Robin Tombs

ANNOUNCEMENT: FoodOp raises €5M in seed funding to digitize professional kitchens 🚀 Super excited to share this milestone — and even more excited about what’s next. UK launch ✅ US expansion next 🇺🇸 A huge thank you to MK Capital for leading this round and to The Footprint Firm for their continued trust and support. Can’t wait to enter this next stage with the incredible FoodOp team. The kitchen of the future is smarter, leaner, and more sustainable — so chefs can focus on what they do best. We’re building the intelligence behind it. 🔥 Link to Børsen article in the comments

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Entrepreneur UK features SOBO Club on the 100 UK Startups to Watch. Co-founded by Tre Lowe and Enas Daeki, SOBO Club is a private membership community for entrepreneurs and creatives looking to grow their businesses and pursue ambitious ideas. The platform brings together founders, innovators and industry leaders through curated experiences and collaboration. Read More: https://lnkd.in/d3ZU3E7a #EntrepreneurUK #UK100 #Entrepreneurship #Community #Startups

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£7 BILLION. 70,000 BUSINESSES. ONE BLUEPRINT. This week marks a turning point for UK small businesses ready to go global. For more information: https://lnkd.in/dSUzFxAB The Department for Business and Trade & The E-Commerce Trade Commission powered by voices like #Amazon, #Shopify, #Google, #eBay, #Alibaba, and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) have just released a bold final report during #ecommerceExportWeek. Thank you Emma Jones MIEx & Cleo Eastabrook from the Department for Business and Trade for taking the time to talk to us at eTail™ London about the support for SME´s.  Let’s ensure that #UK made doesn’t stop at the border. #ECommerceExportWeek #UKBusiness #TradeNotAid #SMEExports #MadeInUK #GlobalGrowth #RetailNewsAI #TheRetailPodcast

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Thinking aloud - 11th March - Techcelerate Coffees Liverpool to coincide with Rupert Wingate-Saul fundraising workshop - need to find a venue closer to him Akhlaqur Choudhury MSc, BSc, CITP, MEIT, RITTech. - 19th March - Techcelerate Coffees Manchester - 23rd March - Techcelerate Coffees Glasglow with Scottish Business Network. I need to confirm with my daughter and wife and then with Russell Dalgleish and Scott Dalgleish. In addition, my new thing needs to be ready which Samuel Jun Je Goh is working on but I need to do my tasks to support him -25th March - Nigerian & Black Tech Founder event in Manchester. First of its kind. -26th March - Nigerian Lagos tech conference - speaking remotely. I will not travel for overseas conferences until SkilledUp Life brings sufficient revenues. Once I am able to travel, I expect growth to be explosive, especially when "the new thing" is added, as then I have two global plays. There are other discussions taking place with awesome folks like Christiaan IO and Rosalyn Murimi. Need a lot more collaboration at global level. So much to do. Then working out what to do with humans I collect in a world increasingly threatened by AI. I'm hoping someone cleverer than me would come up with few tips! #world #global #techstartups #techecosystems

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Great to be involved in this for Susanne Chishti and the FinTech Circle team. Scaling fintech founders need brilliant NEDs and advisors around them. Happy to share some experience of 20+ years of raising VC tech funding, investing directly and from more recently building a £13bn VC Network at VenturePath. This programme module will help more NEDs better understand the options available and process for their companies to follow, to secure growth capital at Series A-B into the UK's high growth fintech scaleups

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❤️ I’m delighted to see our TIN Ventures ‘Inclusive Innovation Catalyst’ collaboration spotlighted in Tech Funding News today — and with good reason. This new venture studio is not just ambitious in scale (unlocking £30 million in co-investment, backing 50+ startups, and targeting £40 million+ in portco revenues within three years). 👉🏽 It’s purposeful: designed to address one of the UKs most persistent innovation challenges — who gets to access capital, and under what terms. 🔍 Why this matters — and why now: ⭐️ The West Midlands has lagged national averages in growth over recent years (region growing ~1.3 % annually vs UK ~2.1 % over the last three years). ⭐️ Its average salary remains below the UK mean, unemployment is elevated, and many of its districts struggle with productivity below national norms. ⭐️ Meanwhile, the region’s companies are showing appetite: smaller businesses here are more open to external finance than those elsewhere in the UK, with loan and overdraft facility growth among the highest in 2024. ⭐️ Access to equity and venture capital remains a structural hurdle: nationally, only ~15 % of VC and private equity goes to firms outside London/South East — despite those regions hosting roughly half of all SMEs. ⭐️ Disparities in pay and opportunity persist locally: race pay gaps of ~9.5 %, disability pay gaps ~17.7 %, and a gender pay gap ~12 % in the West Midlands. 👉🏽 In short: the region has enormous latent potential. What’s missing is embedded, equity-sensitive infrastructure that connects capital, capability, and community. That’s why the Inclusive Innovation Catalyst ‘Venture Studio’ (aligned to the The Venture Studio Forum #VSI) is so vital. Backed by Future Planet Capital Regional (which manages the West Midlands Combined Authority Co-Investment Fund), and co-designed with The 51% Club, and integrating the Greater Things prototype model - this is a coalition built to move systems, not just businesses. I’m super proud to be part of leading this timely agenda. Because bridging aspiration and opportunity means more than incremental growth - it means rewriting the rules so that diverse founders and underserved communities no longer remain on the edge, but become central beneficiaries. #InclusiveInnovation #LevellingUp #RegionalGrowth #VentureCapital #CivicUnibersities #DiversityInTech Mel Selvon Ellyard Hana Hussain Phoebe Kay Asher Craig Professor Mark Durkin Chaitali Patel Dr. Aqueel Wahga Fidele Mutwarasibo PhD Sarah Hayes Rupert Lyle Tara Attfield-Tomes Cliff Dennett Cornerstone VC Matthew Burris JT Benton ⸻

