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LGBTQ+ businesses contribute over £106 billion to the UK economy despite huge challenges, report finds

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Based on largest-ever survey of UK LGBTQ+ entrepreneursSector focus on tech, fintech, biotech and sustainabilityChallenges include disclosure issues, discrimination and doubt

LONDON, Oct. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — In partnership with OutBritain, the UK’s first LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce, Open Political Economy Network (OPEN), a leading think tank focusing on diversity and tech, has today launched its LGBTQ+ Businesses Count report, which examines the contribution, challenges and characteristics of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs across the UK. In the absence of official UK data on LGBTQ+ businesses, this pioneering report presents the results of the largest-ever survey of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in the UK.

The report, sponsored by Accenture, Dow and Goldman Sachs, estimates that there are at least 250,000 LGBTQ+ businesses in the UK, which employ at least 750,000 people, many of them LGBTQ+, and have a combined turnover of at least £106 billion. The largest business founded by an LGBTQ+ entrepreneur that the report identifies is Global Media and Entertainment, which owns Heart, Capital, LBC and many other radio stations, whose founder and CEO Ashley Tabor-King is openly gay.

Most LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in the report’s survey pointed to particular challenges that they have faced in business because of being LGBTQ+. The most prevalent was doubt, followed by disclosure issues, notably invasive or inappropriate questions and a lack of role models. Next were discrimination and disconnection from mainstream business networks.

At the same time, most entrepreneurs mentioned benefits to their business from being LGBTQ+. Some 68% said it made them more determined to succeed and overcome adversity and 67% that their diverse perspectives and experience yielded business benefits, while 42% gained from an LGBTQ+ customer base.

To mitigate some of the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, OPEN proposes three recommendations on collecting better data, providing distinct support and developing supplier diversity:

Better data. Good public policy, sound business decisions and broader public understanding all require solid data. Companies House therefore ought to ask (but not require) company directors to disclose their sexual orientation and gender identity.Distinct support. To ensure that LGBTQ+ businesses have a voice in government, an LGBTQ+ business envoy should be appointed. Mainstream business networks should also be more pro-active in attracting, including and representing LGBTQ+ businesses. OutBritain also has a crucial role to play.Supplier diversity. Both large corporates and public authorities ought to do more to enhance equality of opportunity for diverse businesses, notably LGBTQ+ ones, in their procurement decisions. This would help LGBTQ+ businesses overcome the entrenched disadvantages they face, while providing corporates with more diverse and resilient supply chains.

Philippe Legrain, Founder of OPEN and lead author of the report, said: “While the UK has made huge progress in tackling legal injustices and social prejudices against LGBTQ+ people, the past leaves scars. Moreover, business tends to lag behind society as a whole in its acceptance of LGBTQ+ people; among the chief executives of the FTSE 100 leading companies, only one is openly gay. So, it is hugely important to document both the contribution and the challenges of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in the UK, which is why we have produced this report as a call to action to the government, mainstream business organisations and large corporations.”

Matt Dabrowski, Founder of OutBritain, said: “OutBritain has become a beacon in the UK’s business landscape, demonstrating how diversity is not merely a tagline but a potent catalyst for unprecedented change. Supporting LGBTQ+ businesses and seamlessly integrating them into the global economic ecosystem is at the heart of our organisation. This report not only celebrates the vibrant and dynamic contributions our community make to the UK’s economy, but more importantly, it will allow us to focus and align our efforts in driving a fairer, more diverse UK economy where LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and businesses are given fair representation and the opportunity to thrive.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

ABOUT THE REPORT #LGBTQBusinessesCount

The report is based on an online survey of 1,517 self-identified LGBTQ+ business founders and owners conducted between January and May 2024.

ABOUT OUTBRITAIN 

OutBritain, the UK’s first LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce, connects, supports and grows the UK LGBTQ+ business community, while connecting it with the rest of the world.

ABOUT OPEN @open2progress

OPEN is an international think tank that focuses on diversity and other openness issues. Its previous reports include Minority Businesses Matter: The Contribution and Challenges of Ethnic Minority Businesses in the UK.

DISCLAIMER

OPEN gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the sponsors of this report, Accenture, Dow and Goldman Sachs. At the same time, the content, words, opinions and views are solely its own and do not necessarily reflect the institutional views of said sponsors or any of their affiliates.

