The UK government’s AI-powered fraud prevention tool has stopped criminals stealing a record £480 million from taxpayers in its biggest-ever crackdown.

The system scans new policies for weaknesses before they can be exploited, cutting fraud-detection time by up to 80% and helping protect public funds for schools, hospitals and policing.

The results were announced at the Five Eyes anti-fraud summit in London, where Cabinet Office Minister Josh Simons said the technology will be rolled out across government and licensed internationally.

The UK government has announced a £10 million investment in the domestic semiconductor sector, with up to 40 businesses set to benefit.

Backed by Innovate UK, the fund will accelerate development of next-generation chips that power products from smartphones and cars to medical devices and renewable energy systems.

Companies supported include Paragraf, whose graphene-based devices could extend mobile battery life and cut energy use in transport and defence, and Silicon Microgravity, which is developing satellite-free navigation tools for wearables and robotics.

Tech Minister Kanishka Narayan said the funding would boost national resilience, create high-skilled jobs and cement Britain’s role in a global market worth hundreds of billions.

A man in his forties has been arrested in West Sussex in connection with a cyber attack on Collins Aerospace that has caused days of disruption at major European airports, including Heathrow.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed the arrest, made under suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences, though the individual has since been released on bail.

The attack, involving ransomware, crippled Collins Aerospace’s baggage and check-in software, forcing airlines to revert to manual processes and leading to hundreds of flight delays and cancellations across airports in London, Berlin, Brussels and Dublin.

Collins Aerospace’s parent company RTX Corporation said it is working to restore systems but warned airlines to prepare for at least another week of disruption.

School of Coding & AI, the UK’s largest educator in AI and coding, has unveiled new £2.5 million facilities at its Birmingham campus to expand accessibility and inclusivity in higher education.

The new space features AI labs, game design facilities, an interactive avatar, podcast rooms and a research centre, transforming the upper floor of the campus into a hub for innovation.

Opened earlier this year in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton, the campus now hosts over 1,300 students supported by 13 specialist lecturers.

The facilities were officially launched by West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker, who highlighted the region’s ambition to lead the UK in AI skills training as part of his Growth Plan.

A London-based developer of agentic AI-native test infrastructure has raised a £14.9 million Series A round led by Redalpine with participation from IQ Capital, Mercia Ventures, UBS and Seedcamp.

The funding for Synthesized will support hiring across North America and Europe in AI R&D, engineering and go-to-market teams.

Founded in 2020 by Nicolai Baldin, the company uses AI to automate the creation of lifelike, regulation-safe test data and environments, helping enterprises accelerate software delivery while staying compliant.

Deutsche Bank, an early customer, has deepened its partnership after seeing test data provisioning times halved.

AI has become mission-critical for business leaders worldwide, with 81% now trusting AI agents to act during crises such as service outages or cyberattacks, according to PagerDuty’s new AI Resilience Survey.

The study, based on responses from 1,500 executives across the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany and Japan, also found that 74% of firms would struggle to function without AI.

Adoption is surging in software development, where 84% of organisations use AI to write, review or suggest code, but 85% of executives admit better guardrails are needed to catch errors and failures.

Puma VCT 13 has launched an offer of up to £70 million to expand its £195m portfolio of 26 companies.

The sector-agnostic venture capital trust backs more established businesses with revenues of £2m or more.

Over the five years to June 2025, it has delivered a net asset value total return of 41.3% and targets an average annual dividend of 5p per share.

London-based MarTech Navigator has raised £4 million from IW Capital to accelerate growth of its digital advertising platform.

Founded by British Olympic medallist in rowing and former Ink Global CCO Steve Rowbotham, Navigator helps brands reach millions of travelling consumers using over 2 billion fully consented, first-party data points.

The team of 24 spans the UK, US and APAC, serving clients including L’Oréal, HSBC, Formula 1 and FC Barcelona.

The funding will support platform development, commercial expansion and a new SaaS product launch with a global hospitality software partner.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Funding Circle has announced a £300 million forward flow agreement with TPG Angelo Gordon and Barclays to boost lending to UK small businesses.

The renewed partnership will provide ongoing support for the SME finance platform’s core term loan product, which has delivered strong investor returns and supports its wider suite of products including FlexiPay and its business credit card.

The London-based company said the agreement reflects growing confidence in its technology and credit assessment capabilities.

Manchester-based Aruga Cyber is celebrating a year of rapid growth as it expands across the UK and launches new AI-powered services.

Founded in 2024 by former Royal Navy submariner David Taylor and ex-British Army co-founder Daniel Long, the cybersecurity company has developed automation technology that is said to be able to contain threats in just 60 seconds, giving SMEs access to enterprise-grade protection without the cost of running their own security operations centre.

In the past year, the business has grown to six staff, secured more than 10 enterprise clients, opened a new office in Luton and joined Greater Manchester’s delegation welcoming the Japanese ambassador for a Sister City agreement with Osaka.

