Business

Teams ship more when work feels simple, steady, and easy to start. Days move faster when the path from “request” to “done” is short, screens load quickly, and handoffs do not require guesswork.

The core idea is focus – fewer tools doing more of the right things. Clear calls that speed decisions, one hub for calendars and docs, small bursts of automation, and a calm rhythm that protects deep work. With that mix, new hires learn faster, leaders coach with less friction, and customers get answers without repeats. The payoff shows up in quieter queues, shorter meetings, and fewer status checks. None of this needs heavy process or fancy jargon. It needs a set of choices that respect attention, reduce clicks, and make the next step obvious.

Clear Calls That Speed Decisions

Voice still drives many key moments – a customer chooses a plan, a supplier confirms a date, or a manager approves a change. When the call experience is clean, choices happen faster and with less back-and-forth. A stable desk phone at shared stations keeps the basics at hand: answer, mute, transfer, pickup. A consistent layout across seats trims training and prevents missed moves during peaks. Softphones support hybrid roles well, yet a dependable handset at reception, service counters, and busy pods reduces confusion during handoffs. What matters is predictability. Agents should feel at ease moving between desks, while supervisors can listen in or record without digging through menus. Simple habits help too – a one-minute audio check at the start of each shift and a short note format that flags outcome and next step.

For buyers that want a familiar interface and durable build, Polycom phones fit neatly into a productivity plan because the controls stay where hands expect them, coaching gets easier, and handoffs stay smooth when pressure rises. A shared pattern across desks lowers error rates, especially for teams that rotate seats through the week. The phone’s clarity supports calmer voices, which in turn shortens calls and reduces repeats. With steady endpoints in key spots and softphones where mobility matters, teams avoid split systems that drift apart and quietly add support load. The call becomes the easiest part of the workday – clear sound, quick transfers, and records that make sense to the next person who opens them.

One Hub for Calendars, Docs, and Chat

Productive teams cut the time between a question and an answer. A single calendar and a single chat space, organized by projects rather than scattered DMs, helps people find updates without hunting. Docs live in one well-named folder with short templates for briefs, recaps, and checklists, so content looks the same across teams and takes less effort to read. Search then becomes fast: open, scan, act. Meeting invites include an owner, a goal, and pre-reads sent the day before. Chat channels use clear tags so owners can skim and pick up items without a pile of pings. The fewer places to look, the fewer chances to stall. When information sits where it should, the team makes choices quickly and moves on.

Automation That Gives Hours Back

Automation works best when it clears busywork rather than creates another dashboard to watch. Start with the tiny tasks that steal minutes over and over – file naming, status pings, handoffs after calls, and recurring reminders. Keep scope tight and measure the time saved so wins are visible and morale stays high. A light rule set can route notes to the right folder, post a brief summary in the right channel, and nudge owners when nothing moves. Intake forms gather the details needed to act without a volley of follow-ups. The quality bar rises because requests show up complete, and the day feels calmer because fewer items get stuck waiting for missing pieces. Small, dependable rules beat complex flows that no one wants to maintain.

Auto-file meeting notes by date and owner, then post a one-line recap in the project channel.
Trigger task creation from keywords in call notes with a due date that matches real lead times.
Send a gentle nudge after two days of no movement, then escalate once with context for the owner.
Standardize request forms so the first submission has everything needed to start.
Keep a public “what runs now” page so everyone sees which automations exist and how to ask for more.

A Focus Toolkit That Protects Attention

Most delays come from micro-distractions, not big crises. A small focus kit helps people protect deep work without feeling locked down. Two short quiet blocks each day – phones on ring for customers, yet chat paused for internal chatter – create room for actual problem-solving. A tidy desktop with one browser profile and one password manager keeps logins smooth and prevents tab sprawl. Simple meeting rules trim the calendar: shorter invites, fewer attendees, and clear outcomes. A comfortable headset reduces strain and keeps voices even across long sessions, which helps both callers and colleagues. End-of-day resets matter too – close tabs, capture a three-line recap, and set the first task for tomorrow. The brain rests easier when the next step is waiting and clear.

