Small-cap markets have come alive again in recent months as investors search for exposure to undervalued growth stories across technology, clean energy, and critical minerals. The companies featured below have all seen sharp share price recoveries in the second half of 2025, reflecting both renewed optimism and speculation within a sector that often leads broader market sentiment.
From Catenai’s pivot into AI and data intelligence to Mendell Helium’s hybrid push into energy and digital assets, this resurgence illustrates how diverse strategies are emerging across the small-cap landscape. Yet behind each rally lies a familiar question: which of these evolving narratives will convert momentum into measurable results?
Catenai plc
Catenai plc (AIM: CTAI), listed on the AIM market, has captured renewed investor attention after a sharp rally from 0.21 GBX in late summer to a recent high of 0.565, reflecting rising optimism around its evolving technology portfolio. The company positions itself as a provider of digital media and technology solutions, focused on data-driven systems integration across corporate, government, and education sectors. Following a prolonged restructuring phase, Catenai’s recent strategic moves suggest a transition toward a more focused, innovation-led model aimed at high-growth digital markets.
Catenai’s technology portfolio reflects this shift toward innovation-driven, data-intelligent solutions. The company is developing an integrated ecosystem that connects monitoring, analytics, and operational management through its Catenai Operating System. This core platform enables modular deployment of products such as Monitoring Platforms and Intelligent Dashboarding, designed to give enterprises real-time visibility and decision support across complex environments. Complementary tools including Onsite WorkID, TaskManager, and Onside extend this ecosystem into workforce identity, compliance, and live-site management. Together, they demonstrate how Catenai is repositioning itself as a builder of scalable digital frameworks that bridge operational data, automation, and AI-driven insight, precisely the areas driving growth in the next phase of enterprise technology.
According to its half-year results to 30 June 2025, Catenai reported a loss of £221,308 on revenues of £7,600, compared with £124,500 a year earlier, though its net asset position rose to £1.02 million following capital restructuring and a successful £1.6 million equity raise in July 2025. The proceeds were used to support a £500,000 investment in Alludium Ltd, a UK-based AI company developing collaborative, no-code AI agent teams, and a further £450,000 top-up the following month. Alongside this, Catenai launched a Bitcoin-focused treasury policy, appointing institutional custodians to hold digital assets as part of a diversified treasury strategy designed to hedge against inflation and strengthen liquidity.
A separate agreement with Klarian Ltd, a partner in digital infrastructure, extended the repayment of an outstanding loan to year-end 2025, generating an expected £56,750 extension fee on completion. Collectively, these moves underline Catenai’s shift toward a technology investment model that blends operational software with exposure to AI and blockchain innovation. With Alludium’s new website launched on 11th November and visibility at major events including SaaStock, Web Summit Lisbon, and Slush, Catenai is positioning itself at the intersection of enterprise automation and decentralised digital infrastructure, a higher-risk but potentially transformative strategy for a small-cap technology group.
Mendell Helium plc
Mendell Helium plc (AQAE: MDH), has drawn increasing investor interest following a sharp share price recovery from 1.75 GBX to 3.5 GBX in recent months. The company is positioning itself as a helium exploration and production vehicle focused on the United States, with additional exposure to digital asset reserves through a corporate Bitcoin Treasury Policy. Mendell’s narrative blends traditional energy resource development with a modern, technology-driven treasury strategy, an traditionally unusual, yet growing combination that has attracted attention within small-cap circles seeking alternative asset exposure.
Mendell’s operational focus centres on two core helium projects: Fort Dodge in Iowa and Hugoton in Kansas. Both lie within historically productive gas basins where helium has been commercially extracted for decades. The company’s stated strategy is to advance exploration and development at these sites to establish early production potential while leveraging existing infrastructure and historical data. The Fort Dodge project is seen as Mendell’s near-term development priority, while Hugoton offers scale potential if commercial helium concentrations can be confirmed. Each asset positions the group to benefit from rising global demand for helium in semiconductor manufacturing, space technology, and medical imaging.
Mendell has broadened its energy strategy through a Bitcoin mining initiative first announced on 1 April 2025, which aims to utilise excess methane from its U.S. helium operations as a power source for cryptocurrency mining. The company is modelling potential sites for its first mining operation, including the Fort Dodge field and other trapped gas locations that could provide low-cost energy for on-site generation. To support this transition, Mendell completed onboarding with BitGo Inc., establishing institutional custody for any Bitcoin it produces. The company also incorporated a new subsidiary, Mendell Digital LLC, registered in Kansas, which will manage the digital asset operations. These steps represent tangible progress from the earlier Bitcoin Treasury Policy, marking a shift from financial diversification to operational crypto engagement.
