Uncategorized Archives - �Ͼ�Ʒ��Cloud

Third ASCEND Scale Up cohort revealed by GM �Ͼ�Ʒ�� Growth Hub

Jonathan Symcox — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:59:18 +0000

GM �Ͼ�Ʒ�� Growth Hub has announced the full cohort of 24 founder-led businesses selected for ASCEND Scale Up Cohort 3, with the programme officially kicking off at a residential retreat at Mottram Hall in Cheshire.

Now in its third year, ASCEND is GM �Ͼ�Ʒ�� Growth Hub’s flagship programme for ambitious founders across Greater Manchester, offering expert-led workshops, personalised mentoring, peer learning and access to the region’s wider business ecosystem.

The programme is delivered in partnership with KPMG and RBC Brewin Dolphin.

This year’s cohort is the most diverse in the programme’s history. Selected from a competitive application process involving hundreds of businesses from across the city-region, the 24 companies span more than ten industry sectors – from health and life sciences and construction to consumer products, facilities management, education and technology.

Janine Smith, director of GM �Ͼ�Ʒ�� Growth Hub, said: “The programme will be tailored to the individual needs of everyone participating – whether someone needs help with international expansion, access to finance, or securing the right partnerships for growth.

“Because of where we sit within the Greater Manchester ecosystem, we can plug in the right support and the right partner at exactly the right moment. That’s where we really add value.”

The cohort includes businesses at different stages of growth. Among them is Alderley Lighthouse Labs, a UKAS-accredited medical diagnostics laboratory based at Cheadle Royal �Ͼ�Ʒ�� Park that forecasted a 590% increase in turnover and is expanding into the field of pharmacogenomics.

Also selected is Strand Intelligence, a Manchester-based AI cybersecurity startup that has already won Security Product of the Year at the Computing Cloud Excellence Awards within its first year of trading.

The full cohort

Alderley Lighthouse Labs
BS Entwistle Electrical Contractors
Busy Bins
Calla Shoes
Chambers Capital Group
Choices Home for Children
Chu Lo Drinks
Content Chemistry
Drake Dental Practice
Duel Autocare
En2End Sports Activation Agency
Enviroheat HET
FingerPost
Good Bubble
KG Construction
M&R Heating Services Northwest
Merco Services
Silverscape
Sky High Achievers
SkyParlour
Strand Intelligence
Super Deal Wholesale
The Pet Euthanasia People
Upp B2B

Kellie Noon, network manager of ASCEND, said: “Running a business can be really lonely. Having people going through the same challenges as you is really important. But what makes ASCEND different is that we have a genuine range of businesses.

“That cross-learning between different sectors, coming back to your challenges with fresh perspectives from people who think completely differently to you, is where the real magic happens.”

Gabriel Erinle, founder of GAME FM and an alumnus of ASCEND Cohort 2, returned to Mottram Hall as part of the welcome panel for the new cohort.

“You can give 10 people the same opportunity and get 10 completely different outcomes. I went in thinking I had a fair idea of what I was doing. I came out knowing where I was right, where I was wrong, and who to call when I couldn’t tell the difference.

“The doors that open off the back of this programme don’t open for the person who sits at the back.”

ASCEND is designed not just as a programme but as a lasting community, one where the relationships built between founders continue long after the formal support ends.

Over the coming months, the Cohort 3 businesses will access monthly workshops, guest speakers, expert advice and one-to-one mentoring, with sessions covering strategy, governance, people and culture, finance, sales and marketing and longer-term exit planning.

ASCEND Scale Up is open to founder-led businesses based in Greater Manchester. Applications for Cohort 4 are expected to open later in 2026. �Ͼ�Ʒ��es interested in future cohorts can register their interest .

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How Rangers FC ritual resulted in dream move

Jonathan Symcox — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:45:56 +0000

If hard work truly pays off, then Raji Kudus Adewale is a prime example.

Born in Nigeria, Raji came to Scotland in December 2022 with one suitcase and his brother by his side. He had a degree, was studying for an MSc at Glasgow Caledonian University and had data skills after building tech products on contract back home.

But what he did not have was any understanding of how the UK job market actually worked – or anyone to help him figure it out.

“I thought the transition would be straightforward. It was not,” he tells �Ͼ�Ʒ��Cloud.

