老九品茶

co-founder and eCommerce director Tom Armenante doesn鈥檛 pretend the last few months have been calm.

Having recently moved his family from Leeds to Manchester just before Christmas, he describes life as 鈥渧ery busy鈥� – not least because he鈥檚 balancing the demands of scaling a fast-growing eCommerce business with family life.

鈥淚鈥檝e got a little one-year-old baby and a four-year-old,鈥� he told us recently. 鈥淟ife is chaotic.鈥�

But that鈥檚 very much in keeping with GTSE鈥檚 story – a business built on momentum, constant iteration and a drive to make buying trade consumables easier for customers.

Shares in a London-based tissue engineering firm have dropped by a third in the first hour of trading this morning after a 15 million funding deal fell through.

BSF Enterprise PLC鈥檚 subsidiaries include lab-grown leather, corneal repair and cell-culture media supplements – the latter a spinout from Newcastle University. It also has operations in Hong Kong.

The proposed 拢15m equity raise, backed by Blackstone Mercantile Group, was to accelerate commercialisation plans.

CrawlJobs, a global job aggregation platform focused on indexing vacancies directly from employer career pages, has completed its first external funding round at 拢2.2 million.

The new capital will support the continued expansion of the company鈥檚 AI-powered crawling infrastructure and help accelerate the commercial rollout of new products being developed within the wider group.

Founded in London in 2024, CrawlJobs was built to address a major structural weakness in online job discovery. While many candidates rely on traditional job boards, a large number of openings are published only on company career sites, regional recruitment pages, or localised hiring portals.

CrawlJobs is designed to capture those opportunities closer to the source, giving job seekers broader and more up-to-date visibility into the market.

Instead of depending solely on employer submissions or third-party reposting, the platform uses AIdriven crawling technology to continuously detect and structure vacancies from company websites. This enables faster discovery of openings that may otherwise remain fragmented, delayed, or difficult to find through conventional channels.

The UK economy failed to grow in January, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The performance is bad news for the government as it covers a period before the Middle East conflict started.

The zero growth was weaker than had been predicted, and followed growth of just 0.1 per cent in December and 0.2 per cent in November.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned this week that the longer the conflict lasts in the Middle East, the more likely it is that there will be an effect on the UK economy.

EnSilica plc, a fabless, application-specific chipmaker, has raised approximately 拢9.7 million through a placing and subscription of new ordinary shares

The Abingdon firm has also launched an offer to retail investors via the BookBuild Platform which aims to raise up to 拢300,000.

The first tranche of the placing of approximately 拢4.54m is expected to complete next week, with the second tranche of approximately 拢5.16m expected to complete on or around 8th April 2026.

Author: Chris Maguire

InsurTech Loxa has successfully closed its 拢2.7m seed round, completed across three tranches.

The round was backed primarily by angels and family offices, including the Lazaroo-Hood Group, with introductions facilitated by Angel Investment Network, FundMyPitch, and the Entrepreneur’s Collective.

Capital will be deployed to drive EU expansion, scale Loxa’s retail network to 150 live partners, and broaden the platform to support every insurable product category.

Jamie Hamer, co-founder and CEO of Loxa, said: 鈥淲e started Loxa because we believed embedded product protection should be as universal as the checkout itself, available to every retailer, for every customer, everywhere.

鈥淲e made a deliberate choice to build this round with angels and operators who shared our mission and backed our vision from the start, and that alignment builds better businesses.

鈥淐losing this round means we can now聽 deliver on that promise at scale, with the right people and resources to execute successfully.”

Loxa始s technology connects natively to over 70% of UK ecommerce infrastructure via apps for Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and BigCommerce, as well as direct API integrations.

Loxa enables retailers to go live in as little as 48 hours.

Thanks for joining us.

Dragons’ Den will return later in the year.

Jenna also can’t see the bigger vision but wants to help her. She is out but will help her to get in front of Selfridges etc.

Touker says Rachel is investable, but the product is not.

He would like to tap into her knowledge and is willing to give her the money for 35% of the business.

She says she will need multiple rounds to take the brand to where she wants it to go and so 35% is too high.

He says that if he gets his money back within 12-18 months, he will go down to 25%.

She asks whether he will go down to 20%. He counter-offers 30%, dropping to 25% when he gets his money back.

She agrees! “Great great great great… we’re going to be kings of this thing!” he says.

He tells the other Dragons: “I’m investing in her as an entrepreneur.”

