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Author: Chris Maguire

An app that was launched to be the 鈥楿ber for barbers鈥� has rebranded into an on-demand home services marketplace.

Manchester-based mobile barbering service Appacut聽was launched in 2024 but has been renamed as Doorly, offering everything from personal chefs and baby massage to beauty treatments, dog training, DIY and cleaning.

The expansion comes after founder Michael Lawes secured 拢600,000 of funding, including backing from musicMagpie CEO Steve Oliver, who has become Doorly鈥檚 non-executive chairman.

Doorly is operating in Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield, and plans to expand into Glasgow, Coventry, Bristol, Bath, Newcastle upon Tyne and Portsmouth.

It is seeking to capitalise on the growing popularity of Deliveroo and Uber-type services.

More than 1,000 service providers have so far signed up, with a further 250 applicants awaiting clearance.

They are offering services across eight categories 鈥� hair, beauty, pet, home, family, vehicle, lifestyle and learning.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A pair of sisters have launched their third startup since leaving investment bank Goldman Sachs.

India and Portia Healy O’Connor have raised 拢2.25 million pre-seed funding to scale Linda AI, an agentic technology which is already live in 50 sites in the UK and Ireland, across the dentistry industry.

The former Goldman Sachs sales and trading professionals grew up around their father’s medical practice, gaining early insight into the operational strain faced by healthcare clinics.聽

Their first startup was Xelda, formerly a cashless payments platform and now a developer of pre-accounting automation payments, which is backed by Sequoia Capital and the founders of Irish unicorn Flipdish.

Their second business, Curie, is an AI transcription programme aimed at the medical sector which counts their father Dr Hugh O’ Connor as chief medical officer.

Curie founding engineer Lucio Tudisco, who previously built enterprise systems at Amazon, Patreon, and Circle, has also joined them at Linda AI.

A trio of former Facebook engineers have launched a new startup from stealth to reimagine workplace communication.

Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg is among a series of high-profile investors backing Slashwork as part of a round of more than 拢2.5 million.

Founded by Jackson Gabbard (CEO), David Miller (CTO) and Josh Watzman (CEngO), engineers who all helped build and scale some of Facebook鈥檚 key products, Slashwork is now beta-testing with a small group of design partners.聽

Julien Codorniou, who led Workplace before becoming an early-stage investor at 20VC, has overseen the incubation of the business and driven its investment and global go-to-market strategy to date.聽

Knude Society, a female-founded disruptor in the UK鈥檚 high-growth sexual wellness sector, has confirmed its acquisition of edible wellness brand For Play.聽

The transaction, structured as a value-aligned revenue-share agreement, marks a major expansion for Knude Society as it builds a multi-brand portfolio in a market traditionally dominated by male-led corporate structures.

Founded in 2020 by Emma Richardson-Gerrard, Knude Society was born from a glaring market disconnect. Despite women being the primary drivers of the sexual wellness boom, Richardson-Gerrard identified that the sector鈥檚 leadership remains overwhelmingly male.聽

Following a lockdown-induced redundancy, she says she bypassed traditional R&D to build a brand rooted in anonymous consumer data and human-centred design. The brand鈥檚 flagship product, Gwen, launched in September 2020 and has maintained a consistent sell-out status, achieving 10%聽 year-on-year growth.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Artificial Labs, a provider of digital broking and underwriting technology for the specialty and commercial insurance markets, has completed a 拢33 million Series B funding round.

The raise marks a major milestone for Artificial as it continues to grow and expand its global market presence.

The round was led by CommerzVentures, a leading European Fintech investor, with support from Move Capital Fund I, a leading European B2B Tech investor, and existing investors.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Shares in CyanConnode have leapt 19% today after the Cambridge company confirmed a 拢35 million takeover approach.

The IoT communication and smart metering solutions provider said Dubai-based Esyasoft Holding Ltd was considering an all-cash offer.

Shares in the company are now up 22% in the year to date.

Chris Howarth has been appointed as CEO of Avanade.

Howarth succeeds Rodrigo Caserta, who will step down as CEO after more than 11 years with Avanade to join Microsoft as Corporate Vice President, Small, Medium Enterprises & Channel (SME&C), Americas. Caserta has served as Avanade鈥檚 CEO since 2024.

Howarth has been closely involved with Avanade for more than five years through his leadership within the Accenture=Microsoft ecosystem, helping drive joint innovation, client success, and growth across the partnership.

After more than 28 years with Accenture, he will join Avanade as CEO, to lead Avanade through its next phase of growth, building on the company鈥檚 strong foundation and strategic priorities. He will retain ownership of the overall Microsoft relationship, recognizing the critical role Avanade plays in driving growth for Accenture and Microsoft across all customer segments.

The Electronics Group Ltd has聽expanded into Scotland and launched a new Aberdeen IPC training centre at Davidson House.

The UK鈥檚 largest independent IPC and electronics training partner has secured 1,546 sq ft of space at Davidson House.

