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Indian HQ’ed supplier Hexaware Technologies has acquired US-based SMC Squared, a specialist Global Capability Centre (GCC) services provider, with the IT services supplier seeking to capitalise on customer demand from enterprises who are increasingly looking to establish their own capability centres rather than relying solely on traditional outsourcing models.
Yesterday, I caught up with Amrinder Singh, President & Head – EMEA & APAC Operations, to understand more about the decisions behind the acquisition and what this means for Hexaware’s strategy and the UK business.
SMC Squared was founded by two former Target executives who successfully navigated the challenges of setting up the US retailer's GCC in India in 2005. Over the past two decades, the firm has replicated this success for 30+ other customers, including executing build-operate-transfer models where companies eventually take full control of their capability centres. Rather than following the traditional approach of hiring individual executives from major consulting firms or former GCC leaders, Hexaware opted to acquire a running entity with an established customer base and proven track record.
Commenting on what drove the decision to acquire SMC Squared, Singh said, "I saw in the last two years a massive market building up in India in creating, serving, optimising GCC’s”. Demand he said is being driven by the desire for greater control over operations that combine human workers with AI-powered digital agents.
"We took a slightly different approach," Singh explained. "We felt that acquiring a running entity with a set of customers, including some success stories where they've successfully transitioned... somebody who's done this for multiple clients rather than a single client, acquiring that sort of capability would be a step change (for Hexaware)." After some careful consideration, SMC Squared was chosen as the business who could best complement Hexaware’s existing business, as well as create new cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
Hexaware will be retaining the SMC Squared brand due to its market value, with the entire team reporting to Singh through Hexaware's corporate structure. The current SMC Squared CEO will become the natural head of Hexaware's new GCC service line, with dedicated account management and business development executives being trained as specialist consultants to push Hexaware’s new GCC 2.0 offering. Full integration is expected to take only a couple of quarters, with significant upsell opportunities anticipated in both directions between existing customers.
Whilst SMC Squared operates predominately in the US (as does Hexaware with c70% of its revenues generated in the region), the new GCC capability will be targeted for international expansion as well. The acquisition complements Hexaware’s expanded presence in the UK, with the firm unveiling a new UK headquarters in May, with plans to further consolidate its presence in the UK market and target public sector growth (See - Hexaware opens new UK HQ and targets public sector growth)
TechMarketView subscribers can carry on reading about the evolution of the GCC market and Hexaware’s strategy in UKHotViewsExtra: Hexaware acquires SMC Squared to strengthen Global Capability Centre offering
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:02
Tags:
outsourcing
AI
offshoring
RegTech SaaS platform provider, FundApps, has secured “significant” growth equity investment from FTV Capital, which has a strong track of investing in high-growth capital markets tech firms.
Founded in 2010 (at The Beehive pub, Kennington!), FundApps will use the funding to speed up the expansion of its product offering, including looking at possible acquisitions.
The evolving raft of regulatory requirements facing UK Financial Services is a constant challenge for organisations. The EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and the UK's rules around Critical Third-Party Providers are just the latest additions to the plethora of rules governing the sector.
RegTech (Regulatory Technology) solutions help end user organisations comply with regulations and FundApps operates across both buy and sell-side institutions. The platform is used by hedge funds, asset managers, pension funds, and investment banks, to monitor over $29tn in assets. The platform feeds in regulatory expertise, market data and coded rules so clients can stay on top of regulatory change and operational risk.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 10:00
Tags:
funding
London-headquartered cybersecurity, AI transformation and managed services provider Company 86 has appointed Andy Isherwood to its board as a Non-Executive Director.
Isherwood will be well known to many UKHotViews readers, having spent 30 years at HP/HPE before leaving his role as Managing Director of EMEA to join Amazon Web Services in a similar capacity in 2018 (see Q&A: Andy Isherwood, MD EMEA, Amazon Web Services).
Isherwood's extensive experience will help the firm evolve its strategy, refine its go-to-market approach and sharpen its value proposition. "I'm excited to join the board at Company 86 at such a pivotal time," commented Isherwood. "The team has built something truly unique, and I'm looking forward to helping shape the next phase of growth — particularly in how we connect with customers and deliver differentiated value through data, insight, and execution."
