Baby products company Frida is expanding into a line of personal care products for kids ages 6 to 11 that will be sold in Walmart and on Amazon, the company told CNBC exclusively.

CEO Chelsea Hirschhorn said the launch marks the next natural step for the company, which has seen its first customers age into new categories, and offers an opportunity to secure shelf space in a category that’s largely untapped and unexplored.

“It really wasn’t necessarily only that there was this opportunity created in the retail environment or in culture, but it was really the dearth of genuine, thoughtful innovation for this stage of parenthood that felt like a rinse and repeat of our playbook in mother care and baby care,” Hirschhorn told CNBC.

Hirschhorn, who created the company when her first child was a baby, said the gap in the market is one she’s seen firsthand as a mother of four children. As her eldest child has grown, she said there were plenty of options in the baby aisle and teen aisle, but nothing in between to address the needs of young kids’ personal care.

While the new category marks a significant step for the company, she said it’s ensuring it’s not alienating core customers looking for baby products.

Since its launch, Frida has generated more than $2 billion in retail sales and grown roughly 30% annually over the past five years, the company told CNBC exclusively. Though it began as a baby products company, it’s now branched out into products for pregnancy, postpartum and now kids.

According to a report from Kings Research, the kids’ personal care market was valued at roughly $82 billion in 2022 and was expected to reach $137 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 7%.

Hirschhorn said Walmart has been curating and launching a new aisle dedicated to kids’ care, where parents can find products in between baby and adult options. That dedicated shelf space, along with Walmart’s reach across the country and emphasis on value, made it an ideal destination for Frida for Kids, she added.

“Walmart came to the table in a really exciting way and said, ‘We see an opportunity in a dedicated spot for everything from tween deodorant to shampoo, nail care and oral care because this parent deserves convenience above all else,’” she said.

The new products span categories including body wash, deodorant, electric flossers and more, in the price range of $6.99 to $19.99. Hirschhorn said each of the products was designed specifically for kids in this age cohort without relying on certain ingredients that might not be appropriate for their age.

“It’s a glaring gap,” she said. “When I’m done with tear-free baby shampoo, strolling the aisles of the personal care section, the only thing that jumps out is … the section for men.”

Retail innovation in the tween space has been expanding over the past few years. Companies like Sephora have seen explosive growth in kids’ interest in beauty, while apparel retailers have created more dedicated sizing for tweens.

It coincides with Generation Alpha reshaping some of the retail landscape, as the digitally native and online-savvy cohort becomes increasingly important for brands to capture and build loyalty with. Alpha roughly starts with babies born in 2010 and goes through babies born in 2025, according to Merriam-Webster, but those start and end dates are debated.

Hirschhorn said Frida is taking notice of that trend.

“This is otherwise a pretty fragmented shopping experience for parents who are ready to graduate the diaper aisle,” she said. “There’s no holistic experience for all of the personal care products for kids with that age, and so that was a really important part for us, just as it was in mother care.”

Investment in rare disease biotechs has increased since the US Food and Drug Administration’s Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher (PRV) programme was signed back into law in February, according to SynaptixBio, the only company licensed to commercialise a treatment for the rare, deadly disease H-ABC, though the United States remains dominant.

The programme, which grants tradable vouchers to developers of rare paediatric disease treatments, will remain in place until it is reviewed again in September 2029. Vouchers have recently been sold for between $150 million and $200 million, and because a sale does not require the seller to issue new equity, PRVs are considered a prime source of non-dilutive capital.

VC firm V-Bio said: “Reauthorization of the FDA’s Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher (PRV) scheme has restored financial certainty and sparked intense interest from large pharma.”

Dan Williams PhD, chief executive of SynaptixBio, said: “The US dominates because the PRV program creates a highly valuable and, more importantly, tradable asset.

“VCs and private equity firms are far more willing to invest in rare disease biotechs simply because they provide a financial return on investment.”

