Business & Technology
British Business Bank backs PhysicsX with USD $25 million
British Business Bank has invested USD $25 million in PhysicsX as part of the company’s Series C financing, marking the fourth investment from British Growth Partnership Fund I.
The funding is part of a wider Series C round led by Temasek and including M&G Investments. The transaction reflects the co-investment model of British Growth Partnership, which is designed to channel pension fund money into UK venture-backed companies.
Founded and headquartered in the UK, PhysicsX develops artificial intelligence software for industrial engineering. Its platform is used across aerospace and defence, semiconductors, data centres and energy production, automotive, and materials.
The company is building software intended to change how industrial groups design, manufacture, and operate hardware. At the centre of that effort are its Large Physics Models, which aim to predict the physical behaviour of complex systems in near real time rather than over the days or weeks often associated with conventional numerical simulation.
The investment comes as PhysicsX reports rapid growth. Over the past year, it said it had doubled recognised revenue, tripled booked revenue, and more than doubled its customer count.
Its workforce has also expanded sharply. PhysicsX now employs more than 300 people after doubling in size over the past 12 months.
The latest capital is intended to support international expansion, broader platform development, and further research, including work on larger pre-trained physics AI models.
Pension fund route
For British Business Bank, the transaction also serves a broader policy aim: connecting institutional capital with emerging UK companies. British Growth Partnership Fund I reached a first close of GBP £200 million, and PhysicsX is the fourth company backed by the fund, alongside Wayve, Elliptic, and Draig Therapeutics.
Charlotte Lawrence, Managing Director and Head of Direct Equity at the British Business Bank, said: “PhysicsX is redefining how complex products are designed and built. Their platform combines world-class engineering heritage with frontier AI capability to create a company that we believe can be a global leader. As their technology is adopted by the world’s top industrial companies, we are thrilled to back their continued expansion whilst also allowing UK pension owners to share in the success of a true global innovator.”
Ian Connatty, Managing Partner of the British Growth Partnership and Deputy CIO of the British Business Bank, said: “The British Growth Partnership was created to connect pension funds with the UK’s fastest-growing companies. This transaction shows that model in action, and that we have built a platform for domestic pension fund capital to flow into the UK’s technology leaders.”
M&G Investments also highlighted the role of long-term institutional investors in funding private UK businesses. Its participation in the round sits alongside its backing of the British Growth Partnership.
Niranjan Sirdeshpande, Head of Catalyst at M&G Investments, said: “PhysicsX is an excellent example of the type of high-growth, technology-led business that institutional investors want to back. M&G has supported the company’s growth both through Catalyst’s direct investment and through our backing of British Growth Partnership, helping to channel long-term pension fund capital into innovative UK businesses with significant global potential. This investment demonstrates how government and industry can work together to improve access to growth capital for UK businesses, supporting innovation, skilled jobs and economic growth, while delivering attractive long-term returns for savers.”
Industrial AI
PhysicsX targets manufacturers and engineering groups that need to model complex physical systems more quickly. The company says its software can be embedded into existing engineering workflows to shorten development cycles and reduce costs.
That positions it in a growing area of industrial AI, where software companies are applying machine learning tools to long-established design and simulation processes. In the UK, the sector has drawn increasing interest from investors looking for businesses tied to advanced manufacturing and industrial technology rather than consumer AI applications.
Jacomo Corbo, Co-Founder & CEO of PhysicsX, said: “The opportunity to transform how humanity designs, builds, and operates the world’s most critical infrastructure is one of the defining technological opportunities of our time. PhysicsX exists to realise that opportunity. We are building frontier physics AI technology in Britain, scaling it globally, and helping the world’s leading industrial companies innovate faster and unlock a new era of productivity. As the UK seeks to strengthen its position in advanced manufacturing and industrial AI, we’re proud to be contributing to that ambition from our headquarters in London, with the British Business Bank as an investor and partner in that journey.”
In its latest reported year, British Business Bank said it supported 38,000 UK businesses, helping them access GBP £9.4 billion of finance through public funding, private capital crowded in by the bank, and guaranteed lending.
Thames Water confirmed at 10am on Saturday, August 1, that a burst pipe had impacted the outlet of a reservoir that serves the area, causing levels to fall rapidly.
Customers may have experienced reduced water pressure or loss of supply while repairs were carried out.
The burst pipe hit the OX2, OX20, OX29, OX5 and surrounding areas.
The damaged pipe was isolated, allowing water to be gradually returned to the network.
Thames Water supplied bottled water to water-dependent customers and provided support to customers who have been affected by flooding.
At 4pm on Saturday Thames Water confirmed water supply was restored, however some customers could still experience low water pressure.
This comes nearly two weeks after a burst pipe left homes in Abingdon with little or no water.
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Thames Water reported an issue on its network affecting properties in the OX14 area on Friday, July 24, with many customers experiencing low pressure or dry taps.
Engineers were sent to locate and repair the damage, which was resolved within a couple of hours.
The incident compounds water scarcity concerns across the region, which is already facing its first hosepipe ban of the season.
Thames Water announced that a hosepipe ban will be implemented last month impacting millions of customers, with Oxfordshire included.