Isherwood (pictured) joins an experienced executive team that includes serial entrepreneur Adam Fawsitt as Executive Chairman and Ben Doltis as Investment Lead. Doltis is also Founding Partner of PCB Partners, a firm we have covered recently in its partnership with Qodea, which is currently positioning itself as "Europe's largest dedicated Google Cloud digital transformation partner" (see Qodea sets sights on European expansion).
Rob Robinson, CEO of Company 86, commented: "Andy's track record speaks for itself. His deep understanding of the market and customer challenges will be instrumental as we scale. We're delighted to have his perspective and guidance on our journey as we look to drive innovation in cybersecurity, IT transformation and AI."
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:45
Tags:
appointment
Near double-digit sequential USD revenue growth across its European operations helped to give LTIMindtree a promising start to the new financial year. Q1 firm-wide turnover increased by 4.4% yoy at constant currency to $1.15bn. The company’s operating margin for the three months ended 30th June, however, dipped by 70 bps yoy to 14.3%.
The 9.7% yoy USD (7% at constant currency) first quarter sales uptick in LTIMindtree Europe saw a return to growth in a region which had struggled to generate forward momentum during the prior fiscal year. Revenue from the region shrank by 1.2% in FY25 (see here). The improvement appears to have been driven by strengthening demand from the company’s Banking, Financial Services & Insurance and Manufacturing & Resources clients. Global sales in these industry verticals, which together account for more than half of the firm’s turnover, were up yoy by 10.6% and 11.6% respectively Q126. The scale of these increases more than offset top line declines in LTIMindtree’s Technology, Media & Communications and Healthcare, Life Sciences & Public Services sector businesses.
As is the firm's habit, no forward guidance was provided for either the current quarter or the remainder of FY26. Order inflow in the first quarter was, however, up 16% yoy at $1.63bn and new CEO, Venu Lambu (see here) struck a decidedly upbeat tone in his commentary on the latest results. LTIMindtree’s Q1 revenue growth performance is certainly significantly better than those of its offshore rivals which have posted their numbers for the same three-month period: TCS was down 3.1% yoy; Wipro declined by 2.3% (see here); and Tech Mahindra inched ahead by just 0.4%.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:23
Tags:
results
offshore
IT+services
An around mid-point guidance performance saw Wipro’s Q126 revenue decline by 2.3% yoy at constant currency to $2.59bn with operating margin improving by 80 bps to 17.3%. The three months ended 30th June proved, however, to be somewhat of a purple sales patch for the offshore major. Following a strong bookings finish to FY25 (see here), first quarter large deal TCV closed jumped by over 130% yoy to $2.7bn. Total bookings in the period up by over a half against Q125 at $5.0bn.
Across the company’s industry sector portfolio and for the second quarter in a row, only Wipro’s Health segment business delivered yoy revenue expansion in Q126 with sales to the vertical increasing yoy by 3.5%. Having recovered as FY25 progressed, demand from the firm’s Banking, Financial Services and Insurance customers soften in the last quarter with turnover in the vertical dipping by 3.5%. The going proved even heavier for the firm’s Consumer industry units with its revenue falling by 5.7% against the same period in the prior FY.
From a geographic perspective, the pace of decline in Wipro Europe took another turn for the worse in Q1 with turnover shrinking by 11.6% yoy (Q425: -8.3%) The company’s two Americas businesses, which together generate more than three fifths of firm-wide sales, proved somewhat more resilient. The top line across these units was up by c.1.6% yoy for the period.
Wipro’s improving fortunes on the big deals front means that a reversal to the company’s more than two year-long downward revenue trajectory may now not be too long in coming. Turnover in the second quarter of FY26 is expected to be in the range of between $2.56bn and $2.61bn. This translates to sequential guidance of -1.0% to +1.0% in constant currency terms.