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Unlocking the Potential of Your Brand: The True Benefits of Personalised Websites for Small Businesses in South London South London small businesses deserve better in a world of DIY platforms and generic templates. I wrote this post to highlight the true advantages of reasonably priced custom websites and to explain why, if you're serious about expanding online, design, performance, and SEO cannot be left to chance. This blog explores the reasons why customised solutions are important, from addressing the time-consuming nature of drag-and-drop builders to how conversion-focused design produces tangible outcomes. This is for small business owners, freelancers, and founders who are considering their next digital move. 👉 Go to https://lnkd.in/eNea6Ysu to read the entire blog. 📌 And if you're prepared to discover how a unique website can change your company, go to: 🌐 https://lnkd.in/eeJhJJzG #Webdesign #SmallBusinessMarketing #CustomWebsites #SouthLondonBusiness #FreelanceWebDesigner #DesignsByRGordz #SEOOptimizedDesign #AffordableWebDesign

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The budget represents another set of cost pressures for social care and hospitality operators. At Sona (getsona.com), we help operators unlock high-impact levers, and intelligent scheduling is the clearest path to mitigating these pressures. "Popeyes Louisiana Chicken UK: Since implementing Sona in July, we have realised more than 0.8% point in labour savings through effective people positioning and non-emotive scheduling. With additional product advancements, we expect this number to grow to over 1% point by the end of 2025." - Neil Williamson That's a total reduction of 4% in labour costs (with no negative impact on NPS or sales) - which approximately offsets the anticipated labour impact from the budget.

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There has never been a time in human history when people were better positioned to make the world a better place than we are in this generation with the Internet, technology and artificial intelligence. I am Chinedu Nwabunwanne, Founder & CEO of Hisnak Ltd, a technology-driven company focused on networking. And, I encourage founders to focus more on solving real-world problems while generating revenue, rather than simply pursuing profit alone. When we solve meaningful problems with clarity, integrity, and positive energy, sustainable revenue follows naturally. At Hisnak Ltd, our mission is to solve the problem of poverty around the world. And we're confident in our ability to do so. This is why we joined the FasterCapital EquityPilot Program to accelerate this vision.

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Some UK cities are quietly outperforming their funding levels doing more with less. When we built the Built in Notts Index we compared over 20 tech cities using the same metrics. 💸 Innovate UK funding 🚀 Startup creation rates 🎓 Graduate talent pipeline 📈 Survival and growth data And the pattern was clear it’s not just about money. Cities like Coventry, Sheffield and York are producing strong innovation outcomes with less funding per startup than the UK average. The challenge and the opportunity is how we turn that efficiency into visibility and investment. You can explore the full rankings and insights here: https://lnkd.in/erhAisGJ If you work in one of these cities I’d love to hear what’s driving the ecosystem forward where you are. #UKTech #Innovation #Research #Startups

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Trust is becoming the most valuable currency in the digital economy. Not visibility. Not noise. Not scale. Trust. When we built TrustedDesi, we made a deliberate decision: credibility would come before growth. Before any professional goes live, they go through our structured 28-Point Quality & Trust Verification Framework. We conduct detailed internal reviews and independent verification checks as part of our process. We assess identity, regulatory standing, qualifications, insurance where relevant, business legitimacy, reputation consistency and ongoing compliance standards. Because in a community-led ecosystem, especially one serving the South Asian diaspora where nuance matters. Alignment matters. Integrity matters. We are slowly and intentionally building the right cohort within each category. Not the biggest. The right one. If you’d like to understand how our verification framework works in detail, you can read the full breakdown here: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eJUaKwZY Built by the community. For the community. #TrustEconomy #FounderPerspective #TrustedDesi #VerifiedProfessionals #SouthAsianProfessionals

