Latest news with #Aquis
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
My British bitcoin holding company had its IPO two weeks ago and shares have doubled
'I'd like to be a FTSE 100 company,' Andrew Webley, founder of The Smarter Web Company, told This is Money last month, as the firm launched its retail offering on the Aquis Exchange. Two weeks later it looks like this dream is edging slowly closer to being within his grasp. We spoke to Webley as the Smarter Web Company launched its IPO with a price of 2.5 pence per share, raising £1million through its IPO alone. The Smarter Web Company offers web design and digital marketing services to more than 250 different clients but that's not the driving force behind the IPO and its success. Instead, a major part of its strategy going forward, and undoubtedly the selling point to investors, is the firm's adoption of a digital asset treasury policy centered around bitcoin - making it the UK's answer to US star Microstrategy. As at 2 May, Smarter Web Company shares had almost doubled and were trading at 4.88 pence each, and the firm's market capitalisation has risen from £3.7million to £7.16million. Webley told This is Money: 'We were really pleased that we could do the retail offer, which is a little bit unusual with an IPO for a small company.' While having only commenced trading on the Aquis exchange on 25 April, the Surrey-based web design firm has become the most traded stock on Aquis by volume. The firm's average daily volume since it started trading is 82,861, with 404,415 shares changing hands this week alone and 9,890 on its first day of trading. Webley said: 'It's a bit overwhelming, the response has been brilliant. I've had so many supportive messages, with people saying 'I love what you're doing with your company. 'It's been really nice just to see people in the UK get behind what we believe is a very good story from the UK. I suppose that's the answer to the volume, people see that we're trying our best and we're working hard.' He added: 'Before we decided to be a public company, we've done everything transparently. The prices of our web design packages are on our website. We give people the truth, you know, at all times we're professional with them. 'We don't try and overcomplicate something that doesn't need to be overcomplicated. That's the same approach that we've taken to our investor relations. So we're just trying to be transparent.' The firm this week announced its latest bitcoin purchase worth £244,000, increasing its holdings to 5.74 bitcoin worth £414,000. The company also set out a ten-year plan, indicating that it is looking to grow its client numbers in the short term, as well as its intention to make strategic acquisitions. These sit alongside its other ambition to continue the growth of its digital asset holdings. Webley said: 'We are focused on accelerating short-term growth by scaling our proven core services, while also exploring strategic acquisitions that could unlock compelling value. 'By taking a pioneering approach to treasury management using digital assets, including bitcoin, we believe we offer investors an excellent opportunity.' Webley says the combination of a scalable business as well as the firm's digital asset treasury offers different attractive features for different investors. He said: 'Some people will look at our business and say "I like what you're doing on your organic growth," and others will say, "I like what you're doing with your innovative approach to Treasury management," investors choose the bits of the business that they like, and that's why they invest in it.' Webley added: 'I just want to be very clear about how grateful we are for the support that everyone has shown… if people didn't get behind it, it wouldn't be as exciting as it is. 'With that excitement obviously comes responsibility. We've now got to execute our strategy.'
