Just a day after seeing shares surge on the back of strong results driven by portfolio company valuation appreciation, Molten Ventures has announced a fresh investment in an existing holding.

Molten Ventures has put another €30m behind Isar Aerospace, providing further backing for the German rocket company, which it already holds as one of the standout names in European space.

The London-listed venture capital firm was involved in Isar’s €270m Series D round, investing alongside Island Green Capital and other existing shareholders. The fresh capital will go towards scaling the business globally and ramping up serial production of its Spectrum launch vehicle.

Founded near Munich in 2018, Isar is a launch provider for small and medium satellites. Molten’s thinking here is rooted in a structural gap: demand for reliable access to orbit, whether for comms, earth observation or defence, is climbing just as Europe finds itself short of a commercially competitive launch provider of its own.

Ben Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer of Molten Ventures, said: “Isar Aerospace represents one of the most significant opportunities in the European space technology sector.”

“It exemplifies what we do as venture capital investors: identifying and providing our investors with exposure to category-defining companies, backing them from an early stage, continuing to support these companies at key value inflexion points, and ultimately being well-positioned to realise outsized returns. We are extremely proud to be continuing to support Isar’s success.”

There’s a sovereignty angle too. With European governments increasingly keen on homegrown launch capability for national security, Molten sees Isar as well-placed to become a defining player in the continent’s new space infrastructure.

Molten and its investors have already done very well out of Isar. Molten’s existing Isar holding, held through its Earlybird funds in the Core Portfolio, was valued at £40m at the March year-end – a return of roughly 10.1 times the capital invested.

Nebius, the AI cloud company, has unveiled the Physical AI Living Lab, a six-month programme designed to give British and European robotics start-ups access to NVIDIA’s physical AI development tools alongside Nebius’s own cloud infrastructure.

The programme aims to address a bottleneck for early-stage robotics firms in scaling simulations and taking their technology towards full-scale deployment.

Physical AI leans heavily on large-scale simulation, synthetic data, and compute power, the kind of stack most fledgling companies simply cannot facilitate on their own.

The Living Lab aims to strip away that barrier, giving founders the tooling to build physical AI at scale so they can move from simulation to real-world deployment faster.

Participating start-ups will work hands-on with a roster of NVIDIA technologies, including OSMO for workload orchestration, Cosmos world foundation models, and Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab for robot simulation and training, all running on Nebius infrastructure.

Synthetic data generation comes via Voxel51’s FiftyOne integration. The first phase will run on Nebius’s UK-based infrastructure, built on NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs.

Anthony Hills, Director, UK&I at NVIDIA, pointed to the gap between Britain’s world-class robotics research and scaled, market-ready solutions, framing the Lab as a way to close it and give UK founders a clear path from prototype to deployed system.

Applications run through the NVIDIA Inception pipeline, with the first cohort beginning in September 2026.

Once the most valuable company in the world, Apple has been late to the AI party, and unfortunately for investors, the latest insight into its efforts to become a player in the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence has failed to wow investors.

Although Apple was one of the first tech firms to offer AI via its Siri assistant, its AI capabilities have plateaued, leaving it behind other major AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Instead of competing with LLM developers and researchers, Apple has focused on hardware, and many hoped its annual developer conference this week would be a big reveal of cutting-edge technology.

But they were left disappointed by developments that are unlikely to spur a major influx of revenue from new device sales in the near term.

Josh Gilbert, eToro Lead Analyst, said: “Markets had been longing for Apple’s AI story to take shape, and although that story started at its WWDC event, it wasn’t quite the chapter that investors were hoping for. Apple showed it has a clearer AI strategy, but it did not completely silence concerns that it is still playing catch-up. Shares fell around 2% after the event, after a 50% rally in the last 12 months.”

“The centrepiece was Siri AI, a long-awaited overhaul designed to make Apple’s voice assistant more conversational, more contextual and more useful across apps. Apple also rolled out broader AI tools across areas like the Photos app, writing assistance and visual intelligence, while its developer tools will let apps tap into Apple Intelligence and on-device models.”

Analysts also highlighted the lack of a timeline as a reason for disappointment with the strategy outlined this week.

“Investors wanted proof that Apple can deliver the agentic phone experience users increasingly expect, and the new Siri was the most important piece to nail,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“The demos showed progress, with more personal context and better cross-app capability, but this looked like a safe first step rather than a true wow moment. Just as importantly, Apple still stopped short of giving a firm timeline for when users will get the full experience.”

Thor Energy (LON: THR) has achieved impressive results from the phase 2 soil-air geochemistry survey at the HY-Range project, where it has a 80.2% interest, in South Australia. Peak natural hydrogen recorded was 0.3%, which is much higher than previous readings and the normal background levels. Exploration targets are being identified. Detail will be added by a 2D seismic survey. The share price gained 16.7% to 0.7p.