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The SME Funding Crisis - Part 1: A Breaking Point for Economic Growth. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the UK economy, comprising 99.9% of all businesses, employing roughly 16.9 million people (60% of the private sector workforce), and generating approximately £2.8 trillion in turnover (52% of GDP) as of 2025. They drive regional growth, innovation, and competitiveness, with potential to add billions more in annual investment. Yet despite their critical importance, SMEs face an unprecedented funding crisis that threatens not only their survival but the UK’s economic prosperity. The numbers are stark: The British Business Bank estimates a funding gap of £65 billion. Systematic exclusion of startups from lending; grant and investment success rates below 10%; 400,000 funding rejections, annually.   The lack of funding is one of the main reasons why 70% of new businesses fail within three years the economic cost of lost growth to the UK alone being estimated at over £90 billion per year. This market failure isn't just a business problem—it's a national economic emergency that demands immediate government intervention. The entities generating over half of national GDP cannot access the funding they need to grow. The Statistics Speak: A Funding System in Failure. Next post: The Banking Betrayal - why Lenders put off Job Creators.

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Most of us spent last month wondering where January went. February was such a blur, I think we should have called it a leap month. But the ecommerce platforms were busy! ➡️ Amazon has launched Pay by Bank in the UK, enabling account-to-account payments with expedited refunds. Is there anything Amazon won't get it's fingers in? ➡️ Xnurta and Front Row have partnered to expand AI-powered campaign management across Amazon advertising and retail media. This is the direction of travel for much of media management... digital marketing firms must be breathing a bit heavier each passing month AI advances. ➡️ eBay Live has also launched in Canada, extending its interactive shopping format to another key market. It's unclear if this will erode TikTok's lion share of live stream shopping, but I'm rooting for eBay to get a win there. We all blinked and February happened, but ecommerce as ever is marching forward with changes and evolution. More: https://heyor.ca/pxdskH #EcommerceTrends2026 #AmazonUK #AmazonAdvertising #EBayLiveCanada

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What does it really take to build a successful company? In my recent talk at UCL, I shared the patterns I have consistently observed from interviewing world class founders on Thriving Minds and from building Emerald Hospitality Group, a company I founded at the age of 22 and now is one of the 100 fastest growing companies in the UK. We explored the mindset shift founders must make, why data leads to clearer decisions than raw motivation, and why so many ideas never compound into real businesses. Storytelling, market feedback and disciplined adaptation matter far more than most people assume. For young founders, here is the message I wish I had heard earlier: success is sustained desire, rigorous discipline and the courage to learn from failure without letting it define you.

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Franchising is the fastest-growing model in the UK. The main challenge? It’s not a lack of opportunities. The market is big, demand is there. It's complexity of tech. Franchisor: “Everyone’s selling the next best thing. Some are genuinely impressive." It sounds good until you need: - One for inventory - One more for loyalty - Another for marketing - One for staff scheduling - One for delivery management - Plus dashboards, reporting, reviews, training... And then you're left explaining to a franchisee Why their tech stack costs more than their rent. Franchisees want simplicity, clarity, and value. Not seven logins, seven bills, seven support teams. PS Is your tech stack out of control?

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At techUK’s Meet the Investors: AI event today at DiSH Manchester, one message resonated deeply with me: At pre-seed, traction doesn’t have to be everything. What matters is: • A real problem • Clear understanding of the market • Founder-problem fit • And ideally… having felt the pain yourself That last part is where ClickSafe Sentinel was born. Sentinel was born out of ClickSafe Club, delivering STEM, robotics and digital safety programmes to children across Manchester. As we scaled delivery, we experienced first-hand the operational weight of compliance in regulated environments: Safeguarding documentation. Policy updates. Incident logs. Risk assessments. Regulatory frameworks. Evidence trails. Not because compliance is wrong, but because it is fragmented, manual, and reactive. The pain wasn’t theoretical, It was operational, time-consuming, risk-sensitive and emotionally heavy when safeguarding is involved. ClickSafe Sentinel was born from that lived experience, to transform compliance from an administrative burden into proactive, AI-supported assurance. This is applied AI inside a regulated market. Founder-led, problem-rooted, infrastructure-focused. We are now intentionally shaping Sentinel to be investor-ready, refining validation, product architecture, and market positioning with clarity. If you invest at pre-seed in applied AI, RegTech, GovTech or sector-specific SaaS, particularly where the founder has lived the problem, I’d welcome a conversation. Some of the strongest infrastructure companies are built from pain first, code second. #AI #PreSeed #RegTech #GovTech #FounderLed #ComplianceTech #ManchesterTech #DigitalSecurity #ClickSafeSentinel #MeetTheInvestors

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