Forbes
27-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
K18 And The Science Of Trust: How One Haircare Brand Reframed Beauty Through Biotechnology
X getty In a marketplace often saturated by surface promises, true innovation still finds a way to cut through. The quiet rise of K18—a premium haircare brand with a scientific soul—offers a textbook case of what modern consumers want, and what luxury brands must now deliver. Not louder claims. Not flashier packaging. But authentic, demonstrable progress: proof of better outcomes, built on real expertise. The brand's story isn't just about haircare excellence. It is a wider reflection of how industries across categories are being reshaped—by a new demand for precision, performance, and transparency. At first glance, K18 could be mistaken for just another high-end beauty line. Its simple, monochromatic packaging and quite basic branding fit comfortably into the aesthetic of bathroom cupboard essential. But the difference lies deeper—in the molecular structure itself. K18's patented biomimetic peptide technology was developed over a decade of biotech research. Rather than coating hair temporarily, as many traditional products do, K18 claims to repair keratin chains from within, addressing damage at the innermost layers of the hair's structure. This is not surface-level restoration—it is regenerative at a cellular level, designed to reverse the impact of bleaching, colouring, heat, and mechanical stress. And crucially, the science is verifiable, not just aesthetic. In a category where 'miracle solutions' have often eroded consumer trust, K18's evidence-based approach feels refreshingly serious—and that is likely why it has become a influencer favourite. The strategy of K18 is as unconventional as its product. Co-founder Suveen Sahib, with a background in technology, found himself intrigued by the complexities of hair care after conversations with his partner, Britta Cox, founder of Aquis hair towels. This curiosity led him down a path of rigorous scientific inquiry. 'I took a deep dive into trying to understand the biophysics and biochemistry of hair to learn that what looks like a fibre is actually one of the most sophisticated biological composites,' Sahib explained in an interview. 'The solutions to our caring for hair do not lie outside of hair, but instead they lie inside of hair.' Collaborating with bioscientists, Sahib and his team spent years mapping the entire keratin genome, seeking sequences that could effectively repair hair from within. This research culminated in the development of the K18Peptide™, a unique amino acid sequence designed to reconnect broken polypeptide chains in damaged hair. This approach marked a departure from some in the traditional cosmetic chemistry, embracing a biology-first methodology that mirrors the body's natural processes. Today's consumer is not naïve. They are armed with information, sceptical of marketing hyperbole, and increasingly literate in the language of science. The shift is clear: evidence now sells better than aspiration. K18's popularity reflects a broader behavioural trend visible across luxury, beauty, wellness, and even technology sectors: consumers want intelligent innovation—products that don't just promise transformation, but deliver it in ways that can be measured, felt, and independently validated. When the product works better, lasts longer, and feels demonstrably different, the modern consumer is willing to invest—and more importantly, to advocate. In an environment where traditional luxury markers—price, logo, exclusivity—are undergoing reassessment, science has emerged as a new badge of discernment. This represents a profound shift. Luxury is no longer just about scarcity of product—it's about scarcity of performance. The brands that deliver true, meaningful results are the ones that create modern prestige. Another crucial point of differentiation for K18 has been resisting the temptation to over-assort. Rather than flooding the market with dozens of SKUs, seasonal launches, or fragmented lines, K18 has focused tightly on a core set of products, led by the now-iconic K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask. This strategy mirrors successful specialist brands in other sectors: focus, craft, and consistency over endless expansion. The message to consumers is clear and confident: 'We have one job—to repair your hair—and we do it better than anyone else.' It's a clarity that today's consumer, weary of marketing noise, finds deeply reassuring. The success of K18 offers sharp lessons far beyond haircare: • Substance beats storytelling when consumers are better informed. • Scientific literacy is now a competitive advantage in marketing—not a hindrance. • Simplicity sells—but only when it is underpinned by real complexity of craft. • Specialisation is stronger than saturation in an era of consumer fatigue. In short: trust is built molecule by molecule. Brands that understand this—whether they operate in technology, hospitality, luxury, or health—will thrive by treating intelligence not as a barrier, but as a bridge to deeper consumer loyalty. K18's rise is not simply about beauty—it is about credibility in a world that has learned to question almost everything. At a time when trust has become the rarest commodity of all, brands that can offer visible, tangible improvement—and can explain the why behind it—are perfectly positioned for the future. Science, care, proof: these are the new pillars of luxury. And those who build with them are not just selling products. They are selling confidence—strand by strand, molecule by molecule, consumer by consumer.
