A handful of tiny British companies are trying to carve out niches in battery metals and clean technology — and some could offer intriguing opportunities for investors.

That is, if they’re willing to stomach the risk.

Here are two exciting micro-cap shares that visionary and risk-aware investors may want to consider before they take off.

Atlantic Lithium

Atlantic Lithium (LSE: ALL) is a London-listed explorer focused on lithium projects in Ghana. With a market capitalisation of around £65m and a share price of roughly 9p, it sits comfortably within the penny stock bracket.

The company’s Ewoyaa project has been described as one of the most advanced lithium developments in Africa. So it’s well-positioned to benefit from rising demand for lithium-rich batteries. These are used in electric vehicles and the uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) that keep AI data centres running.

The growth potential here is hard to ignore. Lithium is at the heart of both AI and the global energy transition, and supply constraints could keep prices elevated for years. If Atlantic successfully shifts from exploration to production, its revenue and earnings could skyrocket.

Of course, that’s a big ‘if’. The business remains pre-revenue and reliant on successful financing and permits. Cost inflation, environmental scrutiny and commodity price swings all pose material risks. For many investors, those are red flags rather than buying signals.

But for the speculative minority, they’re part of the thrill.

Windar Photonics

Shifting focus to renewable energy, Windar Photonics (LSE: WPHO) offers a compelling concept. This £55m AIM-listed firm develops LiDAR-based sensors that help wind turbines align more accurately with the wind, improving energy output.

Its technology has been adopted by several turbine manufacturers and wind farm operators, offering the prospect of scalable commercial growth.

With its share price hovering around 60p, it also fits the penny stock definition — although it operates at a more mature stage than many of its peers.

Windar’s appeal lies in its technology-driven efficiency gains. As renewable projects face pressure to cut costs, even small improvements in output can make a meaningful difference to profitability.

Yet, despite promising signs of revenue growth, the company remains loss-making. Continued expansion will likely require further investment, and any delays in customer adoption could keep the share price in penny stock territory.

The idealist in me envisions a world powered entirely by green energy – but the realist knows there’s still decades of work to be done.

Risky or revolutionary?

Both Atlantic Lithium and Windar Photonics demonstrate how innovation and volatility go hand in hand at the small-cap end of the market. These are genuine businesses in promising sectors — but their valuations are highly sensitive to sentiment and execution risk.

For patient investors, they highlight why the penny stock arena can be both fascinating and unforgiving. It’s a place where the next big success story might emerge, but where many contenders will inevitably fall short.

For now, the AI and green energy narrative looks set to keep fuelling interest in these speculative corners of the market. Whether that excitement translates into lasting shareholder returns remains the billion-pound question.

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In the past month, however, the Windar share price has fallen 20%. This leaves it some way below its average 12-month price target.

Let’s take a closer look at this UK penny share to see if it’s worth considering.

What is Windar?

This AIM-listed company makes LiDAR sensors that help wind turbines operate more efficiently. These measure wind speed and direction, allowing a turbine to automatically adjust its blades to capture more energy while reducing mechanical stress. 

Over time, the result is improved output and lower maintenance costs (important for wind farm operators seeking to maximise returns). Windar says its flagship WindEye sensor provides customers with a return on investment within one to four years.

What sets the firm apart is cost. Its LiDAR systems use patented compact semiconductor laser technology, replacing the expensive fibre-amplified lasers commonly used by competitors.

Financials

This obviously all sounds very positive. So, what about the company’s financials?

Well, the first thing to note is that Windar is still loss-making. In the first half of 2025, it reported a €0.7m loss after tax, wider than last year’s €0.3m. Adverse currency changes had a €0.5m impact, mainly from a weaker US dollar and Chinese renminbi against the euro.

Arguably, these are the main risks here. Windar has no proven track record of profitability, meaning even relatively small currency fluctuations can have an outsized affect. Meanwhile, US tariffs are a headache for all firms.

On the plus side, the company is enjoying strong commercial momentum. In August, it won a US order for $2.6m to retrofit Vesta‘s V82s, while its Nexus OS software helped gross margin rise 2 percentage points to 62%. 

Meanwhile, first-half revenue was up 18% to €2.7m, with heavier sales expected in the second half. Management is confident that full-year expectations will be met, and this should see revenue more than double to €9.55m. City analysts also expect a first-ever profit, albeit a small one. 

In 2026, sales are tipped to rise to €14.6m. And there’s a €4.4m profit on the cards, if forecasts prove correct. 

Finally, the balance sheet is in good shape, with a net cash position of €4.9m at the end of June.

