Business

Edinburgh-based remote working platform SWURF has secured a £200,000 investment round as it accelerates plans to transform the Scottish capital into one of the world’s most flexible working-friendly cities.

The funding will support the rollout of SWURF Pods, the company’s on-demand private meeting spaces designed for professionals who need secure and quiet environments for calls, meetings and focused work while on the move.

The investment round includes backing from prominent industry figures such as Gareth Williams, one of Scotland’s most successful tech entrepreneurs, alongside hospitality investor Anna Lagerqvist Christopherson, who owns several well-known venues in the city including Boda BV, the Green Room and the Victoria Bar.

SWURF’s strategy centres on creating a network of high-tech, bookable private pods located across busy urban locations. These compact meeting spaces are designed to give remote workers immediate access to private environments without needing a traditional office.

Each pod includes advanced soundproofing technology, private WiFi networks with encrypted connections, ergonomic seating, air filtration systems and adaptive LED lighting to provide a professional environment for business calls or focused work.

The pods are already installed at Edinburgh Airport and at the YOTEL Edinburgh, and the company plans to expand the network rapidly across the city.

SWURF’s long-term ambition is to ensure that every worker in Edinburgh is within 15 minutes of a SWURF Pod location, effectively turning cafés, hotels and hospitality venues into a distributed workplace network.

Alongside the pods, SWURF operates a mobile platform that connects remote workers with venues across the city that welcome flexible working.

Through the SWURF app, users can discover participating venues, check in digitally and access secure WiFi networks. The system also unlocks perks and incentives at partner venues, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem between workers and hospitality businesses.

The platform currently lists more than 450 venues across Edinburgh, including locations such as the The Hoxton Edinburgh, Crowne Plaza Edinburgh Royal Terrace, and the Royal Scots Club.

More than 14,000 users, known as “Swurfers”, are now registered on the platform, with the community continuing to grow as hybrid and remote working patterns become increasingly embedded across the UK workforce.

SWURF says its model is not only designed to support remote workers but also to generate new revenue streams for hospitality businesses.

By encouraging professionals to use cafés, hotels and bars as temporary workplaces during quieter hours, the company estimates it has already contributed around £2 million to the local Edinburgh economy.

For venues, the model allows underutilised spaces to generate income during off-peak periods, while for workers it provides a wider range of flexible workspace options across the city.

Margaret Auld, general manager of YOTEL Edinburgh, said the pods have helped bring new visitors into the hotel while also enhancing the services available to guests.

“The SWURF Pod is an excellent service that we can provide to our hotel guests, and it also brings new people into our hotel,” she said.

SWURF was founded by CEO Nikki Gibson, a hospitality industry specialist who saw an opportunity to connect remote professionals with existing city venues rather than relying solely on traditional coworking offices.

Gibson said the company’s mission goes beyond simply providing desks or meeting spaces.

“People want more than just somewhere to sit with a laptop,” she said. “They need flexibility, security and inspiring environments that help them be productive.”

“Our goal is to make Edinburgh the global gold standard for flexible working. By expanding our host venue network and rolling out SWURF Pods across the city, we are turning Edinburgh itself into a distributed office.”

The latest funding round follows a six-figure investment secured in 2025, which helped the company expand its venue network and grow its user base.

SWURF has also strengthened its leadership team with several high-profile industry figures joining the board.

The board is chaired by Alison Grieve, an entrepreneur known for scaling global technology businesses.

She is joined by Scott Leckie, who transitioned from a fractional chief technology officer role into a permanent board position, and Daniel Rodgers, the founder of Scottish hospitality technology company QikServe.

The strengthened leadership team is expected to help SWURF scale its model beyond Edinburgh in the coming years.

The company’s expansion comes amid a continued shift in working habits across the UK.

Hybrid working arrangements have become the norm across many sectors, creating growing demand for flexible meeting spaces, quiet work environments and secure connectivity outside traditional offices.

Cities with strong digital infrastructure and vibrant hospitality sectors are increasingly positioning themselves as hubs for this new working model.

By combining technology, hospitality partnerships and purpose-built micro workspaces, SWURF is aiming to place Edinburgh at the centre of that global shift.