Unsuccessful with all the junior data roles he applied for in 2023, it was another, very different job rejection that really hit home.

“The moment that broke me — and then rebuilt me — was getting rejected for a kitchen porter position at the Radisson Red hotel in Glasgow,” he explains.

“I had studied data science. I had built machine learning models. I had an MSc underway. And I could not get a job washing dishes.”

He continues: “I was sitting in the GCU student bar playing pool when the rejection email came in. I burst out laughing. Not because it was funny — because the alternative was crying, and I had decided early on that I was not going to let circumstances make that choice for me.

“Twenty-four hours later they emailed again. Their first choice had declined. They offered me the role. I took it — because sometimes you need to take a step back to leap forward. And because I needed to eat.”

Enter DeDataDude

What came next was eight months of washing plates by day, attending MSc lectures in the evenings, and teaching himself everything he could at night on four or five hours of sleep. And working as a steward at Rangers’ world-famous Ibrox Stadium.

“Every time I worked a steward shift at Ibrox Stadium, I would walk home past JP Morgan’s building on Argyle Street and look up at their logo. I made it a ritual. I told myself: that is where you are going,” says Raji.

“During that grinding period I started building in public under the name DeDataDude — sharing what I was learning, documenting the journey honestly, not pretending it was easy. That community grew to over 20,000 people across platforms.

“Through that I landed freelance contracts on Upwork, and the last contract was at $70 an hour. I connected with people who opened doors, and I started to understand how career positioning actually worked — which is completely different from just having skills.”

He also got involved with a digital inclusion initiative in Glasgow, delivering data and AI literacy workshops to Scottish communities. He says this gave him credibility and a real network.

It’s who you know

In May 2024 — 14 months after that kitchen porter rejection — he received an offer from JP Morgan Chase as a senior product associate.

“Full-time, not intern, not entry-level. The same building I had walked past at midnight after steward shifts,” he clarifies.

“Someone had told me during that period that immigrants always have to start at the bottom, that I would never get a senior role without going through the entry-level pipeline first. I wrote that down and put it on my wall. When the JP Morgan offer came in, I thought about that note a lot.

“The thing I realised while going through all of this — and then while helping over a thousand other people through similar journeys — is that what made the difference was not my technical skills. It was the career intelligence layer.

“Understanding what the market actually needed at a specific moment, how to position my experience for a specific employer, how to build relationships based on value rather than desperation. That knowledge is freely available if you know the right people. Most people do not know the right people.”

DeDataHub, launched this month, is his answer to that: “I built the platform I wished had existed when I was washing plates.”

DeDataHub

The AI-powered career intelligence platform is for data and AI professionals — combining structured learning tracks with an AI career advisor that actively works on users’ job market positioning alongside their learning.

“Think of it less like a chatbot and more like having a senior colleague in your corner who never goes offline,” explains Raji.

“When a subscriber joins DeDataHub, they are matched to an AI career advisor persona specific to their track — Alexandra for Data Analytics, Marcus for Data Science, Priya for Data Engineering, David for AI/LLM Engineering.

“Each advisor knows where the user is in their curriculum, scans the job market in real time, and proactively surfaces what the user should be focusing on — not based on what was in demand when a course was recorded, but based on what is actually being hired for right now.”

So how does it compare with, say, a bootcamp?

Raji answers: “A bootcamp gives you technical content and a certificate. It does not give you what comes after — how to position that certificate, which employers are actually hiring for it right now, how to present your projects and your past experience for a specific role, what to say when you are asked why you are changing careers.

“DeDataHub costs £20-32 a month. A UK bootcamp costs between £7,000 and £18,000. And at the end of it, most people are still on their own when it comes to the career and job market navigation side.

“I am not against bootcamps. Some are excellent. But the product we built addresses the gap that comes after — and that gap is why 87% of people who start learning data science never land a data job.”

Launch

On its first day, DeDataHub saw three confirmed subscribers and it now has five paying subscribers, collected organically, with £324.50 in the bank.

“Five is not a hundred. The target was a hundred by the end of week one. We are not there,” says Raji truthfully.

“But the first subscriber who committed — they took an annual plan. They paid upfront for a full year before most people had even heard of us. That meant more to me than any number would have.

“One person believed enough to commit for 12 months. Another person believed enough to commit for three months too. That is not a vanity metric. That is trust.