Wipro CEO, Srini Pallia also believes the combination of the momentum from Q1 coupled with reportedly sales strong pipeline positions the company well for the second half of the FY. While the current global macro-economic and geo-political uncertainties persist, however, any optimism regarding the outlook needs to leavened with a healthy degree of caution (see our latest Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 report for more details).
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:09
Tags:
results
offshore
IT+services
The UK government has published its Life Sciences Sector Plan. It positions digital technologies, particularly the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), as fundamental to reshaping the sector across research, diagnostics, treatment, and manufacturing. Through the Plan it is aiming for the UK to be, by 2030, the leading life sciences economy in Europe, and by 2035, the third most important life sciences economy globally, behind only the US and China.
This is the sixth of eight plans covering the sectors the government identified in the Industrial Strategy (Invest 2035) that it believes will have the greatest growth potential over the next decade. This includes taking a portfolio approach that backs “smaller, less proven, and more disruptive businesses”. It follows plans for advanced manufacturing, creative industries, clean energy industries, digital and technologies, and professional and business services. Plans for the financial services and defence industries will follow.
The Life Sciences Sector Plan is aligned to the health mission detailed in the 10 Year Health Plan (see 10 Year Health Plan for England), as well as the commitments in the AI Opportunities Action Plan (see PM outlines AI Opportunities Action Plan) and Digital and Technologies Sector Plan (see Government unveils £1bn investment in Quantum and Digital Tech).
Central to the digital infrastructure agenda is the government’s investment in the Health Data Research Service (HDRS), which was announced in April 2025 and featured heavily in the 10 Year Health Plan. This service, which is backed by £100m investment from Wellcome and up to £500m from the government, is intended to give approved researchers a single, secure route to health data where personally identifiable information has been removed. The sector will also benefit from the NHS ‘Innovator Passport’, which aims to remove bureaucracy and barriers to adoption, enabling MedTech products to reach patients more rapidly.
The Plan also mentions the digital transformation plans of the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It states that this transformation will be delivered “at pace”, so that from 2026 it has the digital platforms to support the life sciences industry and incorporate AI-driven processes to accelerate regulatory approvals.
As the Plan states, the UK Life Sciences sector “excels at discovery… but struggles with commercialisation and adoption.” Through the three interconnected pillars of: 1) enabling world-class R&D; 2) making the UK an outstanding place in which to start, grow, scale, and invest; and 3) driving health innovation and NHS reform, it hopes to address this challenge. This will not be possible without significant investment.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) welcomed commitments to support the use of data for research, encourage investment in manufacturing, and accelerate the pace and ease of research. However, it warned that the core ambition of the Plan will not be realised unless the government makes a real commitment to invest more in new medicines. It stated that, “For too long, the UK has sought to be the place where innovation happens, but not the place where it is used.”
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:54
Tags:
nhs
strategy
government
digital
AI
data
healthcare
life+sciences
French HQ’ed system integrator Atos has become the latest technology supplier to launch its own AI Platform, as it seeks to take advantage of the demand for the development, deployment and management of enterprise-grade autonomous AI agents.
The Atos Polaris AI Platform includes six pre-built AI agents delivering efficiency gains across enterprise functions, with Atos outlining potential results for its different agent types:
- Its AI Developer agent reduces software development efforts by 40-50%, autonomously analysing business requirements and orchestrating solution development.
- The Quality Assurance agent enables end-to-end testing orchestration, validating requirements, generating test cases, and creating reports independently, achieving 50-60% reductions in efforts and lead times.
- The IT Support Engineer agent provides automated ticket analysis and resolution, conducting in-depth log file analysis to determine root causes and recommend solutions, delivering 25-35% effort reductions.
- The Contract Analyst agent continuously monitors contracts for compliance risks, flagging potential breaches and recommending corrections, reducing review cycle time by 30-40%.
- A Financial Reports Analyst agent interprets large financial documents to provide accurate summaries and actionable recommendations whilst cross-validating for anomalies, delivering 50-60% productivity improvements.
- Its Market Researcher agent leverages trusted organisational data to perform in-depth analysis, synthesising findings in business-tailored formats and enabling 60-70% reductions in research efforts.