With new funding secured and additional pod locations planned, the company believes the Scottish capital could soon become a benchmark city for flexible, location-independent working.

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Scottish startup SWURF secures £200k funding to make Edinburgh the world’s flexible working capital

Nigel Farage has invested £215,000 in a cryptocurrency business chaired by former UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, underscoring the growing overlap between politics and the digital asset sector.

The leader of Reform UK purchased 4.3 million shares in Stack BTC through his personal investment vehicle Thorn in the Side Ltd. The shares were acquired at 5p each, giving Farage a 6.3 per cent stake in the company.

Stack BTC is listed on the Aquis Stock Exchange in London and operates a strategy centred on building a portfolio of profitable businesses while using surplus cash to accumulate holdings of Bitcoin.

The investment represents a further step in Farage’s long-standing advocacy of digital currencies and his ambition to position the UK as a global hub for cryptocurrency innovation.

Stack BTC’s business model follows a strategy increasingly adopted by several companies globally: using operational cash flows to build a “bitcoin treasury”.

The company invests in established, cash-generating businesses and channels excess capital into purchasing bitcoin as a long-term store of value. This approach mirrors the strategy pursued by a number of US technology firms and listed investment vehicles seeking exposure to cryptocurrency markets.

The firm currently holds 21 bitcoin tokens valued at more than £1 million, according to its most recent disclosures. Its overall market valuation stands at roughly £3.85 million.

Executives say the goal is to expand the company’s bitcoin holdings over time while also building a diversified portfolio of operating businesses capable of generating reliable cash flow.

Kwarteng joined the company’s board in November last year and now serves as executive chairman.

He and his wife Harriet collectively own a 5.4 per cent stake in Stack BTC, valued at approximately £185,000.

Kwarteng served briefly as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2022 under the short-lived premiership of Liz Truss. His tenure lasted just 38 days and was marked by the controversial “mini-budget”, which triggered significant turbulence in financial markets and ultimately led to his dismissal.

Since leaving frontline politics, Kwarteng has pursued various roles in finance and advisory positions.

Welcoming Farage’s investment, he said the move represented a strategic alignment between the company and one of the UK’s most vocal political supporters of cryptocurrency.

“Nigel’s unwavering support for British business and belief that bitcoin is set to rapidly expand its role in finance is perfectly aligned with the company’s ethos and business plans,” Kwarteng said.

Farage has increasingly positioned himself as a prominent political advocate for digital currencies in Britain.

He has repeatedly argued that cryptocurrencies will play an important role in the future of global finance and has called for the UK to become a leading centre for crypto innovation.

“I have long been one of the UK’s few political advocates for bitcoin, recognising the role digital currencies will play in the future of business and finance,” Farage said after the investment was announced.

“London and the UK has historically been the centre of the world’s financial markets, and I believe that we can and should be a major global hub for the crypto industry.”

His investment also reflects the broader political positioning of Reform UK, which has embraced cryptocurrency as part of its economic agenda.

Reform UK became the first major British political party to accept donations in bitcoin in May last year, signalling a more open approach to digital assets compared with other UK parties.

Farage has promised that a Reform government would launch what he described as a “crypto revolution” in Britain, including policies designed to attract blockchain firms and digital asset investment.

The party’s largest financial backer is billionaire investor Christopher Harborne, who has donated roughly £12 million to Reform UK. That includes a £9 million contribution made during the third quarter of 2025, the largest single donation made to a British political party by a living individual.

Harborne has built his fortune largely through cryptocurrency and fintech investments.

Alongside Farage’s share purchase, Stack BTC announced a strategic partnership with Blockchain.com.

The collaboration will support the development of the company’s bitcoin treasury strategy and provide infrastructure for custody, trading and digital asset management.

Executives say the partnership will enable the company to expand its cryptocurrency holdings more efficiently while accessing institutional-grade technology and services.

Farage’s investment comes at a volatile moment for cryptocurrency markets.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital asset, has fallen by nearly 40 per cent over the past six months amid global market turbulence. Investor sentiment has been shaken by geopolitical tensions, volatile commodity prices and tightening monetary conditions across major economies.