“I am building this in public, which means sharing the honest version — not just when the numbers look good. Five subscribers and £324.50 after one week with no marketing budget is a starting point. I know what I need to do from here.”

The intention is to prove the model works without investor money. If DeDataHub reaches £2,000 monthly recurring revenue organically, that is the trigger to begin pre-seed conversations, says Raji.

“We are also tracking non-dilutive fundings. These matter to me because they do not cost equity and they come with ecosystem credibility that is valuable at this stage,” he adds.

“The honest answer is: I would rather raise from a position of proof than from a position of need.”

He concludes: “I do not have a Silicon Valley investor on speed dial. I have a WhatsApp group of people who believed in this before it existed. That is the version of support I have operated with so far.”

The 2022 signing which sparked Sunderland AFC’s success

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Brave Bison bolsters board amid revenue boost

Jonathan Symcox — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 06:44:08 +0000

Social Chain owner Brave Bison has appointed a non-executive director and reported its final results for 2025.

The AIM-listed marketing and technology company said net revenue for the calendar year was £34.1 million, up 60% on 2024 (£21.3m). Adjusted EBITDA climbed 51% to £6.8m.

Statutory profit before tax was £700,000, down 65% from £2m in 2024, following five acquisitions in the period – including Builtvisible, MTM, MiniMBA and M+C Saatchi Performance – which cost a total of £2.3m.

The results are ahead of recently upgraded consensus expectations.

Brave Bison now operates across eight countries including the UK, India, Australia and Egypt, delivering digital services, digital media and marketing skills training to global brands. It hailed a strong year for business wins with new clients including Nestle, ServiceNow, The Travel Corporation, Primark, loveholidays, Guiness World Records and Tottenham Hotspur FC.

This morning it said it had added Yvonne Monaghan (pictured) to its board as a NED and that she would chair its audit committee.

Until recently, Monaghan was a director and CFO of Johnson Service Group plc, the FTSE 250 textile rental business. She joined JSG in 1984 and served as CFO from 2007.

“2025 marks our fifth year as management of Brave Bison and we are pleased to report a fifth year of consecutive growth in net revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share,” said Oliver Green, chairman.

“We made five acquisitions during the period, two of which are already outperforming expectations, we continue to develop our industry-leading AI proposition, and we welcomed new clients, staff and investors throughout the year.

“Momentum is strong and we are excited for the year ahead. MiniMBA has announced a record contract win and we are now the largest shareholder in System1 Group plc, one of the industry leaders in marketing effectiveness – a fast-growing corner of our ecosystem.”

Brave Bison announced the strategic investment into fellow listed firm System1 at the start of March.

The share-for-share exchange with John Kearon – System1’s founder and largest shareholder – and on-market purchases totalling £1.3m led to a strategic 28% investment into System1 Group PLC.

Brave Bison’s share price climbed 6.5% in the first 30 minutes of trading today, leaving it 16% up in the year to date.

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New CEO named by North East tech firm Vianet

Jonathan Symcox — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:36:06 +0000

North East technology firm Vianet Group plc has named a new CEO alongside steady annual results.

Vianet, based in Stockton-on-Tees,��provides data analytics to vending machine companies and pubs, using its technology to link machinery to the internet and to track data and customer spending patterns. Its products include software used by pubs and bars to track information about sales and stock levels.

The firm was founded in 1995 and has been AIM-listed since 2006. It connects 40,000 retail machines and 10,000 hospitality venues – across 300+ customers, with a strong presence in the United States – with technology and insights.

For the��financial year ended 31st March 2026, turnover was��£15.5 million (FY25: £15.3m), with recurring revenue contributing 88% of this (£13.6��).

Adjusted EBITA (pre-exceptional and share-based payments) was��£3.61m (FY25: £3.59m), while the firm reported net cash of £440,000 at year end (FY25: net debt of £380,000).

It said this was ahead of expectations and reflected strong cash generation and balance sheet improvement.

James Dickson will step down as CEO and return to his role as chairman of the board. Craig Brocklehurst (pictured), who in 2019 was promoted from commercial operations director to head up the company’s smart zones division – which focuses on its pub work – will become CEO on 31st May 2026.

