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Robyn and Alice discuss one of Insider's Most Exciting Companies hitting its crowdfunding target, a 37-storey tower in Birmingham and growth for a law firm with offices across the UK.

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00:00An £11m investment in Harrogate, a successful crowdfunding in Manchester, and a skyscraper

00:05in Birmingham. That's all coming up on today's Daily Business Briefing.

00:14Hi, I'm Robin Hewson. And I'm Alice Bird.

00:17And welcome to today's Daily Business Briefing. So, our top story in the North West today

00:21is about MyManu, who are one of our most exciting companies. So, they just got inducted into

00:26the list this year because they're doing some really innovative things. And the news

00:30about them is that they've just hit their crowdfunding target of £480,000. Oh, wow.

00:35And that's on top of £200,000 that they'd already raised. So, MyManu, they help people

00:42to overcome translation issues. So, they have earbuds that can translate into different

00:47languages for you. That's really cool. I think I've actually seen people use them before,

00:51like footballers and people like that. You know, if they go play in a different country

00:55and you don't necessarily speak that language. That's really cool.

00:57Yeah, that's a really cool product. And they're based at Media City. And yeah, they're doing

01:02lots of innovative things. They were actually founded by Daniel Manu, who's a former engineer

01:06at an aerospace company. And he was on a training programme in Germany and basically noticed that

01:12there was a lot of issues with people being able to understand each other. And that's where this

01:16has come from. So, the new finance is going to be used to support their manufacturing and

01:21marketing strategy, as well as R&D for new product development. So, yeah, really exciting

01:26times for them. Yeah, definitely. Exciting times for an exciting company.

01:31Well, I've got some plans in Birmingham. So, a 37-storey residential tower could

01:37soon become reality after being recommended for approval. So, you know Modo?

01:42Yeah, they've got a few schemes in the northwest, I think, yeah.

01:44Yeah, well, they are the developer for the scheme, which is going to include more than 460

01:49apartments. It will form part of the new Garden Square neighbourhood in Ladywood. So, if you're

01:54not familiar with that scheme, it's going to include about 1,600 homes, along with commercial

02:01space, office space and leisure space. And yeah, Birmingham City Council's Planning Committee will

02:07meet next week to chat about those proposals and potentially sign them off.

02:11Oh, exciting times. So, I also have a property story as well, which is in Yorkshire. And that's

02:16about the revised Harrogate station gateway schemes. So, they've just been shared with the

02:20public. And major changes have been announced there that are going to help access to the

02:27stations in Harrogate, as well as improvements to public realm. So, that is an £11 million scheme,

02:33which is funded by the Transforming Cities Fund. And it's actually part of a wider

02:39£44.6 million investment across North Yorkshire. So, there's also Skipton and Selby that are

02:44getting some of this funding as well. And there's going to be additional cycle parking in the new

02:50revised schemes, including covered parking, as well as higher use of quality materials,

02:57such as Yorkshire paving stones. And they're also going to include more lighting to make the town

03:02centre appealing in the evening. So, yeah, should be nice to pay a visit there once it's done.

03:06Yeah, definitely. I really like Harrogate. It's a nice town.

03:09I've actually never been, but yeah, I'll have to go back in 2026 when the scheme is finished.

03:15Well, to finish off, law firm Bevan Britain has reported growth in both its profits and turnover

03:21for the 11th consecutive year. So, that business has offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and

03:27London, and it's filed some new results, which cover the year to 30th of April 2023. So, those

03:35results have shown that income rose to £76.2 million. Profit was also up to £18.9 million.

03:43And now in a report filed alongside the accounts, the business said that growth was seen

03:48across a lot of different sectors, in particular, higher education,

03:53independent health and care and local and central government. In the year, they also made quite a

03:59lot of lateral hires, including eight partner hires. And for the first time in their history,

04:04more than half of their partners are women. Oh, that's great.

04:07Yeah. Well, that's all we've got time for today. If you want to read more about that story or any

04:12of the stories we've discussed, you can go to insidermedia.com. While you're there, feel free

04:16to subscribe to our newsletters and, of course, our magazines. Thanks for watching.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 1st August

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