Make Changes Stick in Two Weeks

Change lasts when it is small, visible, and measured. Week one sets the base: standardize the desk setup, agree on the doc and chat structure, and roll out one calling pattern across seats so no one hunts for buttons during a handoff. Week two locks habits: introduce the two daily quiet blocks, add one automation that saves time every day, and teach the short note style that captures outcome, reason, and next step. Track three signals for a month – time to answer, tasks finished per person, and repeat questions from customers – then review them every Friday and adjust a single item. With steady tools, clear paths, and light rules, teams work smarter, finish on time, and keep energy for the work that actually moves the business forward.

Read more:
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Tools That Boost Team Productivity

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has secured a £170 million investment from 11 of the world’s largest banks, strengthening its post-trade operations and deepening ties with key industry partners.

The investment, announced alongside the group’s Q3 2025 results, values LSEG’s Post Trade Solutions arm at £850 million and marks another milestone in the company’s strategy to expand its data and risk management technology footprint.

Participating banks include Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Société Générale, and UBS, who will together take a 20% stake in the Post Trade Solutions business.

The announcement came as LSEG posted another quarter of steady growth. Total income rose to £2.3 billion, up from £2.2 billion a year earlier, while gross profit increased 6.5% to just over £2 billion, as costs grew more slowly than revenues.

Its Data & Analytics division – home to flagship products such as Refinitiv and Workspace – generated £982 million in revenue, up 4.9%, while FTSE Russell climbed 9.3% to £241 million.

The Post Trade Solutions business, which provides technology for the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market, brought in £96 million in revenue and £16 million in EBITDA last year.

Under the new structure, LSEG will increase its share of revenue from SwapClear, the central clearing service operated by its subsidiary LCH Group.

Founding banks’ revenue entitlement will fall from 30% to 15% in 2025, and then to 10% in 2026, while LSEG will pay £1.15 billion over two years for the change — with an additional £200 million linked to performance milestones.

Chief executive David Schwimmer said the transaction “strengthens our partnership and strategic alignment with key customers” and “delivers attractive margin and earnings enhancement.”

“We continued our strong momentum in Q3, driving growth across all business lines. With our partnerships in AI and data analytics, and a new phase of buybacks, we’re confident in LSEG’s long-term growth potential.”

The group also reiterated its ambition to position itself as a data and technology powerhouse in global finance. LSEG is expanding its collaborations with Microsoft, Databricks, Rogo and Snowflake, embedding its data into AI-driven analytics and trading platforms.

It has launched an Azure-based trade routing network connecting over 1,600 investment firms, and new AI features on its Workspace platform are expected to go live before year-end.

LSEG has already completed £938 million of its current £1 billion share buyback, and will launch another £1 billion programme by early 2026 — bringing total planned capital deployment to £3.5 billion.

The group’s shares, which had fallen around 20% earlier this year, rose more than 5% to 9,172p following the announcement, giving LSEG a market capitalisation of £44.8 billion.

Schwimmer said the company enters the final quarter of 2025 “with strong momentum, accelerating profitability, and clear strategic direction.”

Daniel Maguire, head of markets and CEO of LCH Group, added: “SwapClear was a pioneer in innovation 25 years ago. This transaction reaffirms that spirit — and our partners’ commitment to advancing the post-trade ecosystem.”

Read more:
London Stock Exchange seals £170m deal with 11 global banks to strengthen post-trade operations

The government has approved the long-awaited reopening of the Oxford Cowley rail branch line, marking a major milestone in plans to transform the Oxford-Cambridge corridor into what ministers call “Europe’s Silicon Valley.”

The £155 million scheme — part of a wider £500 million investment package announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves — will be jointly funded by the Treasury (£120 million) and private stakeholders led by the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford, which will contribute a further £35 million.

The new rail line, closed to passengers for more than 60 years, will link south Oxford and the Oxford Science Park directly with central Oxford and London Marylebone, improving connectivity for thousands of workers and researchers.

The Ellison Institute, founded by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, will design and build one of two new stations at Littlemore, adjacent to its expanding Oxford campus — a 2 million sq ft complex expected to host up to 7,000 people when it opens in 2027.