Vianet said Brocklehurst has been at the heart of several of its most significant milestones, including the expansion of its recurring revenue base, the development of the hospitality and unattended retail platforms, and the cultivation of key long-term customer relationships.

FinTech LemFi to invest £100m in UK as it opens global HQ

“This has been a year of genuine progress for Vianet. Our recurring revenue model has once again demonstrated its strength – converting reliably into cash, enabling us to move from a net debt position to a healthy net cash balance, and giving us the financial firepower to both invest in growth and increase returns to shareholders,” said Dickson.

“While some customers understandably took longer than anticipated to finalise deployment decisions, the underlying demand for what we do is real, growing, and not going away. Our pipeline gives us every reason to be optimistic.

“I am also immensely proud to be announcing Craig Brocklehurst as our incoming chief executive officer. Craig has been instrumental in building the Vianet of today – from the growth of our recurring revenue base to the development of our smart zones and smart machines platforms.

“He steps into this role with the trust of the board, a deep understanding of our customers and markets, and a clear vision for where we go next.”

Vianet’s share price is down 12% in the year-to-date and down 4% in the last year.

jonathan.symcox@businesscloud.co.uk

Forest reveals £40m funding deal

The post New CEO named by North East tech firm Vianet appeared first on �Ͼ�Ʒ��Cloud.

Rangers FC steward walked past JP Morgan after Ibrox matches. They offered him a job

Jonathan Symcox — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:30:57 +0000

If hard work truly pays off, then Raji Kudus Adewale is a prime example.

But what he did not have was any understanding of how the UK job market actually worked – or anyone to help him figure it out.

“I thought the transition would be straightforward. It was not,” he tells �Ͼ�Ʒ��Cloud.

Unsuccessful with all the junior data roles he applied for in 2023, it was another, very different job rejection that really hit home.

“The moment that broke me — and then rebuilt me — was getting rejected for a kitchen porter position at the Radisson Red hotel in Glasgow,” he explains.

“I had studied data science. I had built machine learning models. I had an MSc underway. And I could not get a job washing dishes.”

Enter DeDataDude

He also got involved with a digital inclusion initiative in Glasgow, delivering data and AI literacy workshops to Scottish communities. He says this gave him credibility and a real network.

It’s who you know

In May 2024 — 14 months after that kitchen porter rejection — he received an offer from JP Morgan Chase as a senior product associate.��

“Full-time, not intern, not entry-level. The same building I had walked past at midnight after steward shifts,” he clarifies.

, launched this month, is his answer to that: “I built the platform I wished had existed when I was washing plates.”

DeDataHub

“Think of it less like a chatbot and more like having a senior colleague in your corner who never goes offline,” explains Raji.

So how does it compare with, say, a bootcamp?

Inside Cubbi sisters’ Dragons’ Den pitch after Susie Ma backing

Launch

On its first day, DeDataHub saw three confirmed subscribers and it now has five paying subscribers, collected organically, with £324.50 in the bank.

“Five is not a hundred. The target was a hundred by the end of week one. We are not there,” says Raji truthfully.

“But the first subscriber who committed — they took an annual plan. They paid upfront for a full year before most people had even heard of us. That meant more to me than any number would have.��

“One person believed enough to commit for 12 months. Another person believed enough to commit for three months too. That is not a vanity metric. That is trust.

The intention is to prove the model works without investor money. If DeDataHub reaches £2,000 monthly recurring revenue organically, that is the trigger to begin pre-seed conversations, says Raji.��

“We are also tracking non-dilutive fundings. These matter to me because they do not cost equity and they come with ecosystem credibility that is valuable at this stage,” he adds.

“The honest answer is: I would rather raise from a position of proof than from a position of need.”

Ben McKay: A week in the life of a founder

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Speed wins: why decisive SMEs are outpacing cautious competitors

Jonathan Symcox — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:20:53 +0000

In a fast-moving economy, opportunity doesn’t hang around for long. Markets turn quickly, supply chains adjust, and customers demand shifts, sometimes in the space of a quarter.

For SMEs, timing isn’t a secondary consideration anymore. It can be the difference between leading and lagging.

What separates many of today’s high-growth firms isn’t size or sector. It’s the confidence of leaders to act when opportunities arise – and how quickly they do it.

Growth Lending’s Cost of Caution report found that 51% of SME leaders believe growth opportunities close within six months; a tight window to assess risk, secure funding and execute properly. In practice, hesitation rarely preserves stability. More often, it hands momentum to someone else.

