TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16
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Overview | TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16
Mapping
digital
success
T
ech City UK started life
in London’s Shoreditch,
launched by prime
minister David Cameron to
support the East London
tech cluster. Since then, it
has sparked a nationwide
movement supporting the jobs
of the new economy and driving
growth and productivity.
Early in 2015, Tech City
UK began a landmark study.
The result was Tech Nation, a
ground-up report that provided
the first comprehensive
analysis of Britain’s digital
businesses, mapping areas
of digital specialisms such
as cyber security and fintech,
employment figures and
emerging tech ecosystems.
It was only after the results
came together that the depth
and breadth of the UK’s
digital economy could truly be
appreciated.
Our Tech Nation project is
made up of two components.
First is an online, interactive
tool, built in conjunction with
DueDil, that allows users to
glean information about more
than 47,000 digital companies,
as well as a report created
This Almanac is twice the size of earlier editions,
reflecting the nationwide nature of UK tech and
recognising the work being done to understand
our Tech Nation. Tech City UK chief executive
Gerard Grech welcomes the report.
in partnership with Adzuna,
Crunchbase, F6S, AngelList
and others, that highlights tech
clusters and digital companies
across the UK.
Second is an ongoing
initiative with the Tech City
UK Cluster Alliance, which
connects key representatives
from digital cities around the
UK so that they can share best
practice and, ultimately, help
drive innovation.
We surveyed more than
2,000 digital businesses to
build this project. Our findings
have allowed us to map and
understand the growth of digital
businesses in cities across the
country, and recognise just
how well the UK is doing in the
ultra-competitive world of digital
business.
Tech Nation has shown the
digital technology sector at the
heart of the UK’s economic
success. The headline figures
speak for themselves: the UK
is the largest e-commerce
exporter in the G7; it is the
country with the largest
percentage of GDP attributed
to digital; and digital job growth
is predicted to outperform all
other occupation categories
by 2020. The rapid rise of the
UK’s digital economy, and its
positive consequences for the
economy at large, has been
outstanding.
At the heart of the Tech
Nation project is a desire to
shine a light on the growth of
Britain’s digital companies, to
build on the origins of London’s
Silicon Roundabout.
Tech Nation, therefore,
becomes a tool that gives
investors an understanding
of the different clusters and
specialisms around the country,
and which has driven support
for policy initiatives from central
and local government. This
amalgamation of investment,
entrepreneurs, academia
and established businesses
allows the UK to enjoy a stellar
international reputation for
digital success today.
Tech Nation signals Tech City
UK’s broader commitment to
the digital economy, providing
up-to-date data, analysis and
reporting on Britain’s dynamic
digital economy and startup
success stories.
In my role, I am privileged
to be in contact with
entrepreneurs and investors
from all over the globe who
are increasingly aware of the
UK’s reputation. Tech Nation
demonstrates that, across a
wide variety of sectors,
ranging from virtual reality to
edtech, digital businesses all
over the country are capitalising
on this.
It’s the people behind
these businesses who define
Tech Nation. We welcome
TechCityinsider’s initiative to
celebrate the heroes behind the
growth of the digital economy
in this Almanac.
3
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Introduction
Tech tour
finds class
of 2015
A
t the back end of 2014,
soon after we published
our Almanac for that
year, we took a decision to
expand our TechCityinsider100,
until that point a list of largely
London game-changers, into
something that took in the
whole of the UK.
Tech City UK was about to
publish Tech Nation, a landmark
report that measured and
celebrated the technology
startup scene throughout the
country.
We too decided to extend our
horizons beyond our London
home and so embark on a
tech tour of the UK throughout
2015. While in previous years
we had profiled 100 tech
business folk, in 2015 we
would profile 200. A hundred
of these would be from outside
London, with five profiled in
each of 20 key technology
clusters. The Tech Nation report
would give us our location road
map.
In London, the UK’s
4
A UK tech tour?
What a splendid idea.
TechCityinsider did just
that in 2015, talking to
tech businesses in 20
cities outside London.
Julian Blake reports.
predominant technology hub
by far (see just how far on
page 32), we opted to maintain
the coverage we’d given the
capital, by continuing to profile
100 digital business leaders
from or working in the capital.
The 200 would be selected
by the recommendation of their
peers in the TCi Network.
We set off in January 2015,
taking in two tech cities each
month.
First stop, Brighton. A place
perhaps known more for play
than work, the city boasts the
biggest number of startups
per head outside London, with
strengths in gaming, creative
and shared economy. It’s also
home to one of our fastestrising tech stars, Brandwatch.
It was a short coastal hop
over to Bournemouth, where
Tech Nation had (surprisingly
to doubters) found the UK’s
fastest-growing tech business
cluster. We found less tech
product and more tech
services, with a thriving techdriven agency culture.
Our short hops from London
continued with Reading. For
an area fuelled by corporate
tech, it was unsurprising to find
that startup culture struggled
to find a voice, until the arrival
of ConnectTVT, a new hub
working out of one of the city’s
many business parks.
In nearby Oxford, new tech
ideas have emerged from the
city’s university for years. The
university’s Isis Innovation hub
helps businesses spin out
from education. Among its
most impressive graduates is
background checking business
Onfido.
Heading west in March, we
hit Bristol and Bath, where
Silicon Gorge thrives in one of
our largest technology centres.
Big outfits sit alongside small
and the tech specialisms are
diverse. Brunel’s old Engine
Shed, home to SETSquared,
is the new hub of the startup
scene.
Over the Severn bridge into
South Wales, where Cardiff is
emerging from its industrial past
to stake a claim as a UK hub for
sports and health technology.
Neighbouring Swansea,
Newport and Caerphilly all
play host to smaller startup
communities.
Introduction | TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16
May took us to the North
East, to Newcastle and
Sunderland. Herb Kim (Tech
North chair from 2015) runs his
TED-like Thinking Digital event
from Sage Gateshead. The tech
entrepreneurial spirit is strong,
demonstrated nowhere more
strongly than at Campus North,
where Ignite100 also runs its
much-respected accelerator
programme.
Staying east in June, we hit
Cambridge and Norwich.
As a tech hub, the former is
clearly more mature. Giants like
Hermann Hauser have turned
their technological success
back into helping the next
generation of innovators, as he
has through Amadeus Capital.
In Norwich, they definitely
like to do things differently, and
keep it independent, too. New
co-working hub White Space
shows what can be done.
Our most surprising
destination of all was Malvern,
in the sleepy Worcestershire
hills. There, for historical
defence reasons, a cybersecurity sector has matured
into a cluster that’s 80 strong.
England’s second city,
Birmingham has had
something of an understated
image. When we visited in July,
we found that is changing,
with the city council backing
Innovation Birmingham
alongside public-private
investor Finance Birmingham,
and the city gaining a label as
Britain’s most entrepreneurial
city.
Since George Osborne
coined the term ‘northern
powerhouse’ in 2014, the idea
has rarely left the agenda for
England’s main northern cities.
Osborne backed the initiative in
his 2015 budget with £11m for
new tech hubs.
Tech North, created with
a £2m budget and a line-up
of expert support, is already
shining a light on the work
of the nation’s seven biggest
northern cities.
August’s first stop,
Manchester, is one, and it
claims a role as the heart of
the northern powerhouse.
Its impressive tech business
activity, at MediaCity in Salford,
Sharp Project and the emerging
Forward tech hub (backed by
£4m of that Osborne cash)
gives it a strong reputation.
Down the M62 in Liverpool,
a different kind of cluster
has emerged, changing the
economy of a city already
physically transformed by
regeneration. The Baltic
Triangle is the centre of startup
land. The legacy of Sony’s lost
presence in the city has been
a strong gaming business
community.
September saw us cross
the Pennines into Yorkshire. In
our first stop there, Sheffield,
tech innovation is redefining
the term ‘Made in Sheffield.’
Making, creative and gaming
are big strengths for the city of
steel, backed by the likes of the
impressive Dotforge workspace
and accelerator, and Access
Space.
Leeds, next stop, has
steadily built a reputation for
health, fintech and data, with
big banking and Nation Health
Service back-end functions
based here. Its new FutureLabs
workspace (also backed by
Osborne) will give the city’s
startup scene a new focus.
In Hull, our final Yorkshire
city, the cluster there celebrated
the opening of its new Centre
for Digital Innovation tech
campus in 2015. It’s supported
by superfast connectivity,
created by state-of-the-art
fibre broadband from KC
Lightstream.
October took us up north
to Scotland and to Glasgow,
where the city is emerging from
the shadows of its neighbours,
and industrial decline, to claim
a growing role in the Scottish
tech economy. RookieOven, at
the Govan shipyard, offers a
great new space, with the UK’s
first eSpark tech hub offering
another way forward.
Dundee, two hours away
on the east coast, has a
vast gaming legacy. It’s
the birthplace of gaming
phenomenon Grand Theft
Auto, and is where work is
done to bring Minecraft to the
consoles of millions. Publisher
DC Thomson is also investing
in digital.
In Edinburgh, our last
Scottish stop, tech startup
culture is big. CodeBase is
the UK’s largest tech hub,
and home to fantasy gaming
giant FanDuel alongside
smaller promising businesses.
Skyscanner, another Edinburgh
product, is now a genuine
international tech success story.
Finally, to Belfast, where
Northern Ireland innovation has
seen the creation of some very
interesting tech businesses,
from cemetery disrupter Plotbox
to beer tech startup Brewbot.
They’re backed by great
support from NISP Connect.
Twenty cities beyond London,
then. What did we learn?
Of course, that there are
great businesses, with great
stories to tell, right across the
UK. Also, that the physical
transformation of our cities
is impressive, and is helping
to generate new tech-led
economies.
There are challenges,
certainly. A common one is a
lack of local tech investment.
London remains the centre
of the UK tech funding world,
and that’s why many nonLondon businesses choose
to have a office in the capital
too. Initiatives to encourage
investment, along with some
local funds and angels, are
pushing change in the right
direction.
Diversity is also a challenge.
Tech is a male-dominated
sector, as all the stats tell us,
particularly among leaders. In
London, women entrepreneurs
are making strides and there
are brilliant examples outside
of the capital. But we found
the gender imbalance bigger
outside London.
We’re not claiming undeniable
evidence here, but the
difference in the male-to-female
split in this almanac – 60/40 in
London but 82/18 outside it – is
striking. As more women role
models emerge, the balance
should start to redress.
Back at TechCityinsider
HQ, we have rolled out our
TechCities coverage. Our first
TechCities Awards event, in
November 2015, recognised
the best new tech businesses
in cities across the country.
The awards, and our new
TechCities content area, are
backed by a new network of
ambassadors on the ground
in each place. We’re grateful
to them for their support
and are working to tell more
stories from around the UK
in 2016 and beyond, at
www.techcityinsider.net/
techcities.
5
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Contents: London
Welcome to the 2015/16 TechNation200 Almanac. During 2015 we interviewed 200 people helping to
redefine UK digital business, with 100 interviews within London, and a total of 100 in 20 key tech clusters
outside of London, with five interviews in each. Each spread starts with an overview from that area.
Laurence Aderemi Moni (32) Tushar Agarwal Hubble (33) Ross Bailey Appear Here (33)
Rebecca Bright Therapy Box (33) George Burgess Gojimo (34) Lucy Burnford Automyze (34)
Faisal Butt Pi Labs (34) Vanessa Butz Interchange (35) Susanne Chishti Fintech Circle Innovate
(35) Matt Chocqueel-Mangan Vote for Policies (35) Claire Cockerton Innovate Finance (36)
Simon Cook Draper Esprit (36) Julian David techUK (36) Josh Davidson Night Zookeeper (37)
Samir Desai Funding Circle (37) Becky Downing Buzzmove (37) Sarah Drinkwater Google
Campus London (38) Matt Drozdzynski Pilot (38) Julia Elliott Brown Upper Street (38)
Alain Falys Yoyo Wallet (39) Anthony Fletcher Graze (39) Ian Fordham Edtech UK (39)
Rosemary Forsyth Forsyth Group (40) Matt Fox Snaptrip (40) Lorenzo Franzi ZipJet (40)
Emi Gal Brainient (41) Ande Gregson Fab Lab (41) Julia Groves Trillion Fund (41) Luke Hakes
Octopus Investments (42) Bridget Harris YouCanBookMe (42) Cassandra Harris Venturespring (42)
Tom Hatton RefME (43) Josefine Hedlund GeekGirl Meetup UK (43) Bruce Hellman uMotif (43)
Michael-George Hemus Plumen (44) James Hind Carwow (44) Mads Holmen Bibblio (44)
Eddie Holmes Launch 22 (45) Alex Hoye Runway East (45) ShaoLan Hsueh Chineasy (45)
Anne-Marie Huby JustGiving (46) Pete Jaco Puckily (46) Clare Johnston The Up Group (46)
Ivailo Jordanov 23snaps (47) Hussein Kanji Hoxton Ventures (47) Axel Katalan Pointr Labs (47)
Nick Katz Splittable (48) Tom Kihl London Belongs to Me (The Kentishtowner) (48) Alex Klein
Kano (48) Nidhima Kohli My Beauty Matches (49) Aleks Krotoski Broadcaster and academic (49)
Simon Lee Locassa (49) Marjorie Leonidas Taggstar (50) Guy Levin Coadec (50) Rhydian Lewis
RateSetter (50) Rose Lewis Collider (51) Roberta Lucca WonderLuk (51) Julia Macmillan Radisso
(51) Tina Mashaalahi KweekWeek (52) Jan Matern Emerge Venture Lab (52) Ivan Mazour Ometria
(52) Ian Merricks Accelerator Academy (53) Juliette Morgan Cushman & Wakefield/Tech City UK
(53) Prash Naidu Rezonence (53) Melinda Nicci Baby2Body (54) Suzanne Noble Frugl (54)
Emer O’Daly Love & Robots (54) Aaron O’Hearn Startup Institute (55) George Olver Movidiam (55)
Rhea Papanicolaou-Frangista Prettly (55) Rahul Parekh Eat First (56) Belinda Parmar Lady
Geek/Little Miss Geek (56) Samiya Parvez Andiamo (56) Alastair Paterson Digital Shadows (57)
Mutaz Qubbaj Squirrel (57) Steven Renwick Satago (57) Anthony Rose 6Tribes (58)
Julia Salasky CrowdJustice (58) Michael Seres 11 Health (58) Titus Sharpe MVF Global (59)
Liv Sibony Grub Club (59) Peter Smith Blockchain (59) George Spencer Rentify (60)
John Spindler Capital Enterprise (60) Jason Stockwood Simply Business (60)
Paulina Sygulska Tenner GrantTree (61) Freddie Talberg PIE Mapping (61) Adizah Tejani
Filanthrophy/Level39 (61) Fabio Torlini WP Engine (62) Sarah Turner Angel Academe (62)
Daniel van Binsbergen Lexoo (62) Alexandra Vanthournout Fashercise (63) Aneesh Varma
Aire (63) Antony Waldorf Virtual Walkthrough (63) Jozef Wallis Toothpick (64) Imogen Wethered
Qudini (64) Florence Wilkinson Warblr (64) Barney Worfolk-Smith That Lot (65) Will Wynne
Smart Pension (65) Juliana Zarate Mucho (65).