He added: “While the UK is known for high-quality science and innovation, it has seen a sharp contraction in biotech fundraising. Without an equivalent to the FDA PRV program, UK rare disease biotechs rely heavily on public markets, private investment, or acquisition by larger global pharma to secure capital.”

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry warned last September that the UK was slipping in the global race for life sciences investment, with foreign direct investment 58 per cent below 2017 levels.

There are signs of recovery at home. Figures from data platform Tracxn show UK life sciences funding rose 228 per cent to $3.2 billion in the first half of 2026, although the money went to fewer companies.

Market analysis published by Schroders in April said: “With public markets grappling with valuation volatility, the UK’s ‘golden triangle’ of innovation – spanning London, Oxford, and Cambridge – continues to produce the next generation of biotech champions.

“Historically, the UK’s Achilles’ heel has been the ‘Valley of Death’ – the gap between brilliant seed-stage science and the massive capital required for clinical trials. Too often, UK companies were forced to list in New York just to access the depth of capital needed to scale.”

Sergey Jakimov, founding partner at biotech VC firm LongeVC, told Cure: “Orphan therapies are already projected to be roughly a fifth of global prescription revenue. Pharma needs de-risked, clinically validated assets, and rare disease programs tend to show up better in diligence.”

The US has historically set the pace in rare disease drug development. The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 established incentives including market exclusivity, tax credits and support with getting into the clinic.

In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency published a draft rare disease therapies regulatory framework in May, designed to bring rare disease drugs to market more quickly. The consultation closed on 30 July.

Williams said: “It would be ideal if the UK could introduce a scheme similar to the PRV. With the proposed new framework we have everything in place to better manage the clinical trial and marketing authorisation process for rare disease therapies, but it stops there.

“Reducing regulatory and approvals timescales and costs can only be good for rare disease patients and their families, but adding this stronger incentive could transform the industry, making the UK a leading player in research and development in this key area.

“We still aim to conduct clinical trials in the UK, using the results to inform further trials in the US, but this all depends on raising further investment.”

SynaptixBio last year selected its lead candidate drug, an antisense oligonucleotide, for clinical trials. The technology silences mutated genes to stop them forming toxic proteins without altering the gene itself.

Around 1 in 17 people will be affected by a rare disease during their lifetime, more than 3.5 million people in the UK, but only around 5 per cent of the c10,000 known rare diseases have an approved treatment. Around 80 per cent are caused by a mutation in a single gene, making them more suitable for targeted treatments such as gene silencing.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

NatWest is making loan repayment holidays, interest rate reductions and temporary emergency lending with no arrangement fees available to farming customers, as drought conditions across large parts of the UK cut crop yields and put pressure on farm cashflow.

The bank said its specialist agriculture team is proactively contacting customers. Further support for eligible farming businesses includes overdraft help, working capital facilities and funding for resilience investments such as water storage and reservoir projects that capture water during wetter months for use in dry periods.

The move follows official drought declarations covering much of the country. The Environment Agency said on 10 August that 71.3 per cent of England is now in drought after the driest July in 190 years, with farmers reporting their earliest harvests in 20 years and reduced yields, and livestock farmers beginning to use winter forage stocks early because of poor grass growth.

NatWest said it is not currently seeing a significant increase in demand for support, but expects enquiries to rise later in the season as farming businesses assess the financial and operational effects of the prolonged dry weather.

According to the bank, arable farmers are facing lower yields and earlier harvesting, while livestock businesses are contending with reduced grass growth and increased feed costs. Water availability and irrigation restrictions are affecting some operations, and warmer conditions are increasing the risk of disease outbreaks that can affect livestock productivity and farm incomes.

Farmers had warned as early as the spring that dry conditions were already hitting UK crop production, with the National Farmers’ Union reporting that some growers had started irrigating weeks earlier than usual.

Ian Burrow, head of agriculture at NatWest Group, said: “British farmers are increasingly being forced to manage the consequences of weather extremes, from flooding one season to drought the next. The challenge for many businesses is no longer simply recovering from a single event but building resilience for a future where these conditions are becoming more frequent.