PRESS CONTACTS
info@opennetwork.net
matt@outbritain.co.uk 

Report https://www.opennetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/OPEN_LGBTQ-Businesses-Count-final_hi-res.pdf
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Oracle Introduces AI Agent-Ready Fusion Applications Setup and Configuration to Speed Implementations

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New registry provides Oracle product expertise and best practices as executable AI skills in a public Git repository to automate setup and configuration and fast-track adoption of new capabilities

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Oracle AI World — Oracle today announced the Oracle Fusion Setup and Configuration Registry (FSCR), a public Git repository that makes Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications setup and configuration machine-readable and executable by AI agents. Built and continuously maintained by Oracle, FSCR captures Oracle product expertise and best practices as reusable AI skills that enable agents to plan, execute, test, and validate setup and configuration directly in Oracle Fusion Applications. By automating much of the manual setup and configuration that can consume significant time during an implementation, FSCR performs much of this work through software and AI agents, allowing teams to focus more on business transformation, process redesign, and making business processes agentic.

“Customers and partners too often have to reconstruct critical setup and configuration knowledge for every implementation or rely on static documentation and one-time guides that can quickly become outdated as new product capabilities are introduced,” said Chris Leone, executive vice president, Applications Development, Oracle. “The Oracle Fusion Setup and Configuration Registry is like having an expert Oracle product manager guiding teams through the entire setup and configuration process. This represents a new model for enterprise application delivery, where implementation knowledge continuously evolves alongside the product and supports a transition to a new class of outcome-based applications.”

FSCR is the authoritative, machine-readable, and executable source for Oracle Fusion Applications setup and configuration. Available through a public Git repository, its AI skills capture Oracle product expertise and best practices spanning configuration options, dependencies, sequencing, execution, testing, and validation. Because FSCR is continuously maintained alongside Oracle Fusion Applications, customers, partners, and AI agents can work from the same current, product-aligned foundation. Systems integrators can extend this open foundation with their own methodologies, accelerators, automations, and industry solutions, shifting more of their expertise from repetitive setup and configuration toward transforming how businesses operate and agentic innovation.

Using FSCR, AI assistants and coding agents from OpenAI and others can translate business requirements, process documents, policies, and existing configurations into implementation runbooks and then perform the work. Agents can plan the required configuration, execute setup and updates directly in Oracle Fusion Applications, and automatically test and validate the results. Expert reviewers can examine completed configurations, request adjustments, and approve them for deployment.

Partner Support

“FSCR helps provide an AI-ready foundation that can help organizations move beyond the manual, repetitive work traditionally required to configure enterprise applications, which is particularly important for our mid-market clients to move at speed,” said DK Sinha, CEO, Accenture Edge. “By embedding Oracle expertise and best practices directly into continuously updated AI skills, FSCR helps us move faster, and get clients to value sooner.”

“Oracle Fusion Setup and Configuration Registry creates a meaningful opportunity for partners to extend Oracle’s authoritative foundation with the automation, accelerators, and implementation resources that address specific customer and industry needs,” said Chris Rapp, CEO, Apex IT. “With Oracle’s continuously maintained registry of AI skills, we can help customers implement Oracle Fusion Applications more efficiently while focusing our expertise on the innovation that drives their business forward.”

“FSCR gives the Oracle network a common foundation for configuring and implementing Oracle Fusion Applications,” said Swami Rajagopalan, global Oracle offering leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “By capturing foundational setup knowledge and making it available through a registry of AI skills, Oracle FSCR can help our clients move faster and deliver more consistent results with greater confidence.”

“Implementation teams should not have to recreate the same foundational setup logic on every project,” said Brandon Johnson, Oracle practice leader, Grant Thornton. “Oracle’s open-source registry of AI skills will help us apply AI more effectively, build scalable services, and tailor solutions to accelerate client success with Oracle Fusion Applications.”

“FSCR represents an exciting new AI-powered implementation model that will help our customers adopt Oracle Fusion Applications faster than ever,” said Kevin Sullivan, Global & US alliance leader, PwC. “This open-source foundation enables us to invest more in the industry insight and differentiated services that help clients realize even more value from their Fusion Applications, complementing our AI delivery platform to help clients implement leading practices, adapt to evolving business needs, and maximize the value of their technology investments over time.”

About Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications are a complete suite of cloud applications that form the enterprise system of record, spanning finance, HR, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service, and marketing. The suite includes Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX).

