O2 Daisy has rebranded as O2 Business following the merger of Virgin Media O2’s business unit and Daisy Group.

The new brand brings together a business serving hundreds of thousands of UK customers, from small firms to larger organisations. Its customers include Sainsbury’s, British Sugar, the RFU and Southampton Football Club, as well as organisations across policing, education and the NHS.

The rebrand comes as new research points to mounting pressure on UK business leaders. In a survey of 502 leaders, 66% said technology decisions are becoming harder to navigate, while 49% said their technology set-up is more complex than necessary.

That complexity is feeding broader concerns about performance. The survey found that 30% said technology challenges had increased operational costs over the past year, 26% said they had put pressure on leadership time and focus, and 19% said they had slowed growth.

A confidence gap also emerged between smaller and larger businesses. Just 68% of sole traders and very small businesses said they were confident in long-term growth, compared with more than 90% of mid-sized and larger organisations. Overall, 16% said they were not confident in their organisation’s long-term prospects.

Pressure points

The findings suggest many firms are trying to balance cost control with technology investment amid wider commercial strain. The survey found that 76% of business leaders had experienced increased personal pressure over the past two years, while 33% reported rising costs.

O2 Business will focus on simplifying how customers buy and manage connectivity and communications services. Plans include fewer product choices, a more streamlined onboarding process, and more consistent service and support.

The business combines Virgin Media O2’s network infrastructure with Daisy’s service and support operations. Its portfolio includes connectivity, communications and IT products, including cloud-based services and Teams Phone Mobile.

Jo Bertram, Chief Executive Officer of O2 Business, said: “Most businesses don’t feel short of technology – they feel weighed down by it. Too many systems, too many suppliers and too much time spent trying to make everything work together.

“At O2 Business, we think it should be simpler than that. We’re breathing simplicity into the way business works by bringing connectivity and communications together in one joined-up experience that just makes sense. When technology is easier to deal with, businesses get back time, focus and confidence – and that’s when real growth happens.”

The rebrand marks the next stage in integrating the two businesses after their combination. It is intended to present a more unified offer to organisations that need a mix of mobile, fixed-line, cloud and IT services.

For Virgin Media O2 and Daisy, the move also reflects a push to strengthen their position in the UK business telecoms market. Operating under a single business brand should reduce fragmentation in how services are sold and supported across customer segments.

Market context

The UK business telecoms and IT services market has become increasingly competitive, with providers seeking to combine connectivity, collaboration tools and managed services. For many customers, the challenge is less access to technology than handling multiple contracts, platforms and support arrangements.

That issue appears especially acute for smaller organisations, which often have less in-house technical expertise and less room to absorb added costs. The survey findings suggest complexity may be weighing more heavily on small firms than on larger businesses with bigger technology budgets and dedicated teams.

Matthew Riley, Chairman of O2 Business, said: “UK businesses are the engine of our economy, but too many are being slowed down by complexity they never asked for. When organisations are tied up managing systems instead of strategy, productivity and growth suffer.”

“Simplifying that landscape isn’t just a technical challenge – it’s a commercial opportunity. With our combined scale and expertise, O2 Business is uniquely positioned to help organisations operate more efficiently, unlock real value and compete with confidence in an increasingly demanding market.”

The Village Coffee Shop in Launton, near Bicester, was launched by Jen Walker after a pop-up venture at the pub revealed strong local demand.

They converted an unused family pool house into the café.

Ms Walker said: “I’ve always had a dream to run a coffee shop, and after a pop-up in the pub for six months, we saw a real need.”

With help from the community, including a petition and letters of support to planners, they secured permission to create the café, reflecting the area’s rural charm with repurposed materials and eco-friendly ideas.

“We’ve been kindly gifted items to repurpose,” Ms Walker said. “And the local Island Pond Wood committee gave us the idea to dead hedge the perimeter instead of replacing broken fencing panels, which all adds to our sustainability ethos.”

The café, which operates off-grid and is not connected to mains utilities, has proved popular despite its tucked-away location on a no-through road.

Ms Walker said: “We are tucked away down a no-through road, and it’s been wonderful to see so many people find us and then repeatedly visit.”

Visitors include cyclists, dog walkers, families, and people working remotely.

The shop also hosts community groups such as a knit-and-natter group, a book club, and a Rummikub group.

Ms Walker said: “The atmosphere from day one has been fantastic and gets better and better.

“We’ve added some light lunches—and puppuccinos, as we get lots of dog walkers.

“We have regulars who come alone for lunch and a chat.”

The most popular drinks are lattes and cappuccinos, while a mango and raspberry cake, made by a local supplier, has become a customer favourite.

The team say they are proud to support other small businesses, sourcing tea, coffee, cakes, and ice cream from the area.

While space and menu options remain limited by the off-grid setup, the cafe has introduced light lunches and kept the offering deliberately small and sustainable.