“While we are not yet seeing a material increase in demand for support, we expect pressures on some farming businesses to build over the coming weeks and months. With harvests progressing earlier than usual in some areas and livestock farmers already relying on winter feed stocks due to poor grass growth, cashflow and feed availability could become increasingly challenging. Through our network of named specialist agriculture Relationship Managers, we’re ready to provide tailored support and guidance to customers as those pressures emerge.”

The bank said its network of named agriculture relationship managers gives farming customers a dedicated point of contact with sector expertise.

Farming minister Stephen Morgan said: “I know how difficult these dry conditions have been for farmers, and it’s good to see NatWest stepping up support for their agricultural customers at this critical time. Through the National Drought Group, we are working hand-in-hand with industry, the Environment Agency and the water sector to help farm businesses manage today’s pressures and build long-term resilience. I’d encourage any farmer struggling with the impact of drought to speak to their bank and explore what support is available to them.”

The dry summer adds to pressure on a sector still recovering from 2024, when the second-worst wheat harvest on record left farmers facing an estimated £600 million hit, according to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

NatWest is encouraging agricultural customers experiencing financial pressure because of the drought to contact their relationship manager as early as possible.

Jamie Young

Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk

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Defence technology company Cambridge Aerospace has raised $300 million at a valuation of $3.4 billion, two years after it was founded, in a series C funding round led by the San Francisco-based investor DFJ Growth.

The round takes the company’s total funding to $636 million since it was set up in 2024. The money will be used to expand development of its missile and drone interceptor systems and its manufacturing capabilities.

The company is developing Skyhammer, a low-cost anti-drone interceptor that is in production, and Starhammer, a rocket-powered interceptor missile built for higher-speed targets such as cruise missiles, which is due to come to market next year.

The Ministry of Defence announced in April that it was purchasing Skyhammer air defence systems, with deliveries starting from May. Skyhammer, which began development in January 2025, has a range of more than 18 miles and a top speed of 430mph, enabling it to intercept drones and low-speed missiles.

The latest raise follows a $200 million round in April at a $1.3 billion valuation, which took the company into the ranks of the UK’s billion-dollar start-ups. That round was co-led by the entrepreneur and investor Elad Gil and the venture capital firm Spark Capital. Gil also invested in the new round, alongside Lux, Accel and Lakestar among others.

Steven Barrett, chief executive, said the company had a “singular mission to protect Allied skies” and that the funds “will allow us to continue to scale our manufacturing and our delivery to meet the pace of threats”. The company is in talks with the US government.

Barrett relocated to Cambridge in 2024 to become regius professor of engineering at the university, having previously been head of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He decided to launch the company after assessing “where I wanted to contribute in aerospace engineering”.

“Ukraine feels very close when you move back to the UK after a period thousands of miles away,” he said. “And it seems really obvious that we had a desperate need for cost-effective air defence. You can see that every day in the news and that was obvious even a couple of years ago.”

He has said the company is able to produce its interceptors at a lower cost and greater volume using technology, such as artificial intelligence, and its “highly driven, ambitious talent”.

Cambridge Aerospace employs about 250 people, mostly in the UK. Chris Sylvan, its chief commercial officer, is a former Royal Marine.

Sir Grant Shapps stepped down as the company’s chairman in April after the former Conservative defence secretary was found to have breached the rules on ex-ministers’ business appointments. Shapps, who lost his seat at the 2024 general election, was defence secretary from August 2023 to July 2024.

In March, Cambridge Aerospace was among 13 UK-based defence firms that met Gulf ambassadors at an MoD-convened meeting to discuss equipment and technology that could support regional allies in countering Iranian drone and missile attacks. In June, it signed a deal with Kawasaki Heavy Industries to build a manufacturing facility in Japan, part of a broader technology partnership between the UK and Japan.