With sales and orders for 2025 already standing at 138% of 2024 revenue at the end of August 2025 and with the current cash position, the company is well positioned to deliver on its considerable potential.

Windar CEO Jørgen Korsgaard Jensen.

Target

Based on current forecasts for 2026, the stock’s forward price-to-earnings is just 14. That looks attractive for a growth company with a large addressable market (it’s targeting growth in Europe, America and Asia).

Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that the average 12-month share price target among the two analysts covering the stock is 95p. That’s 80% higher than the current level, implying that a £10,000 investment could become £18,000, were these experts to prove correct.

Naturally, this far-higher target might not come to fruition. But with a clear path towards profitability and what looks like an undemanding valuation, I reckon this stock is worth a closer look at 52p.

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Impressive market opportunity

Windar Photonics specialises in low-cost LiDAR sensors for improving the performance of wind turbines. These modules can be retrofitted to existing turbines to measure wind speeds and direction. Using this data, turbine blades can be rotated and repositioned automatically to maximise energy production.

The overall boost is small, typically ranging from a 1% to 4% increase. However, over the lifetime of a wind turbine, that translates into substantially more electricity generation and, in turn, revenue for windfarm operators.

It’s not the only business operating in this space. However, what makes Windar unique is its use of its patented compact semiconductor lasers. These are much cheaper than the fibre-amplified lasers used by most of its competitors, allowing its sensors to be up to 80% cheaper than rival solutions.

Management has estimated there are approximately 500,000 turbines globally that would benefit from its technology. And according to the analysts at Growth Market Reports, this presents a $5.4bn market opportunity of which it has barely scratched the surface.

Bull versus bear

The low-cost nature of its product gives Windar enormous pricing flexibility. It can undercut its competitors while still maintaining a chunky profit margin. In fact, in 2024, it achieved gross profitability of 56% compared to the 15%-25% achieved by most of its rivals. And while the company remains loss-making due to operating and administrative expenses, that could quickly change as the business scales.

Customers have already started taking notice of the potential cost savings. And that’s most recently resulted in a brand new $2.6m order from North America. And when paired with other deals in the pipeline, analysts are currently projecting revenue for 2025 to more than double from €4.6m to €9.6m – enough to push the bottom line into the black.

Obviously, that’s an exciting prospect. However, as with all penny stocks, there are numerous risks to consider. Its technologically-driven cost advantage won’t last forever. Many competitors, particularly those in China, are investing in discovering their own cost-effective solution. And successful innovation could erode Windar’s current competitive edge.

There’s also the question of funding. Even though the business is seemingly on track to potentially reach net profitability this year, Windar may continue to require external financing to fund its growth efforts. With limited free cash flow, that could likely take the form of further equity financing, potentially significantly diluting shareholders.

The bottom line

The shares are currently trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 32. That’s obviously a premium valuation, suggesting investors are already baking in some of the suspected long-term growth potential to the stock price. As such, should the company fall behind expectations, shareholders will likely have to endure downward volatility.

However, for those with a higher risk tolerance, the growth demand for efficient renewable energy generation makes this a risk worth investigating further, in my opinion. After all, with only around $5m of the $5.4bn growth opportunity so far secured, there’s some millionaire-making growth potential on the table.

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Here are two penny shares I think are worth considering today.

A potential hidden gem

Windar Photonics (LSE: WPHO) is a Danish firm with a £61m market-cap that manufactures innovative, affordable LiDAR systems for turbine tuning. These measure wind direction and speed so the turbines can face into the wind more accurately and generate extra power.

Last year, the company reported revenue of €4.6m, with an EBITDA loss of €0.4m. However, this year the top line’s expected to increase substantially, to around €9.5m, with a small profit to boot.

Then forecasts for 2026 put revenue at €14.6m and net profit at €4.3m.

Windar has also had early success with its Nexus software offer, which monitors turbine performance. Launched in 2024, it’s been included in a handful of new contract wins, as well as receiving its first standalone software order.

On this pure software deployment, the firm said: “The order comes from an existing customer and is a positive step towards Windar’s vision of becoming a leading provider of Turbine Optimization and Monitoring solutions with transition towards achieving significant recurring revenues“.

Of course, the fact that Windar’s loss-making adds risk. The company will need to keep winning contracts for the stock to do well.

Looking ahead however, management’s confident about its pipeline of opportunities in North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

Earlier this year, Windar initiated its first major test with a large European independent power producer involving offshore wind turbines. So the opportunity extends to retrofitting systems onto offshore as well as onshore wind turbines. The market opportunity’s therefore expanding.