First Development Resources (LON: FDR) has been awarded A$100,000 to support the phase 1 drilling programme at the Lander West gold target, which is part of the Selta project in the Northern Territory. Drilling should commence in July. The share price rose 6.56% to 3.25p.

Mixer drinks supplier Fevertree Drinks (LON: FEVR) announced a further £30m share buyback programme. Energy costs are hedged into 2028, and other costs are hedged into 2027. Trading is in line with expectations. Market share has been gained in the UK, Europe and the US. The share price improved 6.42% to 807.75p.

Zephyr Energy (LON: ZPHR) has successfully completed the gas pipeline in-line inspection process at the Paradox project. There are four areas that will be visually inspected, but gas export via the pipeline should happen in the near future. The share price recovered 5.08% to 3.1p.  

Orosur Mining (LON: OMI) has found new mineralised zones at the APTA prospect south of Pepas. This is part of the Anza project. The latest hole has shown identified mineralisation of 229.7 metres at 0.88g/t from 189.5 metres. This includes higher grade intervals. The share price increased 2.78% to 20.3p.

FALLERS

Marketing services provider Silver Bullet Data Services (LON: SBDS) is asking for shareholder approval for a departure from AIM. It argues that the weak financial markets mean that the company is undervalued and hampers its ability to raise money. This will also save £500,000 each year. A general meeting will be held on 25 June. A matched bargains facility operated by JP Jenkins will operate for at least 12 months. The company joined AIM on 28 June when it was valued at £34.5m at the placing price of 257p. The share price slumped 54% to 11.5p.

LBG Media (LON: LBG) has been hit by a sharp downturn in higher margin programmatic advertising revenues. Direct sales helped to increase interim revenues 19% to £52.4m, but pre-tax profit fell from £11.1m to £6.3m and full year guidance has been reduced. Zeus expects full year pre-tax profit to slump from £22.9m to £11.9m. The share price declined 23.7% to 26.7p. The December 2021 flotation price was 175p.

Celsius Resources (LON: CLA) revealed that “Maharlika Investment Corporation has announced the completion of the assignment of its rights, title, and interests under the Omnibus Loan and Security Agreement with Makilala Mining Company Inc. to Equinaire Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kiri Industries Limited of India”.  Celsius is starting an emergency arbitration process to stop any offtake agreement and told Kiri that it will rescind any transactions agreed with MMCI that it has not approved. There is an ongoing arbitration process between Sodor, PMR and Celsius. Management has been appointed to subsidiary Tambuli Mining Company, which holds the Sagay copper project in the Philippines. The share price slipped 16.7% to 0.325p.

Rockfire Resources (LON: ROCK) issued a drilling update for the Molaoi zinc deposit in Greece. There were strong analytical results from hole HMO-016 and high-grade pXRF results from HMO-017 and HMO-018. There is further in-fill drilling continuing. This will go towards updating the indicated resource. The current inferred mineral resource uses a 4% low-grade cut, and equates to 1.09 million tonnes of zinc, 260,000 tonnes of lead and 19.1 million ounces of silver. The share price dipped 10% to 0.135p.

The FTSE 100 dipped on Tuesday as London’s leading index continued to shift back and forth on headlines from the Middle East.

But this wasn’t the case with other global indices, especially US bourses, where a technology recovery helped drive stocks higher.

The NASDAQ closed 0.8% higher overnight, and futures were pointing to a stronger start today as investors digested the news that OpenAI has filed for an IPO, joining SpaceX and Anthropic in the race for trillion-dollar listing valuations.

SpaceX is set to price this week in the most highly anticipated US IPO for years. Elon Musk’s space exploration company is on target for a $1.75 trillion valuation, making it the biggest IPO in history. 

But any excitement around AI IPOs was lacking in UK markets, where the focus was on oil and inflation. 

“The wind keeps changing direction on the Iran war, meaning investor sentiment is running hot and cold depending on the rhetoric,” says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. 

“The Brent crude oil price has become a proxy for whether markets think the Middle East conflict will soon be resolved or not, and today’s 1% drop to $93.32 per barrel would suggest renewed optimism.

“Markets have bounced back after a major sell-off last Friday on Wall Street, although the FTSE 100 is a laggard thanks to being dragged down by BP and Shell amid a lower oil price, and by investors trimming positions in the pharma space.”

The FTSE 100 was also hit by GSK, whose shares fell after it announced the acquisition of Nuvalent for $10.6bn.

Housebuilders were among the best performers of the day, with Persimmon and Barratt Redrow adding more than 2% on the back of a positive update from Bellway. 

