Author: Jonathan Symcox

FTSE 100 listed UK property group Segro has rejected a third takeover offer from a US firm ahead of a deadline for submitting a concrete bid.

Segro, which slammed Prologis over its initial £12.6 billion all-share approach last month, turned down a second offer earlier this month then a third approach valued at £13.5bn – and sweetened with a £2.7bn cash element.

Segro owns a portfolio of warehouses and data centres – mainly in the South East of England – and has benefited from the growth of online shopping.

Craneware, a provider of healthcare financial performance solutions, has been hit by a cyber security incident.

The AIM-listed firm said it is responding to a cyber security incident involving unauthorised access to a subset of its data environment.

The company’s incident response plan has been activated, it said, including the appointment by its board of external cyber security and forensic specialists. 

 

accesso Technology Group plc, a technology solutions provider for leisure, entertainment and cultural markets, has appointed Philip Wood as a non-executive director of the group.

Wood brings over 25 years of experience as a finance leader in the listed software sector. He served as CFO of Aptitude Software Group plc, the listed enterprise software company, from January 2007, and was appointed deputy CEO and CFO in 2019, a role he held until his retirement from the board in July 2023.

In those roles, he helped lead Aptitude’s transition towards a subscription and SaaS-based business model and brings significant experience of listed software businesses, financial discipline and strategic execution.

Earlier in his career, Philip spent seven years as group finance director of AttentiV Systems Group plc, overseeing its flotation in 2004 and its subsequent acquisition by Tieto Corporation in 2005.

From 2021 to 2024, he served as an independent NED at SmartSpace Software plc, stepping down on the company’s take-private acquisition.

Concurrent Technologies Plc, a designer and manufacturer of computer products, systems, and mission-critical solutions used in high-performance markets by some of the world’s major OEMs, has appointed Emma Ciechan as CFO with effect from 5th October 2026. 

Ciechan joins from DS Smith, formerly a London-listed global manufacturer of sustainable packaging with revenues of £6.8 billion and approximately 30,000 employees, where she most recently served as finance director of the paper, recycling & capex and paper sourcing & procurement divisions.

Prior to DS Smith, Emma was group financial controller at Guardian Media Group plc and held leadership roles at News UK and Kantar.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

One man and his team are quietly working across British prisons preparing inmates for life on the outside with laptops they can use in their cells.

The service is transforming lives, saving taxpayers millions and often starts with a game of chess.

Cambridge-based Coracle is in 90% of prisons in England and Wales. Ahead of International Chess Day on Monday, CEO James Tweed says prisoners are often reluctant to learn at first, but something happens when they start to play the game. 

Author: Chris Maguire

PE-backed ProofID, the pure-play identity security specialist delivering advisory, implementation and managed services, has appointed Neil Evans as its first Chief AI Officer.

The newly created role will lead Manchester-based ProofID’s transformation into an AI-native business.

He will be tasked with building the company’s AI-native delivery capabilities internally, developing new AI-powered service offerings for customers, and positioning ProofID as the recognised leader in AI-enabled identity services across EMEA and the Americas.

Evans brings more than 30 years of technology leadership spanning software engineering, product innovation and C-suite roles across enterprise software and professional audio.

A UK firm has raised £30 million in Series A funding to develop low-cost drone interceptors.

Greenjets believes it can become the UK’s next aerospace ‘prime’ – primary contractor – which essentially puts it at the top of a supply chain.

The round was led by Blossom Capital with participation from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and existing investors including Tanglin Ventures and NSFO Family Office.

The announcement comes days after Greenjets was named one of three companies selected by the Ministry of Defence under the Low-Cost Air Defence Effectors (LCADE) programme to develop a British low-cost drone interceptor. 

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

When Erin Meryl McGurk was growing up in South Manchester she could not have imagined where she is today.

The pupil at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls is now building an AI startup in Silicon Valley after securing backing from the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator.

“Growing up in South Manchester and going to AGGS, I did not see many people, especially women, taking the route I’m taking now – building a technology company, raising from Y Combinator, and moving to Silicon Valley,” she says.

“I’d love to make that path feel more visible and possible for girls who are where I was a few years ago.”

