It’s time. The remaining five finalists in series 20 of The Apprentice prepare to be put through their paces for a place in next week’s final – but who will it be?

According to a story in today’s Sun newspaper the result has already been leaked online – causing ‘chaos’ at the BBC.

They’ll be interrogated by Lord Sugar’s loyal associates Claudine Collins, Mike Soutar, Linda Plant and Claude Littner.

The interviews will be first time they’ve met the candidates as they haven’t been able to watch their performance in the previous 10 weeks.

Ten weeks ago, 20 candidates set out to become Lord Sugar’s latest business partner in the 20th series of The Apprentice.

The 2026 series started in Hong Kong and has also included tasks in Egypt and the Isle of Wight.

Now only five candidates, Priyesh Bathia, Pascha Myhill, Lawrence Rosenberg, Dan Miller and Karishma Vijay, remain to try to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.

On Thursday, the remaining five will have their business plans picked apart by Lord Sugar’s hard-nosed associates to see which two make it through to the grand final.

Follow the action live here from 9pm.

Zoho has opened a new office in Milton Keyes, creating jobs and driving regional tech growth off the back of doubling its UK headcount and reporting 43% over the past two years.

The launch comes amid strong UK momentum for Zoho, with the company reporting 43% growth and a tripling of its UK workforce over the past two years, marking a significant milestone in its continued expansion across the country.

The opening ceremony was attended by James Lancaster, Mayor of Milton Keynes, alongside representatives from the local business and innovation community.

Plans have been submitted to Manchester City Council for the UK’s first airport-based science, innovation, and manufacturing campus.

MIX MANCHESTER is set to be one of the largest science, innovation and manufacturing campuses in the UK, delivering two million sq. ft. of high-quality space at Manchester Airport, the UK’s only airport science location.

When complete, MIX MANCHESTER is expected to create up to 8,000 jobs for the region across the 60-acre site, capable of delivering two million sq. ft. of employment space.

It is being developed in collaboration by Manchester Airports Group (MAG), Manchester City Council (MCC), Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), and Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG).

Author: Chris Maguire

An entrepreneur has estimated her appearance on Dragons’ Den cost her £20,000.

Danielle Close is the founder of Brighton-based My Skin Feels, a vegan skincare brand that ferments rescued organic food waste from the Italian food and drinks industry.

Her appearance in Dragons’ Den was screened in February and saw her secure a £50,000 investment from Deborah Meaden and Gary Neville, although she decided not to progress with either offer.

Close said her appearance in the Den has been transformational, but admitted it came at a cost of £20,000.

The breakdown included £3,600 in stock lost during the production process and £4,000 in extra staffing around the episode.

Author: Chris Maguire

Ben Booth is the CEO and co-founder of  MaxContact  and has shared the 5 golden rules that every founder needs to know.

He said: “If there’s one useful thing I can do, it’s tell you what it actually looks like, not the version that looks good on LinkedIn.”

Here are his 5 golden rules:

1. It will be harder than you think

2. Nobody has it all figured out

3.  The board will not save you, choose them wisely

4. The highs get higher, but the lows get lower

5. Culture changes, your team must too

He said: “If there’s one useful thing I can do, it’s tell you what it actually looks like, not the version that looks good on LinkedIn.”

 

Experian, the global data and technology company, has announced the expansion of its verification capabilities in the UK with the addition of Konfir.

Konfir delivers digital verification by combining Open Banking, Payroll and Tax data to give employers, landlords and lenders clear insight into income and up to six years of employment history.

Available in the financial services, tenant and employment markets, the integration further reinforces Experian’s current capability, enabling quicker checks, stronger fraud controls, and more efficient operations for clients.

The addition of Konfir also supports Experian’s permissions-based data strategy and brings in a team with deep experience, who are already delivering these services at scale to over 6,000 businesses in the UK.

BGF has made a significant investment into Fivium, a UK-based public sector software provider, to back its next phase of expansion. 

The funding will enable Fivium to further scale its SaaS platform and digital solutions offering, strengthening its go-to-market and product development capabilities, as well as its ability to support new areas of the public sector. 

Founded in London over 20 years ago, Fivium supports public sector organisations in managing complex administrative and regulatory processes, improving the service it provides to citizens. 

FinTech start-up Compound, a next-generation workplace pension provider, has secured £500K in funding from Fuel Ventures and special advisor Paul Rippon (co-founder of Monzo).

This investment targets a broken £480 billion market where poor user experience means high employee opt-out rates (up to 17% for younger workers), causing people to miss out on vital tax breaks and long-term wealth-building growth.

Compound solves this by offering the user-friendly Compound App, which combines a digital “find and combine” pension tool with superior UX, finally making personal wealth visible and engaging. This product-first approach has already delivered an industry-beating employee opt-out rate of just 1.6%.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

MillTech has raised a £45 million minority investment from Apax Digital Funds, the growth equity arm of Apax Partners.

MillTech is a risk management platform which provides foreign exchange hedging and cash investments for fund managers and corporates.

The deal values MillTech at $325m. MillTech’s ultimate group holding company retains its majority shareholding. 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

New tax changes implemented this week will back founders to the tune of £100 million a year, according to the Government.

The changes implemented at the start of the new tax year include significantly expanding the number of companies eligible for the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) scheme, further supporting companies to attract and reward talent.

They also include doubling the amount a company can raise through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) to boost investment through additional tax relief.

The changes, announced in Rachel Reeves’ Budget last year, are expected to support around £100m of additional investment a year.

 

Sedulo Group has acquired accountancy practice Smith & Wallace and launched in Scotland with an office in Glasgow.