Bloomberg
02-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Swiss Bourse Turns to Smaller UK Exchange for Trade Tech Revamp
SIX Group AG, the operator of the Swiss and Spanish bourses, is weighing a switch to the trading technology of Aquis Exchange Plc, a smaller UK exchange it is in the process of acquiring. The group has been studying whether Aquis's matching engine — the software component that pairs orders and processes transactions — can support trading in Swiss and Spanish stocks before the acquisition is expected to close this quarter, SIX Chief Executive Officer Bjørn Sibbern, said in an interview.
New York Times
05-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A Rocky Patch for Lab-Grown Diamonds
The luster of lab-grown diamonds has continued to spread slowly in the midrange luxury watch market, with brands such as Breitling and Oris doubling down on their initial embrace of the synthetic gems. But as a capital venture investment, the synthetic gems have been a lot less successful, with millions of euros lost — and plunging prices for lab-grown diamonds, which the industry refers to as L.G.D. 'We're seeing a small handful of very large producers in China and India ramping up production with faster, better processes, and every time they do that, the per unit cost becomes lower and lower,' said Paul Zimnisky, a New York diamond analyst. 'From January 2015 through January 2025, L.G.D. prices have dropped by 85 percent,' he said. 'Today, you can get a nice one-carat ideal round lab-grown diamond for $900. The natural equivalent would be about $5,000. A three-carat synthetic would cost about $4,000, and for the natural, you're looking at $50,000 to $60,000. So they're now running about 90 percent less than natural.' To protect both their brand integrity and their core business, retailers and brands that sell high-end natural diamond jewelry or high jewelry watches have a vested interest in defending natural diamonds — so observers agree it is unlikely that houses such as Bulgari, Cartier and Chopard would ever use synthetic gems in their watches. As Stéphanie Sivrière, the creative director of jewelry and watches at Piaget, said in a recent interview, 'It wouldn't be authentic to the DNA of our maison.' But when it comes to midrange or entry-level luxury timepieces, lab-grown diamonds, used in small quantities for dial markers or accents on bezels, seem to make sense. 'The products we have that feature lab-grown diamonds are performing excellently in the market,' said Aurelia Figueroa, Breitling's head of sustainability, 'and even above our expectations.' And Oris' chief executive of the Americas, VJ Geronimo, echoed the comment for his brand's synthetic-set lines in the region. Lingering View The watch sector was far behind jewelry makers in embracing lab-grown diamonds, with Citizen first adding them to its L Ambiluna collection in 2020. As Marc-André Deschoux, founder of the online channel WatchesTV, said in a 2021 interview with The New York Times: 'This is still a taboo subject in Switzerland because of a lingering negative view of man-made diamonds.' But in 2022, Breitling introduced them in its Chronomat line, announcing that lab-grown stones eventually would replace natural diamonds in all its collections (the brand says it is now 43 percent of the way to that goal). That year TAG Heuer came out with a limited-edition Carrera Date Plasma Diamant D'Avant-Garde watch set with lab-grown diamonds and Oris incorporated them into its Aquis line; both brands have used them in more recent introductions, too. And last year, Raymond Weil dipped into the sector, setting synthetic diamonds into the lugs of its Millesime model. Oris and Breitling said these watches had been well received by consumers, noting that lab-grown diamonds can have a much smaller environmental footprint than mined ones, depending on production methods, and that the synthetic gems have the same optical, physical and chemical properties and emit the same sparkle as mined ones. Not in Nature As a capital investment, however, lab-grown diamonds have not fared well, something experts say is the result of oversupply and consolidation. In 2022, for example, LVMH Luxury Ventures, the private equity division of the luxury giant Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and its partners invested $90 million in Lusix, a lab-grown diamond manufacturer in Israel. But the business struggled financially, and it was sold for $4 million in November to two other producers, Fenix Diamonds and Dholakia Lab-Grown Diamond. The failure of LVMH's investment 'has absolutely nothing to do with the strategy of individual brands' when it comes to using lab-grown diamonds, said Antoine Pin, TAG Heuer's chief executive. 