The institute plans to invest £10 billion over the next decade in science and technology programmes, with a focus on tackling global challenges such as health, food security and climate change.

The project forms part of Reeves’ strategy to accelerate growth along the Oxford-Cambridge arc, a region she described as “a hub for globally renowned science and technology” but one that has suffered from “years of underinvestment in public transport, housing and infrastructure.”

“These investments lay the foundations for thousands of skilled jobs and pioneering research that will benefit working people across the country,” Reeves said.

Alongside the Cowley line reopening, the Treasury will commit £400 million in seed funding for affordable housing, local infrastructure and business expansion in Cambridge.

The Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford, designed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank’s architecture practice, is at the heart of the government’s ambition to turn the corridor into a world-class science cluster.

The institute is positioning itself as a global hub for AI, biotech and sustainability research, and will act as a catalyst for collaboration between academia and industry.

Lisa Flashner, Chief Operating Officer of the institute, said the new rail connection would be key to recruiting and retaining top global talent.

“The new line will help us attract world-class scientists and facilitate closer collaboration between the Ellison Institute and Oxford University,” she said.

Lord Vallance, Minister for Science and a former GSK executive, said the Oxford-Cambridge corridor had all the ingredients to become “the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley or the Boston Cluster.”

“This region is where world-class innovation meets economic growth — and projects like this will ensure that potential is realised.”

The announcement comes as the government faces mounting pressure to rebuild growth momentum ahead of next month’s Budget.

Talks are ongoing between London and Washington over drug pricing and trade tariffs, after several multinational pharma companies paused UK investment due to regulatory uncertainty.

By tying infrastructure development to private-sector innovation, Reeves aims to send a signal that the UK remains open to science-led growth and international collaboration.

Read more:
Oxford rail link to reopen as £10bn tech campus fuels ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’ vision

Sir Tony Blair has urged Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to ditch his 2030 clean power target and cut green levies as his think tank warns that current climate policies are driving up costs for homes and businesses.

A new report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), personally approved by the former prime minister, claims the government’s commitment to fully decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030 is “destroying industry” and “damaging households.”

The intervention, which has sparked fury within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, highlights growing divisions inside Labour over the pace and affordability of the party’s green transition.

The report’s authors, led by Ryan Wain, said Labour’s clean power agenda risks pushing voters “towards populists” such as Reform UK ahead of next year’s regional elections, warning that the government’s energy policies “must be recalibrated around affordability.”

“We’re in a cost of living crisis as well as a climate crisis — you can’t just pick one and pretend the other doesn’t exist,” Wain said.

“Right-wing populists are already exploiting this tension. Unless electricity becomes cheaper, the politics of net zero will become toxic.”

Blair, who has made energy reform a personal focus through his institute, backed the report’s call for “cheap, clean power” rather than the current approach, which he said has made the UK “a low-carbon but high-cost economy.”

The TBI report argues that green levies now make up 20% of the average electricity bill, up from just 8.5% in 2015, and that policy costs now exceed the cost of actual electricity for the average household — £334 versus £324.

It also warns that the cost of connecting Britain’s new offshore wind farms to the grid will exceed the cost of the turbines themselves, with the required pylon and substation infrastructure set to cost £112 billion.

The think tank concluded: “The trend in UK energy over recent decades has been the transformation of our electricity sector from a cheap, high-carbon one to an expensive, low-carbon one.”

Miliband, who is overseeing Labour’s flagship Clean Power 2030 policy, reportedly reacted angrily to the publication, instructing civil servants to issue a statement rejecting the findings.

It is the second high-profile clash between Blair and Miliband this year. In April, the former prime minister warned that current net zero plans were “doomed to fail” due to unrealistic timelines and inadequate investment in grid capacity.

Tone Langengen, TBI’s lead energy adviser, said the Clean Power 2030 plan had been well-intentioned but was now “out of step with economic reality.”

“Launched during the gas crisis, in a low-interest environment, the plan was right for its time. But circumstances have changed. The UK needs to prioritise cheaper clean electricity to lower bills and attract new industries.”

Miliband is already under pressure from energy leaders, who argue that renewable subsidies and network costs are driving up household bills.