6
Contents: TechCities | TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16
Paul Brown DisplayNote Technologies Paul Hamill Inflyte Leona McAllister PlotBox
Stephen McKeown Analytics Engines Chris McLelland Brewbot Birmingham (10) Mike Bandar
Turn Partners Will Grant Droplet Nick Holzherr Whisk Veejay Lingiah FlashSticks
Sue Summers Finance Birmingham Bournemouth (12) Nuno Almeida Nourish Care David Ford
Bright Blue Day/Silicon South Andrew Henning Redweb Arabella Lewis-Smith Salad Creative
Tom Quay Passenger Technology Group/Base Brighton & Hove (14) Darren Fell Crunch
Benita Matofska Compare and Share Antony Mayfield Brilliant Noise Giles Palmer Brandwatch
Andy Peck TrustedHousesitters Bristol & Bath (16) Paul Archer Daredevil Project Tom Carter
Ultrahaptics Nick Davies Neighbourly Bonnie Dean Bristol & Bath Science Park Ben Trewhella
Opposable Group Cambridge (18) Hermann Hauser Amadeus Capital Partners Steve Marsh
GeoSpock Toby Norman SimPrints Dave Palmer Darktrace Barnaby Perks Ieso Digital Health
Dundee (20) Piers Duplock eeGeo Kenny Lowe Brightsolid Steve Parkes STAR-Dundee
Jason Swedlow Open Microscopy Environment Chris van der Kuyl 4J Studios
Edinburgh (22) Nigel Eccles FanDuel Colin Hewitt Float Ed Molyneux FreeAgent John Peebles
Administrate Gareth Williams Skyscanner Glasgow (24) Vicky Brock Clear Returns Tracey Eker
Flexiworkforce Mark Gracey Scottish Equity Partners Michael Hayes RookieOven Louis Schena
Swipii Hull (26) Matt Abbott Label Worx Salma Conway MrLista Thom Davy Stashboard
David Keel Sonoco Trident Alex Youden NFire Labs Leeds (28) Mark Barrett Hebe Works/Leeds
Data Mill Adam Beaumont aql/NorthInvest Royd Brayshay NewRedo/Agile Yorkshire
Sanjay Parekh Cocoon Daniel Rajkumar Rebuilding Society Liverpool (30) Chris Barker
Draw+Code Leo Cubbin Ripstone Martin Kenwright Starship Group Gavin Sherratt Studio
Mashbo Carl Wong LivingLens Malvern (66) Mike Gogan Virtual Experience Company Robin King
Deep-Secure Emma Philpott Malvern Cyber Security Cluster/IASME Consortium
Alastair Shortland Textlocal Nick Tudor D-RisQ Manchester (68) Claire Braithwaite Tech North
David Levine Digital Bridge John Kershaw Bristlr Al Mackin Formisimo Eudie Thompson Bright
Future North East (70) Si Brown Skignz David Dunn Sunderland Software City Alasdair Greig
Northstar Ventures Tristan Watson Ignite100/Campus North Jo York Reframed.tv
Norwich (72) Ali Clabburn Liftshare James Duez Rainbird Technologies/White Space John Fagan
Axon Vibe/Sync Norwich Neil Garner Proxama Fiona Lettice Norwich Business School
Oxford (74) Tim Fernando Esplorio Husayn Kassai Onfido Michalis Papadakis Brainomix
Riham Satti MeVitae John Stuart Bounts Sheffield (76) Paul Brooks Twile Carl Cavers Sumo
Digital Aldo Monteforte The Floow Giles Moore Airstoc Paul Rawlings Deliverd
South Wales (78) Neil Cocker Dizzyjam/Cardiff Start Warren Fauvel Nudjed Tom Gallard Pwinty
Ollie Gardener NoddlePod Jason Smith Blurrt Thames Valley (80) Louize Clarke ConnectTVT
Alex Jacques Creative Jar Adam Smith Rawnet Chris Sykes Volume Ross Williams Venntro
Media Group.
Belfast (8)
7
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Belfast
Paul Hamill
Founder and chief
executive
Inflyte
“
Belfast is fast becoming a promising tech
hub. In 2014, 25 startups led series A funding
rounds, raising more than £1m.
I
f Dublin is famous for the tech giants it attracts, Belfast is
Ireland’s city of entrepreneurs.
The city is the right scale for entrepreneurs – small but with
very good national and international connections – and has
a priceless talent pool made up of some of the world’s best
science and engineering professionals.
The city has two universities, and graduates with
entrepreneurial ambition can depend on the collaborative
ecosystem for comprehensive support.
The Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP) provides
educational seminars, mentorship programmes, capital
competitions, public policy advocacy and access to premium
investment through HALO – one of the best angel investment
networks in the UK. In 2013 Northern Ireland produced 6% of
UK angel investment, despite only accounting for 3% of the
population.
Established in 2000, NISP Connect is an independent, nonprofit organisation that supports the development of innovative
technologies and early-stage companies. It has built an army of
1,000 volunteers, made up of some of the most experienced
people in the city, including major business owners.
One of the best things about Belfast is its collaborative
ecosystem. Institutions increasingly work with each other, rather
than competitively. Northern Ireland’s Department of Enterprise,
Trade and Investment helps, too.
The province is starting to see the results, with some great
startups taking root and growing to maturity. In 2014 alone, 25
startups led series A funding rounds, raising more than £1m.
Belfast’s entrepreneurial community is looking to align
with the other regions and clusters in the UK, as well as
internationally.
In 2014 a Northern Ireland trade mission to Silicon
Valley, organised in conjunction with NISP Connect, Invest
Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council, saw some of
the best entrepreneurs showcase and network with fellow
entrepreneurs, customers, investors and potential collaborators
from across the pond.
Belfast’s ecosystem has been developing consistently over
the past 20 years to make it what it is today: not just a city
with entrepreneurial potential, but a city with entrepreneurial
success.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Northern Ireland is
Steve Orr of NISP Connect (www.nisp.co.uk/nisp-connect).
8
We cater to big and small.
If Sony Records has an
account with us and you
are on its mailing list, Sony
would invite you to sign up
to its account on Inflyte. You
could use the app so that
Sony could send pre-release
demos to you. Then all this
will sync on your device, as
well as the artwork and press release. Once you have given
feedback, Inflyte will deliver the audio file to your Dropbox.
Small independent labels can start off at £40 a month for
sending out one campaign, and that goes right up to £200 a
month for PR clients. We also have enterprise plans above
that, which include everything from watermarking and more
reports. We also build in anti-piracy technology.”
Inflyte allows its business users to listen to music and give feedback
online and offline, as well as offering access to real-time reporting and
analytics, one-click ratings and Dropbox integration. @InflyteApp
Stephen McKeown
Chief executive
Analytics Engines
“
Companies are storing more and more data, but the key
to its value is being able to ask questions of it. If it’s sitting
in different places you can ask for parts of it, but that’s not
where the value sits. That’s where we come in. We provide the
ability to ask those questions and construct the capability within
your organisation to do that. That’s where it’s the weakest and
where people are getting stuck. We’re positioned to help them.
The common thread between all the companies we work with
is that they’re sitting on silos of data – customer data, finance
data, social media data, factory floor data. We help them pull it all
together in large volumes and at faster speeds.”
Analytics Engines is enabling organisations to easily and quickly adopt
big data analytics as a core part of the business and accelerate the
conversion of data into valuable business insights. @AEacceleration
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Leona McAllister
Co-founder and commercial director
PlotBox
“
Cemeteries and
crematoriums are only
going to get busier. The
baby boomers are all going
to be dying off and we’re
expecting it to start hitting
in 2016. So cemeteries have
to start getting ready for it.
Our original idea had two
parts. One was a genealogy
website, where people can
go on and search for records
of the deceased. Then the
back end could be used by
parishes to add a burial and
sell a plot and know where
it is. We built PlotBox with
customer-driven development, speaking to our customers every single step of the way. A
drone takes images, but then there’s a lot of secret sauce in the background as to how we
process it and make that accurate with our surveying expertise and then turn it into a map.”
Northern Ireland’s PlotBox is breathing new life into cemeteries on both sides of the Atlantic, using drones to
open up alternative revenue streams and modernise their ancient systems. @Plotboxio
Chris McLelland
Co-founder and chief
executive
Brewbot
“
Paul Brown
Chief executive
Technologies
DisplayNote Tech
“
We listened to some
som of the problems edtech clients
were having with displaying
d
tech and new devices such
as smartphones a
and tablets. They all had this front-ofclassroom display,
d
yet the trend was for smart
devices and
a one-to-one initiatives. We sought to
address that problem. The aim had been to take
that content
co
from the front of a room and mirror
it to all
al the other connected devices. Part of
our next
ne phase is pushing into corporate and
enterprise.
enter
DisplayNote can partially address
that market, but it’s very much driven by and
focused
focu
around a presenter at the front.
Quite
Qu often in the boardroom environment
we’re
we all equals, so in a meeting we might
all
a have things to share among each
other,
o
so it’s not quite the same kind of
facilitator
f
environment.”
DisplayNote transforms presentations for
presenters and participants and can be used
to present wirelessly with an iPad or Android,
so the screen can be mirrored on every
participant’s device. @displaynote
We travelled a lot, tasted
a lot of beers, came back
to Northern Ireland and
IPA hadn’t really got that far,
so we wanted to brew our
own beer in the office. We
learnt from that experience
how hard it was but it allowed
us to tap into our technology
backgrounds. We were
doing a lot of mobile apps
and realised we could apply
that to the brewing process
– so we started to build our
own machine. There’s a big
technology opportunity in that
and we’re looking at how we
can democratise it and build
a community of brewers – the
largest distributed brewery,
as we call it. That’s really
what we’re in it for – building
a brewery that connects
that ecosystem together in a
different way.”
The internet has filtered into
almost every aspect of our lives
and digitally distributed pale ale
may sound like every bearded
east London tech hipster’s dream.
But Belfast-based Brewbot is
making it a reality. @brewbot
9
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Birmingham
Mike Bandar
Founding partner
Turn Partners
In 2015, Startup Britain labelled Birmingham
the UK’s most entrepreneurial city. Support
from the city council and Europe is helping to
create the conditions for tech startup growth.
B
irmingham is a perfect test bed for new technology and
innovation. It’s one of the original ‘knowledge cities’,
having long championed the growth of the knowledge
economy – a rich combination of the private and public sectors,
academia and citizens.
The city’s knowledge economy is driven by large-scale
investment in high-value manufacturing, the UK’s largest
professional and financial community outside of London, five
universities – and thousands of tech jobs.
Birmingham has the largest concentration of businesses
outside of London – home to more than 34,000 companies,
including almost 700 international firms. It’s also the youngest
city in Europe, with under-25s making up nearly 40% of its
population.
In 2015, Birmingham was named by Startup Britain as the
most entrepreneurial UK city outside London. Some 18,337
new businesses were registered during 2014.
Birmingham’s geographical advantages are feeding its
growth. Over 90% of the UK market is within four hours’ travel
time and more than 4.3 million working-age people live within
an hour’s drive of the city centre. It’s also the most popular
destination outside the South East for people relocating from
London.
Birmingham is home to SCC, Europe’s largest independent
technology solutions provider. Delivering annual group
revenues of £1.74bn, SCC is a critical magnet, attracting and
retaining tech talent within the city.
At the other end of the city’s tech spectrum is the Innovation
Birmingham Campus, which has a 33-year history in nurturing
tech startups. The council-owned Campus looks to work with
and bring together the public and private sectors, driving
collaboration and promoting innovation.
Birmingham’s other main centres of tech startup activity
include: Birmingham Research Park in Edgbaston, specialising
in life sciences; The Custard Factory and Fazeley Studios in
Digbeth, with their vibrant community of creative companies;
and Longbridge Technology Park.
In the summer of 2015 Google set up its pop-up Digital
Garage business advice service at the stunning new Library of
Birmingham, adding to the business support available in the
city.
With the city’s demographic and geographical strengths
playing to its advantage, Birmingham is in good shape to
further develop as a true tech city.
TechCityinsider’s ambassador for Birmingham is Charlotte Crossley
of Innovation Birmingham (www.innovationbham.com).
10
“
Turn Partners is focused
on acquiring and turning
around businesses, but
we build our own startups as
well. I met Julia Macmillan,
the founder of dating site
Toyboy Warehouse. My
business partner James
Vardy and I acquired 90%.
With Hopper, another
business under Turn
Partners, we are trying to
solve the problem of being able to schedule Instagram posts.
Birmingham is the city to be in to start a business because
the cost base is so much lower and, from a lifestyle point of
view, it’s just amazing. Birmingham does have a phenomenal
history of industry. You can almost feel that in certain pockets
of Birmingham you’re in a moving industrial city.”
Turn Partners is focused on the acquisition and turnaround of
distressed and under-utilised businesses. It has developed a small,
diverse business portfolio by grouping previous projects, including the
acquisition of leading niche dating platform Toyboy Warehouse.
@Mikebandar
Will Grant
Co-founder and chief technology officer
Droplet
“
The Droplet app lets people collect rewards on their phone,
so it digitises loyalty cards with payment as a background.
That was inspired by some of the best payment experiences
out there, like 1-Click on Amazon. Payment as a background
service appealed to customers and to us as well. With the
new product, Rewards, that’s exactly what we’ve done. For the
user, it’s a way to collect reward stamps and get free stuff. This
has started to work massively and we’ve added hundreds of
merchants, thousands of users
and built something that people
want to use. We’ve spent a lot
of time and money but I don’t
think we could have got here
any other way.”
Mobile payment app Droplet
rewards users each time they
spend in their favourite places.
It is free for customers to use
and doesn’t charge merchants
any transaction fees. By 2015 it
had raised £1.5m in investment,
including £500,000 on
Crowdcube. @DropletPay
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Nick Holzherr
Sue Summers
Chief executive
Whisk
Chief executive
Finance Birmingham
“
“
With finding the right thing to eat, buying all the ingredients and then making the meal as tasty
as possible, I’d always found that I wasn’t fully making the best of it. I saw how technology was
developing and what was available and thought there was a big opportunity there. Our mission
is to empower people to live happier lives through food. We’re all very inspired by it, we are making
good progress with it and it’s loads of fun. The reason I chose to set up in Birmingham is because of
the tech talent. The real value is the type of talent you get here. We’re doing lots of natural language
processing and big data stuff. The universities and some of the companies specialise in that and
we’ve been able to find some really good candidates.”
Whisk is a free smart app that turns recipes into handy shopping lists that users can access anytime,
anywhere. Its mission is to give people simple, intelligent ways to discover, organise, shop for, cook and share
food. Holzherr achieved fame in 2012 when he was runner-up on the BBC’s The Apprentice. @WhiskTeam
Veejay Lingiah
Chief executive
FlashSticks
“
FlashSticks are uniquely printed Post-it notes for
language learning. They are colour coded by gender, so
blue notes for masculine nouns, pink for feminine. If you
take a device with the FlashSticks app, you can hover over
a note, the app will recognise what you’re looking at and a
native speaker will pop up and tell you how to pronounce
the word. People need ways to keep progressing with their
language learning, and that’s what FlashSticks is about. We
experimented with augmented reality technology and aligned
ourselves with 3M, which owns the Post-it brand. They came
on board to help us make FlashSticks possible.”