The cryptocurrency was originally created in 2008 by an anonymous developer using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and exists entirely as decentralised digital code recorded on blockchain networks.

Despite recent price declines, many investors and technology advocates continue to view bitcoin as a long-term hedge against traditional financial instability.

The UK government is currently moving toward a more structured regulatory framework for digital assets.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has set out plans for legislation that would regulate cryptocurrency businesses in a similar way to traditional financial firms.

The proposals aim to bring crypto exchanges, custodians and related services under the supervision of financial regulators while protecting consumers from market risks and fraud.

Supporters of the industry argue that clearer regulation could help attract global crypto companies to the UK. Critics, however, warn that digital currencies remain highly volatile and may expose retail investors to significant financial risks.

Farage’s investment highlights the growing intersection between politics, finance and emerging technologies.

As cryptocurrencies continue to move closer to mainstream financial markets, more political figures are becoming involved in the sector as advocates, investors or policy influencers.

Whether Stack BTC ultimately succeeds in building a profitable bitcoin treasury strategy remains uncertain. However, the backing of two prominent political figures ensures the company will attract attention as the UK debate over cryptocurrency regulation and adoption continues to evolve.

Read more:
Nigel Farage invests in crypto firm led by Kwasi Kwarteng

Nick Clegg and Sheryl Sandberg have joined the board of British artificial intelligence infrastructure start-up Nscale as the company completed a major fundraising round valuing the business at $14.6 billion.

The appointments come as Nscale secured $2 billion in fresh capital from a consortium of global investors, including the US semiconductor giant Nvidia, significantly boosting the firm’s ambitions to build large-scale data centre infrastructure for the rapidly expanding AI industry.

The move positions Nscale among the most valuable technology start-ups in Europe and reflects growing investor appetite for the infrastructure that underpins artificial intelligence development.

Founded in May 2024 by entrepreneur John Payne, Nscale focuses on building the large data centres needed to run advanced AI models and cloud computing services.

The company is betting that the explosive growth of AI will require vast new computing capacity over the coming decade.

Payne said artificial intelligence was set to transform nearly every sector of the global economy.

“Over the next five years, artificial intelligence will be integrated into every industry, every product and every job,” he said. “Accelerating drug discovery, extending human life, automating travel and robotics, lifting productivity and driving massive economic growth.”

“This is leading to the largest infrastructure build-out in human history. Nscale is leading this build-out.”

The company plans to invest $2.5 billion in UK data centre infrastructure over the coming years, strengthening Britain’s role in the global AI supply chain.

One of the company’s flagship projects is the construction of what it describes as the largest “UK sovereign” AI data centre.

The facility is planned for Loughton in Essex and is expected to be operational by 2026.

The term “sovereign” refers to the fact that the data centre will host AI infrastructure based within the UK and designed to support national research institutions, businesses and government operations.

Demand for such infrastructure has surged as companies race to deploy advanced AI models requiring enormous computing power.

The data centre will rely heavily on Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), widely regarded as the most powerful chips available for training and running artificial intelligence systems.

Clegg’s appointment adds significant political and regulatory expertise to the company’s leadership.

The former UK deputy prime minister spent several years at Meta as president of global affairs, where he oversaw policy, regulation and government relations across the company’s global operations.

His experience navigating international regulatory frameworks is expected to be particularly valuable as governments around the world grapple with the governance of AI technologies.

Sandberg, who previously served as Meta’s chief operating officer and played a key role in building the company into one of the world’s largest technology firms, brings extensive operational and leadership expertise to the board.

Together, the two figures represent some of the most senior executives to move from Silicon Valley’s social media industry into the emerging AI infrastructure sector.

The latest funding round included participation from several major global investors.

Alongside Nvidia, the round was backed by Aker ASA and New York-based investment firm 8090 Industries.

Nscale had already attracted significant funding before the latest round.

In December 2024, the company raised $155 million in a Series A funding round led by Sandton Capital Partners.

Last year, Nvidia also committed approximately £500 million in investment, strengthening the strategic partnership between the chip manufacturer and the UK start-up.

Nvidia founder Jensen Huang has previously described Nscale as a potential “national champion” for Britain in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market.

Alongside Clegg and Sandberg, the company has also appointed Susan Decker to its board.