There are not any details on the underlying AI models used to power these agents, but we can expect the usual suspects. The agents being offered provide a good spread of capabilities, broadly in line with what we see elsewhere, though as ever we have to take any stated productivity gains with a degree of scepticism as results always vary by organisation. Some further investigation will also be required to understand just how autonomous the AI agents are, and where they hand off to human actions, as we have seen a long of ‘agentic’ washing across the market.
This seems like a very positive move from Atos though, and what really caught my eye was the incorporation of "Agent Ops" functionalities, which ensure AI agents align with business key performance indicators through compliance, performance, and cost management practices. It also lists multi-agent collaboration and coordination through standard Agent-to-Agent protocol, a key feature as organisations grapple with managing and integrating multiple agents across different business lines.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:40
Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 09:40
Hot on the heels of last week’s news that National Highways (NH) had let four data analysis, supply and management contracts together worth over £100m (see here) comes notification that a fifth deal in the domain has been awarded to CGI. The five-year agreement is worth up to £21m. The scope of the engagement covers the provision of support to NH as it brings together the to date largely discrete development and operations activities for its Data as a Service (DaaS) platform to operate as one DevSecOps team.
The win builds of the relationship between NH, a wholly government-owned company responsible for managing and improving England’s strategic road network, and BJSS. Acquired by CGI earlier this year (see here), the Leeds-based IT and business consultancy had worked with NH to deliver DaaS, which is seen by the client as a critical enabler to its broader data programme. The prior engagement involved designing and building a cloud-based data architecture platform to provide a clear view of data across the organisation.
At the time of its announcement, we described the purchase of BJSS by CGI as a win-win for both parties and so it appears to be proving. The success at NH follows the securing last month of contracts together worth over £44m by the combined entity with both NHS Scotland and NHS England.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:32
Tags:
contract
data
public sector
UK-based global cybersecurity specialist NCC Group said on Wednesday it is in the early stages of reviewing strategic options for its cyber business, if the sale of its Escode unit goes ahead.
In April, NCC said it was exploring various options, including a possible sale, for its other major division Escode, which specialises in software escrow and verification services. Assuming that a sale of that business goes ahead, NCC is now considering options for its cybersecurity business, including selling the business off in its entirety.
The Escode process is continuing but NCC said there was no certainty that it will result in a transaction that the board would be happy to recommend. It has been reported that private equity groups were exploring potential bids. A sale of the cybersecurity arm, which provides services to a range of enterprise organisations, would effectively precipitate a full break-up of NCC Group, which employs about 2,200 people across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
In its H1 (for the six-months to 31 March 2025) financial update last month, NCC reported Escode revenue grew 1.8% on a constant currency basis. Cyber Security revenue declined 6.6% on a constant currency basis with a decline in high-volume, lower value testing and compliance engagements as clients reacted to macroeconomic uncertainties in the autumn and spring. The business has been aiming to shift its revenue mix to strategic higher value engagements in the form of managed services, identity & access management, operational technology security and advanced testing. However, these areas have longer sales and onboarding cycles.
There has been a consolidation of suppliers across the cybersecurity market landscape over the past few years, such as the Sophos acquisition of competitor Secureworks in an $859m deal last October (See - Sophos buys XDR supplier Secureworks), Palo Alto Networks acquisition of IBM’s QRadar security assets (See - Palo Alto Networks to acquire IBM QRadar in new security partnership) and Darktrace’s acquisition of cloud forensic specialist Cado Security (See - Darktrace acquires cloud forensic specialist Cado Security). PE firm Thoma Bravo have been responsible for the bulk of acquisitions over the past few years, now owning Sophos, Proofpoint, Sailpoint, Sonicwall, McAfee and Darktrace.
As a more services focused cybersecurity supplier I doubt Thoma will want to add NCC to its portfolio as well, but it could be a great opportunity for one of the system integrators looking to bolster its cybersecurity practise. Despite the NCC business struggling for growth as it rebalances its strategic focus, cybersecurity skills and expertise are hard to come by, and the group has that in plenty, which will certainly make it an attractive proposition.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:07
Having steadied the ship in FY25 (see here), Tech Mahindra inched further forward in the first quarter of the new fiscal year. Firm-wide revenue increased by 0.4% yoy during the three months ended 30th June to $1.56bn with the associated EBIT margin improving by 260 bps against Q125 to 11.1%.