Visitors are encouraged to walk or cycle, and there is an emphasis on parking responsibly.

First-time visitors often express surprise and delight at finding a hidden gem in the countryside, Ms Walker said.

She said: “Every day, new people find us, and it’s always the same lovely reaction.

“We wouldn’t be here without the support of our customers, and we are so grateful.”

There are no immediate plans for expansion, with Ms Walker saying the team are happy to continue doing what they love for a second year of business.

BioOrbit has raised £9.8 million in seed funding for in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing, which it describes as the sector’s largest seed round to date.

The London-founded company will use the funding to scale production of biological drug crystals in microgravity and move those programmes into commercial work with drugmakers. It says the approach could help convert some intravenous medicines into self-injectable treatments for home use.

The round was co-led by LocalGlobe and Breega, with backing from Auxxo, Seedcamp, Type One, 7 percent and angel investors. BioOrbit was founded by Dr Katie King and Dr Leonor Teles and is focused on using low-Earth orbit as a manufacturing environment for pharmaceutical products.

Manufacturing model

Much of its pitch centres on treatment delivery economics. According to BioOrbit, 70% of the world’s highest-grossing drugs are still administered intravenously in clinical settings, and reformulating some of them for subcutaneous use could shift more care away from hospitals.

Its manufacturing system, BOX, is a compact autonomous unit designed to carry out crystallisation in microgravity. The hardware is intended to move the process from experimental work to larger-scale production, with the resulting crystals returned to Earth for use in drug formulations.

The company is focused on antibody therapies, which can be difficult to adapt for self-administration because high-concentration formulations are often too viscous for injection outside a clinic. BioOrbit says its microgravity crystallisation process produces highly ordered crystalline forms of protein-based drugs, creating formulations not achievable on Earth.

Clinical impact

That is relevant in areas such as cancer treatment, where therapies often require regular hospital visits for infusions. BioOrbit says a shift to home use could cut drug-related hospital expenses by as much as 90%, since treatment would no longer need to be administered in a clinical setting.

The funding will also support an expansion of BioOrbit’s leadership team as it moves from research into commercial execution. The company has appointed Dr Molly Mulligan as President of BioOrbit Inc and Dr Ken Savin as Chief Science Officer.

Dr Mulligan has worked at the intersection of pharmaceuticals and space for more than a decade and was involved in the first pharmaceutical royalty agreement conducted in orbit. Dr Savin brings experience from Eli Lilly and later roles in International Space Station research and commercialisation at CASIS and Redwire.

BioOrbit is also working with UK bodies including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the Regulatory Innovation Office and the Civil Aviation Authority on regulatory questions around pharmaceutical production in space.

Investor view

The company says it has drawn interest from the NHS and the UK Space Agency and has secured letters of interest from large pharmaceutical groups, although it did not identify those companies or disclose terms.

Dr Katie King, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BioOrbit, said: “This is a huge step-change in drug delivery and economics. Our focus from day one has been scale, moving beyond experimental results to industrial production, where no existing solution has succeeded. We are now enabling the creation of more perfect, highly ordered crystals that unlock drug formulations not achievable on Earth. It is a paradigm shift for cancer therapies and for the pharmaceutical industry at large, as we’re enabling manufacturing at scale in orbit for the first time.”

Julia Hawkins, General Partner at Phoenix Court, said: “BioOrbit turns space into pharmaceutical infrastructure. By using microgravity to create drug formulations that aren’t possible on Earth, they can shift cancer treatment from hospital to home. This is a fundamental rewrite of how medicines are manufactured and delivered. We’re proud to partner with Dr Katie King and Dr Leonor Teles as they build the future of medicine.”

Vallin, Breega, said: “We couldn’t think of a better use of space than to advance cancer treatments. Katie and Leonor are building a world-class team to harness the unique properties up there that are irreproducible on Earth, we’re excited to see them make this a reality.”

Tim Peake said: “BioOrbit is turning bold imagination into real-world progress, pioneering the future by using exciting innovations in crystallisation of protein drugs in space to improve life on Earth. Their record-breaking seed round demonstrates the real market potential of what space-manufacturing can bring.”

Lord David Willetts, Chair of the UK Space Agency, said: “Manufacturing in space is one of the big new opportunities opening up as launch costs fall and robotics advance. BioOrbit is an exciting British start-up well-placed to take advantage of this, with innovations in the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies.”

Lloyd said: “In-orbit manufacturing is a priority capability for this government, and BioOrbit is a compelling example of what UK innovation looks like in practice. By harnessing the unique environment of space to make pharmaceutical-grade materials, BioOrbit is advancing the UK’s position in the global space economy and could transform outcomes for cancer patients. This funding round is a strong signal of international confidence in UK space manufacturing expertise, and I look forward to seeing BioOrbit take this science to the next stage.”