Decker, the chief executive and co-founder of university software platform Raftr, previously served as president of Yahoo and currently sits on the boards of several major organisations including Costco, Berkshire Hathaway and Vox Media.

Her appointment further strengthens Nscale’s leadership team as it prepares for large-scale infrastructure expansion.

The surge in investment reflects a broader global race to build the computing infrastructure needed to support next-generation AI systems.

Training large language models and advanced AI applications requires enormous amounts of processing power, storage and energy.

As a result, technology companies, governments and investors are pouring billions into data centre construction worldwide.

Much of this growth is tied to cloud platforms such as Microsoft and its Azure cloud services, which rely on powerful AI infrastructure to deliver machine learning capabilities to businesses and developers.

Nscale’s projects are expected to help expand the availability of such services within the UK and across Europe.

The expansion of companies such as Nscale forms part of a broader push by the UK government to position the country as a global hub for artificial intelligence research and development.

Britain already hosts some of the world’s leading AI institutions and companies, including DeepMind and a growing ecosystem of technology start-ups.

Large-scale data centre investment is seen as critical to maintaining that competitive advantage.

As the AI boom accelerates, infrastructure firms like Nscale are likely to play an increasingly central role in determining where the next generation of technological breakthroughs occurs.

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Nick Clegg and Sheryl Sandberg join board of British AI start-up Nscale

Expectations for UK interest rates have shifted dramatically after the surge in global oil prices triggered by the widening conflict in the Middle East, with investors now increasingly betting that borrowing costs could rise rather than fall in 2026.

Financial markets are pricing in roughly a 70 per cent chance that the Bank of England will increase interest rates by a quarter percentage point before the end of the year, a stark reversal from expectations only a fortnight ago when traders anticipated multiple rate cuts.

Just two weeks earlier, markets had predicted that the Bank would begin reducing its base rate from the current 3.75 per cent, with the first cut expected at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled for 19 March.

Instead, the escalating war involving Iran, Israel and the United States has dramatically reshaped the economic outlook by sending energy prices sharply higher and threatening a fresh surge in global inflation.

The shift in interest rate expectations has been driven primarily by a rapid escalation in oil prices following disruptions to shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The international oil benchmark Brent crude oil surged nearly 30 per cent within days, briefly trading just below $120 per barrel, its highest level since the energy crisis of 2022.

At the same time, the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil recorded its largest weekly gain on record as traders feared a prolonged disruption to global energy supplies.

The Strait of Hormuz. which carries around one-fifth of the world’s oil exports, has effectively been closed to normal commercial shipping following Iranian threats to target vessels using the route.

Energy traders warn that continued disruption could lead to sustained shortages of oil and gas in global markets.

While rising oil prices pose a global inflation risk, the UK economy is considered especially vulnerable because of its heavy reliance on imported natural gas to heat homes and power electricity generation.

Wholesale gas prices in Britain have already surged in response to the conflict, raising concerns that household energy bills could spike again later this year.

Industry analysts have warned that the UK energy price cap could increase by as much as £500 during the summer if current wholesale gas prices persist.

Higher energy costs would likely feed through into transport, food production and manufacturing supply chains, pushing overall inflation significantly higher.

Economists at Deutsche Bank forecast that UK inflation could approach 4 per cent by the end of 2026, double the Bank of England’s official 2 per cent target if the conflict continues to disrupt energy markets.

The sudden change in expectations has triggered heavy turbulence in UK government bond markets.

The yield on the benchmark ten-year gilt, a key measure of government borrowing costs, has jumped by around 0.4 percentage points in a week to 4.74 per cent, marking the sharpest increase among major developed economies.

Bond yields rise when investors sell government debt, signalling expectations of higher inflation or tighter monetary policy.

Analysts said the move represented the most intense sell-off in UK bonds since the financial turmoil triggered by the 2022 “mini-budget” announced by former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Short-term borrowing costs have risen even faster. The yield on two-year gilts, which are particularly sensitive to interest rate expectations, surged by as much as 0.25 percentage points in a single trading session.

The rapid repricing of financial markets reflects the view that central banks may now have to maintain tighter monetary policy for longer in order to contain inflationary pressures.