FlashSticks offers a novel educational tool that combines the simplicity
of the printed Post-it note with augmented reality and translation tech to
help young people in particular learn new languages. @FlashSticks
Finance Birmingham
is now one of the
largest regional venture
capitalists in England
and it is set up to provide
growth capital to SMEs.
We have a number of
funds in our portfolio –
advanced engineering,
generic growth funds –
across all sectors. Finance
Birmingham’s partnership
with Birmingham City
Council is innovative. It is
breaking new ground to
bring out debt and equity
funds for local businesses.
We work with Ascension
Ventures, introducing
them to some of the local
companies in the digital
media sector that required
investment and they join us
in investing in their growth.”
Finance Birmingham is a
venture capital company owned
by Birmingham City Council,
investing in both local and
national businesses via a range of
funds and programmes, operating
commercially for a wider social
benefit. @finbham
11
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Bournemouth
Arabella
Lewis-Smith
Founder and
principal
Salad Creative
The Dorset mini-conurbation of Bournemouth
and Poole surprisingly hosts the UK’s fastestgrowing tech cluster, according to Tech City UK.
T
he 2015 Tech Nation report claimed that Bournemouth
was the UK’s fastest-growing digital cluster. Between
2010 and 2013, it boasted a 212% rise in the formation
of digital startups – almost double the number of any other UK
cluster.
The ‘BH’ postcode covers next-door Poole too (which
together form the UK’s 13th largest metropolis), and the
digital cluster spreads into Dorset more widely. The concept
of ‘Silicon South’ was created as a description of the creative
digital cluster across the whole area.
Key to the area’s growth is a combination of strong
companies, committed public support and a supply of new
talent. Silicon South is focused on supporting the creation of
3,500 new jobs in the creative digital sector by 2021.
Base is symptomatic of the highly connected and
enthusiastic cluster. It has set up the world’s largest Open
Device Lab – a room filled with 450 devices that can be used
for testing any software application across most operating
systems.
Base is also responsible for the Re:develop Conference –
a one-day conference for developers by developers – and
hackbmth, a proactive cluster that arranges hack events
throughout the year.
Silicon Beach, now in its fifth year, brings in first-class
speakers for two days at the end of the summer to discuss all
things digital and marketing.
Poole hosts two strong creative universities – Bournemouth
University and Arts University Bournemouth. They provide a
valuable pipeline of graduate talent, including to an emerging
games industry.
Dorset has strong sectors in financial services, marine and
health, and this provides some interesting opportunities for
companies looking beyond digital as a vertical market.
Creative England’s Digital Accelerator was run in
Bournemouth, and provided help to eight startups, nearly
all of which were developing cross-sector products. Silicon
South is leading ambitious plans that include founding new
incubation facilities, as well as larger offices dedicated to more
established creative digital businesses.
Critical to digital success is a good network. Bournemouth
is home to the UK’s largest pure fibre-to-the-home (and office)
network, which delivers reliable speeds of up to 1000Mb.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Bournemouth & Poole is
David Ford from Silicon South (www.siliconsouth.org.uk).
12
“
The Clipper round-theworld yacht race is a
global brand. Anybody
can take part. We have
developed a new site for
the race. It contains lots
of very timely, relevant
content. We have been
building some neat
functionality. The race
can be tracked by its
audience. Each boat has a full telemetry on board. If you visit
the site, you can see the position of every boat, wind speed,
weather conditions and what position they are in the race
– and that’s a bespoke tool. We are making it work across
tablets and mobile to allow fans to follow the race. This all
has to be very stable, because if the technology fails, there
are lots of people in the middle of the ocean that people care
about. It’s important that it works and delivers information in
a smart way.”
Dorset-based integrated design agency Salad Creative is creatively led
and specialises in brand identity. Its digital offering has grown rapidly
as it finds tech is increasingly needed to meet its clients’ needs. Typical
of its new agenda is a technology-led project for the Clipper round-theworld race. @SaladCreative
Tom Quay
Chief executive, Passenger Technology Group
Founder and director, Base
“
We work in public transport,
looking after a couple of
the big bus operators in
the country. Bournemouth
Yellow Buses is one and was
the spark when we took them
on as a client six years ago. A
big part of what we do is the
smart car management and
the systems that run passenger transport. We also have journey
planning tools and fare calculators on the information side, but we
do the transactional bit as well. Operators face the same kinds
of problems across the country and across the globe. So we’re
seeing good demand for what we do.”
Product innovation and service design studio Base mixes mobile, web,
agile and lean to accelerate commercial ideas. The studio is also home
to an open lab for device testing. Passenger is Quay’s new venture
focusing on imobile ticketing for transport operators. @wearebase
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Nuno Almeida
Founder and chief executive
exe
Nourish Care
“
When an element of your startup is to do with
intellectually complex pro
problems, you often find yourself
thinking that you want to give your team a bit more
space. That’s when being away
aw from a big city can be
advantageous. Sometimes when
w
we have to crack a really
complex problem, we find ourselves
ou
talking about it in
the morning and then going for
f a walk. Of course you can
do that in London, but then it’s not as much fun. And of
course there’s a financial element,
elem
too. The cost of living
in Bournemouth is a fraction of what it is in London. Doing
business down here doesn’t preclude
prec
you from doing business
in London, but you have the nice aspects of life as well.”
Bournemouth-based social and healthcare technology startup
revolutionise the way that social care
Nourish is looking to re
managed and received, through its cloud
is given, manag
mobile apps. It is serial entrepreneur
and mobil
Almeida’s
Almeida third business.
@nourishcare
@nou
David Ford
Chief executive, Bright Blue Day
Chair, Silicon South
“
A brand needs to be useful,
entertaining or interesting. A brand is
really a series of experiences, much
more than bricks and mortar or a logo.
That applies in the social media space as
well as physical environments. Our job is
to stitch together a story that works across
those touchpoints and brings a brand
to life. We make lots of things and try to
build in that concept of experience. It’s
important to emphasise that experience
as a way of unifying the technology, the
product and bringing that to life for people.
Technology is absolutely key. Historically
you were either a tech agency or a creative
agency. Today it is much more of a blend,
with tech and creative people working
together. We do a lot of work around apps,
content aggregation and mapping the data
that we pick up.”
Bright Blue Day builds “go-to” brands for
clients including Emirates, Visa and Vue,
putting technology at the heart of its offering.
Silicon South works to promote and grow the
Bournemouth and Poole tech cluster.
@BrightBlueDay
Andrew
Henning
Founder and chief
executive
Redweb
“
Our background is design
and build. So we very
much come at what we
do from an equal creative-totechnology perspective. Most
of the work we do involves
building, designing and
maintaining the core web
offerings for large blue-chip
clients. We have to combine
a lot of different things, from
new technologies through to
creative innovation, as well
as all the way down to things
like security management.
Our peripheral services are
a big growth area, and these
cover search, content, UX
services and more.”
Celebrating its 18th birthday
in 2015, Redweb’s digital
agency work covers web design,
creativity and strategy. It has
built its reputation on harnessing
technology for best results,
across a client base that includes
corporates and charities alike.
@Redweb
13
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Brighton & Hove
Darren Fell
Founder and chief
executive
Crunch
“
Once regarded by many as London-by-sea,
the Sussex coastal city of Brighton & Hove
has grown quickly into its own tech business
cluster, with a distinctive focus on creative
digital and gaming.
I
t’s sometimes said that if you throw a pebble in Brighton
you’ll hit four startups. This claim is backed by statistics
from the Centre for Cities 2015 Outlook, which found that
Brighton has the highest number of startups per capita outside
of London.
If there’s one thing unique to Brighton, it’s the fusion between
creative arts and tech. A huge proportion have founders with a
background in arts and humanities – they represent nearly 50%
of digital businesses.
The support network in the region is particularly good and
reinforces this feeling of belonging to a tech cluster.
Wired Sussex is a Brighton-based membership organisation
for companies and freelancers operating in the digital, media
and technology sector.
The Brighton Fuse project was born from a collaboration
between the University of Sussex, the University of Brighton,
Wired Sussex and the National Centre for Universities and
Business. It’s a three-year research and development project
set up to analyse the growth of Brighton’s successful creative,
digital and information technology cluster.
The Fusebox, a studio space designed specifically with
innovators in mind, was launched in 2014. In 2015, an
innovation centre opened next door, bringing the expertise of
the University of Sussex into the city centre and the heart of the
business community.
The explosive growth of Brighton’s business community has
created infrastructure challenges. When problems emerged
with access to high-speed broadband, the Brighton cando attitude kicked in and it is now building its own digital
exchange.
The city is also home to well-established e-learning firms such
as LEO, as well as promising young startups like MakerClub,
which makes 3D printed robotics for the education market.
Coast to Capital, the local enterprise partnership for the
area, recently won a bid to host one of the government’s
Digital Catapults in Brighton. This R&D centre opened in
2015, bringing together small, innovative digital businesses,
corporates like Gatwick Airport and American Express and
university expertise.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Brighton is Phil Jones
from Wired Sussex (www.wiredsussex.com/contact).
14
Crunch is the online
accounting and
accountancy firm for
freelancers, contractors
and micro businesses. We
combine software and
accountancy expertise in one
system. It’s the whole service
that people love. Everything
is done, not just part of it.
My gut feeling was that
freelancing, contracting and consulting was going to explode
in growth. Twenty minutes into my pitch, Bebo founder Paul
Birch stopped me to say he was in. In Brighton, we can get
some fantastic people that otherwise have to commute, so
people are buying into this as a lifestyle choice. At 5.30pm
in the summer they can skip down the road to the beach,
sit there and crack open a tinny. It’s a unique place that is
now incredibly strong in digital and we’ve got some fantastic
businesses here.”
Hove-based online accountancy firm Crunch offers freelancers,
contractors and micro businesses control of their finances with expert
accredited accountants and simple online software. @TeamCrunch
Benita Matofska
Founder and chief crowdfunder
Compare and Share
“
Compare and Share is the world’s first marketplace of the
sharing economy. We act as the gateway to that economy,
helping consumers and companies access and exploit the
world’s £3.5tn worth of spare goods without having to trawl
7,500 individual sites. Our vision is to open up the sharing
economy, just as eBay opened up the second-hand goods market
and become the global go-to brand of the sharing economy. One
day I found myself backstage at the One Young World conference
having a conversation with
Desmond Tutu. It was probably one
of the most humbling experiences of
my life. I pledged that the next thing
I would do would be to launch a
campaign, but also a business that
would have an impact on society.”
Compare and Share, a comparison
site for the sharing economy, allows
consumers and companies to search for
accommodation and transport across
many sharing sites in one go. It also
provides a directory of thousands of
asset-sharing economy businesses.
@compareandshare
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Antony Mayfield
Andy Peck
Founding partner and chief executive
Brilliant Noise
Founder and chief
executive
Trusted Housesitters
“
There are two types of company in every sector: incumbents and disrupters. Brilliant Noise
helps incumbent brands think like and learn the lessons from disrupters: how to act in an agile
way, how to pilot new ways of working and how to anticipate where the next consumer need
might be coming from. We’re also talking to brands that have recently been disrupters and need
to still be able to act nimbly and create new ideas and innovation. In Brighton’s digital sector, we
have people here who have been working in dotcom startups or in agencies since Web 1.0. We
have a lot of people with a lot of experience and a big talent pool of people, and of course it’s an
exciting city culturally. There’s fantastic diversity in quite a small space.”
Brighton-based strategic digital agency Brilliant Noise works to create fast change with lasting impact. It
works in four critical connected areas: experience, brand, content and culture. @brilliantnoise
Giles Palmer
Chief executive
Brandwatch
“
Brandwatch came out of a tech agency I started with
three other people. We built websites but pivoted into a
product company. Brandwatch is about using data tools
to understand online conversations. Say a TV advert went
out at 3pm. A brand can find out what happened to the
online conversation and break it down by minute, country,
author, site. We also do sentiment analysis and look at the
tone of voice people use when they talk about a product
or how influential are they. For a content marketer, it is an
essential tool to understand how their messages are received
online. Brighton is well resourced with artists and front-end
creatives, so I don’t think we’ll ever run out of talent.”
Brandwatch is a social media monitoring and analytics tool that helps
brands make better decisions. It creates smart software solutions that help
marketers capture, analyse and share insights from social data. In October
2015 it closed a $33m series C investment round. @Brandwatch
“
Trusted Housesitters is
an online service that
enables homeowners
to find pet sitters who will
look after a home free of
charge in exchange for a
place to stay. I discovered
housesitting and spoke to
the owners of a beautiful
house in Spain. They said
that when they went away
they were always concerned
about who was going to
look after their home and
their pets. Homeowners
create a listing that is sent
to registered sitters. They
communicate via the site
and homeowners can check
sitters’ references and
reviews. They make their
own arrangements. Brighton
is a very altruistic place. It’s
a fantastic burgeoning area
for tech expertise.”
Trusted Housesitters connects
home and pet owners on every
continent who need a sitter when
they go away with trustworthy
people who sit for free. It is the
world’s largest house and petsitting network. @Housesitting
15
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Bristol & Bath
Paul Archer
Founder and
managing director
Daredevil Project
Bristol & Bath is one of the UK’s fastestgrowing tech clusters. A key player in Silicon
Gorge is university-backed SETsquared
incubator, based in Brunel’s Engine Shed.
F
rom the Roman Baths to Brunel’s Clifton suspension
bridge, the cities of Bristol and Bath have a rich history of
engineering, creativity and innovation.
The cities are often collectively referred to as Silicon Gorge
– reflecting the growth of the region’s tech sector. With a
high quality of life, a skilled workforce and a diverse range of
connected industries, it is no wonder businesses, from startups
to multinationals, are drawn to the South West.
The region has long attracted successful businesses,
with tech giants HP, Toshiba, IBM, Orange and aerospace
specialists Airbus, GKN, Rolls Royce and BAE all based there.
Just 12 miles apart and boasting 1,100 tech companies
between them, the two cities have formed a partnership
to support technology startups in the area. This includes
two incubators of the SETsquared Partnership, supported
by five southern English universities: Bath, Bristol, Exeter,
Southampton and Surrey.
Entrepreneurs and startups can also benefit from the
partnership’s mentor programme and co-working spaces
through the new Engine Shed initiative. Located in one of
Brunel’s original buildings, the Engine Shed is based next to
Bristol’s train station, providing fast connections to London.
Other important facilities include the Bristol and Bath
Science Park, a lively business community designed to actively
create opportunities to share expertise, and the TechSPARK
networking events.
In 2014 Just Eat opened a specialist innovation hub in
Bristol to take advantage of the region’s dynamic technology
talent pool. This followed Huawei, which opened a further UK
office and £125m R&D centre in Bristol. The expertise of such
companies trickles down to all parts of the ecosystem.
The Bath & Bristol cluster houses a wide selection of
startups, including Wriggle, making on-the-day offers;
Maplebird, developing very small flapping-wing UAVs; and
Potato, which builds complex and scalable web applications.
Some startups are already succeeding in their markets,
such as Bristol-grown YourWealth, acquired by Momentum
in 2014, and Coull, also born in Bristol, which has attracted
$12.2m from angel investors to fund its US expansion.