In parallel, Mendell’s recent operations update confirmed continuing work on both its helium projects and the forthcoming Bitcoin mining operations, as well as plans to pursue an AIM listing to broaden investor access. The company’s dual-track model, combining helium exploration with methane-powered Bitcoin mining, illustrates an unconventional but strategically cohesive approach, linking energy resource development with digital asset generation. The concept remains early stage, with commercial data yet to emerge, but it sets Mendell apart among small-cap peers experimenting with real-asset-backed crypto production. For investors, the story blends commodity scarcity and digital innovation, offering potential upside tempered by execution, regulatory, and operational risks inherent in pioneering hybrid ventures.
Strategic Minerals plc
Strategic Minerals plc (AIM: SML) has seen renewed investor attention, with its share price rising from 0.38 GBX in early October to a recent high of 1.8 GBX. The AIM-listed company operates across the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, combining cash flow from its Cobre magnetite operation in New Mexico with exploration exposure through the Redmoor critical-minerals project in Cornwall and the Leigh Creek copper asset in South Australia. This combination of producing and growth assets has made Strategic Minerals unusual among small-cap peers, providing both operational income and leverage to metals central to the energy transition.
Drilling at Redmoor recommenced in 2025 for the first time since 2018, funded by a £764,000 UK Government grant and an oversubscribed placing earlier in the year. In November SML confirmed the project’s high-grade profile and reinforced Redmoor’s status as one of Europe’s most advanced undeveloped tungsten deposits. Management noted that copper and tin mineralisation contribute additional value to the overall metal content, strengthening the project’s polymetallic economics ahead of an updated Mineral Resource Estimate due in early 2026. These results have moved Redmoor closer to prefeasibility work, marking a significant step in transforming it from exploration target to development-ready asset.
The company’s half-year report showed continued stability at Cobre, which delivered US $2.0 million in revenue (H1 2024: US $2.1 million) despite a short wildfire-related shutdown. Pre-tax profit was US $568,000, reflecting one-off costs tied to restructuring and Redmoor mobilisation, while cash increased to US $1.53 million following a £1 million equity raise. Strategic Minerals also advanced its disinvestment of the Leigh Creek project through an option with Cuprum Metals that could realise up to A $5.9 million in cash and shares, providing non-dilutive funding for Redmoor’s expansion and streamlining the group’s focus on tungsten and magnetite.
For private investors, Strategic Minerals presents a pragmatic route into the critical minerals space through a company already generating cash and actively advancing a high-grade UK asset. Redmoor’s continued progress provides clear strategic relevance at a time when Europe seeks secure domestic supplies of tungsten, copper, and tin. While project execution and permitting remain the next major milestones, Strategic Minerals’ balanced model, anchored by steady U.S. income and backed by a growing UK discovery, offers a mix of stability and growth potential that is rare among small-cap resource stocks.
Hydrogen Utopia International
Hydrogen Utopia International plc (LSE: HUI) has attracted renewed market interest after its share price climbed from around 1.0 GBX in mid-September to a recent high of 2.5 GBX. The London-listed company is focused on converting non-recyclable waste plastics into hydrogen and synthetic gas using advanced plasma gasification. Its strategic direction has evolved from early-stage UK feasibility work into a more globally oriented model, with an emphasis on the Middle East, where national clean energy policies and investment incentives align with the company’s technology ambitions. This transition marks a shift from concept validation to potential international deployment, positioning HUI within the emerging waste-to-hydrogen sector that bridges environmental and energy markets.
At the core of Hydrogen Utopia’s model is its partnership with US-based InEnTec, whose plasma-assisted gasification process transforms waste plastics into synthesis gas, which can be further refined into hydrogen, methanol, or electric power. The company describes this technology as modular and scalable, suitable for integration with municipal waste infrastructure or industrial energy systems. According to its own statements, this approach is designed to reduce landfill dependency while producing clean fuels compatible with net-zero frameworks. HUI’s ongoing emphasis on technology localisation within the Gulf region reflects both regulatory support for decarbonisation and the commercial potential for circular-energy systems in economies seeking to diversify from oil dependency.