Dario Perkins, head of global macro at the economic consultancy TS Lombard, said the oil shock had fundamentally altered the outlook for interest rates.

“Inflation is already overshooting targets and, in policymakers’ minds, that makes expectations more fragile,” he said. “For now, all rate cuts have been postponed.”

The shift is not limited to the UK. Investors are also beginning to price in the possibility that the European Central Bank could raise interest rates later this year, reflecting the eurozone’s heavy reliance on imported energy.

Major central banks around the world are now reassessing the economic impact of the Middle East conflict.

Next week both the ECB and the Federal Reserve will announce their latest interest rate decisions.

Speeches from ECB president Christine Lagarde and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell are expected to focus heavily on how the oil shock may influence inflation, economic growth and interest rate policy.

The United States is somewhat more insulated from global energy price shocks because of its large domestic shale oil industry, although petrol prices have already climbed to their highest levels since mid-2024.

The shift in expectations has already begun feeding through into the UK housing market, where lenders are adjusting mortgage pricing in anticipation of higher borrowing costs.

Banks and building societies base mortgage rates on financial market expectations of future interest rate movements, particularly through swap markets.

Several major lenders have already begun raising rates on new home loans.

Nationwide Building Society increased some mortgage products by 0.25 percentage points last week, while HSBC and Coventry Building Society confirmed that similar increases would follow.

Higher mortgage rates could slow activity in the housing market just as it had begun recovering from the turbulence caused by rising borrowing costs in recent years.

The potential impact of sustained energy price increases extends far beyond monetary policy.

Economists warn that higher fuel costs could also drive up food prices, particularly if fertiliser supplies are disrupted by the closure of shipping routes in the Persian Gulf.

If oil and gas prices remain elevated for an extended period, the resulting inflationary pressures could force central banks to maintain tighter financial conditions even as economic growth weakens.

For policymakers at the Bank of England, the challenge is increasingly clear: balancing the need to control inflation while avoiding further damage to an already fragile economy.

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Bank of England may raise interest rates as oil shock from Middle East war drives inflation fears

Oil prices surged to their highest levels in nearly three years as escalating conflict in the Middle East disrupted energy supplies and triggered fears of a major global shock to oil markets.

The global benchmark Brent crude oil briefly climbed to $119.50 a barrel in overnight trading, the first time prices have approached $120 since 2022, before easing back to around $107 after reports that the Group of Seven could release strategic oil reserves to stabilise markets.

The sharp spike came as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy corridors, ground to a near halt following escalating military tensions involving Iran, the United States and Israel.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, normally carries around 20% of the world’s oil exports. The latest conflict has seen tanker traffic collapse as insurers, shipping companies and crews refuse to risk the route.

According to data from shipping tracker MarineTraffic, only nine commercial vessels passed through the strait last week, compared with a typical daily average of about 50 before hostilities intensified.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned that any vessels attempting to pass through the waterway could be targeted, threatening to “set ablaze” ships using the route.

The disruption has forced energy traders and governments to confront the possibility of one of the largest supply shocks since the 1970s oil crises.

Brent crude has already risen more than 50% since the start of 2026, when prices were hovering around $61 a barrel.

The surge accelerated dramatically after several Gulf producers, including Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq, cut production amid the growing conflict.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs warned that prices could climb even higher if tanker flows do not recover quickly.

The bank said Brent crude could surpass the $146 peak reached during the 2008 oil crisis if the strait remains closed for an extended period.

“Our analysis suggests that developments in the Persian Gulf represent one of the most severe disruptions to global energy supply in decades,” Goldman said in a note to investors.

The crisis has already severely impacted production in Iraq, one of the largest oil exporters in the region.

Output from Iraq’s main southern oilfields has reportedly dropped by 70% to about 1.3 million barrels per day, compared with roughly 4.3 million barrels per day before the conflict escalated.

Officials from the state-run Basra Oil Company said exports had effectively stalled because tankers were unable to reach the country’s main terminals.

Storage facilities in southern Iraq have reportedly reached full capacity as crude continues to be pumped but cannot be shipped.

“This is the most serious operational threat Iraq has faced in more than 20 years,” a senior official from the Iraqi oil ministry told Reuters.