Randy Glein, managing partner at DFJ Growth, said Cambridge Aerospace had developed “an affordable and accurate counter-UAS [unmanned aircraft system] for eliminating the inbound threats and battlefield chaos caused by low-cost aerial attack drones”.

He added: “We surveyed the global landscape and identified Cambridge as having the best team and technology to build the most advanced and modern air defence infrastructure for Europe and its allies.”

The government is working to focus more state procurement on UK start-up and scale-up companies to accelerate their growth.

Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, said: “It is exactly what our unicorn scheme is designed to create: British start-ups scaling into billion-pound companies, creating skilled jobs, cementing the UK’s position at the forefront of defence innovation.”

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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The Air Force changed the math of military-to-civilian hiring this spring. On March 31, 2026, the Department of the Air Force began capping how long airmen and guardians can spend in the Defense Department’s SkillBridge program before they leave the service, tying the maximum to rank.   

Junior enlisted members and officers through the rank of O-3 can train for up to 120 days; more senior personnel are held to 90. The earlier policy let nearly everyone use the full 180-day window. For a contractor that recruits through SkillBridge, the change shortens the runway for turning a transitioning service member into a hire.   

Margarita Howard, founder and chief executive of HX5, has spent five years running a veteran pipeline built to work inside that kind of limit.  

HX5 is a defense and aerospace services contractor that Howard started in 2004. It employs close to 1,000 people, working primarily with the Department of Defense and NASA. Veterans account for more than 30% of that workforce. Howard, an Air Force veteran, tends to describe that share as a point of pride but, also as a fix for a recruiting problem her corner of the industry has struggled to solve any other way.  

How a SkillBridge Placement Becomes a Cleared Role at HX5  

HX5 entered the SkillBridge network in 2021 through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program, a twelve-week track that places a service member with an employer four days a week and reserves the fifth for professional development.   

Through that program, the Defense Department keeps paying the fellow’s military salary and benefits until the end of active duty, so the host company carries no direct labor cost. But the fellow steps into an actual assignment rather than a shadowing arrangement, and is measured against the same standards as the permanent staff working beside them.  

Howard hires two Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program fellows a year rather than running a large intake. Each placement is matched to a specific contract and a specific clearance requirement, so the twelve weeks function as a working tryout in both directions. The company learns whether a fellow’s background maps onto the program they would actually staff, while the fellow learns whether the role and the site are what they want. When the fit holds, the fellowship can convert into a permanent, cleared position, and the candidate starts that job already knowing the team and the contract.  

Government Experience Shortens the Onboarding Curve  

The reason the model pays off is what a candidate brings on the first day. A fellow transitioning out of uniform usually arrives with an active security clearance and, more important, with firsthand knowledge of how a government program actually runs: how a contracting officer evaluates performance, what a compliance deadline means when an agency mission depends on it, how a secured environment differs from a commercial office. Those are the parts of the job that take a strong commercial hire months to absorb, and that a service member has already lived. At the site level, that experience compresses onboarding from a long ramp into a short one.  

It is also why Howard guards hiring so closely. She has said the hardest responsibility for her to delegate as the company grew was personnel, because “much of our success has been because of the people that we’ve hired.” What she eventually handed off was the volume, not the standard. The job, as she came to see it, was “less about being involved in every single hire and more about creating a culture, finding people that would share our vision, support our mission.” A veteran who has spent a career inside the mission tends to clear that bar before the interview starts.  

Once a fellow converts, HX5 leans on the same internal machinery it uses to hold knowledge in a workforce where many employees stay a decade or more.   

“We also have our mentorship programs where senior employees mentor newer hires, ensuring that knowledge transfers happen quickly and consistently from within,” Howard said.   

Margarita Howard’s Practical Case for Veteran Hiring  

The market explains the urgency. Cleared, technically credentialed talent has been the binding constraint across aerospace and defense for years, and the candidates HX5 needs sit at the narrow intersection of clearance, technical skill, and direct agency experience. SkillBridge delivers people who already hold the clearance and the experience, which is why Howard treats veteran hiring as workforce strategy rather than goodwill.   