The new facility will become EGL鈥檚 third UK training centre and its first in Scotland, complementing the company鈥檚 established headquarters in Leeds and its second centre in Cirencester, opened in the summer of 2024.

Social media agency GH05T has announced a series of leadership changes.

Co-founders Adam Biddle and Joe Battimelli have formally moved into client partner roles, alongside their positions as CEO and COO respectively.

Both Biddle and Battimelli have spent their entire careers in client service and will now officially oversee all client delivery across the agency. Working closely with GH05T鈥檚 client delivery team, they will partner directly with clients on overarching strategy, innovation and creative output on a day-to-day basis.

Nicola O鈥機onnor has been promoted to managing director, expanding on her current role as finance director. O鈥機onnor has become indispensable to the running of the agency and will now take responsibility for the day-to-day management of the business, overseeing all internal operations while continuing to lead the finance team.

Author: Chris Maguire

US-based autonomous driving technology company Waymo has announced a $16bn investment is a round that values the company at $126bn.

The financing was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, and included significant investments from Andreessen Horowitz and Mubadala Capital as well as Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.

Waymo鈥檚 technology has been credited with a 90 per cent reduction in serious injury crashes and is set to be launched in London.

Waymo is run by co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, who said the investment will be used to fund global scale.

In a joint statement the co-CEOs said: 鈥淔rom our recent launch in Miami to the new markets ahead, we are expanding our fleet and our world-class team to meet an exploding global demand for autonomous mobility.鈥�

In 2025, Waymo tripled the number of rides it was responsible for to 15 million and it now operates across six major US metropolitan areas.

 

 

Penfold, the digital workplace pension provider, has appointed Jonathan Schneider as Chairman, adding one of the UK鈥檚 most experienced fintech founders and investors to its board.

Schneider joins as Penfold accelerates its growth within the workplace savings market. With a 25-year career spent building and backing high-growth finance firms, he brings a track record of scaling platforms from early-stage disruptors into major institutional players.

Notably, Schneider has been the Chairman of Iwoca since its seed round and has helped steer the lender to over 拢3bn in loans disbursed, funding thousands of SME鈥檚. He brings deep experience of supporting businesses through their scale-up phase and has founded and sold businesses, including Capital Step (exited via the LSE listed Duke Roylaty plc) and, most recently, the 2025 sale of Provira to an institutional capital backed roll up.

Author: Chris Maguire

The Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office (ICO) has opened聽a formal investigation into Grok, the AI tool on Elon Musk鈥檚 social media platform X.

Grok sparked outrage when it allowed users to 鈥榰ndress鈥� images of real people to create sexualised images.

Now the ICO has launched formal investigations聽into X Internet Unlimited Company (XIUC) and聽听尝尝颁听()聽covering聽their processing of personal data聽in relation to聽the Grok artificial intelligence system聽and its聽potential to聽produce聽harmful sexualised image and video content.

William Malcolm, executive director regulatory risk & innovation at the Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office, said: 鈥淥ur investigation will assess whether XIUC and聽聽have聽complied with聽data protection law聽in聽the development and deployment聽of聽the Grok services,聽including the safeguards聽in聽place聽to protect聽people鈥檚 data rights. Where we find obligations have not been met, we will聽take action to protect聽the public.鈥�

Earlier this month, X introduced changes that prevented users of Grok being able to 鈥榰ndress鈥� images of real people.

Venture capital firm Molten Ventures has appointed Franco Danesi as senior partner and promoted Inga Deakin and George Chalmers to partner positions.

Danesi brings over 25 years of experience in financial services, including 18 years on the buyside investing in high鈥慻rowth companies. He was previously a partner at European venture capital firm Korelya Capital and before that an investment director at Kinnevik, a listed Swedish investment firm focused on technology.

Deakin and Chalmers both joined Molten, which has a focus on high鈥慻rowth technology businesses, in 2020.

Deakin leads investments across HealthTech, while Chalmers heads up the firm鈥檚 energy and industrial technologies investment strategy.

Author: Chris Maguire

Dragons鈥� Den star Peter Jones is reportedly in talks to buy retailer American Golf.

According to Sky News, the keen golfer is in 鈥榓dvanced talks鈥� with private equity firm Endless to add Europe鈥檚 largest golf retailer to his burgeoning portfolio of more than 30 businesses.

Neither the 59-year-old serial entrepreneur or Endless have commented publicly but any deal would combine Jones鈥� love of retail and golf.

The Dragons鈥� Den star鈥檚 business interests include the iconic UK photography retailer Jessops and Localised, a local-first e-commerce for brands expanding globally.

Endless acquired Warrington-based American Golf in 2018, following an accelerated sale process completed in only two weeks.

Series 23 of Dragons鈥� Den returned to our screens last week and Jones has been an ever present on the hit show.

SmartyPlants, a UK鈥慴ased technology startup focused on improving everyday plant care, has received 拢190,000 in funding from the British Design Fund (BDF) to support the development of its smart鈥憇ensor system for house plants.