Economists warn the energy shock could ripple across the global economy if prices remain elevated.

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase estimate that oil prices stabilising around $120 per barrel could add more than one percentage point to global inflation and reduce economic growth by up to 1.2 percentage points.

The surge has already pushed investors toward safe-haven assets, strengthening the US dollar and triggering volatility in equity markets.

Asian stock markets suffered steep declines earlier in the week as investors reacted to the possibility of prolonged disruption to energy flows.

Industry data suggests hundreds of oil tankers are effectively stranded around the Persian Gulf region as shipowners adopt a “wait-and-see” approach.

Goldman Sachs analysts said many shipping companies were unwilling to risk sending vessels through the Strait of Hormuz while the security situation remains uncertain.

“Most shippers are currently in a wait-and-see mode while physical risks in the strait remain elevated,” the bank said.

The disruption is already significantly larger than the shock caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to early trade flow analysis.

G7 considers emergency oil release

To prevent the crisis spiralling further, finance ministers from the G7 are expected to meet to discuss releasing crude oil from emergency strategic reserves.

Such coordinated releases have previously been used to stabilise markets during supply shocks, including during the early months of the Ukraine war.

However, analysts warn that emergency stockpiles may only provide temporary relief if the shipping disruption continues.

The surge in energy prices has also complicated the outlook for global monetary policy.

Traders have sharply scaled back expectations of interest rate cuts from major central banks, fearing the energy shock could trigger a fresh wave of inflation.

Economists at Deutsche Bank warned that if oil prices remain elevated the Bank of England may cut interest rates only once in 2026.

Chief UK economist Sanjay Raja said inflation in Britain could rise as high as 3.8% if energy costs remain elevated.

In that scenario, he suggested the UK government could be forced to consider fuel duty reductions to offset rising household energy and transport costs.

Some economists believe the crisis could rival some of the most significant oil disruptions in modern history.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said the situation could potentially exceed previous shocks linked to the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1979 Iranian revolution.

“The disruption of world oil supplies caused by the war in Iran looks extremely serious,” Krugman wrote.

“If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for an extended period, this will be a worse disruption than either of those historic energy crises.”

For now, global markets remain focused on whether tanker traffic can resume through the strait, a development that could quickly bring oil prices down, or whether the conflict will deepen into a prolonged geopolitical and economic shock.

Read more:
Strait of Hormuz crisis sends oil price close to $120 as Middle East conflict rattles markets

AI marketing platform Mega has secured $11.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate the rollout of its AI-driven growth engine designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.

The Brooklyn-based company aims to replace traditional marketing agencies with a network of autonomous AI agents capable of managing digital growth channels end-to-end. These agents execute and optimise search engine optimisation (SEO), paid advertising, website management and emerging AI search channels, delivering what the company describes as predictable customer acquisition without the overhead and variability associated with agency services.

The funding round was led by Goodwater Capital, with additional participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides Management, SignalFire and Kearny Jackson. The round also attracted a group of high-profile angel investors including WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum and Nneka Ogwumike.

Mega’s platform is designed to address what its founders see as a structural problem facing small businesses in the digital economy: the expectation that they compete across complex marketing channels typically optimised for large enterprises.

Most small businesses must manage search marketing, paid advertising, websites and emerging AI-driven discovery platforms simultaneously, yet often lack the budget, time or expertise to do so effectively. Traditional agencies can be expensive and inconsistent, while existing AI tools frequently require significant technical knowledge and manual input.

Mega’s solution delivers marketing execution through software rather than dashboards or toolkits. Once a business signs up, the platform autonomously plans campaigns, executes tasks and continuously optimises performance.

From the customer’s perspective, the system functions like an outsourced growth team that operates automatically.

“We realised early that business owners do not want another AI chat tool that requires hours of prompting,” said Lucas Pellan, co-founder of Mega. “They want customers. So we built a system that actually does the work.”

Mega’s technology relies on a network of specialised AI agents that coordinate marketing activities across multiple digital channels.

The platform currently focuses on four primary areas: SEO, paid advertising, website optimisation and what the company calls GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), which refers to optimising visibility within AI-driven search and discovery systems.