For many SMEs, growth opportunities require upfront investment before revenue materialises, whether that is additional stock, new hires or expanded operational capacity. Without funding flexibility, even commercially sound opportunities can become difficult to pursue.

The gap between decisive businesses and more cautious competitors is becoming more visible. Some are moving early and acquiring market share. Others are waiting for conditions to feel completely stable – and therefore potentially missing out.

Caution feels safe but delay has a cost

Given the volatility of recent years, it is understandable that many SMEs have prioritised cash preservation. Protecting the balance sheet has been prudent, but caution can gradually become a habit rather than a strategy.

Opportunities rarely arrive at convenient moments. A new contract can require upfront investment in people or inventory. An acquisition may demand swift execution. Expanding into a new geography often means hiring before revenue catches up. Shying away from opportunities because cash flow cannot support them sounds safer in theory, but in reality it can slow momentum at precisely the wrong time.

Growth Lending’s research reflects that tension. Leaders recognise opportunities are time-sensitive, yet many remain reluctant to use external finance to pursue them.

High-growth firms tend to approach this differently; they see borrowing as a tool for growth. When debt is tied to a clearly defined commercial objective and structured properly, it enables expansion rather than creating additional strain. Used with discipline, it enables businesses to pursue their growth plans, instead of watching opportunity windows�� close.

Agility now outweighs scale

There was a time when scale defined competitive strength. Larger balance sheets created insulation. Size carried influence.

That advantage has not disappeared, but it no longer guarantees progress.

SMEs are often closer to their customers than larger competitors and can spot emerging trends earlier. They can pivot product lines, adjust pricing or refine strategy without layers of approval. But agility without financial flexibility and the confidence to deliver change is just intent.

Without funding capacity, strategy stalls. With it, businesses can invest in technology, talent or marketing at the pace growth demands. Lending structures that flex alongside revenue make scaling possible without destabilising day-to-day operations.

Decisive firms think about funding before they need it. They align capital with ambition early, so when an opportunity presents itself, execution is immediate rather than reactive.

In compressed opportunity cycles, that readiness counts for more than size alone.

Liquidity, longevity, legacy: planning for life after exit

Stability and speed are not opposites

There is a persistent belief that moving quickly increases vulnerability. In reality, instability usually stems from poorly structured finance, not from speed itself.

What matters is fit. Facilities should reflect revenue cycles, margin profiles and realistic forecasts. They should evolve as performance changes. When funding mirrors the way a business actually operates, it creates headroom instead of pressure.

In my experience working with ambitious SMEs across the UK, the strongest performers are not reckless risk-takers. They stress-test assumptions, know their numbers inside out and put funding in place that supports growth without compromising control.

Standing still in a fast-moving market carries risk of its own. Strategic debt, used deliberately and reviewed regularly, gives management teams options.

The cost of waiting

If more than half of SME leaders believe opportunities close within six months, delay is not neutral. It is a choice.

Caution may feel prudent, but prolonged indecision can quietly concede ground to faster competitors who are willing to commit.

The SMEs pulling ahead treat finance as an enabler of growth, not a distress signal. They recognise that agility, backed by structured and well-aligned funding, now shapes competitiveness across sectors.

Speed is not recklessness. The ability to move swiftly is the reward for thorough planning and preparation.In this market, the businesses prepared to move are the ones shaping it.

Founders need flexibility rather than full-time staff

The post Speed wins: why decisive SMEs are outpacing cautious competitors appeared first on �Ͼ�Ʒ��Cloud.

Liquidity, longevity, legacy: planning for life after exit

Jonathan Symcox — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:14:13 +0000

An exit is rarely just a transaction; it is often a complex process. For founders, it is the moment when years of effort, reinvestment, and concentrated risk are converted into personal capital. The deal may be the headline, but the more important questions often begin afterwards.

After years spent building and leading a business, entrepreneurs can move quickly from running a company to stewarding significant private wealth. Alongside the financial shift comes a personal one: a change in pace, identity, and long-term ambition.��

Three themes tend to shape that next chapter most clearly: liquidity, longevity and legacy.

Liquidity – from concentration to flexibility

For many founders, most of their financial value has been tied up in the business itself. Growth takes priority, and capital is reinvested. Wealth is often concentrated, and this concentration is often deliberate.