The approach has a federal scorecard behind it. In 2025 the Department of Labor awarded HX5 its HIRE Vets Gold Medallion, the government’s only veteran-employment recognition tied to measured hiring and retention rather than intent. The 30% veteran share and a high fellowship-to-hire conversion rate are the kind of numbers that distinction rewards.  

But those results now have to be produced in a tighter environment. The Defense Department has tightened the criteria partner organizations must meet and pushed them toward structured enrollment and real hiring commitments, and the Air Force’s new rank-based caps shorten the time a fellow has to begin with. A program built around bulk intake and open-ended auditions has less room than it did a year ago. A program built the way Howard built hers, small, matched to specific roles, and aimed at conversion from the outset, is largely already operating to the standard the rules now require.   

Its commercial lending book currently stands at £864m alongside further commitments of nearly £300m.

Principality Building Society continued to ramp up commercial lending to support the building of new social homes in the first half of this year while bearing down on costs against the backdrop of inflationary pressures.

The Cardiff headquartered mutual, which is the sixth largest in the UK on total assets, has reported an underlying profit before tax of £22.2m (June 2025: £22.5m), reflecting a £5.6m impairment provisioning charge in response to the weakening economic outlook. Its net operating income increased to £86.2m, up £4.7m year on year, while net interest margin rose to 1.27%. In the first half total assets were up from £13.9bn in the second half of 2005 to £14.1bn.

The building society said it remains focused on cost management, in the face of inflationary challenges. As a result it said its operating expenses have remained broadly stable year-on- year at £60.2m (June 2026) compared to £59.0m (June 2025) while its management expense ratio has remained stable.

Its chief executive Iain Mansfield, said “The first half of the year has been dominated by continued geopolitical uncertainty, with conflict in the Middle East creating volatility across financial markets and influencing expectations for future Bank of England base rate changes. These external forces have contributed to a challenging operating environment for households and businesses across the globe.

“In the face of a challenging market, we continue to listen to and respond to our brokers and customers’ feedback, which has meant that we have been able to take a more focused and distinctive approach to our lending, helping more people access finance for their homes, responsibly.”

Its commercial lending book currently stands at £864m alongside further commitments of nearly £300m. It committed £73m of new housing association lending (June 2025: £15m) and agreed funding to property developers that will fund the development of 352 new homes (June 2025: 55) It also expanded its presence in the English housing association market, through a £30m lending agreement with Plus Dane Housing.

Mr Mansfield has said he would like to double the size of Principality’s commercial lending to £2bn-plus.

During the first half the mutual’s mortgage balances increased by £200m £11.3bn (December 2025: £11.1bn). It now support 89,867 homeowners (December 2025: 88,941).

At the end of June its savings balances were £11.5bn (December 2025: £11.6bn). Mr Mansfield said “Our members entrust us with their savings in a highly competitive market. We have remained focused on attracting and retaining funding that supports the long-term strength of the society, rather than purely pursuing balance growth.”

On the outlook he added: “The first half of 2026 has been about putting the plans in place for the future while also strengthening our foundations to enable the transformation needed to ensure we remain relevant in a rapidly changing world.

” Looking ahead across the next 18 months, the macroeconomic environment is becoming more difficult to predict, though we’ll continue to ensure we remain steadfast on delivering our purpose, creating a society of savers where everyone has a place to call home.”

Available for over a year

John Laurenson reports from La Défense in Paris on how Europe’s biggest business district is turning vacant office space into housing. As hybrid working leaves more offices underused, cities are rethinking the future of these buildings. We compare developments in Paris with efforts in London and Washington DC and ask whether converting offices into homes could help tackle housing shortages and revive struggling business districts.

Presenter/producer: John Laurenson

You can email the team: businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: People walking in La Défense business district in Paris. Credit: John Laurenson)

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