Sedulo is a national mid-tier business consultancy firm, with offices in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, London, Dubai, and now Glasgow. Following the acquisition, the group employs almost 250 advisors.

Smith & Wallace are an accountancy practice based out of Kilmarnock with growing revenues in excess of £1 million, led by Andrew McMorland and Martin Farrell, who will continue leading the business. They will be joined by Logan Rowan, who leads Sedulo’s Deal Advisory team, having joined two years ago from KPMG.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Aptitude Software Group plc has put itself up for sale as it reports a fall in revenue and profits.

The FinTech, headquartered and listed in London, reported a 15% drop in statutory operating profit to £4.8 million for the 2025 calendar year.

Revenue fell 7% for the period to £65m while cash and equivalents at year-end were £29.6m, down 3%.

Global logistics provider fulfilmentcrowd has announced the expansion of its US fulfilment network, introducing three new fulfilment centres located in New Jersey, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Replacing its previous two US locations, the new centres enhance fulfilmentcrowd’s North American presence, enabling coast-to-coast coverage for brands serving US customers.

The new facilities – operated in partnership with Royal Fulfillment – are strategically positioned to support high-volume eCommerce and B2B distribution across the United States, with locations in Newark, NJ (East Coast), Chicago, IL (Midwest) and Los Angeles, CA (West Coast).

With bi-coastal and central inventory positioning, brands can reduce shipping distances and offer faster, more reliable delivery to customers nationwide.

Author: Chris Maguire

WHOOP, the human performance company, has announced a multi-year partnership with football giants Paris Saint-Germain.

The European champions, who host Liverpool tonight (April 8) in a Champions League quarter-final, have named WHOOP as the premium partner of the club’s men’s and women’s teams and its official health and fitness wearable.

Last week, the tech giant announced it had raised $575m in Series G funding at a $10.1bn valuation.

UK-based GP Bullhound took part in the round, alongside high-profile investors including Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Rory McIlroy, Niall Horan, Karen Wazen and Virgil van Dijk.

As part of the partnership, Paris Saint-Germain players will have access to WHOOP advanced wearable technology, delivering continuous health insights into key physiological metrics including heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), sleep, strain and stress.

These insights translate into personalised recommendations designed to help optimise training, recovery and overall performance.

Author: Chris Maguire

Award-winning dealmaker Nick Cowles has joined Alvarez & Marsal as managing director of the firm’s EMEA corporate finance team.

Cowles, who went on gardening leave after leaving his role as CEO of Zeus Capital in September 2025, will lead Alvarez & Marsal’s newly formed public company advisory group.

He’ll be working with legendary dealmaker Jonathan Boyers, who is head of corporate finance for EMEA at Alvarez & Marsal.

Cowles said he was ‘fully recharged and energised for this exciting new chapter’.

Author: Chris Maguire

Car finance FinTech Zuto is on track to hit £100m turnover this year after another stellar performance.

The Manchester-based firm saw turnover rise by 34 per cent from £61.8m to £83.1m in the financial year to the end of June 2025.

Over the same period, EBITDA rose from £7.2m to £11.4m.

The company continues to gain market share, with one in 16 used car purchases currently financed through its platform.

In October 2025, Bridgepoint, one of the world’s leading quoted private asset growth investors, became a majority shareholder in the business.

The investment will accelerate the development of Zuto’s platform and support further product expansion.

David Parsons, CFO at Zuto, said: “We are primed for future growth, with the market continuing to recognise the simplicity and transparency of our model and new exclusive partnerships being secured.

“The Bridgepoint investment is a strong validation of that, and we’re excited to continue transforming the car finance market with their backing.”

Author: Chris Maguire

Foresight Group has announced a £4m growth capital investment into SAMP Technology Holdings (t/a Asset Performance Partners) alongside investment from Lloyd’s Central Fund.

APP is a leading technology-enabled engineering group providing technical services and software to the energy, infrastructure and speciality insurance sectors.

APP employs 103 staff and is headquartered in the UK with operations in South Africa, the US and West Africa.

Commenting on the investment, Andrew Carr, CEO of APP, said: “Our team is more committed than ever to advancing asset performance and strengthening risk-transfer strategies alongside equity owners of energy and power infrastructure.

“Strong electricity and energy systems are the foundation of thriving societies, and we are dedicated to enhancing our products and services to unlock greater value from both existing and new power, energy, and infrastructure assets.

“The investment from Foresight and Lloyd’s of London marks an exciting new phase in APP’s journey that will unlock further growth and help us support our customers with our unique, full-service offering.”

Genasys, a provider of cloud-based core insurance administration software for insurers, MGAs and brokers, has appointed Hugh Hessing and Gavin Routledge as non-executive directors.

The firm says the appointments come at a pivotal moment as Genasys establishes itself as a true mid-market challenger to the enterprise policy administration software incumbents. 

Both appointments bring significant depth of experience across insurance operations, technology transformation and strategic growth, further strengthening the company’s leadership as it enters its next phase of expansion.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The fight for control of Physiomics plc has turned nasty ahead of a showdown vote later this month.

Last week the firm’s chairman Dr Jim Millen was accused of “personally derailing” a boardroom coup led by activist investor Michael Whitlow, and of “throwing his fellow directors under the bus at every opportunity to cling to control”.

Towards the end of the week, Physiomics agreed to requisition a general meeting allowing shareholders to vote on whether to remove its entire board and replace it with new directors including Whitlow.

However the requisition notice included a stinging letter from Dr Millen which he used to attack the credibility of the proposed new directors.

Whitlow has responded to those claims with stinging criticism of the company’s board.