GetBusy plc, an AIM-listed provider of SaaS platforms incorporating AI to regulated professionals, announces that Dr Miles Jakeman is today stepping down as chairman and director.

He leaves GetBusy after nine years, with Paul Huberman appointed as his successor with immediate effect.

Huberman has been a non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee since 2020.  He is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser, and was previously finance director at three companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, Asda Property Holdings plc, Regent Inns plc and Grantchester Holdings plc.

He is currently a non-executive director at London-listed Town Centre Securities plc and a director of several private companies.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Eagle Eye Solutions Group PLC has recovered from the loss of a major contract in the United States last year.

Last June the loyalty and promotions platform announced that it had lost its contract with Neptune Retail Solutions (NRS), leading to a drop in its share price to almost 200 pence.

However it implemented cost efficiencies and has expanded its client base with major enterprise wins in the US and Europe.

Now it has reported annual results ahead of its recently upgraded market expectations.

British mobility tech startup Tyred has raised £2.5 million to make bike ownership simpler, smarter and more reliable for riders and fleet operators in the UK and across Europe.

To do this, Tyred is building a connected ownership platform for cycling, bringing together maintenance, repairs, insurance, warranty management and finance into a single digital experience.

Cycling has become an increasingly important part of urban transport but unlike for cars the ownership experience remains fragmented, with riders often relying on disconnected providers for servicing, insurance and repairs. Tyred aims to solve that issue through an all-in-one platform that stays with riders and their bikes throughout the lifetime of ownership.

This service will be supported by proprietary IoT devices embedded within bikes and collecting real-time performance data that powers predictive AI models. The technology enables wear-and-tear monitoring, proactive maintenance and richer insights that could ultimately reduce insurance costs and improve reliability for riders.

Tyred has already established one of London’s largest specialist bike maintenance operations, servicing more than 100,000 bikes over the past year. Among its customers is shared mobility operator Lime, for which Tyred provides maintenance and battery-swapping services across a fleet of around 50,000 bikes in London.

The new investment will accelerate product development, support expansion across the UK and lay the foundations for European growth as Tyred scales its platform for both consumers and commercial fleet operators.

The funding round includes investment from venture capital firms Raw Ventures and Ada Ventures, alongside a group of angel investors, including Anton Buzdalin, who was the lead investor in London proptech startup Dwelly.

Wavenet has announced a major investment in AI-enabled customer service technologies as it continues to scale operations following significant customer growth across the business.

Over the past 12 months, Wavenet’s support teams have handled more than 450,000 support cases and over 165,000 customer phone calls, reflecting both the growth of the business and the increasing demand for fast, high-quality support across increasingly complex technology environments.

Following a period of significant expansion, Wavenet now supports more than 22,000 organisations across the UK. In the last year alone, the business doubled turnover while maintaining a customer satisfaction score of 92%, highlighting the importance of investing in scalable service capabilities.

To support this growth while maintaining the service standards customers expect, Wavenet has signed a new three-year, £7.4 million agreement with ServiceNow, underpinning a major programme of investment in AI-powered service management capabilities.

The investment includes the rollout this month of ServiceNow’s Agentic AI capabilities, Now Assist, which will support faster and more intelligent customer support through automated fault triage, case summarisation and improved case management.

The new capabilities are designed to reduce delays caused by cases moving between teams, provide engineers with better visibility of previous customer interactions and accelerate issue resolution times.

Risk Ledger has secured £24 million growth investment from Axiom Equity and returning investor Mercia to enter the United States.

It says the Series B funding will enable more organisations to move beyond traditional third-party risk management and towards active supply chain security. 

Risk Ledger was built for how supply chains actually work. The platform is network-first: each supplier completes one standardised assessment and maintains it across the network in real time, replacing repeated questionnaires with a single, current profile that every connected organisation can see.

 

Silicon Microgravity Limited (SMG), the UK advanced semiconductor company pioneering next-generation MEMS technologies, has secured £6 million in funding to accelerate commercial growth across the defence, space and semiconductor sectors.

The round includes investment from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, with participation from both the UKI2S Defence & Security and Space portfolios, alongside lead investor West Hill Capital.

