanity has become our competitive advantage.

Risers:

Big Yellow Group – +17.31%
IP Group – +12.99%
Safestore Holdings – +9.63%
Fresnillo – +7.49%
Hochschild Mining – +7.34%

Fallers:

Oxford Instruments – -10.51%
Oxford Nanopore Technologies – -3.21%
Brunner Investment Trust – -2.68%
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust – -2.36%
Babcock International Group – -2.28%

People with mental health issues to benefit from groundbreaking research, backed by £50 million in government funding, that could deliver more effective treatments.

Poor mental health affects 1 in 4 people in England, and its impact costs the UK economy £300 billion a year.

The government says the Mental Health Goals programme will attract industry partnerships and commercial clinical trials to the UK, supporting our £100 billion life sciences sector to grow and delivering on its Plan for Change.

Bristol HealthTech Gladys has closed a £1.5m seed funding round.

Gladys was founded by barrister Georgina Robinson and Alex Sorisi, a serial HealthTech founder, to match care seekers and those with support needs to the UK’s best local carers.

The raise was led by Cornerstone VC, with participation from Exceptional Ventures, Embryo Ventures, Ufi Ventures, Houghton Street Ventures and Conduit EIS Impact Fund.

Lloyds has announced that it is putting its chief executive and all senior leaders through a six-month Cambridge artificial intelligence training bootcamp, as the bank puts its full weight behind the technology.

CEO Charlie Nunn and his executive team will be taught to reimagine the future of banking with generative AI under the training, according to the Press Association.

Around 300 senior managers across the banking group are expected to take part in the bespoke programme, created with education technology firm Cambridge Spark and designed with experts from the University of Cambridge.

More than 110 Lloyds bosses have already completed the 80-hour course, which launched in March and takes six months to do.

The entire executive committee, which includes Mr Nunn, finance chief William Chalmers and Scottish Widows boss Chirantan Barua, are expected to complete the programme by the end of 2026.

Lloyds has been accelerating its shift to online banking and shutting more of its UK branches. The bank has also announced Bristol as its ‘AI capital’ of the UK, with the largest concentration of experts on the technology in the city.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Legal & General Group plc has appointed Scott Wheway to succeed Sir John Kingman as chair of the company.

Wheway will join the board at the start of 2026 as an independent non-executive director and chair designate, and will take over formally as chair following the company’s AGM on 21st May 2026.

At that point, Kingman will step down as chair and as a director of the board after nine years of service.

Google may be forced to make changes to how its search engine operates in the UK following a landmark decision by regulator the Competition and Markets Authority.

The CMA has designated Google with ‘strategic market status’, which means it may intervene in a ‘proportionate and targeted’ way to preserve competition in the market.

It expects to begin a consultation on any possible changes this year.

Google responded with a warning and claimed that UK businesses and consumers have been amongst the first to benefit from Google’s innovations, often months before their European counterparts.

“As a result, they see significant value: Google Search contributes billions of pounds a year to the UK economy — £118 billion in 2023 alone,” it stated.

“The UK enjoys access to the latest products and services before other countries because it has so far avoided costly restrictions on popular services, such as Search. Retaining this position means avoiding unduly onerous regulations and learning from the negative results seen in other jurisdictions, which have cost businesses an estimated €114bn.

“Many of the ideas for interventions that have been raised in this process would inhibit UK innovation and growth, potentially slowing product launches at a time of profound AI-based innovation. Others pose direct harm to businesses, with some warning that they may be forced to raise prices for customers.

“Google supports the CMA’s goal to ensure the UK’s competition framework mirrors the best interests of UK consumers and businesses. We hope to see outcomes that reflect such ambitions in the crucial months ahead.”

Author: Patrick Killeen

A company looking to transform insurance claims from a chronic pain point into a competitive advantage has raised £10 million in one of the largest InsurTech seed rounds on record.

The round for ClaimSorted was led by Atomico, with participation from Eurazeo, Y Combinator, firstminute capital, Start Ventures Capital and a network of insurance veterans.

The new funding will accelerate product development, expand operations across key global markets and scale partnerships with insurers seeking a modern alternative to legacy TPAs.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Electric vehicle charge point management platform Fuuse has raised £6 million in follow-on investment as it continues its journey towards profitability.

The round, led by existing investors YFM Equity Partners and Par Equity, follows a period of strong performance from the Lancaster-based business, which has more than doubled recurring revenues since its last investment.

The business provides a software platform that helps organisations optimise and manage their EV charging infrastructure.

It has rapidly expanded its footprint, working with major partners such as Arnold Clark and Be.EV, and recently entered new international markets including Italy and Sweden.

Aptamer Group plc has reported that it has won a new contract with a top-10 pharma firm.

Aptamer is a developer of synthetic binders for the life sciences industry.

The £112,000 contract ‘represents success-based repeat business with an existing partner, focusing on the development of Optimer binders against two protein targets to support the partner’s internal biomarker research’.

It builds on the group’s recent success in delivering validated Optimer binder pairs for a top-5 pharma partner. Aptamer retains ownership supporting future licensing and royalty opportunities.

