Author: Patrick Killeen

Former Manchester United and England footballer Jesse Lingard has joined London-based AI SportTech MAGIC AI as an investor, brand ambassador and on-screen trainer.

The fitness technology company, which is behind the award-winning MAGIC AI Mirror, has now raised just shy of £7 million.

With a combined social media following of more than 15m, Lingard’s move into the fast-growing AI fitness sector follows a wave of elite athletes investing in technology-driven health ventures. 

He joins a star-studded roster of MAGIC AI collaborators that includes Sir Alastair Cook, Strictly Come Dancing’s Katya Jones and Team GB Olympic champion Desiree Henry.

Global professional services network Forvis Mazars has made a major investment in its technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) practice with the appointment of Nathan Reay as TMT sector leader for the UK.

Reay, an experienced investment banker and former C-suite executive, brings more than 25 years of global strategy and M&A experience across Hong Kong, Sydney and London.

In his new role at the France-based firm, he will lead the expansion of the company’s TMT offering in the UK and contribute to international strategy as a member of the firm’s global TMT board.

He will also head the UK mergers & acquisitions team for the sector, drawing on a career that includes leading corporate strategy for multinational media companies, managing global tech and media investments, and sitting on the board of a technology-focused venture capital fund.

Author: Paul Holland, managing director for UK/ANZ Fleet, Corpay

The Autumn Budget is meant to be about stability and growth, but small fleets and van drivers are bracing for another round of cost increases. 

These are the people who keep Britain moving. They deliver our groceries, fix our boilers, keep the shelves stocked. 

Yet every Budget seems to treat them as an easy target. Fuel duty, taxes, higher wages, energy costs – all of it lands on small operators first, and they have the least room to absorb it.

The reality is that small businesses don’t have corporate buffers or deep pockets. They are family businesses, sole traders, and local employers. Every extra pound squeezed out of them is another pound that ends up in the weekly shop or the cost of a delivery. 

And while larger fleets can plan years ahead, the small firms are often making decisions month to month. They need breathing space, not another set of hidden costs.

This is why the Budget matters. The Government can choose to pile more weight onto these businesses, or it can give them the room to invest and grow. 

That means phasing in new taxes, offering SME-friendly incentives for EV adoption, and making infrastructure accessible beyond the big corporates. The van driver in Manchester or the builder in Birmingham deserves the same chance to go greener and save money as the multinational.

If the Chancellor really wants a healthier economy, the Autumn Budget cannot ignore the backbone of UK business. 

Stop treating small businesses like an ATM. Give them the stability they need, and the whole country will feel the benefit.

London-based FinTech ClearBank has signed a strategic framework agreement with a subsidiary of Circle Internet Group to advance the adoption of compliant, multi-currency stablecoin infrastructure across Europe. 

The collaboration will initially focus on expanding access to USDC and EURC, Circle’s MiCA-compliant, fully reserved stablecoins, through Circle Mint.

ClearBank also plans to become one of the first European banks to join the Circle Payments Network (CPN), allowing clients to move money globally at internet speed with blockchain transparency. 

The partnership aims to bridge traditional and digital finance to enable faster, lower-cost cross-border payments.

The Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards, in association with BGF, has announced its finalists for 2025 – a powerhouse lineup of female founders transforming industries and driving change across the UK economy.

Since launching in 2003, the awards have celebrated women who are reshaping sectors, creating jobs, and leading businesses with purpose.

This year’s finalists were selected from nearly 1,000 entries nationwide, representing a diverse mix of pioneering startups, scale-ups and established leaders spanning healthcare, beauty, hospitality, recruitment and food manufacturing.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Peter Kyle MP, has promised to use the power of AI and accelerate deregulation to unlock economic growth in one of his first major speeches following his recent promotion to the Cabinet.

Speaking with 200 technology leaders on Friday morning at The University of Sussex at the UKAI conference, Kyle outlined his vision for driving growth through innovation.

Comparing government to running a business, Kyle said that the route to getting out of the financial crisis was for the UK to innovate its way out.