The forward momentum in the company’s European region, which began to build during the latter part of the previous FY, gained strength during the latest quarter. Turnover in the geography was up 11.1% yoy in Q126 to $407m. This performance largely offset the c.6% drop in Tech Mahindra’s sales in the Americas, albeit a qoq improvement of c.2.7% indicates that of this geography has turned a corner after three consecutive quarters of sequential top line decline.
There was positive news from Tech Mahindra’s largest industry sector unit. The company’s Communications vertical, which generates around a third of firm-wide turnover and had shrunk in FY25, returned to growth in Q1 with revenues up by 2.5% yoy at c.$530m. The first three months of FY26 also saw a notable increase the company’s deal wins with the TCV closed up by over a half on Q125 at $809m. The latest batch of signings included a significant Business Process Services contract with a UK manufacturer.
No forward guidance was provided for either the current quarter or the remainder of FY26. It does appear, however, that Tech Mahindra’s performance is gradually improving. As TCS's latest results clearly illustrate (see here), remaining in positive growth territory in the face of the prevailing market headwinds is no small achievement for any services supplier.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:06
Tags:
results
offshore
IT+services
-210bf3-large-1677594902.png;140;78)
Leading UK fintech Wise (formerly Transferwise) delivered a strong Q1 FY26 performance in this morning’s trading update, with cross-border volumes surging 24% YoY to £41.2bn, driven by expanding customer adoption across its payments network. Active customers grew 17% to 9.8m, while customer holdings increased 31% to £22.9bn, demonstrating deepening engagement.
The success of Wise has been founded on its modern technology infrastructure and its ability to deliver significant efficiencies compared to the outdated traditional methods. By bypassing the expensive correspondent banking system, Wise connects directly to local payment systems and provides streamlined and cost-effective global transfers. However, the company's deliberate pricing strategy continues pressuring margins. The cross-border take rate declined 12 basis points YoY to 52bps, reflecting both competitive pricing and customer mix shifts toward higher volume users. This dynamic constrained underlying income growth to 11% (14% constant currency) at £362m, below the historical volume-to-revenue conversion.
Management maintains confidence in achieving medium-term guidance of 15-20% constant currency income growth, with FY26 expected at the upper end of the 13-16% profit margin target range. Strategic initiatives including European banking partnerships with Raiffeisen and UniCredit, plus the proposed US dual-listing, should help Wise capitalise on the massive cross-border payments opportunity while balancing growth investments with profitability targets.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:31
Tags:
FinTech
trading update
The government published a policy paper this week outlining its integrated approach to climate change and biodiversity loss in England (and how it intends to deliver on key commitments under both areas).
With the UK having pledged to protect biodiversity areas amounting to at least 30% of the country’s land and sea areas by 2030 (the “30 by 30” target) under commitments agreed at the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference in 2022 (leading to the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework), demand for sophisticated nature monitoring solutions is set to surge.
Whilst £63bn was committed in capital funding for clean energy, climate and nature in the Spending Review 2025, the government is keen to stress that public money alone cannot achieve the scale and pace of change required and that sustained private sector investments are also needed. The real prize therefore lies in the emerging concept of nature markets, which represent a paradigm shift from compliance-driven sustainability to market-based conservation – with the potential to unlock finance for climate and nature action.
In this HotViewsExtra article we look at the frameworks and tools outlined in the report, plus recommendations for how suppliers can take advantage of the emerging nature capital market.
TechMarketView subscribers, including UKHotViews Premium subscribers, can read Nature finance and data opportunities to fight biodiversity loss and climate change now. If you aren't a subscriber – or aren't sure if your organisation has a corporate subscription—please contact Belinda Tewson to find out more.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 10:52
Tags:
climate
nature
biodiversity
Google consultancy, Qodea, has acquired Beyond from Next 15 Group.
