The Rundown: Edition 53 – £14m for Dogtooth, the UK IPO market, and on a yacht with Musk
Welcome to The Rundown, a snapshot of news, views and intel from the fast-growth tech and investment scene.
You might not be a fan of football, but are you a fan of bank holidays? Steve Rigby, CEO of Rigby Group, thinks that Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to grant a bank holiday if England wins the World Cup would mean a “lift in confidence”. Talk about a nice leaving present.
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UK IPO market shows signs of revival
The London Stock Exchange raised £577 million across seven new listings in the first half of 2026. The listings represent a 215% increase in proceeds compared with the same period the previous year. UKTN
Apple buys $30bn of US-made chips from Broadcom
Apple has committed to buying $30 billion in US-made chips, as the Trump administration aims to grow America’s semiconductor manufacturing industry. The deal forms part of Apple’s pledge to spend $600 billion in the US during Donald Trump’s presidency. FT
Wayve launches $85m secondary share sale
Wayve has launched an $85 million secondary share sale for employees, marking the largest transaction under the FCA’s PISCES framework to date. Crowdcube managed the sell-side for the landmark transaction on the London Stock Exchange’s Private Securities Market. BusinessCloud
Anthropic denies China’s security weakness claim
The AI company has refuted claims by a Chinese state-linked research group that its Claude Code model has a “back-door” security vulnerability. Anthropic has claimed the bug was intentional and designed to transmit user data back to company servers in a bid to identify unauthorised users. Times
Dogtooth harvests £14m for fruit-picking robots
Dogtooth Technologies, a Cambridge-based business that has developed robots to identify and harvest delicate crops – notably strawberries – without damaging them, has raised £14 million in funding from 24Haymarket, EMV Capital, ACF Investors, Innovate UK and Kineo Finance. The round was a mix of equity, grants and debt funding. UKTN
Worldmodeldata lands £7m to develop gaming data library
Worldmodeldata, which is building a database of video game-generated training data for AI systems known as world models, has raised £7 million from Iona Star Capital. The firm aims to build a library of one million hours of training data by the end of next year. Tech.EU
Kord secures £6.4m Series A
Kord, a provider of end-to-end transaction infrastructure for estate and letting agents, has secured £6.4 million in Series A funding led by Guinness Ventures, with Beringea, SFC Capital, and angel investors also participating. TechFundingNews
Northern Gritstone leads £5.25m Pixel-Flo Seed Round
Pixel-Flo, a University of Sheffield spinout addressing a critical bottleneck in LED display manufacturing, has raised £5.25 million in Seed funding, led by Northern Gritstone with participation from SCVC, Parkwalk Northern Universities Venture Fund, and HTGF. Soapbox.VC
What would you ask Elon Musk on a yacht?
In this week’s ‘Square Mile and Me’, Daniel Hulme, CEO of Conscium, revealed that he spent some quality aquatic time with the world’s richest man in Cannes a few years ago. The pair discussed solving machine consciousness, among other things. City AM
Cambridge Innovation Capital unveils star signing
Dr Ilana Wisby, the founding CEO of deeptech scaleup Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), has joined Cambridge Innovation Capital’s Entrepreneur in Residence programme. Wisby raised more than $100 million in Series A and Series B funding at OQC. UKTN
The kids aren’t alright: The divisive use of AI in schools
Half of the parents polled in Deloitte’s annual ‘Back-to-School Survey‘ said they were concerned their child “relies on AI too much”. Despite the continued growth of AI use in education, parents are torn. They fear over-dependence, but many also believe schools aren’t teaching enough skills to prepare children for the future. Business Insider
Tell me what you want, what you really, really want
Paul Jenkinson, CEO and Co-Founder of Whitespace, highlighted the need for planning reform and faster infrastructure to unlock growth as a priority for the next prime minister. Meanwhile, Calum Chace, Co-founder of Conscium, urged the next PM to back trusted AI with clear, innovation-friendly regulation. TechRound
50 fastest-growing European startup teams
Hiring is once again a key growth signal, with investors rewarding startups that scale teams to compete for market leadership. The H1 2026 ranking sees London extend its lead, Spain gain ground, and Paris, Stockholm and Berlin lose momentum. Sifted
While summer is for rest and relaxation, it’s also a great time to gain and improve upon your skills. Particularly those related to tech – and AI, more specifically. Between Andy Burnham’s push for regional upskilling and Chancellor Rachel Reeves plans to launch a major “skills compact” (which will see firms like Barclays and Lloyds mandate AI (re)training) – technological reskilling is all the rage. Reskilling is vital because the AI world moves at a blinding pace. To survive this brave new world, here’s lots of career advice in the age of AI from Phil Chen, a former employee at OpenAI and Google DeepMind turned founder.
Winner winner chicken dinner. The UKBAA Awards took place last night, and ACF Investors snapped up ‘Exit of the Year’ after its portfolio company, BMLL, was acquired by Nordic Partners. BMLL is a leading provider of historical trading data and analytics for capital markets, and the deal valued the London-based company at around $250 million. Our (totally non-biased) on-the-ground source told us that “multiple” people said ACF’s win was “the most important category at the awards”. Not bad going at all.
Do you know who else is a winner? Don’t worry, this isn’t a (perfect) segue into talking about the World Cup. Or Wimbledon. Or the Labour leadership contest. Or the Clacton by-election and Count Binface. Or or or. No, the real winner is all of us, because it’s now the weekend. Enjoy.