SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

eCapital UK has appointed Mike Harrison as Regional Managing Director, South, expanding the lender’s leadership team in Southern England.

Harrison brings more than 20 years of experience in corporate banking, invoice finance and fintech. He has held senior roles at Bank of Scotland and Bank of Ireland, and spent six years at a technology company later sold to private equity investors.

In his new role, he will oversee growth across Southern England and manage relationships with clients and intermediaries. eCapital’s southern footprint includes offices in Reading and Bristol.

The appointment comes as smaller businesses continue to seek alternatives to mainstream bank lending. Invoice finance and asset-based lending providers have positioned themselves as options for companies looking for working capital support outside traditional bank products.

eCapital provides invoice finance, asset-based lending and working capital funding for small and medium-sized businesses. It operates from five regional offices across England, Scotland and Wales.

Its parent, eCapital Corp, also serves businesses in the United States and Canada. In the UK, the group works with companies in sectors including food and beverage, recruitment, human resources, transport and manufacturing.

Market shift

Demand for specialist funding has risen as some businesses struggle to secure lending that fits their needs, creating an opening for non-bank and specialist finance providers seeking a larger share of the SME market.

Mark Finn, UK Group Managing Director at eCapital UK, outlined the group’s view of the market as it announced the appointment.

“I am delighted to welcome Mike to eCapital UK. Having worked with him previously, I have seen first-hand his ability to combine strong commercial acumen with a genuine focus on building long-term relationships with small business owners. Mike brings a unique blend of experience across sales leadership, credit, corporate banking and client management, which makes him exceptionally well suited to this role.

“As traditional banks continue to retrench from SME lending, many ambitious businesses are defaulting to short-term borrowing or loan stacking because they haven’t been shown the alternatives. That’s where eCapital is different. Our regional teams take the time to understand each business, helping clients access funding structures that support growth rather than simply solving today’s cash flow challenge. Mike’s experience will further strengthen that approach across the South.”

Harrison’s background spans both lending and financial technology, a combination many specialist finance firms have sought as they build regional coverage and respond to changing borrower expectations. His experience in invoice finance is likely to be central to eCapital’s push in the South, where competition for SME customers remains strong among banks, independent funders and fintech lenders.

Regional focus

Regional leadership remains a significant part of the company’s UK structure. Its model is centred on relationship managers with local and sector knowledge, reflecting a broader trend among specialist lenders seeking to differentiate themselves through local decision-making and closer ties with introducers.

For intermediaries, appointments at regional managing director level are often closely watched because they can signal where a lender intends to focus origination efforts. Southern England contains a large share of the UK’s SME base, including businesses in logistics, services, professional sectors and manufacturing that regularly use working capital products tied to invoices and receivables.

Harrison described the move as part of a wider expansion phase for the company.

“I am thrilled to be joining eCapital UK at such an exciting stage in the company’s growth journey. eCapital has built a strong reputation for delivering flexible funding solutions and exceptional service. I look forward to working alongside the talented team to further strengthen our relationships with clients and introducers in the South, helping more businesses access the funding they need to seize opportunities and grow with confidence.”

Ode Poetry has launched Ode, a free AI voice service that recommends poems in response to users’ feelings. William Sieghart created the service with Microsoft AI and Gravity Road.

Users speak with an AI voice companion based on Sieghart, founder of National Poetry Day and The Poetry Pharmacy, before receiving a poem selected from a curated library.

Ode is aimed at people seeking comfort, reflection or creativity through conversation rather than search. It draws on the therapeutic approach behind The Poetry Pharmacy, Sieghart’s long-running effort to match poems to particular moods and situations.

Users begin by describing how they feel in a short spoken exchange. The system then recommends a poem and delivers it through pre-recorded readings by actors and cultural figures including Stephen Fry, Harriet Walter, Indira Varma and Dominic West.

The project marks an unusual use of generative AI at a time when most consumer products have focused on productivity, customer service or entertainment. Here, the emphasis is on emotional support through literature, with the technology guiding users to existing creative work rather than generating new poems.

According to the companies involved, the service uses Microsoft AI voice and transcription models to recreate Sieghart’s speaking style and interpret users’ spoken responses. The poems are not synthetic output but existing works, delivered through human performances for the app.

The creators said they had secured permission to use the content and voices. That is likely to matter as technology groups face continued scrutiny over the use of creative material and likenesses in AI products.

Ode grew out of in-person poetry sessions Sieghart held at literary events around the UK. Those sessions later informed his Poetry Pharmacy anthologies, published by Penguin, which popularised the idea that poems can be prescribed for emotional states much like remedies.

Human readings

The emphasis on recorded human readings is central to the product’s design. While the conversational layer relies on AI, the poems are delivered in performers’ voices rather than machine-generated narration, a choice intended to preserve a sense of intimacy and authorship.

Gravity Road, the creative studio behind the build, said it designed the service to extend the reach of those personal poetry consultations to a broader audience. The agency is part of The Brandtech Group and works across advertising, social media and creative technology.