Fusion Agentic Applications extend that foundation into a system of outcomes. They can coordinate and execute end-to-end work toward business objectives, and are designed to operate within the policies, controls, and authority each organization defines. With Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, customers and partners can create, extend, and manage these agents and agentic applications combining trusted enterprise data with the security, data governance, and performance needed to operate at scale.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.

About Oracle AI World
Oracle AI World is where customers and partners discover the latest product and technology innovations, see how AI is being applied across industries, and connect with experts and peers. Attendees will gain practical tips and insights to drive immediate impact within their organizations and explore how Oracle is helping unlock the full potential of AI. Join the event to see new capabilities in action and hear from thought leaders and industry movers. Register now at oracle.com/ai-world or follow the news and conversation at oracle.com/news and linkedin.com/company/oracle.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

 

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SOURCE Oracle

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Oracle Advances Outcome-Driven AI Across Fusion Applications

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New agentic applications and AI experiences help organizations get work done and achieve measurable business outcomes across finance, HR, supply chain, sales, and service

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Oracle AI World — Oracle today announced new AI innovations across Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications. With new Oracle Fusion Agentic Applications powered by Oracle Fusion Claw, organizations can complete highly complex work economically and at scale across finance, HR, supply chain, sales, and service. To connect business objectives with execution, new AI experiences, including Oracle Fusion Companion and Oracle Fusion Agentic Home, enable users to define what they want to accomplish, delegate work to AI, and track progress while maintaining enterprise control and accountability.

“The next era of enterprise AI is all about delivering software that increasingly does the work, while people define the objectives and set the policies,” said Chris Leone, executive vice president, Applications Development, Oracle. “Fusion Agentic Applications, powered by Fusion Claw, can take on highly complex business processes economically and at scale. And with new AI experiences like Fusion Companion and Fusion Agentic Home, people can describe what they want to accomplish and delegate that work to AI agents and agentic applications. These innovations change how people work with enterprise software, giving them more capacity to focus on the decisions that matter while retaining control and accountability.”

Expand Governed Enterprise Execution
Agentic Applications represent a new class of outcome-based applications that provide Fusion Applications customers with a system of outcomes, where people define the objectives, authority, and accountability and the Agentic Applications coordinate the process to get to an outcome. Fusion Claw enables Agentic Applications to take on more complex, specialist-grade work by providing a new execution runtime that supports larger scale and longer-running work, continuous replanning, deterministic execution, and increased governed autonomy. 

Twenty-five Claw-powered Agentic Applications are now available across Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX). These include:

Ledger: Improves close readiness and resolves accounting exceptions faster by working across large volumes of accounting entries to reconcile information, investigate exceptions and anomalies, and apply deterministic computation to complex financial analysis and execution that is approved and authorized, within organizational policies and controls.Workforce Orchestration: Develops workforce plans that balance demand shifts, cost, and operational continuity, by evaluating development, redeployment, hiring, and external talent options, then coordinating and launching actions that are approved through organizational review.Payroll Activity Workspace: Supports payroll and financial reporting activities by comparing current pay, balances, and costs with prior periods; identifying material variances; and preparing recommended follow-up actions for review and approval.Supply Planning Allocation: Determines how to allocate scarce materials and capacity across competing demand by evaluating production lines, work centers, finished goods, components, and business trade-offs; comparing allocation scenarios; and preparing high-value allocation plans for teams to review, refine, and approve.Procurement Spend: Works to improve spend control by analyzing spend, supplier agreement, and purchasing data; detecting maverick spend and contract leakage; explaining root causes; quantifying savings opportunities; and recommending corrective actions for team review and approval.CPQ Test-to-Production Setup & Configuration Migration: Prepares and migrates configuration changes to production by assembling a migration package’s declared changes and dependencies in a reviewable report, identifying potential issues before deployment, and executing approved migration steps within provided authority.Service Health Check: Identifies emerging service-performance issues, determines likely root causes, and prepares high-impact actions across knowledge, automation, routing, policy, and process for review and then executes approved actions before these issues become sustained customer or operational problems.Strategic Field Demand Planning: Aligns field capacity with customer demand while managing overtime costs by predicting resource needs, identifying coverage gaps, and preparing resource actions for review before executing approved changes.