Digital banking platform Shawbrook has confirmed that it will float on the London Stock Exchange and expects to join the main market of the exchange in early November.

Shawbrook will have an anticipated valuation of around £2 billion, which would make the Pollen Street Capital-owned FinTech’s IPO one of London’s biggest in recent history. The deal is expected to raise £50 million of net proceeds.

Pollen Street will sell all of its shares in the Brentwood-based company, which also released its Q3 results this morning. Its loan book increased to £18.3bn.

The Smarter Web Company has purchased another £9m worth of Bitcoin.

The London-listed web design firm has followed the trend of US companies such as Tesla in adopting a Bitcoin treasury policy.

It has bought another 100 Bitcoin at an average purchase price of £82,857, taking its total Bitcoin holdings to 2,650 – with £220m worth purchased to date.

Birmingham firm Spica Technologies has been acquired by American company HubStar.

Spica’s digital tools connect employees with their workplace environment and simplify access to services including wayfinding, comfort controls and wellness. It has deep expertise in IoT, indoor positioning and smart building integration. 

HubStar has built tools for AI-powered employee engagement, spatial intelligence and dynamic occupancy planning. Spica’s existing network of building technology providers and enterprise clients will join HubStar’s H2O platform.

Risers:

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holding – +3.67%

The Sage Group – +3.46%

Hays – +3.38%

THG – +2.96%

Bakkavor Group – +2.82%

Fallers:

Ibstock – -4.04%

Ithaca Energy – -3.7%

Marshalls – -3.46%

Hochschild Mining – -3.35%

Breedon Group – -3.23%

Author: Chris Maguire

Serial entrepreneur Gavin Wheeldon has unveiled his target to reach one billion global users.

The CEO of Purple, a global leader in digital connectivity, was part of a stellar line-up of speakers at BusinessCloud’s FUEL Manchester 2025 event on Thursday.

No.1 Circle Square, in Manchester, hosted FUEL, which was sponsored by growing accountancy firm S&W; GM Business Growth Hub; and Bruntwood SciTech.

Wheeldon was joined on the final panel by Steve Oliver, CEO of MusicMagpie, and Hayley Roberts, CEO of Distology.

Explaining his vision, Wheeldon said: “I want to create a single, unified WiFi network all over the world that’s secure, seamless and everywhere. I want billions and billions of users every day on it.”

Purple’s WiFi has already topped 500m users and 80,000 venues, including cities, airports and stadiums like the $5.5bn SoFi Stadium, which has staged the Super Bowl.

The firm recently partnered with Newcastle City Council to deliver an extensive city-wide Wi-Fi network for residents, students and visitors.

Roberts has clocked up more than 10 years at the helm of cybersecurity distributor Distology and explained her mindset for growth: “Just keep going! Just grow and grow and keep expanding your networks and expanding the horizons constantly. Ultimately, we’re aiming for more domination across Europe and growth with people.”

Oliver spoke about the importance of ‘persevilience’, while Jack Maher, head of flexible workspace at Bruntwood SciTech, told the 90-strong audience the property giant had created a cohort specifically for female founders.

The other speakers were Janine Smith, director, GM Business Growth Hub; Lisa Morton, CEO, Roland Dransfield; Gary Fenemore, tax director, S&W; Nicola Weedall, founder & CEO, Hydr; Helen Oldham, co-founder, Lifted Ventures; Billy Gilchrist, business innovation advisor/GenAI expert, Hopwood Hall College; and Chris Hill, CEO, Northcoders.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Today is World Mental Health Day – and one entrepreneur says supporting vulnerable staff has been key to his success.

“Some of my best employees are neurodiverse. If you support them, they can work wonders,” said Josh Hough, founder and CEO of CareLineLive.

One of them is Jess Davies, 31, a sales development representative who lives with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety. Davies said her mental health condition gives her an edge at work.

“My OCD is a mix of perfectionism, ‘just right’ compulsions and contamination fears,” she said. “But it also makes me incredibly organised. Every piece of intel from a client goes into our CRM. If someone mentions they have a dog or are getting married, I remember. It’s about making people feel seen and that builds trust.”

ClearBank, an enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, has partnered with payroll software platform PayCaptain, powering real-time salary payments for more than 50,000 employees across its network of over 300 corporate clients.

PayCaptain will become ClearBank’s first embedded banking partner in the corporate sector, marking a significant milestone on the bank’s journey to deliver embedded financial services at the point of need across any industry.

Liverpool-based startup Harker has launched its platform which aims to transform how homelessness charities support vulnerable individuals.

James Barber, a recent University of Liverpool graduate, founded the business with Matt Gaynor and Alfie Jones. They discovered the problem they are now trying to solve whilst consulting for a homelessness charity in the South East of England, where they saw first-hand the challenges bad software was causing them.

They say Harker is the first CRM Case Management system built from the ground up to support homelessness charities, featuring an intuitive data collection system and a powerful reporting engine.

The software aims to empower charities to provide a personalised, data-led approach to solving each person’s homelessness at its root cause, and also help them to effectively demonstrate their social value to funders.