Throughout 2025, Hydrogen Utopia has deepened its footprint in the Gulf states through a series of strategic developments. In September, it announced the engagement of a Saudi Arabian energy expert to support regional deployment of InEnTec technology. This was followed by an agreement with Omani partners to raise approximately £1 million for project funding and a collaboration with a US-based AI specialist, BPODash LLC, aimed at integrating data-driven optimisation into its operational plans. HUI also confirmed a strategic refocus on its core plastic-to-hydrogen business and Gulf expansion, and has recently received an investment registration certificate from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment, enabling it to formally pursue joint ventures and potential site development within the Kingdom.
For retail investors, Hydrogen Utopia represents an ambitious, early-stage venture seeking to commercialise a clean technology platform at a global level. The company’s presence in Saudi Arabia and Oman introduces significant opportunity, but also execution risk, given the technical, regulatory, and financial complexities of scaling hydrogen production from waste. While revenues remain at the pre-commercial stage, the acquisition of regulatory approval in key Gulf jurisdictions provides a tangible foundation for future projects. If the company succeeds in converting these partnerships into operational plants, it could evolve from a speculative clean-tech narrative into a validated international energy player.
Nuformix
Nuformix plc (LSE: NFX) has regained market traction in recent months, with its share price climbing from 0.1 GBX in early autumn to a recent high of 0.485 GBX. The London-listed pharmaceutical development company specialises in repurposing and reformulating small-molecule drugs using its proprietary cocrystal technology. This approach aims to deliver improved bioavailability and safety profiles for known compounds in high-value therapeutic areas such as fibrosis and oncology supportive care. After several years of restructuring and data generation, Nuformix now appears to be entering a more commercially focused phase, supported by a clearer regulatory and clinical strategy for its lead assets.
The company’s most advanced programme, NXP002, targets idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and related interstitial lung diseases. Developed as an inhaled therapy, NXP002 acts through multiple antifibrotic and anti-inflammatory pathways including TGF-β/SMAD, WNT/β-Catenin, and NLRP3 inflammasome regulation. The treatment has demonstrated activity across several organ models of fibrosis, including lung, liver, kidney, and skin, indicating broad potential in systemic fibrotic diseases. Clinical data and translational studies also suggest NXP002 could work synergistically with standard-of-care IPF drugs like nintedanib and pirfenidone, potentially improving patient outcomes while reducing side effects.
In mid 2025, Nuformix reported further regulatory progress, securing European Orphan Drug Designation for NXP002 and submitting a corresponding application to the US FDA. The company also participated in the European Respiratory Society Congress, where it presented new data from patient-derived lung tissue models showing reduced collagen and MCP-1 expression following NXP002 treatment, findings that reinforce its translational relevance. These achievements mark key milestones in Nuformix’s attempt to attract a development or licensing partner to advance the compound into clinical trials.
For retail investors, Nuformix offers a speculative but scientifically credible opportunity in the fibrosis space. The company’s inhaled NXP002 programme is positioned within a market dominated by orally dosed therapies with limited tolerability, creating potential differentiation if its efficacy translates clinically. The firm’s ability to secure partnerships or funding to initiate Phase 1 studies will be critical in determining whether recent momentum can be sustained. While early-stage risks remain high, Nuformix’s orphan drug status, translational validation, and growing visibility in fibrosis research present a foundation from which commercial progress could emerge over the coming year.
Amazing AI
Amazing AI plc (AQSE: AAI), listed on the Aquis Exchange, describes itself as a global fintech group operating a diversified Digital Asset Treasury Policy alongside online consumer lending and AI finance-related services. The company’s model combines traditional credit operations with exposure to digital assets, positioning itself at the intersection of consumer finance and blockchain technology. Despite the ambitious branding, investor sentiment around AAI has remained mixed, reflecting both the appeal of its hybrid strategy and the market’s caution toward early-stage fintech firms with limited disclosure on underlying performance.
Through its long-established Mr. Amazing Loans brand in the United States, AAI maintains six state consumer lending licences and a regulatory track record spanning more than 15 years. Its lending and collections expertise underpin the group’s narrative of combining AI-based finance tools with regulated lending infrastructure. Management positions this as a strategic advantage, allowing the company to scale AI-enabled services such as credit scoring, debt recovery, and loan portfolio analytics while retaining oversight within licensed environments.