Rachel Fletcher, Director of Policy and Regulation at Octopus Energy, warned last week that green levies and grid upgrades could add around £300 to the typical household electricity bill by 2030.

Meanwhile, the government insists its reforms will ultimately lower costs and cut reliance on fossil fuels.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Our mission is relentlessly focused on delivering lower bills and tackling the affordability crisis driven by fossil fuel dependence.

That’s why we’ve launched a golden age of new nuclear and approved record levels of clean power investment to drive growth and good jobs.”

Blair’s intervention underscores the political tightrope Labour faces — balancing the need to meet net zero targets while addressing the cost-of-living crisis.

With the Budget due next month and energy costs still among the highest in Europe, advisers warn that Miliband’s clean energy revolution could become a political liability if voters continue to associate green policy with higher bills.

As one senior Labour figure privately told Business Matters: “Tony’s saying what a lot of us are thinking — the politics of net zero are changing fast, and affordability has to come first.”

Read more:
Tony Blair urges Ed Miliband to scrap green levies amid energy cost backlash

Financial advisers across the UK are warning of a growing trend in private medical insurance (PMI) cancellations as businesses and households tighten their belts in the face of rising taxes, inflation and economic uncertainty.

During the Covid pandemic, PMI uptake more than doubled. According to comparison site ActiveQuote.com, sales between November 2020 and January 2021 surged by 100% compared with March to May 2020, as fears over NHS waiting times drove record numbers towards private cover.

Now, however, advisers say that economic pressures and higher tax burdens are forcing many to rethink or abandon their policies entirely.

David Stirling, Independent Financial Adviser at Mint Wealth Ltd in Belfast, said the wave of cancellations is one of the clearest signs of stress among SMEs and middle-income households.

“There has been a notable uptick in PMI policy cancellations this year following the fiscal assault on the business community,” he said.

“Tax hikes, spiralling costs, stubborn inflation and economic uncertainty are forcing companies to penny-pinch and re-evaluate their outgoings. PMI, while valuable, is now back on the nice-to-have list rather than a must-have.”

He urged policyholders to explore cost-saving options rather than cancelling outright — such as adding an excess or limiting cover.

“PMI has gone from essential to luxury”

Dariusz Karpowicz, Director at Albion Financial Advice in Doncaster, said the economic squeeze has made PMI an early casualty in company cost reviews.

“Cancellations are definitely picking up steam, and frankly, who can blame people when they’re being hammered from all sides? With NI hikes and stubborn inflation, PMI often gets the chop first.

“The irony is painful — NHS waiting lists are at record highs just as businesses are forced to drop private cover.”

He added that many companies which introduced PMI during the pandemic now view it as an unaffordable luxury.

Eamonn Prendergast, Chartered Financial Adviser at Palantir Financial Planning in Bromley, pointed to another challenge — age-related premium increases.

“PMI gets more expensive as we age, because the likelihood of claiming rises. For many, the escalating cost simply isn’t sustainable,” he said.

“Some wealthier clients are choosing to self-fund private treatment instead. It gives them control, but for others, the numbers just no longer stack up.”

While many are cutting back, advisers are warning against rash cancellations, stressing that PMI can still be life-saving in some cases.

Scott Gallacher, Director at Rowley Turton in Leicester, said: “I understand why some companies are reviewing costs, but PMI can make a critical difference. I personally benefited from treatment only available privately — it saved my hearing.

“Clients have shared similar stories, such as receiving specialist cancer care that added years to their lives. If cost is an issue, speak to a broker before cancelling completely.”

Justin Moy, Managing Director at EHF Mortgages in Chelmsford, said PMI’s popularity had clearly faded as NI contributions and living costs rose.

“Private medical insurance has gone from a near-necessity to a luxury. Businesses are facing higher employment costs and consumers are juggling higher mortgage rates and inflation. Something has to give, and unfortunately, PMI is often first in line.”

With the Autumn Budget expected to bring further fiscal tightening, experts fear the trend could accelerate into 2026. For many households and small businesses, advisers say, PMI now symbolises the broader cost-of-living squeeze — a product once considered essential, now out of reach.

