Author: Patrick Killeen

Shares in THG plc jumped 10.9% on Friday morning after the online retail group posted its highest organic growth in four years.

Its shares, as of 3:35pm on Tuesday, were trading at 41.5p – up from 37.4p at the close of play yesterday.

This is the highest it has been since early January and its market cap now sits at £520.4m.

The turnaround has also seen THG rejoin the FTSE 250, reflecting a growing belief that its strategy is starting to deliver.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Shares in Mitie Group plc have surged more than 11% today after the facilities management and professional services firm reported strong first-half trading and confirmed plans to resume a £100 million share buyback.

The FTSE 250 company said it expects higher full-year operating profit after a strong start to FY26, citing growth across its Technology Services and Decarbonisation divisions.

Former Health Minister Lord Markham has been appointed as chair of HealthTech investor Spex Capital.

Spex, which invests at the early stage, has also announced the first €30 million commitment to its flagship €100m venture HealthTech Fund.

The fund will invest globally in early-stage healthtech startups, from Seed to Series A/B, with investments of up to €5m.

Castelnau Group has secured a £65 million revolving loan facility from Shawbrook.

The listed closed-ended investment company, managed by Phoenix Asset Management Partners, backs small- to mid-cap private companies.

It will refinance its existing debt with the deal. The day-one drawdown totalled over 90% of the facility.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Warehouse robotics and data intelligence company Dexory has raised £124 million to expand its global operations and advance its autonomous warehouse technology.

The raise, which includes a £75m Series C funding round led by Eurazeo’s Growth team, alongside LTS Growth and Endeavor Catalyst, brings the London-based firm’s total funding to date to more than £188m.

Existing backers including DTCP, Atomico, Lakestar, Elaia, Latitude Ventures, and Wave-X also took part, while Bootstrap Europe extended the company’s growth debt facility.

The 43rd Women of the Year Awards took place on Friday at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.

Over 400 people gathered to listen to the stories of and celebrate the three winners, whittled down from more than 300 nominations.

Rachel Corp, chief executive officer of ITN, was the recipient of the Business Woman of the Year award. As well as overseeing one of the largest independent production companies in the UK, Corp is also involved with Women in Journalism, Women for Women International, and the RSA BAFTA. Special commendation was given to Sue Wright from Harrogate Group.

Neev Spencer, a broadcaster and presenter of Magic Radio’s weekday afternoon show, took home the ‘Freeths Woman with Edge’ award. Spencer is an ambassador for The British Asian Trust and other charities. Special commendation was given to Leisa Nichols- Drew from De Montfort University.

The Women of the Post Office were honoured with the Emmeline Pankhurst ‘Woman of Achievement’ award, recognising their courage and fight against one of the worst injustices in British history with the Horizon Scandal.

eBay, PayPal, Temu and B&Q are among organisations pledging to lead the way in supporting the small businesses which use their platforms.

Leading online marketplaces and payment providers have collectively signed a pledge that promotes fair treatment for small businesses with regards to cashflow and payments. Providers are required to undertake checks to ensure they are complying with a wide range of regulations, which can result in funds being withheld from small businesses.

The new 10-point pledge includes commitments to communicate effectively with small businesses when funds are withheld, support them understanding their obligations and to deal with complaints or issues as swiftly as possible.

Brought together by the Small Businesses Commissioner Emma Jones, the guidance accompanying the pledge sets out the terms under which businesses may have their funds withheld, including the regulations under which the platforms operate. It also advises small businesses how they can effectively navigate this and avoid situations where their funds are withheld.

Payments tech firm Ryft has launched an omnichannel payment solution to unify in-person and online transactions.

Ryft empowers marketplaces, franchises and digital platforms to automate reconciliation and monetise transactions wherever they’re captured.

Early investors Ingenii VC and Pembroke VCT are doubling down on their initial investments with a fresh injection of funding.

Allianz UK has announced the appointment of Mansoor Reehana to the newly created role of head of artificial intelligence.

In his new role, within the central data team, Reehana will be responsible for the strategy, architecture and product delivery of AI projects.

Reehana joined Allianz in May 2023 as a data science manager and has been instrumental in managing a portfolio of data science, machine learning and AI activities. He has played a pivotal role in the design and migration of AI platforms and the implementation of Generative AI.

Prior to joining Allianz, he held roles at EY’s AI Center of Excellence, and Crawford & Company, where he was responsible for leading global data transformation initiatives.

Risers:

Mitie Group – +7.63%
Entain – +6.28%
Hollywood Bowl Group – +6.10%
Bellway – +5.89%
EasyJet – +4.42%

Fallers:
Bytes Technology Group – -10.78%
Morgan Advanced Materials – -8.01%
Volution Group – -5.26%
Ithaca Energy – -4.54%
Metlen Energy & Metals – -4.27%

Global business services provider Paragon Group has appointed Stephen Lester to the newly created role of group chief technology officer following a period of rapid expansion for the business.

Formerly CTO for Paragon’s UK, Ireland and Luxembourg region, Lester’s role will shift from building the technology foundations that have supported the region’s key business lines, to setting a strategy that consolidates investment and innovation in technology across Paragon’s global footprint.

Crucial to his role will be refining the frameworks and governance required by the business to support the needs of its diverse set of customers, which span highly regulated industries and the world’s best-known consumer brands, the firm says.