Founded in 2023 by Ben Beavers, SmartyPlants was created to address a common challenge faced by householders – knowing when and how to care for their plants with confidence. The startup aims to help the millions of UK plant owners to understand exactly what their houseplants need, through the use of its smart sensors.

In 2023, UK adults spent 拢700 million on houseplants, according to a report by the Horticultural Trades Association. Inconsistent watering routines, poor light conditions, and limited insight into plant health can all prove fatal for plants. SmartyPlants鈥� sensors and companion app aim to simplify the process by providing real鈥憈ime information on soil moisture, light levels, temperature, humidity, and nutrients.

Author: Mark Boost, CEO, Civo

It鈥檚 exciting to see Government ambition to develop AI鈥憀ed tech towns outside the traditional tech hubs, and Barnsley鈥檚 designation as the UK鈥檚 first Government鈥慴acked ‘Tech Town’ marks a bold step in bringing AI into schools, healthcare and local business.

However, there鈥檚 a real risk that the way this is playing out leans too heavily on US tech giants like Microsoft.

This approach can help bootstrap innovation in the short term, but it also means the UK may end up importing the technology and value rather than building its own sovereign capabilities here. Much of the data, infrastructure and ultimately the commercial value created may flow back overseas, rather than staying in the UK to support future British AI leadership.

If the UK truly wants to be a global AI trailblazer, we need to balance international partnership with UK鈥憃wned and UK鈥慶ontrolled data, cloud and AI platforms, so that skills, innovation and economic gains stay onshore and benefit communities like Barnsley as well as the wider economy.

Allica Bank is one of a select few firms invited to participate in the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority鈥檚 (FCA) newly launched Scale-up Unit, a joint regulatory initiative designed to support fast-growing, innovative financial services firms to scale, invest and create high-skilled jobs across the UK.

The Scale-up Unit, launched by the Chancellor as part of the UK Government鈥檚 Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, will provide scaling firms with dedicated regulatory resource to support their growth ambitions. It is designed to help financial services firms that are already scaling within their markets and are in a period of sustained growth to navigate complex regulatory challenges.

Since first opening its doors in 2020, Allica鈥檚 impressive growth means its total outstanding lending to established SMEs has now reached 拢3.5 billion. Named the UK’s fastest growing company in 2024, and the fastest growing UK FinTech ever in 2023, Allica is building on strong momentum to achieve its target of a 10% share of the established SME market by 2028.

University of Cambridge spinout Sparxell has raised 拢3.7m in pre-Series A funding to scale a biomimetic colour technology based on structural colour rather than chemical dyes.

The company鈥檚 patented process extracts and assembles cellulose crystals from wood pulp to reflect specific wavelengths of light, replicating the physical mechanisms responsible for colour in butterfly wings and beetles.

Unlike pigment chemistry, the colour is generated through structure, eliminating the need for petroleum-derived dyes, heavy metals, and plastics.

The round is led by SWEN Capital Partners’ Blue Ocean 2 fund, with participation from Alpha Star Capital and Cambridge Enterprise. The investment accelerates Sparxell’s transition from pilot programmes to commercial-scale manufacturing, with tonne-scale production facilities operational by 2026.

Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has announced the appointment of Chris Williams, who joins the firm鈥檚 London City office as a partner in its commercial dispute resolutions team.

A highly regarded commercial litigator, Williams has a particular focus on technology-related disputes and intellectual property, including patents, copyright, trademarks and confidential information. He brings almost a decade of partner-level experience to the firm, joining from Clyde & Co鈥檚 London office.

He is a key adviser to organisations across a range of sectors, including marine, natural resources and energy, with a client base ranging from multi-nationals to owner-managed businesses. He regularly advises clients on the development, exploitation and enforcement of intellectual property rights and is experienced in running complex litigation and arbitration proceedings across multiple jurisdictions.

Chris is also highly active in the burgeoning AI space, with a strong emphasis on intellectual property considerations and the emerging regulatory landscape.

Refute has raised 拢5m in seed funding to accelerate its mission to protect organisations and democracies from the rapidly evolving landscape of hybrid warfare and disinformation threats.

The round was led by deep tech specialist Amadeus Capital Partners, with participation from Playfair, Episode 1, Osney Capital and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), the UK Government’s deep tech venture capital fund that invests in dual-use technologies for national security and defence.

Refute鈥檚 founders have over 40 years of experience creating technologies to fight terrorist attacks and financial crime, and elevate internet trust. As hybrid warfare intensifies, threat actors are rapidly evolving their tactics, blending bot farms with influencers, deploying agentic AI for end鈥憈o鈥慹nd automation, and increasingly targeting commercial organisations alongside governments.

Since emerging from stealth and closing its pre-seed round in 2024, Refute has built military鈥慻rade AI capabilities now used by leading commercial and government customers. The platform surfaces early鈥憇tage signals of online manipulation, providing intelligence and recommended response strategies at the pace of the attackers.