Read more:
Rise in people and firms cancelling private medical insurance as tax squeeze bites: “The numbers no longer stack up”

Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has warned that the UK’s financial system is “not prepared” to withstand the growing wave of geopolitical and cyber threats facing the global economy.

Speaking at the City Dinner at Mansion House in London, Rathi said the impact of modern conflict now reaches “balance sheets, funding, markets and consumers as much as any battlefield.”

“Whether it’s a cyber-attack or a production shock – they move yields and test confidence,” he said. “And we are not prepared, tactically or strategically.”

Rathi’s warning comes amid escalating geopolitical tensions and repeated cyber incidents targeting financial infrastructure, including attacks on ATMs, payments systems and shipping routes such as the Red Sea corridor.

He said UK firms were “potentially massively under-insuring” against systemic and catastrophe risks, leaving businesses – and ultimately taxpayers – exposed.

“Globally, a fraction of catastrophe and cyber risks are insured,” Rathi noted. “The rest migrate to company P&Ls, credit ratings, risk premia, prices, and ultimately to households. And when cover is this low, it hits the Exchequer. That, along with the impact on livelihoods, drives popular anger.”

The FCA’s warning was reinforced by new findings from the Napier AI / AML Index 2025–26, which show money laundering in the UK rose to £146 billion over the past year – up from £135 billion.

The UK’s position as a global financial hub has made it increasingly vulnerable to illicit capital flows, with the report estimating that financial crime drains $195 billion (£160bn) from the UK economy each year – equivalent to 5.35% of GDP.

Greg Watson, CEO of Napier AI, said the data highlighted a “systemic issue” undermining the country’s economic resilience.

“Financial crime continues to erode the resilience of the UK’s financial systems. Our data shows up to $3.3 trillion globally could be recovered through AI-enabled detection and monitoring,” Watson said.

“But building resilience against financial crime isn’t a technology challenge alone. It requires collective action between regulators, financial institutions and technology providers to ensure AI adoption is responsible and effective.”

The speech followed the Treasury’s confirmation of a sweeping overhaul of the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) regime, which will see the FCA assume a “super-regulator” role over professional services.

Under the reforms, the FCA will directly supervise lawyers, accountants and company formation agents for compliance with money laundering rules – bringing these professions within its extended AML remit for the first time.

The move comes as part of efforts to tighten systemic oversight and reduce fragmentation across the UK’s compliance landscape.

Financial crime experts say Rathi’s comments mark a significant escalation in the FCA’s public messaging around systemic risk and operational resilience. The watchdog is expected to push for greater cross-sector collaboration and investment in AI-driven regulatory technology as part of its 2026 strategy.

Analysts also expect the regulator to prioritise stress-testing for cyber resilience and liquidity risk management amid fears that global tensions and digital vulnerabilities could trigger new financial contagion channels.

Read more:
FCA chief warns UK financial system “not prepared” for rising global and cyber risks

Astut, an Oxford University spinout developing AI for unprecedented decision-making, has raised £1.6 million in seed funding to help businesses and institutions navigate crises and high-stakes challenges where no historical data exists.

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

Founded in April this year by Professor Pete Grindrod CBE, a mathematician at the University of Oxford and founding trustee of the Alan Turing Institute, Astut’s breakthrough “Hybrid AI” technology is designed to make transparent, auditable decisions under conditions of uncertainty and limited precedent — areas where traditional AI models fail.

Astut’s technology addresses what it calls High-Stakes Unseen Decisions (HSUD) — scenarios where no prior case data exists. These might include responding to emerging crises, supply chain disruptions, or strategic one-off opportunities where outcomes have no comparable historical reference.

Based at the Culham Science Centre in Abingdon, Astut’s Hybrid AI combines two complementary layers: a logical reasoning engine built on symbolic AI principles, and a creative generative layer powered by large language models.

Together, these enable AI systems to generate and justify decision options, backed by reasoning that satisfies a defined set of hard and soft constraints — offering an explainable and auditable foundation for human decision-makers.