Microsoft AI’s involvement places the project within a growing category of cultural and wellbeing applications for large language and speech models. Technology companies have increasingly pointed to uses in education, health and the arts as they respond to criticism over job displacement, misinformation and copyright disputes.

For Ode Poetry, the launch also represents an effort to widen access to a format that has usually depended on live events, books or institutional partnerships. The social enterprise has worked with NHS trusts and mental health charities, using poetry in public and care settings as a source of respite.

“I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to get poetry out of the poetry corner, because I believe in its power to heal and inspire. This project offers the ability to scale a small idea on a global level, and I am hugely excited by the number of people whose lives might be touched by the simple magic of a poem,” said William Sieghart, creator of The Poetry Pharmacy and Ode at Ode Poetry.

His remarks point to the central commercial and cultural question behind the launch: whether users will accept AI not just as a tool for tasks, but as an intermediary for emotionally resonant experiences rooted in human art.

“Poetry is possibly the world’s oldest voice technology. Ode combines it with the very latest AI to reconnect people with the timeless power of real human voices. While much of the AI conversation currently focuses on what it might replace, Ode shows how it can protect and amplify what makes us human,” said Eaves.

The product also reflects a broader effort by developers to frame AI as assistive rather than autonomous. In this case, the model does not write or perform the poem itself; instead, it listens, interprets and selects from material assembled in advance.

That distinction may help the project avoid some of the backlash seen against AI-generated creative content. By positioning the technology as a conversational front end to a human-curated archive, the creators are making the case for AI as a route into literature rather than a substitute for it.

“We’re proud that Ode uses Microsoft’s AI models, not to replace human connection, but to extend it, making moments of reflection and self-care more accessible in everyday life,” said Back.

The service is available as a web app and centres on a simple proposition articulated elsewhere by Sieghart: “A thought which you had thought special and particular to you is set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead, and it’s as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Purchases of gaming gift cards and vouchers on G2A.COM rose 64% worldwide in the first half of 2026, with the UK among the company’s fastest-growing markets.

Global purchases increased from more than 1 million to over 1.7 million during the period. In the UK, purchases rose 92% from more than 85,000 to over 160,000.

The figures suggest a shift in how consumers pay for digital entertainment, with gift cards used not only for new game launches but also for subscriptions, downloadable content and in-game spending throughout the year.

Razer Gold, PlayStation Network and Steam were among the most popular gaming gift cards in the first half, according to G2A.COM. Buying activity also increased around platform promotions and major game releases, including Steam Sales and Steam’s Medieval Fest.

UK growth

The UK also recorded broader gains across gaming purchases on the marketplace. Total purchases of gaming-related items, including vouchers, games, downloadable content and gift cards, rose 39% from more than 550,000 to almost 800,000.

Germany posted similar growth, with purchases of gaming-related items up 40% from more than 650,000 to over 900,000. Globally, purchases of gaming-related items increased 25% year on year in the first half.

Among the top-selling titles on the platform were Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition, ARC Raiders and Resident Evil Requiem. Xbox Game Pass sales also rose around launches including Forza Horizon 6 and Subnautica 2, while PlayStation gift card purchases reached record levels during the Grand Theft Auto VI pre-sale period.

The data adds to evidence that spending on games is becoming more evenly spread across the calendar rather than centred on a single release date. Consumers appear to be using prepaid credit to budget ahead for major titles while continuing to spend on recurring services and smaller digital purchases.

Spending habits

That trend matters for publishers, retailers and digital marketplaces because it can smooth demand beyond launch windows and seasonal peaks. It also suggests prepaid products are becoming a more prominent route into digital storefronts and subscription ecosystems.

Katarzyna Jakubiec, Chief Business Officer at G2A.COM, outlined the company’s view of the shift in player behaviour.

“The sharp growth in gaming gift card purchases shows how player behaviour is changing and how consumers are engaging with digital entertainment. Gaming is no longer defined by a single purchase at launch. Players are planning around a broader mix of experiences, from downloadable content and subscriptions to seasonal releases and in-game items. Gift cards support that shift by giving consumers greater control. They help players set a budget, choose when to spend and decide whether to put that value towards a major release, additional content or ongoing services. That flexibility is becoming increasingly important as gaming evolves into year-round entertainment. As blockbuster releases and peak shopping periods approach, we expect gaming gift cards to play an even bigger role in how consumers manage digital entertainment spending. The growth we’re seeing in both the UK and globally reflects a broader move towards choice, convenience and trusted access,” Jakubiec said.

G2A.COM serves more than 35 million users across 180 countries and recorded more than 200 million visits in 2025. Its marketplace lists over 125,000 digital products spanning games, downloadable content, in-game items, gift cards, subscriptions, software and e-learning.

The latest figures show prepaid gaming products gaining ground as both a budgeting tool and a payment option. In the UK, where purchases of gaming gift cards nearly doubled in the first half, the pattern was more pronounced than the global average.