Many customers in Oxfordshire have been critical of the ban, as the water company have previously confirmed Farmoor reservoir, near Eynsham, was 99 per cent full, above average for this time of year.
SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO
News Editor
AutoRek has acquired Grath, adding the company’s reconciliation and regulatory compliance technology to its product range.
The deal combines AutoRek’s established reconciliation and financial controls platform with Grath’s newer focus on artificial intelligence for reconciliation and exception handling in financial services.
London-based Grath, founded in 2019, serves banks, payment providers, brokers and fintechs, with offices in the UK, the UAE and Australia. Earlier this year, it launched Topa, a product designed to let financial services teams integrate matching tools, sector-trained machine learning models and an agentic reasoning layer into their internal systems.
The combined business will offer customers three main ways to deploy reconciliation tools under one control framework: AutoRek’s private cloud platform for firms with complex requirements, Grath’s multi-tenant software-as-a-service platform for faster deployment, and Topa for institutions that want to build their own reconciliation systems in-house.
Product range
The private cloud offering remains centred on AutoRek’s core platform and its AutoRek Intelligent Agent, known as ARIA. That option is aimed at customers handling high transaction volumes, varied data sources and strict regulatory obligations.
Grath’s software-as-a-service platform is aimed at customers that want governance aligned with Financial Conduct Authority expectations without building their own infrastructure. Topa, meanwhile, is intended for firms that want to embed matching services and AI-based exception handling directly into proprietary technology environments while retaining architectural control.
The combined group is seeking to cover more of the reconciliation process, from data ingestion and matching to controls, risk and compliance management. This broadens AutoRek’s addressable market beyond larger institutions that may favour dedicated deployments to include firms seeking faster implementation or embedded components.
AutoRek Chief Executive Officer Chris Livesey said the deal reflects customer demand for stronger oversight of artificial intelligence.
“Customers want the benefits of AI delivered through governance, auditability and human oversight. By bringing together AutoRek’s enterprise control capabilities with Grath’s AI innovation, customers gain more choice in how they deploy and more confidence in the controls that underpin it,” Livesey said.
Grath Chief Executive Officer Matt Povey said the acquisition reflects changing customer expectations in financial services.
“Financial services is at an inflection point. Institutions no longer want to choose between robust enterprise controls and the speed of AI-led innovation, and now they do not have to. Whether customers want a dedicated deployment, a SaaS solution live in hours, or embedded agentic infrastructure, they can now adopt any model within a single governed framework,” Povey said.
Geographic reach
The transaction also extends AutoRek’s international footprint. Grath adds a US client base to AutoRek’s growing presence in that market and deepens its reach in the Middle East through Grath’s UAE customers.
That expansion follows AutoRek’s opening of a Miami office and the hiring of two senior sales executives focused on the region. The acquisition suggests the company is pursuing growth through both direct expansion and product-led consolidation in reconciliation technology.
AutoRek was founded in 1994 and says it has more than 170 employees across five locations, serving more than 100 clients in 15 countries. Its software automates reconciliation and financial control processes, including matching and break analysis, for organisations across the financial sector.
Since its launch in 2019, Grath has focused on reconciliation and regulatory compliance software for financial institutions. Its customer base spans banking, payments, broking and fintech, giving AutoRek access to a younger business with a narrower but more AI-focused offering.
The transaction highlights how reconciliation software providers are combining automation and AI tools with governance and audit requirements as financial institutions look to reduce manual work without weakening control standards.
Boss Peter Ruis said the relaunch of the brand’s sports and wellbeing product range is an “important step” in its major store investment plan.
The department store business, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership group, said its new sports and wellbeing departments will make it the first UK retailer to bring sportswear, footwear, wearable technology, recovery, AI-powered fitness and expert services together in one location.
The move will help the retailer take on major players in sportswear, such as Sports Direct, as well as technology specialists.
READ MORE: Over 600 jobs lost as UK high street chain closes more than 130 shops
The multimillion-pound investment has already transformed the sports department in its London Oxford Street site.
It will also fund similar redevelopments in Liverpool and Cheadle, as well as a new department in its Glasgow shop.
The departments will be up to around 5,000 square feet and have been designed so shoppers can move easily between apparel, footwear, technology, home fitness and recovery.
The concept will include sports brands including Nike, Brooks and Patagonia alongside wearable technology from Garmin, Oura and Whoop, recovery products from Therabody, and premium home fitness equipment from Peloton, NordicTrack and Speediance.
Shoppers will also be able to use free gait analysis and other technology to help them find the right footwear and other products.
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The investment is part of an £800 million cash injection from John Lewis into its 36 stores across the UK.
One of these can be found at Oxford’s Westgate shopping centre as the anchor store at the retail location, which reopened back in 2017 following a full-scale renovation.
Mr Ruis, managing director of John Lewis, said: “Customers increasingly shop around a goal rather than a traditional retail category.
“Whether someone’s training for their first marathon, taking up Hyrox or simply looking to live a healthier lifestyle, they want everything they need in one place.
“Our combination of leading brands, expert partners, nationwide shops and strong digital offer means we’re uniquely placed to support customers across every part of their fitness journey – from finding the right footwear and technical clothing to discovering the latest wearable technology, home fitness and recovery products.”
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