Industrial Phycology, Zynstra and Smart Antennas are all Bath
businesses on the up.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Bristol & Bath is Nick
Sturge from SETsquared (www.setsquared.co.uk)
16
“
At Daredevil we make apps
and games. One, Duel, is a
photo-duelling game built
around the idea of two images
that you choose between. They
can be formed as one image,
which acts as a challenge that
I can send to my friends. They
need to respond with another image and our friends will
decide which one is better. Or there can be two images that
can act as a question. Should I have tea or coffee? Should
I go for an adventure here, or there? Bristol is a great place
to startup and we are based at Pervasive Media Studio, which
is a phenomenal hub for arts and technology. It’s very quirky
and arty with lots of things going on around music and art,
which is great for the creativity that a startup requires to
be successful.”
Archer set up mobile-social games startup Daredevil after returning from
breaking the world record for the longest-ever taxi journey. Duel.me, a
photo-pairing, challenging and decisioning app, is its flagship project.
@daredevproject
Bonnie Dean
Chief executive
Bristol & Bath Science Park
“
Bristol and Bath Science Park is a place for people to come
together to cluster, collaborate and take new ideas and
new technologies to market. The fact that you have different
parties – like corporates, small businesses, entrepreneurs and
academia – clustering and collaborating de-risks it for all parties.
There is a lot of support for very early-stage startups, first-time
entrepreneurs and founders in the region, but there’s a lack
of space to scale and grow. Once companies have passed
through the early and incubation
stages, they need space to
grow and places where they can
collaborate with new partners
and stakeholders. The Science
Park offers that. The role of the
park is to stay one step ahead of
the growth of the companies that
are here.”
Bristol and Bath Science Park
brings together corporates, small
businesses, entrepreneurs and
academia. The technology hub
opened in 2011 following a joint
venture by Quantum Property
Partnerships and the government.
@bbsciencepark
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Tom Carter
Co-founder and chief technology officer
Ultrahaptics
“
Ultrahaptics makes a technology that lets you feel
without touching. We use ultrasound
und to gently
vibrate your skin so that you can control your
devices without touching and get feeling
eling onto
your hand for what you’re doing or feel
eel things
that aren’t there: virtual objects, shapes,
pes,
textures in virtual reality. I started work
rk
on what eventually became Ultrahaptics
tics
as part of my computer science
undergraduate degree at Bristol University.
versity.
I worked for six months with a supervisor
visor
who had this idea that you could feell things
in mid-air without touching. I thoughtt that
sounded really cool so I jumped on the
he
project. I didn’t get it fully working but
ut made
progress. At the end of the degree I thought,
‘This could be really useful in the reall world.’”
Ben Trewhella
Chief executive
Opposable Group
Ultrasound platform Ultrahaptics enables users
sers to interact
with and ‘feel’ virtual objects using air sensations.
sations. It aims
to revolutionise how people interact with computers,
omputers,
automobiles and consumer goods.
@ultrahaptics
“
Nick Davies
Founder and chief
executive
Neighbourly
“
National brands
report that, as they
increasingly go global,
they are losing touch
with local communities.
Their declining relevance
was massively amplified
by the the financial
crash, and subsequent
scandals. At the same
time, local communities
are increasingly saying
they need help. With
Neighbourly, we help big
business to get involved at a local level. It’s very much like the Big Society. If Neighbourly
had been around five years ago, we could have helped Mr Cameron. It is a tool. It’s a digital
marketplace that says to communities, ‘Come and set up your project, tell your story, and get
your friends and neighbours involved by sharing socially.’ You can do all that for free on our
platform and choose tags to describe what your project needs.”
Neighbourly connects local community causes and projects with businesses that can help by contributing time
or funding. Its two-way platform benefits both business and the community. @nbrlyuk
We use games
technology in nontraditional avenues. We
have built a game that helps
children with mental health
concerns such as OCD and
anxiety. We’ve worked with
Handaxe, which has created
a game design that allows
a standardised cognitive
behaviour therapy to
educate children alongside
therapists. Children can
meet characters within
the construct of a video
game and learn how their
thoughts, feelings and
behaviours affect their
mental health. We also build
our own video games. We
have some specialised
technology that allows
Androids, iPhones, PCs and
Macs to connect to each
other. We use that to create
unique multiplayer games
or single-player games
that work across multiple
screens and have introduced
a virtual-reality mode.”
Opposable is an award-winning
Bristol-based virtual-reality,
games and mobile business,
with a studio at its heart creating
connected games for mobile, PC
and console. @OpposableGroup
17
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Cambridge
Hermann Hauser
Partner
Amadeus Capital Partners
Cambridge is home to some of the UK’s most
innovative technology startups – supported
by the infrastructure of its university, big tech
business and a well-established investor
community.
O
ver the past 60 years, a technology cluster regarded as
one of the most mature and innovative in Europe has
developed around Cambridge University.
Once dominated by agriculture, Cambridge has become a
world-class centre of innovation credited with matching Silicon
Valley in terms of intellectual property generation, despite being
dwarfed in terms of scale.
A recent Cambridge University report suggested the city
boasts 18% of the world’s games market and, based on recent
estimates, the sector employs around 4,000 people.
Life sciences has recently outstripped high-tech in terms of
job and wealth creation. That was underlined when pharma giant
AstraZeneca moved its corporate HQ and R&D hothouse to the
city, with the firm expecting to create 2,000 jobs by 2016.
Digital Cambridge is also contributing to the UK’s
endeavours to improve the quality of healthcare. A growing
battery of software-based life-science companies are providing
digital solutions to help fight disease, especially neurological
conditions and cancer.
The other major growth area in the Cambridge cluster is
cyber security, with several companies now advising global
governments on protecting their systems from hackers.
Cambridge has a strong support network, principally
underpinned by serial entrepreneurs who have grown worldleading science and technology firms before exiting and then reinvesting in local startups – mainly university spinouts. They have
formed Cambridge Angels, which provides cash and ongoing
mentorship. The angels typically inject short-term capital but are
increasingly investing alongside international venture backers.
Cambridge is also blessed with networks that engage
with international influencers. Cambridge Network fulfils the
global engagement function for businesses of all sizes and
sectors; Cambridge Wireless, Cambridge Cleantech and the
life science members’ organisation One Nucleus do the same
for their own sectors. Cambridge Ahead engages with major
corporate players locally to take their views and needs on
infrastructure to local and central government.
The arrival in Cambridge of AstraZeneca and Apple adds
to the cluster’s credentials and will aid the fight for new
recruits by highlighting the city’s pulling power.With superchip
designer ARM, US heavyweight Qualcomm and Chinese ICT
powerhouse Huawei leading Cambridge’s growing internetof-things capability, prospects for the cluster have never been
brighter.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Cambridge is Tony
Quested of Business Weekly (www.businessweekly.co.uk).
18
“
For a cluster to really work well, you have to have a worldclass university at its centre, and Cambridge has that. But
it’s very important that you have the entire ecosystem,
so you need lawyers who understand how to work with
early-stage companies, the
accountants for companies
that often don’t have any
revenues and the real-estate
infrastructure of science
parks. Very importantly, you
need to have a high enough
concentration of companies
in the same sector so that
they can feed off each other.
The sense of collaboration in
Cambridge is strong and that’s
one of the distinguishing
features of the city. We’re still very small compared with
Silicon Valley, but we’re not negligible anymore. We have
1,500 companies, we employ 57,000 people and we have
a combined revenue of more than £13bn. So we’re finally
making a mark in the world.”
Hermann Hauser is one of the true giants of the UK technology scene.
In 1978, he set up Acorn Computers and, as founder of ARM, he
helped create the processors that today sit in our iPhones and more. For
18 years he’s invested in others through Amadeus Capital.
@hermannhauser
Barnaby Perks
Chief executive
Ieso Digital Health
“
There is a major problem in
the NHS with the supply of
mental health therapy, with
long waiting times because of
scarce resources. We use the
internet to connect patients with
therapists. Patients can attend
therapy at a time and place in
which they are comfortable. A lot of people really struggle with the
embarrassment of attending therapy, and mental health is often a
difficult thing for people to deal with. This method enables them to
do it in a way that is very low stigma and also incredibly effective.
We ran a clinical trial of our method back in 2007, published in
The Lancet in 2009. Without the inter-social baggage of face-toface therapy, people tend to get to the point and deal with their
issues more quickly.”
Ieso provides behavioural therapy services to NHS and private patients.
The patients, who are dealing with depression and anxiety issues,
are treated one-to-one by accredited therapists over a secure online
connection. @Ieso_Health
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Dave Palmer
Director of technology
Darktrace
“
We've been really inspired
by the human immune
system. If we encounter
germs, viruses or bugs that
we've never had before, our
bodies can spot it, respond
to it and deal with it. Our
bodies do that by knowing
what it uniquely means to be
me as Dave and every single
different part of my body. They
know how to tell us when
something is going awry.
That's exactly what we want to
do with our advanced machine
learning and mathematics.
No matter how complicated
a business, whether it’s a
train operator or a chocolate
factory, we enable it to regain
the knowledge of everything
that goes on. This allows the
business technology itself to tell you that something has changed, something is different or
someone is behaving differently and may present a risk to the organisation.”
Rapid-rising cybersecurity business Darktrace draws on biological principles to create ‘enterprise immune
systems’ for its clients. It learns usual patterns of behaviour of devices and users and flags up suspicious
variations in these patterns. @DarktraceNews
Steve Marsh
Founder and chief executive
GeoSpock
“
GeoSpock is a real-time scalable database for big data,
with an initial focus on location information. The internet
of things is a growing market; there’s going to be a tidal
wave of data coming our way and that needs to go somewhere.
We provide real-time access to both current and historical
data. We have some clever encoding mechanisms using bigdata processing techniques. We’re helping tech companies
to organise data to actually make sense of the world around
them. Cambridge has a fantastic ecosystem. You have a
concentration of highly intelligent people, it’s very mature as far
as entrepreneurship goes and the university has some of the
best student-run societies in Europe. There is also access to
serial entrepreneurs who really want to give back and push the
next generation forward.”
Marsh was reading for his PhD at Cambridge University, where he was
developing a real-time super computer simulating human brain function,
when he conceived the idea for big-data management startup GeoSpock.
@GeoSpock
Toby Norman
Chief executive
SimPrints
“
Our low-cost rugged
fingerprint scanner can
link and sync wirelessly
or through USB to mobile
phones. We’re building and
designing this for low-energy,
low-power and, in some
cases, very resource-poor
settings. More and more
work in health is shifting
to mobile, so people are
keeping electronic medical
records on mobile phones
and moving diagnostic
decisions to phones. This
is allowing health workers
in really remote parts of the
world to give better clinical
care, better clinical support,
and to create and track better
data over time. One real
bottleneck to unlocking the
potential of this is the lack
of identification. It makes it
really hard to deliver quality
care when every time you
see a patient, it’s like the
first time. We’re hoping our
mobile fingerprint scanner
can help.”
SimPrints is a social enterprise
committed to improving the lives
of the poor. It is working to create
a cheap mobile biometric scanner
that will allow medical charities
to identify patients in slums and
other challenging places.
@SimPrintsTech
19
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Dundee
Chris van der
Kuyl
Chair
4J Studios
“
Dundee is a city steeped in the history of
computer gaming, as the birthplace of global
giants like Grand Theft Auto and continuing
work on Minecraft. But the city also has
strengths in life sciences and data.
D
undee, Scotland’s sunniest city, is historically known for
its ‘three Js’ – jute, jam and journalism.
The past generation has seen a new and inwardly
driven force rebuild the post-industrial landscape of the city into
a technology powerhouse spanning disparate sectors.
Journalism lives on in the still-thriving publishing giant that is
DC Thomson, creator and publisher of classics like the Beano
and Dandy, as well as a catalogue of historically significant and
modern publications across dozens of household brands.
The city’s Timex Factory shut down in 1993 after a series of
bitter strikes and NCR closed its main PCB production plant in
2009, leaving an R&D facility behind. The legacy left by these
technological giants resonates on today.
The Timex factory was, it turns out, also famous for the
Sinclair ZX-81 and ZX-Spectrum computers, many of which
wound up through various means in the hands of enterprising
young children in Dundee. Some of these Dundee children
eventually grow their passions into fledgling businesses like
DMA Design and VIS.
The early and marked success of these companies with
titles like Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto, State of Emergency
and H.E.D.Z. created a sense of legitimacy around the video
games industry, and paved the way for the foundation of the
world’s first degree in computer games technology at Abertay
University in the city.
Around 3,000 people work in technology, generating a
turnover of more than £200m, but sadly much of the rest of the
city does not financially reap the rewards of this effort.
Many in Dundee’s STEM community are working hard
to ensure that children growing up within the city learn the
appropriate skills and will have the opportunity to work within
and grow these sectors.
The free nationwide champion of kids coding, Code Club,
saw its first club in Scotland founded in Dundee, growing to
more than 90% of primary schools in Dundee now hosting
clubs for 9-11s, driven and guided by Dundee Science Centre.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities Ambassador for Dundee is Kenny Lowe
from Brightsolid and Dundee Meet-Up (www.brightsolid.com).
20
We wanted to create a
business that focused on
quality over quantity. For
our first five years, we took
on very interesting, very technically challenging development
work with a variety of games publishers, then for the last
couple of years it was Microsoft pretty much exclusively for
Xbox 360. The reputation we built up then led Microsoft to
the team up in Sweden at Mojang, who’d created Minecraft.
They had a game that was doing really well on PC, tablets
and mobiles, so decided it was the right time to bring it to
games consoles. Microsoft recommended us, talking about
the reputation of Scottish developers and our understanding
of how consoles work. We struck a deal that was a revenue
share. We thought that if the game sold two million copies on
consoles it would be a runaway success. We have now sold
well over 20 million copies.”
Award-winning games studio 4J created Minecraft on Xbox 360 with
Mojang and Microsoft, and is now also working on all Playstation and
XboxOne versions. Dundee-based Van der Kuyl, one of the UK’s leading
games developers, chairs the Entrepreneurial Exchange representing
more than 400 Scottish entrepreneurs. @4JStudios
Piers Duplock
Producer
eeGeo
“
We specialise in making
beautiful interactive 3D
maps. We came from
Realtime Worlds, a huge
and well-respected games
company based in Dundee,
which developed games like
APB and Crackdown. When
that sadly folded, we bought
the rights to Project MyWorld,
which Realtime Worlds
was developing. Now it has
flourished into our mobile mapping platform. The platform is self
sustainable and we are solely focused on that. We have to pick
our locations because not everywhere gives us the data we need,
like ground data, 3D buildings, topography and road networks.
We select our locations, find our data then build from that. We
bring it all into our old games engine and we build our cities
based on that.”
eeGeo is on a mission to enable its customers to create intuitive and
engaging experiences, by delivering a new approach to mapping. It
offers free access to its software development kit. @eeGeo
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Jason Swedlow
Professor, University of Dundee
undee
Open Microscopy Environment
ment
“
Images are everywhere. Everywhere
ywhere you go, you see
people trying to do things with
h images, whether that’s
taking a selfie, or using sociall media and including
images, sequences or time-lapse
e videos as ways of
communicating. That same kind of trend in using
images across many different domains
mains and
applications is certainly going on
n in the life
and biomedical sciences. So all biological,
biomedical research and clinical practice
uses images heavily and increasingly
ingly
so. The trajectory is going up and
d up.