This small-cap company’s on the cusp of profitability and has real business momentum on its side. And the best news is that the price-to-earnings growth (PEG) ratio’s just 0.3. That sits well under the PEG ratio of 1, typically seen as the benchmark for fair value.

Pizzas in Poland

Turning to DP Poland (LSE: DPP) now, this penny stock has a market-cap of £94m. It operates the Domino’s Pizza franchise in Poland and Croatia.

Last year, revenue jumped 20% to £53.6m, with a strong 11.4% increase in like-for-like (LFL) order count. And while LFL sales slowed to 2.9% in the first half of 2025, the company acquired the fourth-largest pizza brand in Poland (Pizzeria 105) in March.

This acquisition moves the company closer to establishing Domino’s as the market leader in Poland.

Now, it should be noted that there’s a lot of competition in Poland, so it won’t be easy. Speaking personally, whenever I’m in the country, I prefer Zapiekanka. That’s the famous street-food pizza baguette that’s as delicious as it is dangerous for my waistline. 

However, given the strength of the brand, I don’t think DP Poland’s ambition to be the market leader is far-fetched. At the end of June, the group operated 117 Domino’s stores and 90 Pizzeria 105 locations. Longer term, it’s aiming for 500+ stores.  

Meanwhile, DP Poland’s advancing to a capital-light, franchisee-led model, which should see it turn profitable over the next couple of years.

The post 2 penny shares to consider for an ISA in September appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

Here are three of them.

Ashtead Technology

The first is Ashtead Technology (LSE: AT.), which rents out subsea equipment to the global offshore energy sector. The stock has been a horror show this year, falling 40%.

One key problem is that global instability is negatively impacting large-scale energy projects and investment decisions. With tariff uncertainty persisting, these issues could drag on into next year.

For long-term investors though, I think there may be an opportunity here. The £266m market-cap firm is proactively reducing its exposure to low-margin equipment sales, which will cause a short-term revenue dip. But this strategic move should improve profitability in the long run.

Moreover, revenue is still expected to increase 23% to around £206m this year, which isn’t too shabby considering the challenging environment. Most of Ashtead Technology’s equipment can be used for either offshore oil and gas or renewable energy projects. This provides resilience, as does its global presence.

Following the fall, investors can pick up the shares for just 7.5 times forecast 2025 earnings. While trading is volatile now, I think there’s every chance this stock could bounce back when the smoke clears.

Windar

Sticking with the renewables theme, Windar Photonics (LSE:WPHO) looks interesting. The Danish company, which has a small £57m market cap, designs and sells sensors that help wind turbines detect wind direction and speed more accurately. This helps the blades adjust for maximum efficiency and power output.

This year, revenue is expected to jump around 109% to €9.5m, as the firm wins more contracts to retrofit its systems onto turbines. What I like here is that the company is also expected to turn profitable this year.

Based on forecasts for 2026, the forward-looking price-to-earnings multiple is 15.5. This translates into a price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 0.2. For context, a PEG ratio between 0.5 and 1 is considered good value.

Of course, the lack of consistent profitability adds risk, as does Windar’s small size. And while the balance sheet looks fine now, the firm may need to tap shareholders for cash in future.

Warpaint

The final stock is Warpaint London (LSE:W7L). This an affordable cosmetics supplier behind brands like W7 and Technic.

The shares are down 40% year to date, giving the firm a £252m market cap.

Last year, group sales grew 13% to £102m, with earnings per share jumping 29% to 23.5p. However, management warned of a slowdown in its US business this year, largely due to higher tariffs. These are a risk in this industry because it could lead to higher prices, heaping even more pressure on inflation-weary consumers. 

However, Warpaint says that overall group sales are being achieved at a significantly higher margin than last year. And double-digit growth on both the top and bottom lines is still expected this year. Warpaint might even be able to take market share due to its value proposition.

After the share price slump, the stock looks attractively priced, with a forward P/E ratio of 10.7. There’s also a well-covered 3.5% dividend yield on offer.

Overall, I like the risk/reward set-up here.

The post 3 UK stocks to consider buying while they’re this cheap appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

However, there are inevitably some that will explode higher as investors reassess their commercial prospects. Here’s one penny share that I think has a lot of potential at its current price.

Wind in its sails

Windar Photonics (LSE:WPHO) is at 59p per share, as I write. It’s up 32% over the past year, giving the firm a modest market cap of £57m.

