STRAT7 has appointed Pranay Jeyachandran as its new group managing director, a role created to strengthen collaboration across the global insights and analytics group.

Jeyachandran, previously managing director of STRAT7 Incite, will focus on deepening relationships with global enterprise clients and expanding access to the London company’s AI-driven capabilities.

He will work closely with the agency leadership teams to accelerate client growth and help businesses leverage the group’s AI Innovation Lab, which uses tools to help change how data is collected and translated into strategic insights.

STRAT7 combines human expertise with data and technology to help organisations better understand their markets, customers and competitors, supporting more informed decision-making and business growth.

Oxford University spinout Astut has raised £1.6 million in seed funding to commercialise its new “Hybrid AI” system, which is said to help organisations make decisions during crises where traditional AI fails due to a lack of historical data.

The round was co-led by East X Ventures and Sure Valley Ventures (SVV), with participation from UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S).

Founded earlier this year by Professor Pete Grindrod CBE, the firm’s technology combines logical reasoning with generative AI to support “High Stakes Unseen Decisions (HSUD)” – complex, one-off problems faced in sectors such as defence, energy, retail and finance.

Despite being only six months old, Astut is already in talks with potential pilot partners, including the Ministry of Defence and the UK’s fusion energy programme.

Rightcharge, a startup simplifying fleet EV charging, has raised £1.6 million in seed funding led by Soulmates Ventures, with backing from Blackwood Ventures, Unruly Capital and Purple Ventures. 

The company, which grew annual recurring revenue more than tenfold in 2025, will use the funds to expand into Europe through a new partnership with Octopus Electroverse.

The London-based firm’s platform automates home charging reimbursements for fleets by linking directly to energy accounts, cutting admin, fraud and costs by up to 90%. 

It also provides a public charge card covering 70% of UK chargers, consolidating all payments into one monthly bill. 

The technology is already used by The AA and other major fleets, with Rightcharge now preparing to launch in Germany, France, the Netherlands and beyond.

Shares in Molten Ventures have climbed 7% in early trading this morning following its strong trading update.

Croma Security Solutions Group has appointed John Wakefield as non-executive chairman and Andy Wonnacott as a non-executive director.

Wakefield is a seasoned corporate adviser and fundraiser with extensive experience supporting AIM-listed and private companies.

A qualified solicitor who later moved into corporate finance, he was a founding director and head of corporate finance at Rowan Dartington and held senior roles at WH Ireland.

He has also served on the AIM Advisory Group and chaired the London Stock Exchange’s Regional Advisory Group for the South West.

Wonnacott, meanwhile, is a Chartered Accountant who brings over 20 years of board-level experience across AIM and Main Market companies, including as group finance director at Petards Group and IGG Component Technology.

Now principal at Libratum Partners, he specialises in financial strategy, governance and M&A, particularly in the defence, engineering and technology sectors.

Listed firm Haydale has signed two new contracts worth around £450,000 with Affordable Warmth Solutions (AWS), a community interest company set up by National Grid to help tackle fuel poverty.

The deals cover the winter roll-out of the Wales-based company’s JustHeat system to vulnerable households and a grid stability trial to test how the technology can reduce pressure on electricity networks.

The winter programme will see free JustHeat installations in fuel-poor homes by March 2026, targeting households most affected by cold-related health issues.

With these new contracts, Haydale’s total revenues with AWS and other UK energy partners have passed £1 million, marking a key milestone for the company’s growing JustHeat business.

Molten Ventures has reported a strong first half of the year, with its net asset value per share rising 7.2% to around 719p and gross portfolio value increasing 5.5% to £1.43 billion.

The venture capital firm realised £62 million in cash proceeds during the period, following £135m last year.

Exits achieved an average 2x multiple on invested capital, including Revolut at 20x, Freetrade at 1.5x and Lyst at 0.7x.

Another £33m was deployed into new and follow-on investments, including Duel, General Index and Speedinvest Continuation Fund I, while a further £38m has been returned to shareholders through buybacks, with an additional £10m now committed.

The London-based firm said its portfolio remains resilient and well-funded, with strong growth across core holdings in FinTech, space, AI, and digital health.

The company ended the period with £76m in group cash, another £23m from managed funds, and an undrawn £60m revolving credit facility.

Redcentric plc, an IT managed services provider, has conditionally agreed the sale of its data centre business to Stellanor Datacenters Group.

Stellanor is a UK data centre operator backed by a fund managed by DWS Group.

The deal for Redcentric Data Centres is for a cash consideration based on an enterprise valuation of up to £127 million.

The London Stock Exchange Group says 11 global banks have invested in its Post Trade Solutions business.

The banks together take a 20% stake for a combined £170m, valuing the division at £850m.

The banks are: Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Societe Generale and UBS.

Post Trade Solutions generated revenue of £96m and normalised EBITDA of £16m in 2024.

The Investing Banks are major customers of LSEG’s clearing services and Post Trade Solutions business. Three directors nominated by the Investing Banks will join the board of Post Trade Solutions.