The big difference is the pixel values.
lues.
In research we use all kinds of
microscopy tools to measure the
e
concentration and the dynamics and
the movement and the interactions
ns
between molecules at very high
resolution. To you and me they are
re
all pictures, but in science they allll
hold measurements.”
The Open Microscopy Environment is an
open-source software project delivering
g tools
for accessing, managing, sharing, and publishing
bioimage datasets. The project spans the world, but
is founded and managed in Dundee.
@openmicroscopy
Steve Parkes
Managing director
Star Dundee
“
We’ve been working for the European Space Agency over
a number of years on a technology called SpaceWire. Just
like a USB is used to connect a hard drive to a computer,
and maybe some sensors like a webcam or mouse, Spacewire
connects the onboard instruments – like telescopes, radar
or other sensors – to the onboard data-handling network
and its mass memory. It then takes it out for processing and
compression, before sending that information down to Earth
over a radio link. The main challenge for communication in
space is the environment. In space there’s a lot of radiation,
so things have to be radiation-hard. And if something fails you
can’t just go in and repair it. It has to be almost self-healing. We
have redundant links in a network, so that if one fails you can
use another.”
Parkes, also professor of spacecraft electronics at the University
of Dundee, spun out Star Dundee from the university in 2002. Its
SpaceWire technology, connecting spacecraft with Earth, is designed
with the harsh environment of space in mind. @dundeeuni
Kenny Lowe
Head of emerging
technologies
Brightsolid
“
Eighteen years ago
Scotland Online was
set up as one of
Scotland’s first internet
service providers. It moved
first into the genealogy
space and started hosting
the Scotland’s People
website. It realised that a
whole business could be
created from hosting data
for other people. Scotland
Online became Brightsolid
and bought sites including
FindMyPast and Friends
Reunited, eventually
amalgamating them under
one brand. This spun out
into its own businesses,
while Brightsolid built up its
hosting business, securely
holding important data for
financial businesses, the
government, the NHS and
local authorities.”
Cloud and application hosting
specialist Brightsolid owns
and operates data centres in
Dundee and Aberdeen, delivering
technical innovation backed by
personal service. It is owned
by Dundee family publishing
business DC Thomson.
@KennyLowe
21
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Edinburgh
Nigel Eccles
Co-founder and chief
executive
FanDuel
Edinburgh has steadily built a role as a
technology centre of excellence. A key
player is tech incubator CodeBase – now
the UK’s largest.
E
dinburgh and CodeBase are at the heart of Scotland’s
entrepreneurial activity. CodeBase, one of the largest
tech incubators in Europe, was hosting 63 companies by
November 2015 and was looking to grow to 80.
The companies are mostly b2b firms building for enterprise
across sectors including health and education. One is
RelayMed, which specialises in electronic health records.
Stipso, an infographics creator for people who can’t code, and
Makeworks, an online marketplace of Scottish manufacturers,
are also examples of Scottish software bridges, spanning tech
and creativity.
Edinburgh has a wealth of talent from its three local
universities, and it is both easier and cheaper to set up a
business in the city than it is in most other major UK cities.
There’s already a gravitational pull towards Edinburgh that
means it attracts some of the best talent in Scotland. Dundee’s
strength in gaming has meant a large influx of creative talent to
the capital in the last few years.
There is also some good support available for startups
from the likes of Informatics Ventures, which specialises in
encouraging collaboration between industry experts and
entrepreneurs; Interact Scotland, which brokers deals with big
companies for startups and SMEs; and Scottish Enterprise,
which offers grants to help start businesses.There is strong
evidence that these support organisations are generating real
success stories, such as Skyscanner and fantasy sports firm
FanDuel, which recently raised US$275m in funding.
The city has also benefited from the presence of some of the
world’s leading technology companies. Amazon established
a development centre in the area 10 years ago and has been
joined by Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. These businesses
have helped to attract and retain talent and investment for the
area.
Edinburgh is now creating tech jobs faster than it can fill
them. To help create more homegrown talent, CodeBase is
now running kids’ clubs and adult courses. It is also creating
a much more serious, year-long course, run by in collaboration
with local businesses and startups. It’s based around mutual
benefit, as the individuals receive training and the companies
create the talent they need.
Another challenge is ensuring startups have access to the
funding they require to grow and scale. Although more than
£1tn in investment funds is available in Edinburgh, a lot of this
is old-fashioned and ill-suited to tech startups.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Edinburgh is Jamie
Coleman of CodeBase.
22
“
Part of building a successful
company is learning from
your mistakes. While there
isn’t anything fundamental I
would do differently, we could
probably have adopted more
of an aggressive approach to
marketing and acquisitions in
2011 after our second round
of funding. My single piece
of advice to others starting
up in technology would be:
don’t give up. If you have a
product you really believe in,
keep going. We were turned
down by 85 investors before
we secured our first round
of funding. Although we
have grown significantly, our
mission is still to make sports
more exciting and to develop
products that enhance our
users’ experience.”
Fantasy sports gaming platform FanDuel is one of Edinburgh’s great
tech startup success stories, with huge US popularity. In 2015 it closed
a massive $275m investment round. @FanDuel
Colin Hewitt
Founder and chief executive
Float
“
Float’s mission is to make it
simple for business owners
to manage and predict their
cashflow. Often it’s something
that people never really get round
to. We want to make it easy for
people to ask ‘what if’ questions
and have accurate, up-to-date
information about what that’s
going to mean for the business
finances. We show you when you
need the money, and accurately
predict how long you need it for.”
Float helps businesses manage their
cashflow in the cloud, integrating
with leading online accounting
packages like FreeAgent and Xero.
Hewitt previously ran brand agency
IfLooksCouldKill for a decade.
@Floatapp
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
John Peebles
Chief executive
Administrate
Ed Molyneux
“
It’s a very crowded market. The most recent survey revealed there were more than 650
learning management systems out there, which is the typical nomenclature you hear in the
edtech market. We like that. We feel that’s a good smokescreen for our market. We are quite
a bit different from everything that’s out there. The traditional LMS focuses on the student
experience. We care about students too, but we focus on the administrator’s experience and
make sure all the reporting, workflow, analytics and things that go on behind and around are
front and centre and it makes it easy for them to become strategic with their training.”
Online training platform Administrate helps organisations all over the world manage and deliver education.
Peebles, an American in Edinburgh, works from the CodeBase incubator space. @Adm1nistrate
Gareth Williams
Chief executive
Skyscanner
“
When we started out in
2003, we focused on
flights. These days, we
provide flight, hotel and car
hire comparison, and we’re
a global company with
millions of users across the
world. We’ve also created
Skyscanner for Business,
to deliver data-led tools to the travel industry. As a result, the non-flights contribution to overall
revenues increased by 47% in 2014. Lastly, we’ve adopted a mobile-first attitude – last year we
saw a 77% increase in mobile visitors alone, and we believe the tendency towards mobile will
continue. Our primary focus is the people who use our product. What do they want? How can
we make this process even easier?”
Skyscanner, ‘the world’s travel search engine’, is one of the UK’s great tech startup success stories, with 40
million monthly users and backing from Sequioa helping it to achieve mythical unicorn status. The company
remains resolutely Edinburgh-based. @Skyscanner
Chief executive
FreeAgent
“
There are about 5.2
million businesses in
the UK and 95% of
them have fewer than 10
employees – and 75% have
no employees at all. So the
vast majority are one- and
two-person businesses.
In our last survey, we
found most were using
spreadsheets or just paper
to manage their finances.
What they were getting from
software companies was
the typical small business
accounting package, but with
all the interesting features
taken out. We wanted to
do something about that.
Because we focus on
these small businesses,
we do a lot more around
tax compliance, income-tax
returns and payroll that tiny
businesses need.”
FreeAgent is the UK’s leading
online accounting software for
freelancers and micro-businesses.
Molyneux previously served for
a decade as a Harrier pilot in the
RAF. @freeagent
23
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Glasgow
Vicky Brock
Co-founder and chief
executive
Clear Returns
“
Often overlooked in favour of Edinburgh or
Dundee, Glasgow’s tech startup community is
emerging from the city’s heavy industrial past
to offer an optimistic digital future.
G
lasgow has a vibrant and exciting tech community.
From startups to corporates, the city has a range
of companies working in diverse industries such as
finance, insurance, space and education. Until 2015, though,
the community lacked a home.
That all changed with the opening of the RookieOven coworking space. RookieOven is in the Fairfield Shipyard Offices
at Govan’s famous shipyard. The building was opened in 1890
when Fairfield was one of the biggest shipyards in the world. It
was a centre of engineering excellence at the forefront of the
industrial revolution.
RookieOven, based in the former ship drawing office, has
3,500 sq ft of space and all of the stuff a tech startup would
need: a blazing-fast internet connection, pool table, meeting
space, a glorious Victorian boardroom, Sonos, Xbox, Scalextric,
locally roasted coffee and a well-stocked beer fridge.
The space is home to some of the most talented developers,
designers and digital marketers in the community, including
Ashley Baxter from Insurance By Jack, Aaron Bassett from
Rawtech and Michael Hayes from Add Jam. Software engineers
like John Hamelink, Paul Dragoonis and Stuart Ashworth also
use the space.
Outside RookieOven, Glasgow has an abundance of talent.
The city has three highly regarded universities in Glasgow
University, the University of Strathclyde and Glasgow
Caledonian University, plus the world-renowned Glasgow
School of Art.
Throughout the city exciting young companies work in tech.
Adimo, which eases the process of shopping, Wooju, helping
folk make decisions, School Cloud Systems, a business
bootstrapped to 10 employees, Twig World, producing and
distributing educational video, and Alba Orbital making nanosatellites from their office in The Whisky Bond.
The city also has great initiatives that help the tech
community. Creative Clyde promotes creative tech companies,
holds regular high-quality events and offers advice and support.
And, over at the country’s first Entrepreneurial Spark, tech
businesses are accelerating thanks to corporate support and
the philanthropy of Glasgow City Refrigeration founder Lord
Haughey.
TechCityinsider’s ambassador for Glasgow is Michael Hayes of
Rookie Oven (www.rookieoven.com).
24
I founded this company
to change the way we
looked at retail data.
We take the underlying
premise that a sale isn’t
a sale until the shopper
decides to keep it. I know
from my own shopping
behaviour that I return
between 70% and 80%
of what I buy. At Clear
Returns we pull the data in
and we do a lot of probability analysis, maths, statistics and
good business analysis. We do a lot of heavy lifting and turn
it into a series of cloud-based services that the retailers use.
They receive reports and see their trends over time. They can
also have daily alerts into their CRM system and into their
trading tools that gives them alerts on problem products and
customers they need to respond to.”
Clear Returns uses sophisticated data analysis as well as product and
customer modeling to identify the reasons why customers return items
to online retailers and the customers who are most likely to do so.
@clearreturns
Tracey Eker
Founder and chief executive
Flexiworkforce
“
I find Scotland very embracing of those who are looking to
make a mark, mash it all up and make a fuss. That’s what most
of the businesses in eSpark are doing. I hope to be the one
who does it the most! Glasgow is very gritty, unlike Edinburgh,
which is much more established and refined. In Glasgow, they
get down and dirty, so all ideas flow and no one is too scared to
start something up tech-wise and let it fall on its arse. They don’t
care about that – they just try and see what happens. Glasgow is
sometimes overlooked when it shouldn’t be. Everyone sees it as
the rough end of Scotland, the
manufacturing end. And it’s not.
It’s quite an inspiring and ballsy
place. And I like it.”
Flexiworkforce stakes a claim as the
only UK-wide job site specialising
in all forms of flexible working.
Aussie-turned Glaswegian Eker set
up the business frustrated trying
to find part-time work to fit her
childcare commitments. Working out
of Glasgow’s Entrepreneurial Spark
accelerator, she’s a true evangelist
for the city. @flexiworkforce
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Louis Schena
Mark Gracey
Principal
Scottish Equity Partners
Founder and chief
operating officer
Swipii
“
“
Skyscanner is a business we’ve been invested in for a number of years and it’s growing very
strongly. We have been working closely with them through their international expansion and it’s
been a very good partnership. They’ve done very well. Recently there has been huge growth in
the number of very big technology businesses. I still find it incredibly exciting and interesting to see
technologies emerge and to see the operational side of things where people are going out,
knocking on doors, breaking into markets and creating new products. Customer relationship
management and marketing automation is becoming huge. It would be good if people moved away
from talking about bubbles to understanding that a lot of these businesses are really solid and are
growing incredibly well.”
Scottish Equity Partners invests in innovative and high-growth companies with world-class potential in the
technology, healthcare and energy sectors. It manages primary and secondary venture capital funds and has
Skyscanner and SocialBro in its portfolio. @SEPinvestment
Michael Hayes
Founder
RookieOven
“
RookieOven is trying to make a better startup community
in Glasgow and across Scotland. It started as a meetup
and a blog about Scottish technology. Our Edinburgh
neighbours had tech hubs CodeBase and TechCube and
Glasgow had nothing. I viewed different offices and lucked
up on Govan Workspace, which owns the Fairfield Shipyard.
It’s a fantastic building, steeped in history: it was the biggest
shipyard in the world. We got our first businesses in February
2015 and we want to push on and grow RookieOven into
being the real heart of the Glasgow tech community.”
Co-working space RookieOven aims to grow the startup community in
Scotland and increase the number of successful tech companies based
in the country. Its website offers tips, advice and reviews, while the
co-working space is based in historic Fairfield Shipyard. @RookieOven
My co-founder Chitresh
Sharma and I realised we
could build a business
to help with customer
retention for every type of
business. The idea behind
Swipii is to do what Tesco
does with its Clubcard to
small independent retail
shops, because your local
business owner doesn’t have
the money, time or expertise
to have an advanced loyalty
programme. We bring
that power of analytics to
local businesses. The
consumer can pick up a
card or a keychain at each
participating location or use
the phone app. When they
scan those cards on an iPad
at participating businesses,
they can collect points and
redeem them at all Swipii
locations.”
Swipii’s loyalty programme allows
independent retail stores to offer
rewards like free private cookery
classes. Customers collect points
on an iOS or Android app, a
keychain or Swipii card when
they make purchases.
@Swipiicard
25
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Hull
In 2015, the Centre for Digital Innovation
opened a new £15m technology campus in
Hull, backed by developers. It’s a major boost
for the area’s growing technology cluster.
T
here has been a thriving tech ecosystem in the Hull and
Humber region for years. But the truth is that no one
outside of the area knew about it.
That started to change when Wykeland, a local property
development company, pulled together a team, including
from KC (the local telecoms company), the University of
Hull, Sonoco Trident (a large tech company), Hull Digital
(the 800-strong digital community) and representatives from
startups and local businesses.
C4DI helps big industry innovate and grow, by providing
opportunities for people to form startups in those industry
niches. Those startups then have access to industry mentors,
and supply chains to help accelerate those businesses in a way
that wouldn’t happen elsewhere.