'I see them as an opportunity to use diamonds in new ways,' he said, 'with one full diamond carved out to serve as the crown, for example, or a large solid piece carved as a bezel. 'We are thinking, what can we provide that is unique, different. We want to use them in a way that does not exist in nature. That's what we're looking at, rather than just duplicating the way natural diamonds are already used in watches. So although we don't have any new pieces at the moment, one interesting direction would be colored diamonds or special cuts, shapes and large sizes. So we're working on this.' Among other failures, Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact and Innovation, an investment fund run by David Wertheimer, a Chanel heir, was one of several firms that invested millions of euros in Diam Concept, a French synthetic diamond maker. It was the main supplier to Courbet, a synthetic-only jeweler also funded by Mirabaud that was founded in 2017 and had a showroom on Place Vendôme in Paris, the heart of the high jewelry industry. Diam Concept dissolved in June 2024; Courbet entered court-ordered receivership in December. Even Lightbox, the lab-grown gem subsidiary of the diamond giant De Beers, has faltered. After announcing in May 2024 that it would reduce prices by more than a third, it announced in June that it would transition to synthetic diamonds exclusively for industrial applications. In Retail The bankruptcies exposed the strange disconnect between the vaunted popularity of lab-grown diamonds with some consumers and their failure as a capital venture vehicle. In 2024, according to the diamond industry analyst Edahn Golan, 45.3 percent of the diamond engagement rings sold in the United States had lab-grown diamonds, and overall the gems were present in 14.3 percent of all diamond jewelry sold in the country. 'The average age of people getting married in the United States is 28 — broadly speaking it's 25 to 35 — so that tells us that young people are embracing lab-growns,' said Mr. Golan, who is the managing partner of Tenoris, a jewelry and diamond retail trend company that collects data each month from 2,500 retail jewelers in the United States. Despite the consumer interest in lab-grown diamonds, some retailers are wary of selling synthetics, mainly because of the overall impact on their traditional watch and jewelry business. Mr. Geronimo of Oris acknowledged that some retailers had been resistant: 'Their store policy is that they don't deal with lab-growns, period, and that's it. But we have others that totally embrace it. They don't care, even though they have a good customer base in natural diamonds.' Raymond Weil declined to answer questions for this article, with its public relations agency sending a message: 'I regret to inform you that Raymond Weil has decided not to participate in this matter. The C.E.O. mentioned that it is a sensitive topic in the U.S., and they are concerned about potential negative feedback.' Mr. Zimnisky, the diamond analyst, noted that the steep decline in synthetic diamond prices might hurt the credibility of some retailers. 'If I had a jewelry store and I sold a consumer a three-carat lab diamond for $20,000 in 2018, and now I'm selling it for $1,500, I'd be nervous that consumers are going to come back and say, 'You ripped me off.'' The consolidation occurring among lab-grown diamond manufacturers could stabilize the market eventually, experts say, and if the surviving producers adopt the right practices, it could strengthen the sector's sustainability credentials. Breitling is one of a growing number of companies tracing its supply chain, something that the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive will require many larger businesses to do, starting this year. 'The origin of our decision to use lab-growns is based completely in traceability and sustainability,' Ms. Figueroa said. 'We surveyed the market, and we understood that for us to go forward with true traceability, we weren't going to be able to achieve that with mined diamonds. We made the decision to switch to lab-grown. 'Then, we very carefully selected only a handful of suppliers: ABD Diamonds and Fenix Diamonds, both based in western India. Fenix is using already 100 percent renewable energy, and ABC is, so far, using 25 percent — we actually cofinanced the solar PV panels that they have on site, and they're working on finalizing their plan to source 100 percent renewable energy right now.' All of that effort notwithstanding, Mr. Zimnisky is among those who say that price trumps sustainability when it comes to watch and jewelry purchases. Ultimately, 'environment doesn't matter,' he said. 'Consumers don't care about that as much as the media talks about it. Consumers are buying lab diamonds because they're so cheap. It's all about the price.'