Sedulo Group, one of the UK’s fastest-growing business advisory firms, has announced the appointment of Liz Chapman as its new chief marketing officer, based in the Manchester office.

Chapman brings over 24 years of strategic leadership from the UK’s top media agencies, most recently in a senior role at Carat UK. She has helped to shape the voice and growth of some of Britain’s most recognisable consumer brands, including Virgin, Greggs, Holland & Barrett, and Co-op.

Her arrival is the latest in a leadership recruitment drive across the UK from Sedulo – who are closing in on £25m of turnover in 2025 – following the appointments of Ross Preston as head of audit and Ben Vaux as corporate tax director in Leeds, and Simon O’Brien as managing partner in Birmingham.

Grateful has raised £1.5 million seed funding from Calculus Capital.

The Harrogate- and London-based cashless tipping platform was founded in 2022 by Mason Potter (CEO), Jarrod Potter (chair) and Damian Guy (CPTO) after their experience in the United States, where they saw first-hand how well-managed tipping could profoundly boost team motivation and performance.

They found that operators were drowning in admin – operating on huge, complex Excel sheets for tip pooling – whilst service workers were being hit with a lack of transparency and trust in the arrangements.

Kainos has secured a contract of up to three years to strengthen NHS digital capabilities for preventative healthcare.

The award, through NHS England’s Digital Prevention Service Portfolio (DPSP), will improve access to vaccinations and screenings through the NHS App, and will accelerate the delivery of personalised, preventative healthcare in line with the NHS 10 Year Health Plan.

Through the partnership – supported by Public Digital, Baringa, Healthia, Helix Centre, Scroll and ETHOS – Kainos will scale the Digital NHS Health Check service, enabling citizens to complete health assessments and receive tailored advice at home via the NHS App and website.

New digital resources will also support self-care, including mental health tools, weight management support, and diabetes risk reduction pathways.

Author: Chris Maguire

The first thing that strikes you when you visit the offices of PerfectTed is the attention to detail.

The UK’s leading matcha brand found fame when they appeared on Dragons’ Den in 2023 and received offers from all five Dragons.

Eventually they opted to go with Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett for £50k in exchange for 10 per cent of the business.

At the time, Jones quipped: “I think we’re going to make matcha lot of money.”

He was half right. PerfectTed’s founders – Marisa Poster, husband Levi Levenfiche and his brother Teddie Levenfiche – decided they didn’t need Jones’ expertise after all and went all in with Bartlett.

Today PerfectTed is based on an entire floor of Bartlett’s London office building.

I’d been invited for a tour of Bartlett’s Flight Story office, which is how I came to make my unannounced visit to PerfectTed.

Manchester Digital’s MentorHER programme, which supports women in tech through mentoring, has announced its fourth cohort in partnership with CGI.

Launched on Ada Lovelace Day (October 14th), the six-month initiative will offer fully funded places for 20 mentors and 20 mentees, helping women across Greater Manchester develop their careers in the digital and tech sectors.

The partnership comes as new research shows that up to 60,000 women left tech roles in the UK last year, costing the industry billions in lost talent.

Backed by Manchester Digital’s wider Digital Her initiative, the programe aims to tackle this issue by building a stronger, more inclusive community of women in technology. Since its launch in 2022, the programme has supported 120 mentors and mentees.

Aptamer Group, a York-based life sciences company that develops synthetic binders called Optimers, reported a 40% rise in annual revenue to £1.2 million for its latest financial year.

The company grew its portfolio of Optimer assets from four to eleven and signed new royalty deals with Neuro-Bio for Alzheimer’s diagnostics and the University of Glasgow for vaccine development.

It also strengthened partnerships with Unilever and is in talks with major pharma firms over new licensing agreements.

After the year-end, the company raised £1.8m and secured £675,000 in new contracts.

The funds will help expand manufacturing, build new partnerships and push further into the therapeutic and diagnostic markets.

A London-based communication and reporting platform for the construction and infrastructure industry has raised £1.1 million in strategic funding to accelerate its growth and expand its AI capabilities.

The round for SymTerra includes investment from industry and technology angels, alongside innovation funding from Innovate UK.

Backers include Fabienne Viala, former chair and CEO of Bouygues UK, as well as members of HERmesa and Enterprise 100.

The funding will be used to make key hires and advance the company’s SymAI technology, which looks to turn field communication data into actionable insights for construction teams.

Patchworks has raised £5 million to push deeper into North America and bring new AI tools to its retail integration platform as it targets its next stage of growth.

The Nottingham-based company connects retail systems that often fail to talk to one another.

This helps brands to avoid the kind of data chaos that has historically caused stock errors, late deliveries and lost sales.

The new funding round, led by Gresham House Ventures with growth lending from Palatine Growth Credit, follows a 41% year-on-year rise in recurring revenue.

Author: Chris Maguire

THG CEO Matthew Moulding wasn’t pulling any punches this morning when the online retailer gave an impressive Q3 trading update.

Group revenue is up 6.3 per cent to £405.2 while Q3 2025 represents the highest organic quarterly growth since Q4 2021.

The news has seen a significant increase in THG’s share price, which now stands at 39.56 – giving it a market cap of  £550m.

Moulding took to LinkedIn  to say the turnaround followed a ‘brutal’ rebuild of the business, which has seen THG reduce its headcount by almost 5,000 people since January 2022.

“If taking kicks to the nuts was a sport, we’d make the World Cup,” he wrote.