To learn more about the new Claw-powered Agentic Applications, please visit:

Oracle Extends Fusion Agentic Applications with Introduction of Fusion ClawOracle Introduces Claw-Powered Fusion Agentic Applications for HROracle Introduces Claw-Powered Fusion Agentic Applications for Supply ChainOracle Introduces Claw-Powered Fusion Agentic Applications for Customer Experience

Connect Intent to Action
Oracle Fusion Companion enables users to work with Oracle Fusion Applications through supported AI tools such as ChatGPT. As the intelligent layer for Oracle Fusion Applications, it uses enterprise business context, data, and user permissions to understand business objectives and automatically select and coordinate the appropriate transactions, workflows, approvals, AI agents, and agentic applications needed to execute work. Fusion Companion can also leverage data and context from other enterprise systems and coordinate authorized actions across those systems while respecting established security, permissions, and controls.

Oracle Fusion Agentic Home, supported by Fusion Companion, is a personalized, AI-native experience that enables users to define business objectives, delegate work to AI agents and agentic applications, and track progress through completion.

To learn more about Fusion Companion and Fusion Agentic Home, please visit:

Oracle Introduces New AI-Powered Ways to Execute Work Across Oracle Fusion Applications

Extending the Fusion AI ecosystem
Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications enables customers and partners to create, extend, and manage agents and agentic applications. Its no-code and pro-code capabilities support reusable Oracle, partner, and external agents, with built-in observability, ROI measurement, and safety controls to support responsible operation at scale.

To learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications, visit www.oracle.com/applications.

About Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications are a complete suite of cloud applications that form the enterprise system of record, spanning finance, HR, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service, and marketing. The suite includes Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX).

Fusion Agentic Applications extend that foundation into a system of outcomes. They can coordinate and execute end-to-end work toward business objectives, and are designed to operate within the policies, controls, and authority each organization defines. With Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, customers and partners can create, extend, and manage these agents and agentic applications combining trusted enterprise data with the security, data governance, and performance needed to operate at scale.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

About Oracle AI World
Oracle AI World is where customers and partners discover the latest product and technology innovations, see how AI is being applied across industries, and connect with experts and peers. Attendees will gain practical tips and insights to drive immediate impact within their organizations and explore how Oracle is helping unlock the full potential of AI. Join the event to see new capabilities in action and hear from thought leaders and industry movers. Register now at oracle.com/ai-world or follow the news and conversation at oracle.com/news and linkedin.com/company/oracle.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL, and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

 

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SOURCE Oracle

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BPEA Private Equity Rebrands as Brooke Private Equity

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New name reflects the firm’s heritage and continued focus on small buyout and growth investing

BOSTON, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — BPEA Private Equity today announced that it is rebranding as Brooke Private Equity (“Brooke” or the “Firm”). The name brings the Firm’s original identity back to the forefront and reflects the relationships and investment approach it has developed since its founding in 2002.

Originally established as Brooke Private Equity Associates and subsequently known as BPEA Private Equity, the Firm is adopting Brooke Private Equity as a simpler expression of its history and identity today.

“The Brooke name has been part of our story from the beginning,” said Christopher Austen, Managing Partner of Brooke Private Equity. “As our firm has grown, our focus has remained on finding compelling opportunities at the smaller end of the private equity market and building lasting relationships with investors, managers, and management teams. The name Brooke Private Equity brings that history and our business today together under a clear, recognizable name.”

The Brooke name reflects the legacy of co-founder, Peter Brooke, a pioneer in venture capital and private equity who founded both TA Associates and Advent International, two firms that helped shape the private equity industry. Peter’s emphasis on relationships and building businesses remains core to the Firm’s investment philosophy.

Brooke invests in small and lower middle market businesses through a combination of fund and direct investments alongside sector-focused private equity managers and independent sponsors. Its investment programs span three distinct strategies: diversified small buyout and growth, dedicated healthcare investing, and independent sponsor investing.

“Our history is an important part of who we are, and the relationships we have built continue to shape how we invest,” said John Brooke, Co-Founder and Senior Partner of Brooke Private Equity. “We are pleased to carry the Brooke name forward as we continue to develop the firm and serve our limited partners.”

About Brooke Private Equity

Founded in 2002, Brooke Private Equity is a Boston-based private equity firm focused on small and lower middle market buyout and growth investments. The Firm invests in private equity funds and directly in companies through small buyout and growth, healthcare-focused, and independent sponsor investment programs. Brooke combines an established network of manager and sponsor relationships with investment experience across business services and software, healthcare, consumer and retail, and industrial businesses.

For more information, visit www.brookepe.com.

Contact

Tim Maul
Director of Investor Relations
tmaul@brookepe.com

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SOURCE Brooke Private Equity

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