Tide, the business banking services platform, is in advanced talks to raise new funding in a deal expected to make it Britain’s latest technology unicorn.

Sky News has learnt that Tide has been negotiating the terms of an investment from Apis Partners, a prolific investor in the fintech sector, for some time.

City sources cautioned that a deal between the two was not yet certain to take place, and that other investors were also in discussions.

Apis Partners has backed early-stage companies such as Moneybox, the UK-based digital wealth manager, and Thunes, a digital payments infrastructure provider.

Significantly, the firm has made a string of investments in India, which is overtaking the UK as Tide’s single-biggest geography.

Tide now has roughly 650,000 SME customers in both Britain and India, with the latter market expanding at a faster rate.

The precise terms of a deal between Apis and Tide were unclear on Monday.

Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, has been advising Tide on the fundraising, which is expected to comprise a combination of primary and secondary shares.

Tide was founded in 2015 by George Bevis and Errol Damelin, before launching two years later.

It describes itself as the leading business financial platform in the UK, offering business accounts and related banking services.

The company also provides its SME ‘members’ in the UK a set of connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting.

It now boasts a roughly 11% SME banking market share in Britain.

Tide, which employs about 2,000 people, also launched in Germany last May.

The company’s investors include Apax Partners, Augmentum Fintech and LocalGlobe.

Chaired by the City grandee Sir Donald Brydon, Tide declined to comment on Monday.

Apis Partners also declined to comment.

The private equity giant EQT Partners is exploring an offer to buy the promoter of the World Rally Championship (WRC) as an auction valuing the business at close to £500m finally gets off the starting grid.

Sky News has learnt that Stockholm-based EQT is among a number of buyout firms preparing to bid for WRC Promoter, which owns the commercial rights to the WRC and the European Rally Championship.

Both series are sanctioned by the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body.

A sale of the promoter has been on the cards since last summer, when the news agency Reuters reported that bankers from JP Morgan had been hired to oversee an auction.

WRC Promoter is owned by the Austrian drinks behemoth Red Bull and KW25, a German investment company.

After five rounds of the 2025 WRC series, the championship standings are headed by British driver Elfyn Evans.

The next race takes place in northern Sardinia, Italy, later this week.

EQT has not been among the private equity industry’s most prolific investor in sports-related assets, but in recent months it has intensified its interest in the sector.

It recently took a stake in Baller League, a six-a-side football format which counts Gary Lineker among its backers, and was one of the bidders in auction of the commercial rights to Germany’s Bundesliga in 2023.

A spokesman for EQT declined to comment.

Ministers are to kick off the hunt for a new chair of the communications regulator as Lord Grade of Yarmouth prepares to bow out after a single term at the helm.

Sky News has learnt that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) – which now leads oversight of Ofcom in Whitehall – is drawing up proposals to launch a recruitment process in the coming months.

Lord Grade, the veteran broadcast executive who held senior posts at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, has served as Ofcom chair since May 2022.

His four-year term is not due to end for another 11 months, and there was no suggestion this weekend that he would leave the role ahead of that point.

Insiders said, however, that there was little prospect of him seeking to be reappointed for a second term in the job.

The now non-affiliated peer’s appointment to the post in 2022 came after a controversial recruitment process and was signed off by Nadine Dorries, the then Tory culture secretary.

Responsibility for Ofcom board appointments has switched since then from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Peter Kyle, the science secretary, authorised the recruitment of Tamara Ingram, an advertising industry stalwart, as Ofcom’s deputy chair, last November.

The search for a new Ofcom chair will come after a significant extension of its remit to encompass areas such as online harms.

Both DCMS, which has responsibility for the media industry, and the Department for Business and Trade also have substantial engagement with Ofcom.

As well as a role in appointing directors to the board of state-owned Channel 4, which is hunting both a chair and chief executive, Ofcom regulates companies such as Royal Mail, as well as the BBC.

This week, the watchdog said it was pursuing action against the formerly publicly owned postal services company over its failure to hit statutory delivery targets.

Ofcom also regulates the UK telecoms industry, making it one of the largest economic regulators in Britain.

Mr Kyle said this week that Ofcom should also prepare to be given regulatory oversight of the fast-growing data centre industry.

One of the tasks of Lord Grade’s successor is likely to be long-term executive leadership succession planning.

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, has held the role since 2020, although there is no indication that she intends to step down in the short term.

It was unclear this weekend whether any of Ofcom’s existing board members might seek to take over from Lord Grade.

Its slate of non-executive directors includes recently appointed Lord Allan of Hallam, a former MP, and Ben Verwaayen, the former BT Group chief executive.

Mr Verwaayen is due to step down from the Ofcom board at the end of the year.

The hunt for Ofcom’s next chair will come amid a push led by Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to shake up Britain’s economic regulators as they seek ways to remove red tape from the private sector.

DSIT has been contacted for comment, while Ofcom declined to comment.