Professor Pete Grindrod, Astut’s founder and CEO, said: “Traditional AI breaks when faced with new, high-stakes situations without data. Astut gives organisations a way to make confident, transparent decisions when precedent doesn’t exist.

“This funding will allow us to strengthen our partnerships in defence, energy, retail and finance, and embed our technology into partner platforms so it can reach those who need it most. Our creative AI is radical — and it’s the start of what could become a sovereign capability for the UK.”

Sure Valley Ventures’ Managing Partner Barry Downes said the firm was backing Astut’s mission to bring explainable reasoning to AI in high-impact sectors: “Astut is redefining how enterprises apply AI to complex, high-stakes decisions. Pete and his team have built a reasoning engine purpose-built for environments where AI must justify and audit its outputs — a critical need for sectors like defence, energy, and retail.”

Rory Scott Russell, General Partner at East X Ventures, added: “In areas like decision support and explainable AI, current technologies — including GPTs and LLMs — often fail in unseen situations. Astut’s fusion of symbolic AI, machine learning and inverse reasoning is not only academically robust but commercially scalable.”

The funding coincides with the Government’s designation of Culham Campus — where Astut is based — as the UK’s first AI Growth Zone, designed to support sovereign AI infrastructure and private R&D investment.

Mark White, Investment Director at UKI2S, said Astut exemplified the UK’s deep-tech leadership: “We invest at the frontier of innovation, where uncertainty is not a risk but an opportunity. Astut’s technology brings clarity to high-stakes, data-sparse environments — exactly the kind of capability the UK must develop and protect.”

Despite being just six months old, Astut is already in talks with defence, energy and finance organisations, including the Ministry of Defence and partners in the UK’s fusion energy programme, to pilot its technology.

The company plans to commercialise its Hybrid AI via channel partnerships, embedding its reasoning systems within other platforms to support decision-making across multiple industries.

With the global market for explainable and auditable AI expanding rapidly, Astut’s approach — uniting mathematical logic with generative creativity — positions it at the intersection of innovation, ethics, and strategic autonomy.

Read more:
Oxford AI startup Astut raises £1.6m to tackle ‘never-before-seen’ business crises with explainable AI

Paygentic, a London-based startup building payments infrastructure for AI-native and agent-driven businesses, has raised $2 million (£1.6m) in pre-seed funding to expand its team and accelerate product development.

The funding round was led by MiddleGame Ventures, with participation from Anamcara Capital, Aperture, Angel Invest, and Alan Morgan, chairman at Adfisco.

Founded by Susan O’Neill and Samuel Alarco Cantos (pictured), Paygentic is tackling a fast-emerging issue in the AI software sector — the mismatch between variable compute costs and traditional fixed SaaS billing models.

While AI-native firms face highly fluctuating usage costs driven by model inference and API consumption, most lack billing systems that can scale dynamically with performance, usage or outcomes. Paygentic’s all-in-one platform enables AI companies to introduce hybrid, usage-based, and outcome-based pricing models, offering greater flexibility and control over monetisation.

The company’s launch comes as AI-native startups collectively surpass $15 billion in annualised revenue, creating fresh demand for specialised financial infrastructure that can support complex, machine-driven transactions.

Co-founder and CEO Susan O’Neill said Paygentic was born out of frustration with rigid legacy systems: “We built Paygentic because traditional billing solutions break the moment things get complex. AI founders lack the flexible infrastructure needed to price and monetise their products effectively. Our platform lets AI companies charge for what actually matters — and scale as fast as they innovate.”

Kanishk Walia, Partner at MiddleGame Ventures, said the firm sees Paygentic as “foundational infrastructure for the agentic AI economy.”

“AI-native products are redefining how value is created and delivered, yet legacy billing and payments systems can’t keep up. Paygentic has built an agent-first stack that makes it possible to monetise usage, outcomes and hybrid models at scale — exactly what this new generation of businesses requires.”

Paygentic’s platform converts AI agent actions — from prompts to outcomes — directly into billable events, integrating billing, payments, and pricing logic in one system. Designed for developers and product teams, it aims to remove friction between experimentation, pricing, and revenue recognition.