An exit changes that immediately. What was once an illiquid business interest becomes accessible capital, bringing both opportunity and responsibility. The question is no longer how to grow a single asset, but how to structure wealth to provide flexibility, resilience and optionality.

This requires a shift in mindset. The instincts that help build a successful business – conviction, speed and concentration – are not always the same instincts that best serve long-term private wealth. After a sale, the conversation often shifts towards diversification, liquidity and resilience. Not to dilute ambition, but to ensure that freedom is supported by staying power.

For some founders, that liquidity becomes a platform for future ventures, angel investing, or backing innovation in their home region. For others, it is the first real opportunity to create financial security outside the business they have spent years building.��

In both cases, the central question is the same: how should wealth be structured to support the life that follows?

Longevity – sustaining wealth and purpose over time

If liquidity is about access, longevity is about endurance.

A successful exit can create wealth that needs to last decades, often across multiple generations. That brings a different set of considerations – inflation, market cycles and, critically, how risk is managed over time.

Longevity is not purely financial; it is also about sustaining purpose. Running a business creates intensity, structure and identity, and when that ends, even by choice, the absence of that momentum can be disorienting.

For some entrepreneurs, the answer is to stay close to the ecosystem as an adviser, investor or mentor. For others, it is to step back, reassess priorities, and devote time to ambitions that were long postponed while the business came first.��

Neither route is inherently right. Ensuring that wealth endures and continues to serve a meaningful role in a founder’s life requires as much foresight as building the business itself.

‘I still think about my late business partner every day’

Legacy – shaping impact beyond the balance sheet

With time, the conversation often becomes less about the transaction and more about its longer-term impact.

For many founders, legacy begins with family. How should wealth be discussed? How should the next generation be prepared for responsibility? What values should accompany financial success?��

These are not purely technical questions. They are questions of judgement, communication, and the kind of example a founder wants to set.

Legacy, though, rarely stops there. Many entrepreneurs want to remain a constructive force in the communities and sectors that shaped them. That may mean investing in new businesses, supporting local institutions or directing capital towards philanthropic goals that reflect their experience and priorities.��

At its best, legacy planning is not about preserving wealth in isolation. It is about using it with intention.

The next chapter deserves as much planning as the exit

Completing a transaction is a significant milestone, but it is rarely the end of the journey. More often, it is the start of a different set of decisions about how wealth, experience, and influence should be used in the years ahead.

The founders who navigate that shift most effectively are often the ones who look beyond the deal itself. They think early about how liquidity should be managed, how wealth can endure, and what legacy they want to create.��

For many entrepreneurs, selling a business is a defining achievement. Its deeper significance lies in whether that moment of liquidity is turned into something more enduring: greater resilience, clearer purpose, and the freedom to shape the next chapter with intention.

Nobody tells you founding a business is so lonely

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ICT Reverse hits record £11.8m turnover

Chris Maguire — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:53:52 +0000

Lancaster-based data erasure specialist��ICT Reverse��has reported record turnover of £11.8m.

The figure for the 12 months to the end of March 2026 represents a 32 per cent increase year-on-year from £8.9m. Over the same period, EBITDA rose to £4.3m.

The company offers IT asset disposal services, including secure data destruction, logistics and recycling.

The workforce has grown to 80 and managing director��Sophie Gray��said: “I’m absolutely delighted by the figures, which are testament��to the whole staff at ICT Reverse.

“We talk about the numbers a lot at all levels of the business and it’s the first time we’ve broken through the £10m mark.

“I get my satisfaction on delivering a first-class service to our customers.

“We talk to our customers a lot about their data and they don’t always know they can actually recycle their tech.

“We speak to people who literally think we’re going to throw it in a skip!

“The fact that we can educate customers as well as contribute to recycling and put equipment back into the circular economy is a ‘win-win’.

“We also donate 10 products a month to charity, including laptops, printers, tablets and mobile phones.”

The company, which also has a hub in Watford, has invested heavily in its fleet of 12 vehicles, which includes a shredding lorry.

ICT Reverse has invested in a fleet of 12 vehicles

Gray said: “We’ll securely collect their equipment, bring it back to our facility, securely remove the data and recycle the asset.