The system plans campaigns, launches them, tests variations and adjusts strategies based on performance data collected across its entire user base.

According to the company, around 55 per cent of the work performed by the system is fully automated, while 35 per cent is largely automated with human oversight. The remaining 10 per cent is completed manually by specialist operators to ensure quality control and strategic guidance.

This hybrid structure allows the company to scale marketing execution while maintaining reliability and performance standards.

Every campaign executed through the system feeds data back into Mega’s platform, improving the algorithms that generate creative assets, refine targeting, manage bids and optimise conversions.

Mega’s creation emerged from an unexpected origin story.

The founding team was originally building a video game company during the Covid pandemic when the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT sparked a series of internal experiments with AI tools to accelerate their own marketing growth.

Using the tools they developed internally, the company’s organic search traffic increased 100-fold while paid customer acquisition costs fell by roughly 80 per cent.

When the founders shared the tools with other entrepreneurs, demand quickly grew.

“We kept hearing the same question from founders: ‘Can we use this too?’,” Pellan said.

This demand prompted the team to pivot away from gaming and develop the platform into a standalone growth product for SMBs.

Mega’s early growth has been rapid. The company reports that it went from zero to $10 million in revenue within ten months of launching its platform.

Customers span a wide range of industries, including home services companies, law firms, healthcare providers, e-commerce brands and software businesses.

In one example cited by the company, a Texas-based medical spa increased its search traffic by 174 times using the platform’s automated SEO tools. A personal injury law firm saw a 243-fold increase in search visibility and began ranking in the top three for key search terms.

Another client, a direct-to-consumer health brand, generated $120,000 in revenue through its website while surpassing its Amazon marketplace performance without increasing advertising spend.

Across its customer base, Mega claims the platform helps businesses grow around 20 per cent faster on average.

For many clients, the appeal lies in removing the complexity of managing digital marketing tools and agencies.

Darin Chase, a home services business owner using the platform, said: “Since working with Mega we are finally getting a predictable lead flow. We are also able to divert our time away from Facebook marketing to other important projects because Mega manages everything.”

Mega is targeting the vast SMB marketing sector across North America, where tens of thousands of agencies serve millions of small businesses.

Despite the size of the market, many SMBs continue to struggle with inconsistent marketing performance, unpredictable customer acquisition costs and limited visibility into which strategies actually generate revenue.

As digital advertising becomes increasingly competitive and search ecosystems shift toward AI-driven discovery, many smaller businesses are finding it harder to compete with enterprise-level marketing operations.

Investors believe Mega’s approach represents a major shift in how growth services can be delivered.

“Mega represents a fundamental shift in how SMBs should think about marketing, from paying for effort to paying for measurable, repeatable growth,” said Vivek Subramanian, partner and chief product officer at Goodwater Capital.

With the new funding secured, Mega plans to expand its platform beyond its current capabilities.

Future development will include AI-driven management of email marketing, outbound sales campaigns, organic social media growth, lead qualification and sales operations.

The company’s long-term vision is to create a fully automated revenue-generation infrastructure that allows small and mid-sized businesses to access enterprise-level marketing capabilities without enterprise-level costs.

The platform could eventually act as a unified growth system that manages the entire customer acquisition pipeline for SMBs.

If successful, Mega believes its model could fundamentally reshape how smaller companies approach marketing in the AI era.

By replacing manual marketing workflows with automated systems capable of continuous optimisation, the company aims to give smaller businesses the ability to compete with much larger organisations in increasingly competitive digital markets.

Read more:
Mega raises $11.5M to replace marketing agencies with AI-powered growth engine for SMBs

A Scottish life sciences start-up developing technology to improve cancer diagnostics has secured £1.58 million in fresh funding as it launches its first commercial product in the United States.

BIOCAPTIVA, a spin-out from University of Edinburgh, is aiming to tackle one of the most persistent technical bottlenecks in the rapidly growing liquid biopsy sector: the preparation of blood samples for genetic testing.

The company’s newly launched msX technology uses magnetic bead extraction to isolate cell-free DNA directly from whole blood, eliminating several complex steps normally required in sample preparation. The approach could significantly accelerate cancer research and diagnostic testing by making the process faster, more scalable and easier to automate.