The development of those relationships, and the development
of the membership of C4DI, gave Wykeland confidence to
progress its plans, and in October 2015 C4DI moved into
phase one of a new £15m technology campus.
Hull and East Yorkshire’s communications provider, KC, is
investing tens of millions of pounds in the deployment of its
state-of-the-art fibre broadband service, KC Lightstream, to
create a best-in-class digital network. This level of infrastructure
helps local businesses scale and there are some great
examples of that.
Founded in Hull 20 years ago, Sonoco Trident is the world’s
fastest-growing and most innovative digital brand management
business.
One of the most extraordinary success stories of the UK’s
digital media industry, Summit, started in 2000 at Wolds Prison
in East Yorkshire, providing businesses with highly effective
online marketing services supported by a pioneering training
and rehabilitation scheme for prisoners leading to employment
upon release.
The Humber’s economy is set to benefit from a series of
transformational developments, including the £310m Siemens
wind turbine manufacturing and assembly facilities at Alexandra
Dock in Hull; the Able Marine Energy Park on the south bank;
investments driven by Hull’s status as the 2017 UK City of
Culture; and global health and hygiene giant RB’s plans for a
£100m Centre for Scientific Excellence in Hull.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Hull is John Connolly of
C4DI (www.c4di.net).
26
Matt Abbott
Co-founder and director
Label Worx
“
I’ve been into music since I was a teenager. Co-founder
Chris Chambers and I were both DJs. We were both booked
to play a gig at the same venue. We got chatting and set up
Alter Ego Records in 2003 to release our music. Independent
record companies weren’t massively represented back then,
so we struggled to get our content to the right stores and
platforms. At the time there was the transition from physical to
digital in the dance music scene. We developed cloud software
specifically for running a record label. We moved into the C4DI
in Hull when it opened two years ago and since then it’s been
great. There is a lot of collaboration, a lot of idea sharing – and
really superfast internet.”
Label Worx, a service provider tailored to the needs of independent
record companies, has become a go-to company for the dance music
industry. It provides services like worldwide distribution, pre-release
promo campaign tools and royalty management software. @labelworx
Thom Davy
Co-founder
Stashboard
“
My co-founder Al Spiers and I did the same graphic design
course at university and we’ve been best buddies since
then. He works in advertising agencies and I work in design.
It’s very hard to run projects because they involve such a wide
scope of processes. Stashboard covers each part of the creative
process, from the initial brief to delivery. It helps you keep all
your files organised and collaborate with team members, clients,
suppliers and printers. Having our UK base in Hull is awesome, as
C4DI is leading the way when it comes to innovation. It’s a brand
new, state-of-the-art building and has the fastest web connection
I have ever experienced.”
Stashboard is a creative workspace
and collaboration platform. It
allows people working in creative
industries to manage their projects.
It gives them a place to store,
present and get feedback on their
files. Stashboard has 3,500 users in
76 countries. @stashboardapp
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Salma Conway
Co-founder
MrLista
“
When I have to buy gifts, I
agonise over what to get and
never get it right. Absolutely
anyone can sign up to MrLista
and add any product from any
website. We went for a very
slick look and a simple interface
that anybody could use. The
system works so that when
people receive the gift list and
buy an item, they can mark it
as purchased and nobody else
will buy it. The person who sent
the list can’t see what people
are buying so it is still a surprise
when they get it. We wanted
all our website content to have
an editorial slant. We create
featured lists with our team of
contributors so there
is shareable content that
interests people.”
Web app MrLista helps users create
and share online gift lists and wish
lists, allowing people to add items
to a list. The site hosts featured lists
compiled by contributors. In October
2015 MrLista won best digital
startup at a Hull Centre for Digital
Innovation event. @mrlista
David Keel
Joint managing director
Sonoco Trident
“
We create the artwork for global brands like Procter &
Gamble, L’Oreal and Unilever. We manage the graphics for
the packaging of their brands. Let’s say a customer has a
new shampoo coming out. We take the design concept for that
shampoo and manage it on bottles, cartons, tubes and aerosols.
Trident creates more than 300,000 digital artworks every year
and works with 2,000 printers across the world to ensure that
specifics, especially colour, are consistent. We’ve always had
a good tech base in Hull. The problem is we didn’t know it
until C4DI gave us a beacon to focus on. There’s a real tech
infrastructure here already and all we have to do is get firms
talking to each other. When people talk to each other, much
more comes out of it.”
Hull-based Sonoco Trident creates the digital artwork images seen on the packaging of some of the most
recognised brands in the world. David Keel is also the chair of the C4DI tech startup hub. @C4DIhull
Alex Youden
Managing director
NFire Labs
“
The first 3D printer I
bought came without
any instructions. I knew
roughly where things
were supposed to go but I
thought ‘this could be better’.
If you were to go out and
buy a normal 3D printer, in
a couple of years’ time it
may not be the fastest or
the most accurate so you’d
have to buy a new one. With
this one you just upgrade
the part and you’ve got one
that’s as good as the best
one that you can buy at the
time. You can just upgrade it
by clicking things together.
When I was coming up with
this, one of the key things
I wanted to do was keep
it as local as possible, so
two-thirds of the printer
actually comes from within a
two-mile radius of where I’m
based in Hull.”
NFire Labs designs and builds
modular 3D printers. A Kickstarter
campaign to raise £30,000 for
the continuous development of
updates and add-ons was fully
funded in September 2015.
Youden, 19, runs the business
out of the C4DI hub.
@nfirelabs
27
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Leeds
Mark Barrett
Director of data
innovation, Hebe Works
Leeds Data Mill
Leeds is building a reputation as a centre for
technology for health, fintech, data and more.
With a new innovation centre funded, startup
culture is looking good too.
L
eeds has a proud history of innovation in tech, with large
dotcom successes like Freeserve and Ananova in the
1980s and 90s.
Today, the city has a strong digital technology sector – the
fourth largest outside of London – with particular cluster
specialisms in health analytics, fintech and data science and
boasting some truly exceptional infrastructure.
With a low cost of living, easy access to London, two worldclass universities (and an equally world-class nightlife), it’s easy
to see why Leeds is a preferred location for many.
According to Tech City UK’s 2015 Tech Nation report, Leeds
employs almost 45,000 people in the digital sector.
The digital operations of major corporates such as Sky and
SkyBet, Asda, William Hill, CallCredit and Rockstar Games
dominate the employment numbers.
But innovative and disruptive technology-based SMEs are
emerging, including BJSS, Pharmacy2u and innovative alarm
business Cocoon.
Leeds is home to the largest concentration of health data
assets in the UK, with one of the highest concentrations of
health informatics professionals globally, including the NHS
Data Spine and HSCIC.
The city is also a major centre for financial services, the home
of internet bank First Direct and the back office operations of
many of the banks and building societies means the city is well
placed to take advantage of opportunities in fintech.
IXLeeds is the only UK internet exchange based outside of
London. It gives a real strength to the city as an ideal location
to give infrastructure resilience.
In data science, the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA)
houses the National Consumer Data Research Centre at the
University of Leeds, with the Leeds Data Mill and the Open
Data Institute Node contributing to the specialism in data.
The Leeds startup community is still fledgling and quite
dispersed, but initiatives like Silicon Drinkabout Leeds and the
26 meetups in the city, such as Agile Yorkshire, Northern UX
and Forefront, regularly draw decent attendance and speakers.
A new Entrepreneurial Spark facility, The Hatchery, is now
home to a number of fledgling startups.
Tech startups are based at the Yorkshire Post building
and a major new startup facility, at the forthcoming 56,000
sq ft FutureLabs tech hub, will be sited at the former police
headquarters.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Leeds is Steve
Wainwright, an independent advisor and the lead for FutureLabs.
28
“
Leeds Data Mill is a place
where organisations
can submit data in open
formats, so that citizens,
developers and interested
people can look at the data and
get an understanding of things
they’ve not been able to see
before. The data is all about
the city, so it’s hyperlocal rather
than national as with data.
gov.uk. What we do is go right
down to street level, without anything that’s identifiable. All
information and governance protocols are followed but it really
gives us insights we’ve never had before. We’ve started to use
more and more of the data and have found that there’s loads
of interesting things contained within it.”
Leeds Data Mill, a pioneering project led by Leeds City Council in
partnership with Hebe, is helping the Yorkshire city to become smarter
by harnessing, interpreting and presenting open data on the city’s waste,
air quality, footfall and much more, in an effort to help decision-makers
and consumers change for the better. @LeedsDataMill
Royd Brayshay
Co-founder, NewRedo
Organiser, Agile Yorkshire
“
There’s definitely a community of startup businesses in Leeds.
Unfortunately they’re not very visible because, as well as being
very busy, they are distributed around. Leeds doesn’t yet have
the kind of physical community space that, say, Manchester does.
Leeds City Council is changing its approach but perhaps its focus
had been elsewhere until recent times. TechNation has helped
it refocus. I’m constantly meeting new people doing new things,
but there’s an awful lot of squirrelling away on kitchen tables.
Hopefully there will be more when we start to see some more
success stories. Physical proximity to your team doesn’t matter
so much, but it starts to matter
when you are talking about
community or investment. They
need visibility to attract investors.
Let’s hope it happens sooner
rather than later.”
As well as running software
provider and training business
NewRedo, Leeds-based Brayshay
runs the city’s leading developer
networking events, including
AgileYorkshire and LeanStartupYks.
@RoydBrayshay
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Sanjay Parekh
Co-founder
Cocoon
“
Cocoon is a smart-home
art-home security system that can protect an
entire home via a single device. It has a high-definition
camera and usess something called sub-sound to detect
movements through walls and ceilings. Sub-sound
monitors the soundss humans can’t hear, which tends to
be sound waves that
at are very long, called infrasounds.
We take and fingerprint
print those sounds and pass them
through a learning algorithm so that we can understand
what’s normal and what isn’t for your home. The
primary driver for starting
arting up the business was that
we’d all had pretty poor experiences with our own
home alarms. Many of us had them installed but
weren’t using them because they were a pain to set.
It really hit home when
en one of my co-founders had an
alarm go off at work.
k. There was no way of switching it
off without getting up on a chair and smashing the
alarm.”
Cocoon is looking to disrupt the home security
market with its smart home device, which
combines camera, motion
otion detector
and ‘sub sound’ technology
nology to
detect – and learn from
m–
activity in the home, then
hen alert
the user to any unusual
ual
activity. The startup
raised US$234,000 via
Indiegogo in 2014.
@cocoon
Adam Beaumont
Founder and chief executive, aql
Founder, NorthInvest
“
We call ourselves a wholesale integrated communications
provider. If you’ve ever had a text message from a school,
when you’ve had a parcel delivered or when you’ve
used a home broadband phone service, it’s likely we were
somewhere in your delivery chain. We’re based in the Salem
Chapel building, a former non-conformist chapel dating back
to 1791. It’s probably not the normal choice of office space
for a tech company or a data centre operator. The reason that
we chose this space was all about location. It’s right next to
where all the fibre passes into this city, in duct work in the
roads. By building a data centre here we have a very good
business case for all those different fibre operators to break
their network out into our building.”
Beaumont is a Leeds tech champion wearing several hats. In addition
to founding and running aql’s impressive data centre operation in an
extraordinary converted chapel, he is a mentor, angel investor and
founder of the new NorthInvest agency promoting equitable investment
in the North. @aqldotcom
Daniel Rajkumar
Managing director
Rebuilding Society
“
Rebuilding Society was
born out of the financial
crisis. It was set up to
help businesses looking
for access to finance with
investors looking for a better
return on their savings. The
internet is a huge enabler.
It’s disintermediated so
many industries, from
airlines to the music
industry and books. The
finance industry has taken
longer to innovate with new
technologies. Rebuilding
Society was about taking
the ethos of the crowd,
akin to original building
societies, and taking this
online. So, bringing together
the interests of the crowd
community and aligning
them with the financial needs
of SMEs to help grow the
economy. We haven’t gone
down the VC route yet. We
are trying an approach that’s
bootstrapped and creating a
sense of community between
investors.”
Rebuilding Society is looking
to help small business bypass
the banks and deal directly with
each other. Rajkumar hopes a
community-led approach will
see it offer something different
compared with the likes of
Funding Circle. @danrajkumar
29
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Liverpool
Chris Barker
Director
Draw+Code
“
Liverpool is the UK’s second fastest-growing
digital business cluster. What was once a portdominated local economy is now dominated
by services – including a rising startup sector.
L
iverpool has seen a huge physical transformation, but there
is also more confidence in the growing business base in
the city, with increasing interest from inward investors.
Liverpool offers a good quality of life, a low cost base, three
well-regarded universities and a strong talent pipeline. Tech
North, representing Liverpool as one of seven northern cities,
will help the city add to this.
Tech City UK’s Tech Nation report revealed Liverpool had
the UK’s second fastest rate of growth. Over the last two
years, there has been a growing sense of a city and a cluster
gathering momentum.
The clustering of tech businesses in Liverpool’s Baltic
Triangle – a historic dockside area on the edge of the city
centre made up of old warehouses and industrial sheds – has
provided a focus for sector activity and attracted interest from
across the world.
Community interest company Baltic Creative CIC now
owns 40,000 square feet of property in the area on behalf of
the sector. The Elevator warehouse space was developed by
private landlords at the same time, and others have followed.
All available space in the area is full and the landlords in the
area have waiting lists.
The Baltic Creative Campus houses co-working space
Basecamp, home to many tech startups.
Elsewhere, DoES Liverpool is a diverse community of makers
and entrepreneurs and offers a co-working space, access to
kit, regular events and more.
In 2014 Santander chose Liverpool for its first-ever UK
incubator, while 2015 saw Launch 22 open its first incubator
outside of London. There are tech businesses in both the
Innovation Park and Liverpool Science Park.
The city has been responsible for some of the most famous
games ever produced. Much of the talent behind these games
has been retained, despite the closures of Bizarre Games and
the development studio at Sony.
Outside of gaming, other firms making waves include
Sentric Music (music publishing), Draw & Code (immersive
technology), Elite Sports Technology, LivingLens (video search)
and Focus Innovation (helping cities across the UK to market
themselves).
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Liverpool is Kevin
McManus of Invest Liverpool at Liverpool Vision
(www.liverpoolvision.co.uk/invest).
30
We have an equal interest in function and aesthetics, so
there are two halves to what we do. We make work that
is beautiful to look at and experience but we also want
to make things that are genuinely useful. We have some
fantastic coders here who can do some incredible stuff. So
much immersive technology
is perhaps a little gimmicky
or slightly frivolous, but we’re
hell-bent on creating software
that is actually going to solve
a problem or make something
better in the real world. Our
ideal project would be one in
which we deliver something
that is functionally terrific and
does exactly what is sets out
to do maybe in a very new way,
but also it looks and sounds
fantastic while it’s doing it.”
Digital design agency Draw+Code
has built a reputation for high-quality creative innovation, with work in
frontier fields like virtual and augmented reality and projection mapping.
@DrawAndCode
Gavin Sherratt
Co-founder and managing director
Studio Mashbo
“
We’re very focused on
values. The original concept
of Studio Mashbo was
originally to work solely in the
third sector with charities.