In 2025, AAI adopted an increasingly crypto-oriented stance, introducing a Bitcoin Treasury Policy and onboarding institutional custodians to manage digital asset reserves. Subsequent updates confirmed the initial Bitcoin purchase under this policy, albeit a “small and non-material purchase of digital assets”, and an expansion of its framework for treasury diversification into the like of Ethereum, XRP and Solana. The company also conducted multiple equity raises through accelerated bookbuilds and retail offers to fund these activities, reinforcing its focus on digital asset strategy over traditional lending growth. However, the scale of its on-chain exposure and underlying profitability of core lending operations remain unclear from available filings.
AAI’s latest subsidiary spin-off announcement and frequent investor presentations suggest continued attempts to reshape the company’s identity toward AI-driven finance and crypto-asset management. Yet the limited transparency over revenues, combined with a rapid shift toward digital asset holdings, underscores the speculative nature of its current trajectory. For investors, Amazing AI represents a high-risk proposition, an ambitious narrative linking AI, lending, and Bitcoin, but one that still requires tangible evidence of scalable, recurring income to justify its fintech valuation story.
Wishbone Gold
Wishbone Gold plc (AIM: WSBN, AQSE: WSBN) has re-emerged as one of AIM’s most closely watched exploration stocks, with its share price climbing from around 0.35 GBX in mid-August to a high of 1.75 GBX by late September, although currently sitting at around 0.9 GBX. The company’s revival follows a turbulent start to the year when trading was temporarily suspended pending a potential reverse takeover, later abandoned in March. Having since restored operational control of its Western Australian subsidiary and raised £1.75 million to fund exploration, Wishbone’s strategic reset has centred on its Red Setter project in the Patersons Range, one of the most prospective gold and copper regions in Australia.
Located just 15 kilometres from Newmont’s Telfer mine and near Greatland Gold’s Havieron discovery, Red Setter has become the company’s flagship focus. Drilling resumed in July 2025, with early work confirming a breccia pipe structure that management believes may host mineralising fluids typical of major deposits in the region. Subsequent updates confirmed expanded intersections and a continuation of the geological model, reinforcing investor confidence in Red Setter’s potential. These developments helped ignite one of AIM’s strongest rallies of the year, driven by speculation that Wishbone could follow a similar growth trajectory to that of Greatland’s Havieron during its early discovery phase. While the proximity narrative remains compelling, management has cautioned that the project is still in its early stages and that economic grades will depend on forthcoming assay results.
Beyond Red Setter, Wishbone’s exploration portfolio includes the Cottesloe and Anketell projects in Western Australia, as well as gold prospects at White Mountain and Wishbone II, IV, and VI in Queensland. Earlier in 2025, the company appointed Apex Geoscience to advance new targets at Mosquito Creek, where gold anomalies were identified from previous sampling campaigns. The diversified portfolio provides optionality, allowing management to pivot if Red Setter fails to deliver commercial results, while maintaining a clear priority on Western Australian exploration. Wishbone remains debt-free, with liquidity strengthened through its £4m raise in September ensuring funding for its current drilling programme.
For retail investors, Wishbone offers both high-risk volatility and genuine discovery potential. The Red Setter project sits within a proven mineral district where past discoveries have transformed company fortunes, but success is contingent on assay confirmation and consistent geological continuity. The company’s refreshed structure, strengthened funding, and improved news flow have revived market interest after a period of corporate uncertainty. If Red Setter continues to deliver positive results, Wishbone could sustain its current momentum and move closer to the type of institutional recognition that early-stage explorers rarely achieve. For now, it remains a classic AIM opportunity: speculative, news-driven, and capable of outsized returns if early promise translates into proven resource scale.
Closing Thoughts
The second half of 2025 has revealed a clear pattern across the small-cap space: investors are rewarding companies that pair credible assets with visible catalysts, even where risks remain high. Each of these names operates at a different point in the value chain, from early exploration to digital transformation, but all reflect a market willing to back reinvention when management delivers progress and clarity. Execution, transparency, and balance-sheet discipline will determine whether today’s optimism matures into sustainable value creation. For now, these companies collectively capture the spirit of AIM and Aquis at their best: experimental, high-risk, and occasionally, genuinely transformational.
Disclaimer: The information presented in this article represents the opinions and research of the author and is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, nor should it be interpreted as, financial, investment, or legal advice. Investors are encouraged to perform their own due diligence and consult with qualified financial advisors before making any investment decisions. Investing in small-cap stocks involves significant risks, and past performance is not indicative of future results. The author and publisher are not liable for any financial losses or actions taken based on the content of this article.