Investors are adopting a braced position, awaiting Housebuilder updates, but Bellway’s update was actually quite good, with guidance maintained despite the obvious pressures from higher mortgage rates caused by the war in the Middle East.

Mark Crouch, market analyst for eToro, said: “Bellway’s update is a reassuring one for investors, particularly given the backdrop of higher mortgage rates and persistent affordability pressures. While the house builder has seen demand soften somewhat in April and May, reservation rates remain ahead of first-half levels and cancellation rates are still exceptionally low, suggesting underlying buyer confidence remains relatively resilient.”

Fever-Tree has kicked off the year in good shape, telling shareholders it remains confident of meeting full-year expectations and sweetening the news with a fresh £30m addition to its share buyback.

In a statement ahead of today’s AGM, the premium mixer maker said it had made a solid start and continued to push on with its strategic priorities.

Chief among them is the US, where the tie-up with Molson Coors is gathering pace. The partnership has moved past its initial transition phase and is now winning new accounts and building distribution, aided by the brand’s first national US marketing campaign, which rolled out across TV, digital, and e-commerce in April alongside a nationwide sampling push.

Closer to home, Fever-Tree is leaning harder into its drink-it-any-way message. A new UK campaign, positioning the brand as both a mixer and a premium soft drink in its own right, also launched in April.

Australia remains a bright spot, with the premium soft drinks range driving momentum and a new Lemon, Lime & Bitters launched in partnership with Angostura.

Tim Warrillow, CEO of Fever-Tree, said: “We have continued to make good progress against our strategic priorities so far this year. Fever-Tree is well placed to drive long-term growth across our markets as both a premium mixer and soft drink brand and this year we are significantly increasing marketing investment and innovating to support our growth ambitions.

Corporate finance business Marechale Capital (LON: MAC) has obtained FCA approval for the acquisition of Stanford Capital Partners. This is one of the three acquisitions announced last week that will scale up the business. The share price jumped a further 22.55 to 5.45p and it is 173% higher since the end of May.  

Beeks Financial Cloud (LON: BKS) has signed a five-year contract worth £3.6m with a Tier 1 global bank for the deployment of AI-based trading analysis and monitoring tool Market Edge Intelligence software in one part of its business. This will help to underpin expectations for 2025-26. This helped the share price to rebound 17.9% to 191.5p.

Oriole Resources (LON: ORR) has announced further results from drilling at 50%-owned Mbe orogenic gold project in Cameroon. Gold is over significant widths in the two latest drill holes. An updated mineral resource estimate is expected in early third quarter 2026. The share price improved 11.7% to 0.335p.

Jangada Mines (LON: JAN) has started phase 2 drilling at the Molly gold project in Brazil. There will be ten holes totalling around 1,100 metres. This will refine geological models. The share price rose 6.82% to 1.175p.

FALLERS

Genetic testing developer GENinCODE (LON: GENI) reported 14% growth in 2025 revenues to £3.1m, but investment in preparation of growth in the US and other markets meant that the loss increased. There was a £4.12m cash outflow from operating activities during the year. Earlier this year, £4.3m net was raised at 1p/share, so there is enough cash to take the business into 2027. This year the new manufacturing and distribution deal with Thermo Fisher will start to make a contribution and an FDA submission for the CARDIO inCode-Score test assessing coronary genetic risk is expected in the third quarter. If things go to plan approval could be received by the end of 2026. Updated guidelines for this type of test were announced in March, and they should provide additional momentum for sales. This year Spain will continue to be the main generator of revenues, but GENinCODE is laying the foundations for additional growth in other markets next year. The share price dipped 17.4% to 0.95p.

Podcast platform operator Audioboom (LON: BOOM) has concluded its strategic review. There were three potential bidders, but they were deemed to be undervaluing the business. First quarter revenues were a record and a 2026 pre-tax profit of $6.5m is forecast. The share price declined 15.2% to 475p.

Capital machinery supplier Mpac (LON: MPAC) is selling its subsidiary Lambert and trading remains tough. Lambert produced specialist packaging lines and differed from the rest of the business which supplies more standardised capital equipment. Lambert lost money last year, but it is expected to return to profit in 2026. Italy-based Mech.i. Tronic is paying an initial £16m for Lambert with up to £4m more depending on performance in 2026. This deal is part of the reason behind a sharp cut in the 2026 pre-tax profit forecast, but there are also tough trading conditions putting pressure on margins.  Panmure Liberum has cut its pre-tax profit forecast from £15m to £8.5m. Net debt should be reduced to £30.8m by the end of the year. The share price slid 11.4% to 232.5p.

Great Western Mining Corporation (LON: GWMO) shares will start trading on the US OTCQB market today and they should be attractive to US investors because of the mining assets in Nevada. The share price fell 10.3% to 3.9p.