“Look at Apple when they re-hired Steve Jobs….they were 90 days for insolvency… he didn’t just sit down and say what they can’t do… he threw everything at it,” he said.

Stockholm-headquartered Nordic Capital has agreed to acquire BMLL – an independent provider of harmonised historical order book data and analytics – in a deal that marks a major step forward for the Cambridge-founded company.

The deal, made in close partnership with BMLL’s management team and minority shareholder Optiver, is set to accelerate the firm’s next phase of growth.

It will also aim to strengthen the company’s mission to provide the market’s most trusted source of high-quality, analytics-ready data across major exchange-traded asset classes.

Founded in 2014 by Cambridge academics, BMLL delivers granular Level 1, 2 and 3 order book data and analytics covering global equities, ETFs, futures and US options.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Apple faces paying up to £1.5 billion in compensation after the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled that it abused its dominant market position by overcharging millions of UK iPhone and iPad users for apps and in-app purchases.

The case – Kent v Apple – was brought by Dr Rachael Kent, senior lecturer at King’s College London, who has made history as the first female Class Representative under the UK’s collective action regime.

The tribunal found that Apple had ‘imposed exclusionary practices’ and charged ‘excessive and unfair’ fees on app purchases, subscriptions and digital content over a ten-year period.

The ruling, in favour of Dr Kent on all aspects of her claim, concluded that users were overcharged for digital purchases made through popular apps including YouTube, Tinder, Fortnite and Candy Crush, among others.

The commission did not apply to transactions for physical goods or services such as Uber or Deliveroo.

Kromek Group plc has delivered a big increase in half-year revenues.

The Sedgefield company, a developer of radiation and bio-detection technology solutions, expects to report revenue for the six months ending 31st October 2025 of at least £14.5m (H1 2025: £3.7m). This includes revenue generated under the group’s enablement agreement with Siemens Healthineers of at least £8.2m.

The group expects to report profit before tax and positive adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2026 compared with a loss before tax of £5.7m and an adjusted EBITDA loss of £2.3m for H1 2025.

Rosslyn Data Technologies plc has narrowed its losses.

The cloud-based enterprise spend intelligence platform, which is based in London, reported revenues of £3m, up from £2.9m in 2024.

The firm’s adjusted EBITDA loss reduced to £2m from £2.5m in 2024.

Rosslyn said it has developed new AI-powered initiative tracking and benchmarking tools this year.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The week’s best-read stories include:

• the jailing of Sam Wall

• soaring sales at gifting firm IMP & Maker following Dragons’ Den appearance

• record-breaking appearance in the Den from yuv

• smear campaign accusation levelled at listed Playtech

A woman has today been  jailed for 28 months for a ‘prolonged, deliberate and calculated’ campaign of online abuse against high-profile figures from the business and tech industry.

Sam Wall, 55, who describes herself as a digital strategist, was the subject of a BBC Panorama documentary earlier this year.

The documentary heard how she targeted Naomi Timperley and Brad Burton online by making a series of false claims against them.

Wall pleaded guilty to sending false messages and two charges of stalking in 2024 and was finally sentenced today (October 24) at Minshull Street Crown Court after five previous adjournments.

Both of her victims were in court as she was jailed for 28 months in relation to the offences against Mr Burton, and 24 months in regards to Mrs Timperley.

She’ll serve the sentences concurrently, meaning she’ll be eligible for parole in 14 months.

Risers:

London Stock Exchange Group – +4.39%

WH Smith – +3.33%

Marshalls – +2.72%

Trustpilot – +2.61%

Harbour Energy – +2.42%

Fallers:

Metlen Energy & Metals – -3.39%

C&C Group – -3.26%

Genus – -3.13%

Hochschild Mining – -2.88%

Fresnillo – -2.37%

Author: Dan Pell, vice president and country manager for UK&I, Workday

The UK workforce is on the cusp of a talent crisis. 