“Some will be shredded and the precious metals removed. Everything will be separated and smelted down.

“We collect everything in our own vehicles so it’s end-to-end.”

The company was established in 2003 by Morecambe-born entrepreneur��Craig Smith.

Back then it was known as ShP Limited and focused primarily on second hand phones.

Meet the ex-checkout worker now running £10m business

The business relocated to Lancaster and expanded its recycling services to include IT equipment such as laptops.

Following a rebrand to ICT Reverse in January 2016, the company was purchased a year later in a multi-million pound deal by the��Eco-Renew Group.

ICT Reverse forms part of the��Mazuma Group��and Craig Smith is the group MD.

Sophie Gray, who has been with the business for 16 years, was promoted to MD of ICT Reverse in 2024.

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Leeds Digital Mini-Fest celebrates city’s innovation

Jonathan Symcox — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:19:28 +0000

Leeds Digital’s Mini-Fest concluded last week, celebrating a city where tech innovation is creating high-value career pathways and cementing the region’s status as a premier global hub.��

As the digital economy in the city expands 125% faster than the national average, hundreds of delegates gathered to see how Leeds is proactively solving society’s biggest challenges.��

From deploying AI to promote online safety and prevent consumer harm to pioneering preventative health measures and robust cybersecurity defences, the ‘small but mighty’ three-day event served as a powerful showcase of technology being used as a force for good.

Serving as the official curtain raiser to the main Leeds Digital Festival in September, the Mini-Fest (21st–23rd April) highlighted the vital work being done to bridge the gap between education and employment.��

With Leeds now home to over 9,000 digital companies, the event focused on ensuring that fresh talent and young people seeking work are seamlessly connected to the array of roles available in the city’s thriving tech businesses.

Meet black belt taking Leeds software house global

A key highlight was the flagship session, ‘Bridging the Tech Skills Gap: From Education to Employment’. Organised by Leeds Digital and chaired by PEXA UK, the panel brought together Leeds Beckett University, Leeds University �Ͼ�Ʒ�� School, Corecom Tech Academy, and Generation UK to strategise on preparing a Northern workforce for an AI-driven future.

Festival director Deb Hetherington, marking her first full year leading the event, noted the city’s transformation: “Leeds is now a formidable force in the data and AI space, a shift that is sparking the creation of entirely new career paths like machine learning engineering and AI ethics.

“This year’s Mini-Fest was curated to capture this energy, demonstrating how these emerging technologies are unlocking doors for Northern talent and building a resilient, high-growth economy that provides opportunities for everyone. This is a pivotal time for our city as we look toward a future defined by innovation.”��

‘Pinch me!’: Founders celebrate Leeds Tech Map launch

During the Mini-Fest, headline sponsor CGI, one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, spearheaded vital discussions on how tech can modify behaviour for the better, joined by experts from Gamstop and Skipton Building Society.��

Marian Cafferty, Senior Vice President Consulting Services, CGI in the UK, said: “This year’s Mini-Fest was a powerful reminder of what makes Leeds unique – a collaborative, forward-thinking tech community focused on delivering real impact. CGI is proud to support and be part of that momentum.”

The festival is supported by CGI and platinum sponsor Skipton Group, working alongside a committed network that includes Accenture, Nexus and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).��

The industry now looks ahead to the full-scale Leeds Digital Festival, returning for its 11th successive year from 21st September to 2nd October 2026.

How Leeds EdTech Synap found its rhythm

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If mobile data can now be rationed, connectivity should be treated as a public utility

Jonathan Symcox — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 07:18:14 +0000

Last week, the Telegraph reported a headline that should stop every policymaker in their tracks: “Mobile data could be rationed to tackle soaring costs of Iran war.”��

The instinct will be to debate whether they should have been included in the Chancellor’s Industrial Competitiveness Scheme. That’s the wrong conversation.��

Because the real question this headline forces is a more uncomfortable one: why, in 2026, in one of the largest economies in the world, is “rationing” even a word we’re applying to connectivity? And why are we still relying on commercial operators — whose first obligation is to shareholders, not citizens — to deliver what is, by any reasonable measure, essential public infrastructure?��

This isn’t a case for bailing out the companies, considering rationing. It’s a case for building infrastructure they can’t ration.��

Connectivity is not a commodity��

When we treat connectivity as a commodity, it behaves like one. Prices rise with energy costs. Speeds throttle when margins tighten. The first to be cut off are the people who can least afford it.��

But connectivity in 2026 isn’t a commodity. It’s the road network of the information economy — and we wouldn’t privatise the roads and then shrug when the company couldn’t afford the tarmac. It’s how your GP issues prescriptions. It’s how a child in a rural village does their homework. It’s how a pensioner books a benefits appointment, and how a small business takes a card payment. The UN

recognised meaningful internet access as a human right a decade ago. Our infrastructure hasn’t caught up with that recognition.��

The cost of being cut off is real and measurable. Research suggests households without reliable connectivity can be up to £500 a year worse off – shut out of online deals, cheaper tariffs, banking apps, and benefits portals. 2.1 million UK households are still in that position today. Rationing data makes that worse, not better.��

Leaving their access in the hands of operators who may ration data to protect margins makes that worse, not better.��

The answer isn’t to subsidise those operators. It’s to invest in infrastructure that operates on entirely different principles.��

Meanwhile, in the town halls��

While national operators warn of rationing, a very different story is unfolding in local government and it deserves far more attention than it’s getting��

Last year, Newcastle City Council launched one of the UK’s most ambitious council-led WiFi networks — a unified, secure, public-private system – built with us at Purple. Residents, students, visitors and businesses share one seamless network that roams across council buildings, libraries, gyms, public spaces and hundreds of local venues. No repeat sign-ins. No postcode lottery. As Councillor Paul Frew put it at the time, not everyone can afford reliable access on the go – and the council saw that as its problem to solve. And that instinct is exactly right.��

In York, council-led public WiFi is feeding footfall insights back into high-street regeneration. In Faringdon, a market town in the Vale of White Horse, that same infrastructure tells residents what’s on at the folly tower this weekend. Different scales, different places, same principle: connectivity delivered in the public interest, not as a line item on a quarterly earnings call.��

This is what democratised connectivity actually looks like. It already exists. It works. The question is whether the government is prepared to back it at scale.

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Why a B Corp can’t ration you��

Purple became a certified B Corporation in 2024. That’s not a logo on a brochure. It’s a legal obligation to weigh people and planet alongside profit in every material decision we make. It’s the reason we’ve given away over £120,000 of WiFi hardware and licences to 1,000 small businesses in Newcastle. It’s the reason we’re building a unified, OpenRoaming-ready network that any venue – public or private – can plug into.��

But the broader point goes beyond any one provider. Council-led WiFi networks are structurally incapable of the kind of rationing we read about this week. A council partner has no share price to protect. A B Corp has a legal duty not to sacrifice people for profit. The governance of who owns and operates our digital infrastructure matters as much as the cables and the spectrum — and right now, we have the wrong owners making decisions about essential access.��

What needs to change��

The conversation has to move on from arguing about whether telcos should or shouldn’t get industrial electricity support. The bigger question is this: if connectivity is genuinely essential – and this week’s news makes clear it is – why is it national infrastructure where “rationing” is being floated with a shrug, rather than being treated, funded and protected as such?��

Three things we need to see on the table:

• Back council-led networks as resilient public-interest infrastructure, with capital and revenue support that matches their role.

• Extend public-interest frameworks – the kind we take for granted in water, energy and rail – to the digital layer that now sits underneath all of them. Connectivity should not be the one piece of essential infrastructure where rationing is floated with a shrug.

• Partner with mission-led providers – B Corps, community networks, public-private WiFi – so the system is resilient to shocks like the one we’re reading about today, rather than dependent on the commercial decisions of operators with other priorities.��

A uniquely British shrug��

Imagine reading a headline that water pressure might be rationed because a utility signed a bad energy contract. Or that the rail network would slow down because of an overseas conflict. It would be a national conversation.��

Connectivity deserves exactly the same treatment — and the infrastructure to back that up already exists. Councils across the UK are already showing how it’s done: publicly accountable, mission-driven, built for citizens rather than shareholders.��

The question is whether Westminster is paying attention. Because the alternative — leaving essential access in the hands of operators who may ration it at will — is a choice. And this week, we’ve seen where that choice leads.��

Gavin Wheeldon is CEO of , the certified B Corp connectivity platform powering public-interest WiFi networks for councils, cities and venues in 89 countries.

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