Jenna, who is obviously a makeup entrepreneur, says it’s a crowded market. Rachel says the products will be targeted at conditions, age etc.

Steven asks why the revenue has been stagnant at 拢140k in each of the first three years.

Rachel hasn’t had the time to invest in sales and marketing, and has invested in infrastructure first.

Steven says the growth profile is more important and that her decision is an “amber flag” and is out.

Peter agrees and says he can’t see the opportunity in the business.

Deborah says she is out as it’s a competitive space.

Each of the previous three years has seen Albus & Flora generate a profit of 拢15-30k.

The profits have fallen each year – but that is due to investment in the business.

“Is this a health product or a beauty product?” asks Steven.

Rachel says UV damage can be accumulated throughout your lifetime.

Peter says his lips feel tingly and like they’re growing. It’s a plumper!

Touker owns a trademark lipstick and is about to go live with it.

 

Lancashire lass Rachel聽has a background in pharmacology and spent over a decade researching how the body and skin respond to stress, exercise and environmental exposure.

She had the “privilege” – her words on her website – of supporting Team GB across three Olympic and Paralympic Games.

She is selling into aesthetic clinics, spas and beauty salons and has generated聽拢695k turnover to date.

She is looking for 拢50k for 15% of the business.

Last to pitch is physiologist Rachel Williams, founder of a skincare brand which seeks to protect lips and the skin around the mouth from sun damage.

Launched in 2022, Albus & Flora鈥檚 拢18 lip shield is an SPF 30 lip balm that includes peptides, nourishing oils and botanical extracts to keep lips soft and hydrated. It comes in a natural colour and three others.

Its other product is a treatment mask which exfoliates and plumps lips and costs 拢30.

Deborah says he needs an investor but can’t see how she can invest the time he needs.

Touker is also out in typically abrupt style.

Jenna thinks he’s great… and sees something in “this chicken play”…

“I’d love to help you, but I’m out.”

Fred says there are a lot of opportunities – searching for a turkey at Christmas, or a bunny at Easter.

He plans to do it himself for now, which could be limiting.

She tells Jenna that many users come back for another game, and sometime several.

Steven asks: “What am I investing in here? A platform to scale? Because that’s what I would be interested in.”

Fred says his original pitch was about combating the loneliness epidemic, but he changed tack. Steven would have preferred that.

Peter says that this isn’t the business though – that is chasing a chicken around a city. He’s out.

Steven is also out. He found the pitch distracting.

Fred says too many developers don’t look to the “other side” to see how the tech they have developed is received in the real world.

A solo game is charged at 拢15 per person and he says people play to meet other people and find love.

He wants to grow it to 100 games per day, which would be 拢30k revenue.

The Dragons seem impressed so far.

Fred is wearing a chicken costume – “I’m going to be a roasted chicken in there” he quips.

A ridiculous intro where he dashes about the studio trying to dodge two characters from Team A and Team B has the Dragons laughing.

He turned over 拢55k in year one and is forecasting 拢164k in year two – with no full-time staff.

He built all the tech himself and says it is “scalable – it can pop up in any city tomorrow”.

He is looking for 拢50k for 10% of the business.

 

Now for the tech product – although it鈥檚 essentially a game of hide and seek.

Fred Parry founded the GPS-powered game, which sees teams compete across an entire city, in 2022.

One or two of the players are named the chicken and hide in a pub or bar while the other teams try to track them down.

Their phones contain a live map which gradually narrows down to the chicken鈥檚 location. Sort of like the storm shrinking in Fortnite. Teams can also complete challenges for extra points – with victory going to the team that finds the chicken first or the one with the most points when the timer runs out.

The company behind Chicken Rush offers corporate events priced at 拢10 per person.

Deborah references a previous DIY business that came through the Den and is now selling millions of products.

She makes them an offer: all of the money for 30% of the business, not 40%!

“It’s your business, and I don’t want to be the majority shareholder.”

Peter says they have the perfect Dragon so won’t make an offer and gives them time to think about Deborah’s – they don’t need long, and accept it!

The uniqueness is the angle of the product, which is what makes it work.

Peter thinks the price is too high – “I can get a packet of screws for five quid”.

Deborah says the drill is the most dangerous bit of the operation.

Steven says he feels that they are looking for a Dragon to run the business for them and is out.

Jenna says giving 40% of the business away is a concern when they are the people to drive the business. “You need to be delusional about your own product.” She’s out.

Touker says they could be sold as a set with screws, but he’s not the right Dragon and is out.

Peter is interested and wants to pause to reflect… over to Deborah!