Even though the number of job vacancies in the UK fell by 1.2% between July and September 2025, behind this apparent decline lies another tension: a labour market where internal opportunities are shrinking, top talent is leaving, and confidence in leadership — particularly around AI strategy — is wavering.

This isn’t a caution; it’s a strategic gap. Organisations are struggling to define the skills they need and find the right talent, while also overlooking their best option: the people they already have. Much of this is related to how leaders communicate their AI vision and strategy. Indeed, leaders have a clear vision for what they plan to do with the productivity surplus, yet employees and job seekers alike are not on board with how AI is being deployed and feel unclear about what it means for their future. 

Without clear communication about a company’s AI strategy and its impact on roles and team structures, employee trust is suffering. These aren’t isolated challenges. They’re symptoms of a broader breakdown in trust and alignment. If left unaddressed, they will limit an organisation’s ability to retain talent, adapt to change, and sustain performance. 

Dementia detection service, MemoryTell, has been crowned the overall winner of the 2025 INVENT awards.

Organised by science and technology hub Catalyst in partnership with Bank of Ireland UK, the annual INVENT awards are a leading showcase of new entrepreneurial talent in Northern Ireland.

At an award ceremony held in the ICC Belfast yesterday, 12 finalists competed for the main prize, with MemoryTell taking home £25,000 from the total prize fund of £56,500.

Each category winner took home £5,000, with a further £3,000 for one Inclusive Innovation Winner and £2,000 shared between three Student Invent Winners.

MemoryTell combines compassion with forward-looking technology providing early dementia detection through use of advanced AI. This service differs from traditional dementia assessments in its use of real-time data output, providing fast and accurate detection. MemoryTell’s detection services are non-invasive, offering patients a dignified method of early diagnosis.

California ‘FinOps’ platform DoiT has bought Israeli firm CloudWize.

CloudWize is a multi-cloud security posture and compliance platform.

Its technology delivers a continuous ‘security graph’ for incident response investigations within Amazon Web Services. Its platform detects misconfigurations, compliance drift, and attack paths, and automates remediation through policy-as-code guardrails.

New research from ClearBank claims that large UK businesses now view embedded financial services as a strategic boardroom decision and business growth driver.

The research – ‘The embedded economy: Why brands are embracing financial services as a driver for innovation and growth’ – explores the attitudes of 200 senior business leaders at large UK-based corporates towards embedded finance and the potential for payments, accounts, and lending to enable new services, new revenue streams, and enhanced customer loyalty.

It found that despite growing enthusiasm for embedded finance’s potential to deliver these services, many companies are still held back by fears of regulatory requirements, technical complexity, and ongoing concerns around finding the right partner to deliver at scale.

Global technology provider Arrow Electronics has signed a new distribution agreement with cybersecurity specialist AlgoSec, covering the UK and Ireland.

Building on its existing agreement in the Netherlands, the move extends Arrow’s security portfolio, giving channel partners access to AlgoSec’s advanced network security policy management solutions.

AlgoSec helps enterprises align security with business processes by delivering unified visibility, risk analysis, and automating security policy changes across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Learning technology specialist Learning Pool has acquired Elucidat – a Brighton-based EdTech used by global brands including Tesco, Pret, Primark, Sharp, Metro Bank and Bupa.

The deal brings together two leading learning technology providers, combining Derry-based Learning Pool’s analytics and platform capabilities with Elucidat’s expertise in scalable, AI-assisted content creation.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Climate intelligence startup Mondra has raised £10 million in Series A funding to accelerate its expansion into Europe and strengthen its AI-driven platform for managing food supply chain resilience.

The round was co-led by AlbionVC and Planet A Ventures, with participation from Swisscom, PeakBridge, Ponderosa Ventures and Green Circle Foodtech Ventures.

The investment will fund the London-based firm’s move into key European markets, including the Netherlands, Germany and France, as well as support the development of new tools for managing supply chain disruption and climate risk alongside emissions tracking.

Mondra’s platform uses digital twin technology to map complex supply chains, helping food companies and retailers track carbon emissions, price volatility and climate-related risks across their networks.