The latest investment round was led by Archangels and supported by existing investors including Old College Capital, BBI Solutions and Scottish Enterprise, alongside new investor EverQuest Capital Partners.

Liquid biopsy, a technique that analyses genetic material from blood samples rather than tumour tissue, has become one of the most promising developments in cancer diagnostics in recent years. It enables clinicians and researchers to detect cancer-related genetic changes through simple blood tests, reducing the need for invasive surgical biopsies.

However, preparing blood samples to isolate usable genetic material remains a complex and time-consuming process. Traditional methods typically require centrifugation equipment, multiple reagents and extensive laboratory handling, all of which slow down analysis and increase costs.

BIOCAPTIVA’s patented msX platform aims to simplify this process. By using specialised magnetic beads, the system captures cell-free DNA directly from whole blood samples without the need for centrifuges or additional reagents.

The result is higher-quality DNA extraction with faster processing times and fewer technical steps, improvements that could allow laboratories to process larger volumes of samples more efficiently.

Chief executive Jeremy Wheeler said the technology addresses a long-standing gap in cancer research workflows.

“Scientists and technologists are doing remarkable work with the samples they receive, but the preparation stage hasn’t evolved significantly for years,” he said.

“Our msX platform has the potential to revolutionise how samples are collected and processed, enabling larger sample volumes, faster extraction and fully automatable workflows.”

The company has already begun commercialising the technology internationally, launching its msX bead kits for research use in Boston earlier this month.

The move reflects BIOCAPTIVA’s strategy to build early validation and research partnerships in the United States, one of the world’s largest markets for oncology diagnostics and biotechnology innovation.

By placing the technology in the hands of research laboratories, the company hopes to generate evidence across multiple applications in cancer detection, genetic testing and clinical diagnostics.

The liquid biopsy market itself is expected to grow rapidly over the coming decade as non-invasive diagnostic methods become increasingly important in personalised medicine.

Industry analysts estimate that global demand for liquid biopsy technologies could reach tens of billions of dollars annually as healthcare systems adopt earlier cancer detection and monitoring techniques.

Alongside the funding announcement, BIOCAPTIVA also confirmed the appointment of Alan Schafer as chief technology officer.

Schafer brings more than three decades of experience in genetics technologies and molecular diagnostics. His career includes senior leadership roles across several high-profile biotech companies.

He previously served as CTO of Inivata, which was acquired by NeoGenomics in 2021 for $415 million.

His earlier roles include chief executive positions at Population Genetics Technologies and 14M Genomics, as well as serving as global vice-president of technology development at GlaxoSmithKline.

The company believes Schafer’s experience in scaling diagnostics technologies will help accelerate the commercialisation of its platform.

The £1.58 million investment will primarily be used to expand research and development and broaden BIOCAPTIVA’s product portfolio.

Future applications for the technology could extend beyond cancer diagnostics into other areas of genetic testing and molecular medicine.

Sarah Hardy, head of new investment at Archangels, said the company was entering a critical stage in its development.

“BIOCAPTIVA is reaching an inflection point with the launch of its msX beads,” she said.

“The technology has remarkable market potential, and the business now has the leadership team, research capability and commercial strategy needed to scale.”

The investment also reflects continued momentum in Scotland’s life sciences sector, which has become an important driver of economic growth and high-value employment.

Derek Shaw, director of entrepreneurship and investment at Scottish Enterprise, said the agency’s support for BIOCAPTIVA demonstrates a broader commitment to scaling innovative companies emerging from Scottish universities.

“Our investment highlights our focus on increasing capital investment in Scotland’s businesses,” he said.

“Supporting companies like BIOCAPTIVA helps drive productivity, expand exports and create higher-value jobs across the economy.”

As BIOCAPTIVA expands its research partnerships and product development pipeline, the company hopes its technology will help accelerate advances in cancer detection and treatment.

For Wheeler, the long-term ambition is clear.

“In practice, this technology means faster, deeper research on cancer and potentially better outcomes for millions of patients worldwide,” he said.

Read more:
BIOCAPTIVA raises £1.58m to transform liquid biopsy sample preparation