Windar is a Danish company that develops low-cost light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems for wind turbines. These sit on top and measure wind speed and direction by scanning a laser beam ahead of the wind turbine. This helps the blades face exactly the right way, boosting annual energy production by as much as 4 %. 

This year, revenue is forecast to more than double to €9.55m. In 2026, the top line is expected to jump higher to €14.6m, with a €4.3m net profit. This puts the stock on an undemanding forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.

Part of the reason for this might be due to weak investor sentiment for the clean energy sector in the US, which is a key market for Windar. Green energy subsidies are being cut across the pond, so there’s a risk this could lead to lower sales.

However, the firm remains extremely bullish on it prospects. In June, Chair David George Lis said: “We entered 2025 in a strong position, supported by a solid forward orderbook and a growing pipeline of opportunities…While the North American market, a key region for us, is showing increased caution due to tariff uncertainty, overall demand for our solutions remains strong.”

Windar is also building out a software platform (Nexus), which helps monitor and optimise turbines. This adds higher-margin recurring revenue. In fact, it signed a $2.6m deal earlier this week with a US customer, and 14% of the order value is attributable to software-related revenue.

Low-cost technology

Right now, Windar Photonics mostly makes money selling retrofit LiDAR units. In other words, they’re bolted onto turbines that are already out in the field. 

Nothing wrong with that, as there’s already a huge installed base of older turbines worldwide. But a big opportunity is in OEM (original equipment manufacturer) integration. That is, having its sensors built directly into new turbines at the factory. 

While Windar faces a fair bit of competition, it offers sensors at about 80% lower prices than other manufacturers. The firm does this by using compact semiconductor lasers instead of the expensive fibre-amplified lasers most rival LiDAR systems use.

Potential hidden gem

After two capital raises in 2024, Windar’s balance sheet is currently in decent shape. However, it’s possible the company could need further cash in future to grow the business. So there’s potential dilution risk here for shareholders.

On balance though, I think the stock is attractive. Looking ahead to 2027, the P/E multiple drops to around 10! That’s unusually low for a company growing strongly, suggesting to me that this might be very undervalued.

As such, I reckon this penny stock is well worth considering for adventurous small-cap investors.

The post 1 penny stock under 60p that could explode higher! appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

I’ve been scouring the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to unearth a potential hidden gem. And I reckon I might have found one in the shape of Windar Photonics (LSE:WPHO), which has a modest £55m market cap.

Let’s see why I’m bullish on this penny stock.

The company at a glance

Windar is a Danish firm that develops low-cost Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) optimisation systems for wind turbines. These remotely measure wind speed and direction, helping produce improvements in efficiency and power output.

In simple terms, the system sits on top of a wind turbine and tells it which way the wind is blowing, so it can turn to face it perfectly and generate maximum power. This boosts annual energy production by as much as 4 % while reducing mechanical stress.

Windar has been knocking about on AIM since 2015, but has now started gaining real commercial traction. Just this week, for example, it bagged a new order worth $2.6m from a US customer.

This was for a full wind farm deployment to retrofit Vestas V82 wind turbines. The project represents the eighth full wind farm rollout of its solution in North America.

Positive signs

There are a few things I like here from an investing perspective. First, as mentioned, Windar’s growth is starting to take off. As we can see below, revenue is expected to double this year, then carry on motoring higher.

Understandably, the company is still loss-making. However, a small profit is expected this year, followed by an even larger one in 2026 (€4.5m). This puts the forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio at just 15, very low for a growth stock.

Another thing I like here is that the small firm is founder-led. The photonic tech was developed at the Technical University of Denmark, with CEO Jørgen Korsgaard Jensen involved. Windar secured exclusive IP rights, and Jensen remains at the helm.

Also positive is that Windar is leaning into software with its Nexus OS (operating system). This offers fleet-wide LiDAR monitoring and turbine optimisation.

Software alone claimed about 14% of the recent US deal, and it has started signing pure software deals. This adds recurring revenue to the mix, as well as the promise of higher margins.

Finally, the firm has relocated its operations to a new site in Denmark. It has also been investing in senior leadership roles as it gears up for commercial expansion.

Risks

Naturally, there are risks. Windar is unprofitable, and while it ended last year with €7m in cash, a further capital raise can’t be ruled out at some stage. That could dilute shareholders.

Also, the US wind turbine market is facing headwinds with President Trump in power. However, Windar says overall demand for its products remains strong.

Worth considering

The share price is close to a five-year high, yet remains 61% lower than June 2015.

Windar is perfectly set up for strong future growth, making this penny stock a potential hidden gem at 57p. I’m going to snap up a few shares.

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