We’re an agency for good,
focused on doing good things.
We’re working with a fostering
care charity, getting young
people from disadvantaged
backgrounds into careers in
the financial sector, but by
leveraging sport as the conduit to get them into education. On
the corporate side, we released a project for NBCUniversal.
We’ve created a back-office app for its HR department, helping
it track staff moving around the world and making sure the right
paperwork is in place. We were given a challenge. They said,
‘You’re the experts, this is our problem. Can you solve it?’”
One of Liverpool’s most respected digital agencies, Mashbo started
with a mission to develop for charities, but most of its business is now
in the corporate sector. Sherratt embraces the collaborative nature of
Liverpool’s digital sector – between businesses and with other tech
clusters. @StudioMashbo
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Carl Wong
Co-founder and chief
executive
LivingLens
Leo Cubbin
“
Managing director
Ripstone
“
We find some stuff that's risky and edgy and we have other stuff like our Pure brand – Pure
Chess, Pure Pool, Pure Hold’em – which is more mainstream. We try to be fair with our
deals and empower the people we work with. We look for people who are passionate about
what they’re doing and we support them. They haven't just got a game idea – they want to
make a game that tells a story they are really passionate about. Liverpool is a fun city and the
type of people who make games want to have interesting lives as well. We’re not that far from
the Lake District, the Wirral or Wales so the good outdoor life is available. And it’s also a very
vibrant city. It's just a great place to be.”
Games publisher Ripstone is one of the second generation of gaming businesses to have emerged from the
legacy of Sony’s presence in the city. In six years as a fierce independent, it has built a reputation as the ‘Stiff
records of gaming’. @RipstoneGames
Martin Kenwright
Founder
Starship Group
“
After 20 years of successes, I decided to ‘retire’ from the
industry. But, after a couple of years, I got a whole new
outlook. I was in a unique position with time, energy, money
and resource to go back and have one more play. I was very
excited about the advent of new technologies. Also, I saw what
was going on in the city. When I left the industry, Liverpool was
at the top, with some of the best games development studios
on the planet. To see they’d all left the area was sad. I thought
I could offer something that was more than just a games
development studio – something with a broader vision about
where tech could go, how we could fund it, how we could make
it and how we could develop it.”
Kenwright is one of the UK’s most senior video game developers. At
Starship Group, he’s applying gaming technology to wider uses like
food and health and in 2015 launched new virtual-reality social network
technology vTime. @Starship_Group
The world of market
insight creates an
incredible amount
of video content every
year. A typical large
multinational brand will
create thousands of hours
of video content through its
market research projects.
LivingLens is Google for
your organisation’s video
content – we enable you to
search specifically and for
exact meaningful moments.
You search for a word or a
phrase, you navigate to that
exact mention within video
content and we give you the
power to grab clips, merge
those clips together and
then share those clips with
others. We turn video into
something searchable. We’re
turning video into data. We
are at the start of a journey
with that. It’s not just exciting
times for us; there’s a new
technology emerging that’s
going to make video more
accessible and more useful
and valuable for everybody.”
LivingLens helps its market
research and brand customers to
extract data and insights from the
world’s fastest-growing medium –
video. After emerging from London
madtech accelerator Collider, in
2015 LivingLens closed a £1m
funding round.@Livinglenstv
31
TechNation200 Almanac 2015 | London
Despite the impressive growth of tech cities UK wide, London still
dominates the technology startup economy. That’s why 100 of the 200
people profiled in this almanac are based in the capital city.
W
ith its raw ingredients of talented developers, funding and world-changing ideas, London
is a catalyst for tech business growth. The reactions that have been taking place in the UK
capital have resulted in innovative businesses that are making their mark on the world stage.
GP Bullhound reports that Europe is home to 40 tech unicorns – companies valued at US$1bn
or more – and of those, 13 are based in London. There are four in the rest of the UK. Funding Circle,
a peer-to-peer lending platform that raised a £100m series E round in May 2015, is one London
unicorn. Read our profile of founder Samir Desai on page 36.
London remains the nexus of activity for digital businesses, outperforming its regional urban
competitors by some distance. According to Tech City UK, inner London’s 12 boroughs are home to
26% of the UK’s digital businesses and 252,000 are employed in the digital economy.
Talent is drawn to London from around the country and – visas permitting – around the world.
According to Stack Overflow, the capital has more than 70,000 professional developers – more than
any other European city.
Digitally minded entrepreneurs and computer scientists graduate from London’s world-class
educational institutions, like
Imperial College, UCL and City
University London. Many of these
support the entrepreneurial
endeavors of their students and
alumni.
Unsurprisingly for a global city
that is often billed as the financial
capital of the world, London is
a magnet for investment, both
nationally and internationally. It
is taking a sizeable chunk of the
UK’s tech funding.
According to London &
Partners, the UK technology
sector secured US$2.2bn of
investment in the first nine months
of 2015. Of that, London-based tech firms took US$1.6bn – around 75% of the national total.
London’s magnetism as an investment superhub is one reason why so many non-London UK
businesses also choose to have a presence in the capital.
Ideas come from the any and everywhere, perhaps solving a problem or pooling collective skills.
And, as our list shows, the entrepreneurs come from everywhere, too.
Taiwanese ShaoLan Hsueh started Chineasy wanting to make it easier for her British-born children
to understand Chinese. Palestinian Jordanian Mutaz Qubbaj set up Squirrel to help people manage
their finances better. There are any number of arrivals from the US who have chosen to make the UK
their home and business base.
The list of international tech entrepreneurs is undeniably impressive. Many are drawn to London by
the favourable investment climate and state incentives.
Sharing of knowledge is facilitated by the proximity that would-be entrepreneurs have to each
other when working in the capital’s growing number of co-working spaces. The Mayor of London
has counted at least 55 geared towards digital startups. And these ideas can develop and flourish in
the city’s accelerator programmes, such as TechStars and Startup Bootcamp Fintech. According to
Wayra, there are 24 others in London, with nine in the rest of the UK.
The Shoreditch-Old Street area contains London’s biggest concentration of tech businesses, but
others are emerging in places like Kentish Town, Croydon and Bermondsey. Combined, they make
London one gigantic technology cluster.
London has seen an explosion in the number of digital companies incorporated in recent years,
with an increase of 92% between 2010 and 2013. The number of tech companies in the capital is
set to rise to 51,500 by 2025.
Have your safety goggles at the ready – there’ll be plenty more exciting reactions to come.
32
Laurence
Aderemi
Co-founder and chief
executive
Moni
“
What we’re trying to do
is create a platform that
enables direct economic
stimulation. Being a firstgeneration immigrant, I know
the pain that Africans and
other immigrants go through
when they need to send
money to their loved ones. I
thought that if you could send
money to a bank or mobile
money account you wouldn’t
need a middleman and you
could pass on the saving
directly to the people who
need it most. What happens
with Moni is that there is a
reconciliation between your
bank and its subsidiary in
the country to which you are
sending money. This takes
place 24 hours after a user
has sent the funds. The money
never moves; that’s the clever
tech. It’s simple but it’s clever.”
*Money transfer app Moni allows
people to send money abroad
from smartphones. It can be sent
to a mobile number instantly or to
a bank account within 48 hours.
The sender can track the progress
of the transfer within the app or
via SMS. @monimobile
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Tushar Agarwal
Rebecca Bright
Co-founder and chief executive
Hubble
Co-founder and
director
Therapy Box
“
I noticed that a lot of large corporates had vast amounts of vacant commercial property.
I thought there must be a solution to make use of the space. I would congratulate
successful founders who had just fundraised, and ask, ‘What next?’ Most would say, ‘We
can’t find an office.’ This struck me as very bizarre. So we started a very, very simple portal for
startups. We’ve standardised the licence agreement that landlords can use. And we’ve got a
payments platform, which means that with the click of a few buttons they can start receiving
rent on a monthly basis. Traditionally it could take between three and six months to get into a
property, but with Hubble, a startup could start searching on Friday and move in on Monday.”
Hubble is an online marketplace that allows startups to rent workspace on a flexible basis. It matches up those
looking to rent space with those who have it. Hubble focuses on co-working spaces, shared offices and private
serviced offices. @HubbleHQ
Ross Bailey
Founder and chief executive
Appear Here
“
I had a little shop just off Carnaby Street for the Queen’s
diamond jubilee. I convinced the landlord to let me borrow the
store for a week and it went incredibly well. In 2012 there was
a huge amount in the press about empty shops and how Airbnb
was taking off. I put two and two together. The way brands and
retailers want space has changed massively, yet the way people
rent space hasn’t. The average deal takes six months to complete,
but at Appear Here we’re closing deals in fewer than five days,
with our quickest deal taking half an hour.”
Appear Here connects landlords’ vacant retail spaces with people
with great ideas, all online. It has a vision to create a global network
of spaces so that people can make their ideas travel. High-profile retail
spaces included in the startup’s portfolio are Old Street Underground
station and Boxpark in Shoreditch. @appearhere
“
I first came up with
the idea of using
apps for people with
communication disabilities
while working as a speech
and language therapist. In
2011 we launched our first
app, Predictable. It was
designed for people who
have little or no speech,
such as those with motor
neurone disease or cerebral
palsy who are able to
type and spell but cannot
communicate verbally. The
app allows them to input a
message and have it played
out loud. After we launched
our own range of apps,
people in our sector started
coming to us and asking us
to build apps for them.”
Healthcare and education startup
Therapy Box offers iOS-based
communications apps to help
people with disabilities or injuries.
In 2014 Therapy Box picked up a
Queen’s Award for Enterprise for
innovation.
@TherapyBox
33
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
George Burgess
Lucy Burnford
Founder and chief
executive
Gojimo
Founder
Automyze (formerly Motoriety)
“
When I was studying
for my A-levels in 2009,
I couldn’t find anything
in the app store to help me
prepare for my exams. I
thought this was a business
opportunity and decided
to solve the problem. Later
that year we launched our
first app, for geography. It
did well enough for me to
want to go on to build apps
for other subjects. I came
up with this idea of building
a platform and a brand with
one app that a student – no
matter where they are in the
world, no matter what they’re
studying – could use to find
useful exam preparation
resources in a mobilefriendly format.”
Education software start-up
Gojimo helps students revise
for common entrance, GCSE,
SAT, A-Level and undergraduate
exams, using a gamified approach
through quizzes across subjects.
Burgess has secured seed
investment from Index Ventures
and JamJar. @GojimoApp
34
“
I bought a second-hand car with a full service history. After three months, something went wrong
that cost £3,500 to fix. It was ludicrous that, in this digital age, data relating to the car didn’t
transfer with the vehicle. I thought that if you could combine the issue of not having access to
the data of the car with an automated central portal to manage everything to do with car ownership
it would be a really great proposition for motorists. Through our platform, you book your car into a
garage, then the garage digitally stamps what it has done on your Automyze account. That way you
have a digital service history that’s fully verified and validated. You can then transfer it with the car
when you sell it.”
2015 was a pivotal year for Motoriety, when the business was acquired by the AA to become Automyze. Its
free tool manages everything to do with car ownership: MOT, tax, insurance, breakdown cover and warranty.
@Motoriety_UK
Faisal Butt
Founder and chief executive
Pi Labs
“
We’re searching the globe for
management teams that we believe will
be the next generation of innovators in
property-related sectors. We’re looking to
back potential billion-dollar businesses like
Zoopla, Airbnb and Nest, which are changing
the way people interact with spaces. Property
is being transformed by digital innovation.
There’s a lot of investment going into the step-by-step process of selling a house, from the
moment a vendor has the thought right through to completion. It’s easy to put property all in
one box but actually it’s very broad and is probably more than one industry. We thought it made
sense to create a platform to allow these different businesses to talk to one another.”
Pi Labs (Property Innovation labs) is Europe’s first property innovation-focused accelerator. Venture capitalist
Butt founded the business in partnership with Cushman & Wakefield. Its 13-week mentor-led programme, out
of London’s Second Home, aims to build a community of like-minded firms with global aspirations. @PiLabs
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Matt ChocqueelMangan
Vanessa Butz
Managing director
Interchange
Founder
Vote for Policies
“
I got involved in the tech startup scene when I was studying engineering. I did my last year
in Berlin, working on due diligence at a venture capital company. That’s what introduced
me to the startup scene, VC and tech generally. It got me uber-excited about the whole
industry. About a year ago I met with staff at Market Tech, which owns about 14 acres of land
around Camden in London. It made an internal decision to give three of its buildings that it
owns to a co-working startup space. The thing that makes the space unique as a project is
definitely Camden Market. We have two buildings that sit right on top of the market and the
spaces are absolutely stunning and very premium, but also alternative and edgy.”
Interchange is a new space for entrepreneurs, startups and creatives in the heart of Camden in north London.
Spread over three sites, with its primary Atrium and Triangle locations in Camden Market and Utopia in nearby
Primrose Hill, it provides a larger office space for growing and established companies. @InterchangeLDN
Susanne Chishti
Founder and chief executive
Fintech Circle Innovate
“
I studied and then worked for a fintech company in Silicon
Valley in 1995. At that time fintech didn’t exist as a term, yet
I’ve got the same feeling in London now with fintech as I had
back then. I set up Fintech Circle in 2014. The idea was born
out of the fact that I had lots of colleagues across my circle of
friends in banking who all were interested in investing in fintech
companies and who said they would like to invest in the next
Paypal, but they just didn’t know where or who they were. At the
same time, I was connected to lots of fintech startup founders
who said, ‘We want knowledge and expertise from people in
banking or insurance who can invest smart money in our firms.’”
European angel network Fintech Circle focuses on fintech opportunities,
working with innovative and disruptive brands in financial technology
and connecting them with senior thought leaders and financiers in
London’s Square Mile and Canary Wharf. @FINTECHcircle
“
Vote for Policies serves
up policies in the words
of political parties but
without displaying which
party they belong to.
Users are able to compare
policies of the five or six
largest parties on issues
such as health, education,
the environment and
immigration. It’s a powerful
way of engaging with
the actual policies and,
secondly, of removing all
the bias that comes from
not just the media but also
our own preconceptions.
We’re creatures of habit in
respect to voting, but it’s
really important to make a
call on which party actually
supports your own beliefs.”
Independent and voluntary notfor-profit Vote for Policies is on a
mission to increase participation
in elections and make policies
the focus over personalities in
people’s voting decisions. Its
platform aims to give everyone
the chance to make an informed
and unbiased decision.
@voteforpolicies
35
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Simon Cook
Co-founder and chief
executive
Draper Esprit
“
Claire
Cockerton
Founder and chief
executive
Innovate Finance
“
Innovate Finance is an
industry organisation that is
dedicated to accelerating
and supporting technologyled financial services firms
in the UK. We work with
big corporations that are
interested in adopting new
technologies and being
innovative. We also work
with people in the SME and
entrepreneurial sector who
are bringing new technologies
and new business models
to the marketplace to make
it competitive, diverse
and resilient as a sector.
Infrastructure is one of the
reasons why London is this
wonderful, bustling hub. We’ve
got nice spaces, well designed
for introverts and extroverts
and designers and engineers.
We cater to a diverse group
of people, so infrastructure is
incredibly important.”