The acquisition gives Qodea an immediate presence in North America (Beyond has clients including Google, Snap and Paramount Pictures), complementing its presence in Europe. Beyond is a consultancy that builds, modernises, and scales cloud and AI solutions.
Alan Paton, CEO of Qodea, said: “By combining [Beyond’s] front-end design and data science expertise with our deep cloud engineering capabilities, we are creating a transatlantic powerhouse equipped to deliver intelligent, impactful products for our clients. The opportunity ahead is vast, and this is just the beginning.”
Formed from the merger of Appsbroker and CTS in 2023, Qodea says it is the largest dedicated Google consultancy in Europe. It has c.400 staff (not including Beyond) in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania. Clients are in sectors including banking, automotive manufacturing, and retail and it is backed by Marlin Equity Partners. Bringing Beyond into the family is both highly complementary and offers notable scope for accelerated growth.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:55
Tags:
acquisition
google
OneAdvanced has announced the successful completion of a £1.2bn private credit refinancing of existing debt. The package was backed by major lenders Ares Management Direct Lending funds, Carlyle, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives. Existing investors BC Partners and Vista Equity Partners provided support through the transaction, both reinforcing their commitment to the UK software and services business.
The new arrangement will support the company’s growth plans following its recent business transformation efforts. Since joining OneAdvanced in 2023, CEO Simon Walsh has led the strategic shift to verticalise its SaaS portfolio. This has seen the company move away from a product-led approach to a sector-focused approach that is better aligned to the requirements of key market segments.
The company has also refreshed its product strategy, taking a considered approach to the use of embedded AI in its software. This includes the launch of OneAdvanced AI–a secure, compliant and UK sovereign service that can enable access to a Large Language Model (LLM) operating in a private, closed, and fully encrypted environment. Earlier this month, it also launched OneAdvanced Agent Marketplace, which currently provides 14 AI agents aimed at streamlining processes and improving efficiency across vital business functions.
The strategy appears to be paying off. As we discussed in our recent UK SITS Supplier Rankings 2025 report, OneAdvanced achieved double-digit ARR growth in its last financial year, with subscription revenues now accounting for over 88% of total revenues. In May 2025, the company completed the first quarter of its new financial year, achieving 12% annualised ARR growth with incremental sales made to over 340 organisations.
The refinancing is a vote of confidence in the company’s direction of travel. It will support its growth aspirations, providing the surety to invest in further product development and the ability to pursue strategic and complementary acquisitions.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:50
Tags:
saas
strategy
software
refinancing
London-based InsurTech Laka has raise £7.7m in a Series B funding round co-led by Shift4Good and MS&AD Ventures, and backed by investors including 1818 Ventures, Achmea Innovation Fund, Autotech Ventures, Creandum, LocalGlobe, Motive Partners, Ponooc, and Republic (formerly Seedrs) – some of whom participated in its €7.6m round back in October 2023 (see Laka focuses on France for next leg of its journey).
Founded in 2017, the company has since branched out from its high-end bicycle insurance beginnings to cover e-bikes and cargo bikes too, and has also expanded across Europe (partly organically, but also through acquisitions – such as of French bike insurance provider Cylantro last October).
The company operates a collective-based insurance model for cyclists (with no fixed sum charged upfront, instead premiums vary – up to a capped limit – based on the actual cost of claims each month).
Laka is aiming to use its Series B backing to further expand its offering and “build towards profitability”, planning a “significant debt financing agreement” (to fund an acquisition pipeline) and possibly additional funding later in the year.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:25
Tags:
acquisition
funding
mobility
insurance
bike
cycle
bicycle
e-bike
collective
Shares plummeted 35% this morning at AIM-listed Corero Network Security as its H1 2025 trading update revealed a company navigating the classic SaaS transition challenge—strong underlying metrics overshadowed by revenue recognition timing effects.
The 25% ARR growth to $21.6m demonstrates healthy demand for Corero's Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection services, particularly their DDoS Protection-as-a-Service (DDPaaS) offering. However, the shift from upfront license sales to recurring revenue models has created a near-term revenue headwind, with H1 2025 revenue declining to $10.9m from $12.2m previously.