Operating in stealth mode since early 2025, Paygentic has already onboarded a select group of early adopters, including ChaseLabs, which provides AI-powered Sales Development Representatives (SDRs).

Ed Gibbins, Co-founder of ChaseLabs, said: “Our business depends on outcome-based pricing — we get paid if our AI SDR generates a lead. Traditional billing systems couldn’t handle that, but Paygentic understood exactly what we needed.”

With its platform now publicly available, Paygentic plans to expand access to AI developers, LLM infrastructure providers, and agentic frameworks, enabling them to launch, monetise, and scale their products faster.

As the AI-native economy matures, Paygentic aims to position itself at the intersection of fintech and intelligent automation, building what investors describe as “the financial plumbing for the agentic era.”

Read more:
Paygentic raises $2m pre-seed round to build payments infrastructure for the AI-native economy

Barclays has revealed a £110 million loss tied to the collapse of Tricolor, a US subprime auto lender accused of fraud — an event now seen as a major warning sign for the $3 trillion private credit market.

The bank confirmed the impairment in its third-quarter results, which otherwise met expectations, showing pre-tax profits of £2.1 billion — down 7% year-on-year but broadly in line with analyst forecasts.

Chief executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan, known as Venkat, said Tricolor’s collapse “was not a surprise, the surprise was the fraud,” while acknowledging that “fraud is no excuse for us.”

The lender disclosed total private credit exposure of £20 billion, around 6% of its £346 billion loan book, with 70% of that exposure in the US.

Private credit — direct lending by non-bank institutions such as hedge funds and insurers — has exploded since the global financial crisis, as tougher banking regulations drove corporate borrowers toward alternative finance. But the recent bankruptcies of Tricolor and First Brands have sparked concerns about the hidden risks in the fast-growing but opaque market.

Barclays said most of its lending was to “experienced managers with a strong track record”, and that it had rejected an approach to fund First Brands because its analysts “didn’t see adequate support for the financial projections.”

Venkat told investors: “We run a very risk-controlled shop when it comes to this… but regulators should absolutely look at it and ask all banks about their exposures.”

His comments came after Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, warned that “alarm bells” were ringing over private credit, calling it “a very open question” whether the recent US failures signalled deeper structural risks.

Despite the impairment, Barclays shares rose 4.9% to 382¼p after the bank announced a £500 million share buyback and raised its return-on-tangible-equity target to above 11% for 2025.

Venkat, midway through a three-year turnaround plan, said Barclays would move to regular quarterly buybacks and introduce new performance targets through 2028. Analysts at Bank of America said the results were “good at the underlying level”, though its investment banking division underperformed on trading revenues.

Barclays also revealed it has boosted provisions for motor finance mis-selling claims to £325 million, up from £90 million, in response to a proposed £11 billion consumer compensation scheme by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The bank said the larger provision reflected “the increased likelihood of a higher number of cases falling within scope”, but criticised the FCA’s approach, claiming it “does not accurately address actual loss… and does not achieve a proportionate outcome”.

Peers including Lloyds Banking Group and Close Brothers have also raised concerns, warning that the regulator’s framework could overstate the scale of potential wrongdoing.

The FCA’s redress scheme stems from the industry’s failure to disclose commission payments to car dealers arranging vehicle finance — an issue that could affect up to 14 million agreements between 2007 and 2023.

While Barclays described the redress costs as “not a significant financial issue”, the twin pressures of private credit exposure and regulatory scrutiny are likely to remain key investor concerns in the months ahead.

As private markets continue to blur the boundaries between traditional and alternative finance, analysts say Tricolor’s collapse may prove an early stress test for banks’ involvement in the sector — and a catalyst for tighter oversight of shadow lending.

Read more:
Barclays takes £110m hit from collapse of US subprime lender as private credit risks grow

The fact that Welzo is the pioneer in the UK with a data-driven product marketplace in the vitamin and supplement sector is a new milestone in the health and wellness industry.

Welzo is a UK based healthcare marketplace that sells supplements, vitamins, and health tests, founded in 2022.

Adonis Hakkim, a British entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Welzo, stated the following: “We aim to eliminate the guesswork in health optimisation. We are assisting people in choosing supplements that actually suit their actual health requirements by using a mixture of information and technology.”