LSEG added in a statement: “LSEG will also acquire an increased proportion of the revenue surplus from the SwapClear business. Previously, the founding members of SwapClear, which include the investing banks (highlighted above), were entitled to c.30% of SwapClear’s revenue surplus through to 2035. This will [now] reduce to 15% for 2025 and 10% from 2026.”

Post Trade Solutions brings together Acadia, Quantile and SwapAgent to streamline operations, reduce risk and improve capital efficiency.

SwapClear is the market’s longest-serving global interest rate swap clearing service.

Listed RELX has reported strong underlying revenue growth for the first nine months of 2025.

The global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools has reaffirmed its outlook for the full year after revenue grew 7% in the year-to-date.

Thruvision Group plc has reported a 36% increase in half-year revenues.

The provider of walk-through security technology reported £2.6 million sales for the six months ended 30th September 2025.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has formally designated Google and Apple with strategic market status (SMS) under the UK’s new digital markets regime – a decision immediately condemned by Google as “disappointing, disproportionate and unwarranted”.

The regulator has officially decided that the companies’ market power is so great that it needs special oversight to protect fair competition and innovation.

The designation now gives the CMA enhanced powers to oversee competition in mobile ecosystems, covering operating systems, app distribution, browsers and browser engines across smartphones and tablets.

Author: Patrick Killeen

Liberty Global, the US media and telecoms group founded by billionaire John Malone, has sold roughly half of its long-held 10% stake in ITV.

The British broadcaster has been the subject of persistent takeover rumours and has seen its share price dip by 8% to 68.5p since the news.

Liberty said it was selling about 191 million shares, worth approximately £140m at ITV’s latest closing price.

The sale, managed by BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank, reduces the firm’s holding to around 5%.

Author: Patrick Killeen

IT infrastructure specialist Softcat has reported another year of record results, achieving its 20th consecutive year of double-digit gross profit growth.

The Buckinghamshire-based FTSE 250 constituent also completed its first-ever acquisition this financial year as it continues to scale its operations and expand its technology offering.

For the 12 months to 31 July 2025, gross invoiced income rose 26.8% to £3.6 billion, while gross profit increased 18.3% to £494.3 million.

Underlying operating profit grew 16.9% to £180.1m, with statutory operating profit up 12.2% to £172.9m.

The company also maintained strong cash conversion at 95.6%, ending the year with £182.3 million in net cash.

Risers:

NCC Group – +6.18%

Playtech – +5.82%

Softcat – +5.17%

THG – +4.68%

Ibstock – +4.08%

Fallers:

ITV – -8.18%

International Personal Finance – -3.98%

Raspberry Pi Holdings – -3.08%

BlackRock World Mining Trust – -2.28%

W.A.G Payment Solutions – -2.11%

Birmingham-based AI startup Unloq has officially launched during Birmingham Tech Week 2025, aiming to transform how organisations create and adapt business strategy using AI.

Founded by Dr Yiannis Maos MBE and Satyen Fakey, the company operates across AI services and AI products, developing a proprietary platform that powers what it calls “Strategy as a Service.”

Already supporting more than 40 companies in stealth mode, the business has formed partnerships with SF Technology and Aston University, where it will help launch an AI growth engine in 2026 to support SME innovation.

Global engineering and project management firm Amentum has promoted Loren Jones to senior vice president for energy & environment-international, tasking him with driving growth across the UK, France, Europe, Australia, Japan and other key markets.

Jones, who has more than 20 years of nuclear industry experience, previously served as senior VP of operations within the same division.

Before joining the US-based company in 2022, he was a board member at Cavendish Nuclear, overseeing business development and operations in North America and Japan.

Earlier, he held positions at Westinghouse, Nuvia and Hyde Group.

Chelsea FC have expanded its partnership with FPT, naming the Vietnamese technology giant a principal partner for the 2025/26 season.

The move will see FPT’s branding appear on the sleeves of Chelsea’s men’s, women’s and academy kits as the two organisations deepen collaboration on digital transformation and AI innovation.

The partnership, which began earlier this year, has focused on enhancing the club’s digital platforms, fan engagement and business operations.

The business has been working with the Premier League ever-present through workshops in Vietnam to integrate its AI and automation solutions across the club’s systems.

Creator management company Arcade, best known for representing YouTube supergroup The Sidemen, has appointed Pete Cory as chairman following investment from Lumina Media.

Cory previously spent 18 years at Google, most recently as managing director for YouTube’s EMEA partner development, and has over 35 years’ experience across media, tech and advertising.

He will work with Arcade co-founders Jordan Schwarzenberger and Sam Uwins to expand the firm’s brand partnerships and creator-first strategy, helping advertisers better connect with Gen Z audiences.

Allica Bank has swooped to acquire Kriya, the SME lending FinTech specialising in SME working capital and embedded finance.

The SME credit and payments firm was formerly known as MarketInvoice and MarketFinance. The acquisition will see Allica move into the embedded payments market for the first time.

Since first opening its doors to lending in 2020, Allica’s impressive growth means its total outstanding lending to SMEs has now reached £3.5 billion.

With the Kriya acquisition, Allica is targeting advancing an initial £1 billion of working capital finance to SMEs over the next three years.