Management's FY 2025 revenue guidance of $24.0-25.5m (versus $24.6m in FY 2024) reflects continued pressure from this business model evolution and broader macroeconomic uncertainty affecting enterprise purchasing decisions. The $1.5m EBITDA loss guidance marks a significant swing from 2024's $2.5m profit.
While order intake of $12.5m fell short of the prior year's $14.2m, Q2's 13% year-over-year growth and initial CORE platform wins totalling $1.8m signal improving momentum. The company's debt-free balance sheet provides flexibility, though declining cash reserves ($3.1m versus $7.9m) and discussions for overdraft facilities highlight working capital pressures inherent in a SaaS transition.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:38
Tags:
saas
security
DDoS
trading update
RM plc’s interim results (six months ended 31 May 2025) reveal the company has made good progress on margin improvement and cost control, maintained strong momentum in its Assessment division, but is still facing challenging market conditions due to school budgetary pressures.
Based on continuing operations (largely reflecting the closure of Consortium), revenue declined by 6.5% year-on-year to £73.2m (H1 2024: £78.3m). Adjusted operating profit improved by £1.5m to £0.9m (H1 2024: loss of £0.6m), resulting in a loss before tax of £4.3m (H1 2024: loss of £6.6m). Adjusted EBITDA excluding share-based payments increased to £3.5m (H1 2024: £2.4m).
At the divisional level, the star of the show remains RM Assessment. Revenues increased by 4.1% to £20.5m (H1 2024: £19.7m). This included strong growth in platform revenues (+18.6%) and third-party scanning revenues (+24.0%), which resulted in recurring revenue increasing 19.5% to £17.1m (H1 2024: £14.3m). Growth was partially offset by legacy contract runoff and non-core contracts, which dropped to £2.1m (H1 2024: £4.8m). Adjusted operating profit increased by 56.5% to £3.6m (H1 2024: £2.3m).
This division has been the focus of investment for the business. In June 2025, it announced the launch of RM Ava, its adaptive virtual accreditation platform (formerly known as the ‘Global Accreditation Platform’). Its development will result in a cash outflow of £6.5m in FY25 (£4.2m in FY24). It has also announced that Trinity College London, an awarding body specialising in the assessment of communicative and performance skills, has chosen to provide assessment solutions using this platform. This follows recent contract renewals, including SEAB in Singapore, and SACE in Australia.
The situation was not as positive for RM TTS (curriculum resources) and RM Technology (school IT). RM TTS revenues decreased by 8.6% to £30.7m (H1 2024: £33.6m). In the UK, it was impacted by challenging school budgets and internationally it was hit by the US tariff situation. Despite the downturn, adjusted operating profit was flat at £0.1m (H1 2024: £0.1m). RM Technology was also a victim of the UK school budget situation, resulting in revenues falling by 12.0% to £22.0m (H1 2024: £25.0m); however, adjusted operating profit increased to £0.9m (H1 2024: £0.8m).
The company has also announced that it plans to operationally separate the three divisions to create simpler structures, provide greater strategic flexibility, and help to unlock further cost saving opportunities. Although we do not believe there is any pressure to break up the business, it would also make it much easier to dispose of one or more divisions if the right opportunity did arise.
Since the period end, the Group has secured an extension to its £70.0m bank facility for a further 12 months to July 2027. Additionally, after several years in deficit, its pension schemes now show a surplus of £10.5m. RM Assessment’s pipeline is strong and further wins are expected in H2, plus there are some positive signs in RM Technology (multi-academy trust contracts and the government’s Connect the Classroom initiative) and RM TTS (opportunities in the Middle East), both of which typically have a stronger H2. There is still work to be done, but it has been an encouraging start to FY25.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:19
Tags:
results
education
H1
assessment
edtech
school
Data migration and orchestration specialists, Cirata (formerly known as WANdisco) has delivered another mixed bag with its trading update for Q2 and the first half of FY25 – strong year-over-year (YoY) bookings growth for the six months overall, tempered by patchy quarterly performance and ongoing execution challenges.