Its next step is launching Cyber Compass, a free AI-powered tool that instantly delivers tailored cyber resilience reports.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has spent more than £3.6 million on laptops, mobiles and iPads over the past three years to support remote working.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the majority (£3.1m) went on laptops, with mobiles accounting for £380,000 and iPads £91,000.

The investment comes as the government pledges £10 billion by 2029 to modernise the NHS and social care through workforce and digital transformation.

Spending peaked in 2023-24 at £2.8m, largely due to a surge in laptop purchases.

Leeds-based Youbee Media is marking its fifth anniversary with record growth, after turnover jumped 62% in the past year.

Founded by Rebecca Hopwood in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, the female-led agency has grown into a multi-award-winning business supporting brands, charities and third sector organisations.

Its marketing training arm has surged 215% in demand, prompting the launch of The Hive Academy – an online learning platform for accessible social media training.

Global networking and smart home solutions provider TP-Link has promoted Ben Allcock to vice president – B2B UK & Ireland.

In his new role, Allcock will lead the strategic direction, sales, and commercial execution of the California-based firm’s B2B operations in the region, overseeing a team of 35 professionals.

He previously served as sales director UK & Ireland, where he played a key role in expanding the company’s presence, including opening its largest UK & Ireland warehouse in Newbury.

Allcock brings over 25 years of experience in sales and leadership, having held senior roles at Netgear and Channel Solutions.

Blackpool-based supplement manufacturer Zooki has secured £1.8 million in funding from NatWest to accelerate its growth in the global wellness market.

The funding will provide working capital to support research and development of new science-backed product lines and flavours, building on the firm’s portfolio of collagen, electrolyte and vitamin supplements already sold in more than 33 countries.

With almost 100% growth in the past year, the company’s products are stocked by major UK retailers including Holland & Barrett, Sainsbury’s, Selfridges and Harrods.

The business, which recently doubled its headcount in Blackpool, plans to use the funding to enhance brand visibility and expand into mainstream retail channels.

Finova has appointed David Espley as CTO to lead its technology strategy and scale its mortgage and savings software suite.

Espley, who was previously CTO at Kaluza and has also held senior roles at Hargreaves Lansdown and LexisNexis, brings more than 20 years’ experience in technology leadership.

At the London-based firm, he will focus on leveraging AI and cloud-native platforms to improve outcomes for lenders, brokers and their customers.

His appointment follows the recent arrival of CEO Gareth Richardson as the company strengthens its leadership team.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Global risk and reputation intelligence platform Signal AI has raised a £122 million growth-equity investment to accelerate its expansion across the US, Europe and the Middle East.

The round was led by Battery Ventures, who will acquire a majority stake in the business.

Funding raised will also be used to accelerate product innovation and strategic M&A.

The London-headquartered company’s platform analyses billions of data points across news, regulation, litigation, social media and proprietary sources to help uncover emerging threats and benchmark corporate risk profiles against peers.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group PLC has appointed Rory Maxwell as its CEO following the company’s acquisition of London-based sports data and marketing business Halfspace.

Maxwell co-founded Halfspace in 2018 and grew it into an award-winning data technology and marketing services company, delivering solutions for some of the world’s largest sports rights holders, digital media firms and scale-up tech businesses.

He joined the AI, data, and marketing services group’s board in July and now succeeds James Sheehan, who has stepped down as CEO and director.

Alongside Maxwell’s appointment, the business also intends to appoint co-founder Daniel Gee as CTO, subject to regulatory approvals.

The company floated at the beginning of 2025 with a share price of 10.25p, which has since dipped and now sits at around 3.1p. It has a market cap of £5.27m.

Redcentric plc has reported a positive set of results amid talks over the sale of its data centre business.

Earlier this year the Harrogate-based firm separated its IT managed services provider and data centre businesses into two autonomous business units – and is currently in talks with a third party over the sale of the latter.

In May it appointed Michelle Senecal de Fonseca, formerly a non-executive director, as CEO, while Tony Ratcliffe joined as CFO in August.

For the year ended 31st March 2025, total revenue for the group was £169.9m – up from £163.2m in FY24 – while adjusted EBITDA was £35.4m (FY24: £28.3m).

For ‘continuing operations’ – i.e. the MSP business – revenue was £135.1m (up 8.3%) and EBITDA was £18.8m (up 8.1%).

Pinewood Technologies Group PLC, a provider of cloud retail solutions to the automotive industry, has reported strong results for the six months ended 30th June 2025.

Revenue was up 21.7% to £19.6m, while underlying EBITDA increased 14.5% to £7.9m.

A non-executive director is stepping down from Revolution Beauty Group plc following the return of co-founders Adam Minto and Tom Allsworth last month.

Rachel Horsefield will now not be seeking re-election at the company’s annual general meeting on 29th September 2025, with the resolution to re-elect her now removed.

The company says it will review its board and committee structure in the forthcoming months.

Minto, who reached a settlement to pay £2.9m back to Revolution Beauty last year after it accused him of breaching his fiduciary duties to the company, is returning to the struggling business as it plans a wave of redundancies.

Allsworth has been named CEO, with Colin Henry stepping down as interim CEO. He is available as an advisor as he works out a six-month notice period.