The investment marks UKI2S’s first participation in SMG through its Space Portfolio, building on the company’s existing relationship with the fund’s Defence & Security portfolio, and comes as SMG achieves growing commercial traction with a number of globally recognised customers.

SMG’s proprietary technology enables the production of high performance microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices designed for extreme operating environments. These technologies are increasingly critical for modern defence systems, satellite communications, navigation, sensing and autonomous operations.

The company’s MEMS accelerometers are already supporting advanced space programmes, with applications spanning launch vehicles, lunar and planetary exploration, satellite enabled critical mineral exploration alongside wider dual-use commercial and sovereign capability deployments.

The funding will support SMG’s continued scale-up of UK manufacturing capability, expansion of its engineering and semiconductor production capacity, and acceleration of commercial partnerships across Europe and the US.

Lockheed Martin is expanding the reach of its venture capital fund to support development of promising defence technologies in British and European markets. 

Lockheed Martin Ventures, the company’s $1 billion startup investment arm, is opening a London office with the goal of investing at least $100 million of its funding in the UK and Europe.

 

Recognise Bank, the SME property lending bank, has appointed ex-Starling Bank COO Julian Sawyer as a non-executive director.

In addition to Starling Bank, Julian brings a wealth of banking and FinTech experience to the board. His previous roles include CEO roles at Zodia Custody and Bitstamp.

Recently, Recognise Bank has announced that it has grown its loan book to over £500m, whilst recently exceeding £600m in deposits.

Millions of shoppers using BNPL services will be better protected by new rules that have now come into force.

The government says they deliver on its commitment ‘to end the Buy Now, Pay Later Wild-West’. 

Buying items with providers like Klarna, PayPal or Clearpay can be a useful tool to help people manage their finances, allowing consumers to spread the cost of purchases interest-free, typically at the point of online checkout. 

However these users have had fewer rights than someone buying the same item with a credit card or a personal loan when seeking a refund after buying faulty goods.

These products will now be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), giving consumers protections in line with other forms of credit. 

Under the new rules, providers must also carry out affordability checks before offering credit, meaning no one should be borrowing what they cannot realistically afford to repay, helping people avoid getting into avoidable, unaffordable debt.

And anyone who falls into financial difficulty will be directed towards debt advice and support first, rather than being immediately handed to a debt collector.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Frasers Group plc has reported an increase in revenue following acquisitions and international growth – but saw sales in its core UK Sports Direct business fall last year.

For the 52 weeks ended 26th April 2026, group revenue was up 8.7% to £5.3 billion, driven by international revenue growth of 59.2%. However sales in its UK sports division fell 4.7% and premium lifestyle dropped 6.9%.

Frasers, which owns House of Fraser and Flannels, saw overall retail growth of 8.3% to £5.1bn, while its property arm grew 55.1% to £96m and financial services – including Frasers Plus – fell 5.7% to £80.4m.

It was reported yesterday by Sky News that Mike Ashley’s retail and property group had entered the auction for the struggling iconic luxury department store Harvey Nichols despite objections from its brand partners.

Frasers, also looking to take over Hugo Boss, is tempted by the flagship Knightsbridge store, while ‘Harvey Nicks’ also has more than a dozen international locations.

Northern Gritstone, the investment company scaling early-stage life sciences and technology companies in the North of England, has promoted Simon Braham to chief investment officer.

Braham joined Northern Gritstone in September 2025 to drive the growth of its portfolio companies in the newly created role of head of portfolio. In his new role, he will oversee all of the company’s investment activities.

Based in Manchester, Braham is an experienced venture capital and private equity investor.  He joined Northern Gritstone from Bridges, where he led its sustainable growth funds in the North.

Sports technology business Urban Zoo has secured a £20 million investment from BGF.

BGF’s investment will support the development of Urban Zoo’s proprietary technology, while enabling the company to capitalise on the significant growth potential across international markets, particularly in North America.

Founded in 2013, the Warrington-based company provides world-leading digital platforms for sports brands, clubs and federations – across mobile, web, streaming, eCommerce, and retail – to drive fan engagement and strengthen revenue streams.