After kicking off the year with its strongest Q1 in six years (see Cirata posts strongest Q1 bookings for six years), Cirata has followed up with a subdued Q2. Bookings fell 53% YoY to $0.8m (though Q1’s 330% rise helped it close out the six-month period with bookings up 58% – to $3.8m – compared with H1 2024). Data Integration (DI) bookings were up 17% to $0.7m in Q2 – nothing like the increase seen in Q1, but still the core engine of growth for the company.
Cirata cited ongoing difficulties in North America, with execution issues first flagged in Q1 persisting into Q2. In response, company has appointed a new Chief Revenue Officer (Dominic Arcari, previously VP Sales & Marketing at Telefónica Tech), to sharpen sales execution globally and bolster pipeline conversion.
More positively, the company has made meaningful strides in cash control. Q2 cash burn was down 47% YoY to $2.2m, and overheads are being realigned towards a $12m–$13m run rate exiting Q3 (which would represent a dramatic drop from the $45m peak seen in early FY23). The announcement of an agreement to divest its DevOps assets to UK-based IT development insights platform provider BlueOptima for $3.5m will add further balance sheet resilience and also help Cirata focus more on its core DI business. A new partnership with Microsoft under the Azure Storage Migration Program will help broaden use cases for its Live Data Migrator product too.
Cirata’s FY25 outlook remains unchanged since March, with bookings expected to be weighted towards the early part of the year (and DI supplying the bulk of the growth throughout). Having declared FY24 the “recovery year” (see Cirata’s groundhog days continue), the business now needs to prove it can deliver sustained growth and build predictability into what remains a lumpy sales cycle.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 10:03
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The use of AI for video generation is a hot area of GenAI fuelled innovation at present. If you have not seen or tried out some of the latest tools like Google’s Veo 3, Runway or OpenAI’s Sora then definitely take a look. Whilst some of the biggest use cases are going to be for marketing, advertising and just general content creation, another big potential market that will be disrupted is the film and TV industry. If you live anywhere near Reading or happen to drive along the M4, you will have seen the huge Shinfield studios that were built several years ago, and which have already been used to film series such as Star Wars series ‘The Acolyte’ and Netflix series ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’.
The film industry is a significant area of growth for the UK economy. Official figures from the BFI’s show that film and high-end TV production spend in the UK was £5.6bn in 2024, a 31% increase on 2023. Yet this is an industry that over the next decade faces huge potential disruption from AI. The creative capabilities of GenAI models have I think already surpassed what in the early day of GenAI development many expected. In fact, if you cast your minds back, the ‘creativity’ of AI was often touted as its main weakness and where humans would add the most value, yet creativity has turned out be a core strength of GenAI models.
So why the focus on video generation you might be wondering. Well US HQ’ed GenAI startup Moonvalley, announced it has raised $84m in additional funding for its AI solutions targeted at professional filmmakers and brand designers, bringing its total funding to $154m. Investors include General Catalyst, CoreWeave, Comcast Ventures, and YCombinator.
The AI startup recently released its flagship model to the public, dubbed Marey, which is designed to be a production-grade AI videography platform built on purely licensed content, making it an “ethical” model, for professional filmmakers and brand designers. The platform can generate videos from not only text prompts but also from sketches, photos, and other video clips, it also enables users to control camera angles, motion transfer and trajectory, just like traditional filming, but all on AI generated content. The real differentiator is the ‘ethical’ component though. Marey is trained only on licensed, high-resolution footage, no scraped content or user submissions, meaning there should be no legal challenges on its commercial use.
Generative AI’s entry into film and media has the potential to be transformative, bringing down the cost of film production and speeding up content creation through use of automation and GenAI. Thorny questions about copyright, creative credits, and jobs remain, and those in the industry have a right to be concerned for their futures and retaining control of intellectual property. Whilst right now most AI tools can only generate short video clips, the potential for creating longer movies and shows is clearly there, what this means for the long-term future of film and TV studios remains to be seen, but it is an area to watch closely.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:01
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