A Revolution in the Supplement Industry

For decades, consumers  have purchased generic supplements based on brand marketing, only to see that the outcome does not meet the result. The feature of the Welzo marketplace removes the latter, as it allows individuals to shop with their own health information gained through at-home blood tests.

Welzo uses evidence-based practices to propose the appropriate nutritional products and vitamins, minerals, and supplements based on the nutritional deficiencies and lifestyle habits, as well as the health objectives of the individual, which makes its system prefer shopping that is based on evidence rather than guesses.

How Welzo’s Data-Driven Marketplace Works

The Welzo platform takes data from home blood testing and online health profiles of users and proposes unique supplements based on the needs of these individuals. Then it compares such outcomes with the highest quality brands in welzo.com, where the goods are reliable and provable in scientific terms.

Once users log in, they can:

See their customized nutritional science analysis.

Receiving automatic supplements.

Order the suggested vitamins in the same place.

Track progress and rebrand as time progresses.

It is this harmonious mind of data, the selection of the products, and constant surveillance that make Welzo a leader of next-generation health retail.

Introducing Leading Supplement Partners

To ensure quality, Welzo cooperates with other well-known brands like My Protein, for which he scientifically developed protein powders, amino acids, and performance-enhancing supplements.

Through these partnerships, the user has access to high bio-researched products that are complementary to its customized nutrition program. Be it the improvement of fitness, the improvement of defense, or the improvement of cognitive wellness, the correct combination has now been chosen with assurance.

Why Personalization Matters in Modern Healthcare

Consumers today are more educated than before, but the misinformation about the supplements market is still abundant. Most of them end up purchasing vitamins that they do not need. Welzo deals with this by basing it on verifiable information as opposed to marketing hype.

According to Adonis Hakkim, the future of healthcare is personalization. By having awareness of their self-data on health, the population could make smarter and safer decisions that, in reality, would enhance the quality of life.

This will be a breaking point when healthcare changes its course to become proactive and not reactive; that is, it is centered on preventing and optimizing, but not merely treating.

The Science Behind Welzo’s Technology

The advanced algorithm created by Welzo analyzes test outcomes and lifestyle data and computes deficiencies, the definition of dietary requirements, and medical background to develop recommendations on supplements.

As an illustration, a person who lacks sufficient vitamin D and adheres to a vegan diet would be referred to plant-based supplements and protein alternatives provided by Buy My Protein, whereas an individual with elevated levels of stress would be invited to magnesium and adaptogen-based formulas.

The recommendations found on the platform get even more precise and personalized as additional user data is entered.

Empowering Users Through Education

Welzo puts an accent on education as well as on personalization. Each of the products offered has the full details about their formulation, the scientific research, and possible benefits that they offer—giving the user a clear picture of what to take and the reasons why.
It also provides health guides, expert knowledge, and online research and information, which promotes proactive well-being within the company. In addition to supplements and health-oriented products, Welzo also offers state-of-the-art folding mobility scooters as part of its general wellness marketplace, further supporting users’ independence and quality of life.
With a combination of learning and accessibility, Welzo creates trust in a sector that has been criticized as being unclear.

Adonis Hakkim’s Vision for the Future

Adonis Hakkim thinks that wellness will remain data-driven. He calls it an intelligent health ecosystem, where individuals can test, learn, and act in real time.

He wants to transform personalized wellness into an accessible necessity without considering income or geographical location. Meaningful intelligence and high-end supplement partners, along with affordable testing kits and a novel view of how the UK lives, are making Welzo reinvent nutrition as well as self-care.

Conclusion

Welzo is taking a major step toward the modernization of healthcare with the launch of the UK’s first data-driven vitamin and supplement marketplace. By combining technology, diagnostic testing, and trusted brands, the company is setting a new benchmark for personalization and transparency in wellness.

This innovation marks the beginning of a new era—one in which wellness evolves beyond a passing trend to become a truly personalized approach to health, guided by data and informed by science.

Read more:
Welzo Launches the UK’s First Data-Driven Vitamin and Supplement Marketplace