Independent not-for-profit
membership organisation
Innovate Finance aims to
accelerate the UK’s position as
the leading global fintech hub by
supporting the next generation of
innovators and entrepreneurs, and
lobbying on their behalf. @InnFin
36
Venture capital combined with crowd
funding is accelerating the ability
of entrepreneurs to raise capital
and get to market before a competitor
launches with the same idea. So we’re
very big proponents of the whole crowd
scene. The companies I invest in have
aspirations for world domination. The
secret to building really successful
firms that are overnight successes is
the seven, eight, nine or 10 years before
that. Patience is the number one thing
I’ve learned. I want to be the go-to guy
for the entrepreneur. Maybe someone
is going to pitch to me next week about
how to build the next jumbo jet as a
startup. Why not? There’s no reason why
we can’t have the startup mentality in
any industry.”
London-based early-stage investment firm
Draper Esprit is on a mission to back Europe’s
most ambitious entrepreneurs. The company
invests in growing businesses but will also
do direct secondary deals and put money into
later-stage firms. Lyst and Graze are both in the
Draper Esprit portfolio. @draperesprit
Julian David
Chief executive
techUK
“
We are the industry body, a private
sector commercial organisation supplying
digital technology across the UK. Our
members employ more than 750,000 people.
Government does listen. Sometimes you have
to check what it has said, but it does listen and
it comes out talking to us. This government and
the last one have, more or less, got a lot of the
policy areas right. We would like it to focus
on continuity and scale. The biggest issue we
have in the UK is that the opportunity is there
– we need to make sure we are operating at a
global level and that we have the scale, focus,
investment and support that is needed for the
industry.”
TechUK represents the companies and technologies
that are defining today the world that we will live in
tomorrow. More than 850 companies are members
of techUK, with the majority small- and mediumsized businesses. @techUK
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Josh Davidson
Becky Downing
Founder and managing director
Night Zookeeper
Chief executive
Buzzmove
“
“
I was in Melbourne, Australia, when I heard that the zoo was open at night. I’d never heard
of something so miraculous and I came up with a story about strange magical animals
that you would encounter in this curious night zoo. This was back in the time of blogs and
wikis. I saw interesting things were happening in science fiction in various forums and thought
it would be interesting if I made Night Zookeeper a collaborative story. In this age of so many
distractions, the fact that kids are still going home and writing stories is so fantastic. Kids are
actually incredibly creative, and that really helps drive a platform like Night Zookeeper.”
Edtech platform Night Zookeeper offers a set of inspiring learning resources and games that develop reading,
writing and creativity. It is based around a series of magical storybooks that introduce children to a world of
possibilities. Davidson has secured more than US$1m in investment to date. @nightzookeeper
Samir Desai
Co-founder and chief executive
Funding Circle
“
Funding Circle is, at heart, a very simple business. It’s an online
marketplace that allows individuals, businesses, government,
institutions – basically anyone – to lend money directly to small
businesses, effectively cutting out the banks. What that means
is investors get a better return on their money and businesses
get access to fast, lower-cost loans, and hopefully together that
grows the economy. The biggest challenge we have is increasing
awareness. We’ve got a decent amount of money now, so hopefully
that’s something we can start to address quickly. We want Funding
Circle to be part of the financial infrastructure.”
Peer-to-peer lending platform Funding Circle offers an online marketplace
for lending to small businesses, using technology to match accredited
and institutional investors to UK and US small businesses looking for
finance. In April 2015 it secured a mega US$150m series E round.
@FundingCircleUK
The removals industry
was in dire need of
improvement. There
had to be a way of setting
up an online booking site
that provided instant and
exact prices to stop people
from getting stung by a
big bill at the end of the
move. Buzzmove became
Europe’s first online pricecomparison and booking
platform for moving, so you
could instantly book your home
move on our website. The
original business model was
entirely b2c. But we changed
it to b2b in the sense that
now our algorithm matches
our customers to the five most
appropriate businesses”
Buzzmove is the UK’s first pricecomparison and instant booking
platform for moving-related
services. It works with industryaccredited removal companies to
make the moving process easy
and convenient. Former lawyer
Downing set up the business in
2013, fulfilling a long-held desire
to be an entrepreneur.
@BuzzmoveHQ
37
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Matt Drozdzynski
Founder and chief executive
Pilot
“
Sarah
Drinkwater
Head
Google Campus
London
“
My job is really a lot of
cheerleading. That means
everything from partner
management and programme
management to physically
running the space day in, day
out and a lot of talking about
what we’re doing. What’s
really had a massive impact
over the past couple of years
with the whole idea of Tech
City is visibility on the scene,
visibility of what these earlystage entrepreneurs are doing.
When you come to a place
like this, you don’t come for
the building, you come for the
people – for the minds and for
the hearts. Somebody recently
said to me, ‘Campus is like
the gateway to becoming an
entrepreneur.’ I was flattered
and proud to hear that.”
Campus London, a seven-storey
building in the east of the city
that opened in 2012, helps
entrepreneurs grow great ideas.
Drinkwater, with a background
in community building, took over
from founding head Eze Vidra.
Campus works with partners
like Seedcamp and TechHub
to offer events, education and
mentoring to young businesses.
@sarahdrinkwater
38
Pilot is a design and development studio
that I founded in 2009, and we’ve been
helping companies build great products,
predominantly online, since then. The idea
started back in 2005 when I was doing
freelance work for various companies, mostly
programming gigs. I started the company after
my first year of reading computer science at
Cambridge to consolidate the freelance work I
was doing. It didn’t feel like starting a business
– there wasn’t a moment of brainstorming in
trying to come up with something to do. It
was literally, ‘I guess I’m doing these
things so I might as well call
it a business and form a
company.’”
Design studio Pilot allows
companies to hire developers
and designers by the day,
week or month, drawing
on its talent pool of vetted
engineers and designers
located around the globe.
Pilot can be used to
develop a minimum
viable product or
supplement an existing
team. @usepilot
Julia Elliott
Brown
Chief executive and
co-founder
Upper Street
“
I started Upper Street with my
sister Katie. The idea for the
business came about when she
was looking for some shoes for her
wedding and couldn’t find any that
she liked. So she designed her own.
I always went shopping for shoes
that existed in my head. Both of us
wanted to design our own shoes
online without paying a fortune.
That was the premise for the business. Most of our customers are women in their 30s and 40s who
know their own sense of style. We use technology to be able to market and sell our shoes, but more
importantly, the 3D shoe designer is what really allows our customers to visualise the creation they
have in mind.”
Upper Street is a made-to-order luxury shoe label that allows customers to design their own shoes. The firm
has experienced double-digit revenue growth every year since its launch and now has ambitious plans to scale
the business to become the UK’s most loved footwear brand. @UpperStreetShoe
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Alain Falys
Co-founder and chief executive
Yoyo Wallet
“
Yoyo is a mobile platform that seamlessly
combines payment, loyalty and discovery.
It allows you to pay with your phone,
but more importantly, to receive rewards
targeted at your preferences. For the retailer,
Yoyo is integrated into their point-of-sale
terminal and is able to accept a sale via just
a scanner – the scanner you use to scan
a can of Coke is the same one you use to
scan the Yoyo app. The space in which we’re
operating is noisy but relatively open. There
have been attempts, by very large companies
like Google, Visa and Squared in the US,
to try to make payment relevant for mobile
alone. We realised this doesn’t work and
have taken a different tack by trying to make
mobile relevant for retail.”
Mobile-wallet start-up Yoyo Wallet promises
‘more than just payment’, by allowing users to use
smartphones to make payments easier and faster,
but also more rewarding. Following success at Pitch
at the Palace, in April 2015 Yoyo closed a £6.5m
series A investment round. @yoyowallet
Anthony
Fletcher
Chief executive
Graze
“
One of the advantages
Graze has over the traditional
shopping experience is the
idea of curation or surprise.
We’ve had to get very good at
using our data to decide what
products to send the customer.
We send a selection of four or
five snacks depending on their
taste profile. Some will appeal
only to people with a really bold
palate – our algorithm knows not
to send somebody anything with
wasabi in it unless we’ve received
several clues that they might
be open to spicy food. Every
business is going to become a
technology business to some
extent. It’s about how you deploy that technology, how you embrace it within your organisation and
how you talk to your customers.”
Food subscription service Graze offers healthy treats and delivers them to the doormats of its customers.
Following a £1m funding round, the London-based company expanded into the US and now sells snacks on
the UK high street. @grazedotcom
Ian Fordham
Chief executive
Edtech UK
“
We felt there wasn’t a
strategic body for edtech,
so we set it up ourselves.
We are focusing our energy on
a couple of core things first. At
the start, Edtech UK is about
defining the size and the scale
of the sector. We want to give
the companies that we have the
opportunity to export and go
around the world. We are trying
to put the spotlight on edtech
in the same way that fintech is
getting a lot of attention at the
moment. We are trying to put
edtech alongside that sector.
We have a number of members
who are founding members
and, going forward, we will have
members who will be scaleup
and growth organisations – but
we don’t exclude anybody.”
Edtech UK was launched in
October 2015 to help accelerate
the growth of the UK’s edtech
sector both in Britain and globally.
It was founded by Fordham with
Ty Goddard, his partner at the
cross-party, cross-sector think
tank The Education Foundation,
and is supported by the mayor
of London and others.
@EdtechukHQ
39
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Rosemary Forsyth
Matt Fox
Founder
Forsyth Group
Co-founder and chief executive
Snaptrip
“
“
Forsyth set up
Forsyth Group,
which helps IT and
emerging technology startups to find and recruit senior executive
and management teams, in 1981. She is also a founding member
and investment partner in venture capital firm AngelLab, as well as a
Seedcamp mentor. @forsythgroup
Snaptrip is a platform that offers last-minute discounted holiday breaks
in self-catered cottage accommodation. It promises guaranteed savings
with compelling discounts for guest users while members enjoy
exclusive rates. @snaptripuk
We are a boutique and we’ve always kept our
entrepreneurial edge by working very closely with
entrepreneurs, founders and investors and being aligned
to their goals. It’s
not just about
skillset matching;
so much is about
understanding
the cultural team
dynamics, and we
do that really well.
We agree on the
skillset required
and how far and
wide we need to
look to find it. I’m as
passionate now as I
was at the start and
I have been all the
way through. It’s just
electrifying seeing
all these technology
and paradigm shifts
that have happened.”
Snaptrip focuses on last-minute discounted inventory. I knew
from running my previous business that owners and managers
of holiday rental properties were happy to offer compelling
discounts on a lastminute basis as opposed
to leaving a property
empty. It works and it’s
great but by April 2015
it encompassed 26,000
properties across 20
different brands, such as
Cottages4you, and trying
to keep all the information
accurate requires
constant assessment.
Our competitors are
the cottage brands
themselves but their
bread and butter is
peak bookings at peak
prices, made two to three
months in advance. Our
bread and butter is two
weeks in advance – 70%
to 80% of our bookings
are made within 10 days
of the stay.”
Lorenzo Franzi
Co-founder and managing
director
Zipjet
“
Zipjet picks up and delivers dry cleaning and
laundry in London and Berlin. No one else
is as advanced as we are. We’re committed
to a 24-hour turnaround and 30-minute pick-up
and drop-off slots, which none of our competitors
provide. So we believe we’re being extremely
convenient for our customers. People don’t want
to go to stores any more, they want to be able
to use technology to have services come to their
homes. There is a real shift where the mobile
device is becoming the gateway to starting a
transaction. I saw what was happening in the
grocery and taxi industry and thought the laundry industry could benefit from changing the way people consume the service.”
Rocket Internet-backed Zipjet offers Londoners a convenient app-based laundry and dry-cleaning service. Customers can choose their
30-minute pick-up and drop-off timeslots using Zipjet’s iOS or Android app or on the web. The service is available throughout central and west
London. @zipjetuk
40
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Emi Gal
Founder
Brainient
“
Brainient is a technology
startup that works with big
broadcasters like ITV and
Channel 4 and helps them
better monetise their video
content on their digital platforms.
Whenever you watch ITV and
you see interactive ads, those
are powered by Brainient – and
that’s the same with Channel
4, Channel 5, Fox – 90% of the
broadcasters in the UK and 50%
of the broadcasters in Europe.
We’re making video ads more
engaging for viewers. So, rather
than just having a viewer watch
an ad for 30 seconds, we enable
the client to add interactivity. If
it is an ad for a car, for instance,
the viewer can book a test drive
while they are watching the ad.”
Brainient is one the UK’s brightest and
fastest-growing adtech startups, with
an impressive roster including virtually
all of the UK’s major TV channels. It
creates interactive videos that work
across devices. @brainient
Ande Gregson
Co-founder
Fab Lab
“
With Fab Lab you
can create value for
yourself. It’s not just
about the triangle with the
means of production at
the top and normal people
at the bottom. This has
been inverted completely.
Anybody can use a Fab
Lab. We can train you in
the basic mechanics of the
machines, the software,
the tools, the philosophies
and the designs, and you
can create something for
yourself. We opened in 2014 and we’ve seen a steady footfall through the door of all age ranges,
from six to 86. All of them are looking to find out what 3D printing can do for them.”
Social enterprise Fab Lab London sits in the heart of the City of London, supporting people and businesses
wanting to manufacture products and do physical prototyping using digital technologies like 3D printing
alongside traditional methods. The space is fast building a reputation for can-do innovation. @fablab
Julia Groves
Chief executive
Trillion Fund
“
We’re a growing
population using increasing
amounts of power and
we need local, sustainable,
cost-effective sources of
electricity. For a lot of people,
it’s about energy security and
the price they have to pay, and
the big electricity companies
are charging whatever they
want for electricity. Unless we
introduce more competition
into the energy market, we
aren’t going to see the prices
coming down. What Trillion is
doing at this stage is focusing
on loans, lending money to
wind and solar projects that
are already built. Somebody
else has taken all the risk of
constructing a project and
we’re lending up to 70% of the
value so that the company can
go and do it again.”
Crowdfunding platform
Trillion Fund raises money
for environmental and social
projects. In its first three years,
it connected more than 5,000
backers to profit-generating
projects that support people and
the planet, and also completed
120 successful raises. Dame
Vivienne Westwood is a major
backer. @TrillionFund
41
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Bridget Harris
Chief executive
YouCanBookMe
“
Luke Hakes
Investment director
Octopus Investments
“
As a VC, I see the
intersection of multiple
sectors as where you
get the best business ideas.
We work with the best
entrepreneurs because they
can take an average idea and
turn it into a fantastic business.
It’s not like we’re investing in
a business and we need to
be out in four or five years. If
it takes eight or nine years to
build a substantial enterprise
then we have the appetite and
the capacity to do that, which
is pretty rare. In helping the
small companies that we have
invested in over the last seven
years, we’ve actually built our
own business. I have been part
of a startup and I’ve helped
another 60. That has been a
fantastic opportunity and
really fun.”
Octopus Investments manages
nearly £5bn for more than
50,000 customers and offers
straightforward products that
solve problems faced by real
people. It works with some
of the UK’s most successful
entrepreneurs to finance
companies capable of creating,
transforming or dominating
markets. @Octopus_UK
42
My husband Keith and I have
always tried to solve problems
that exist in the offline world.
The problem with scheduling
is that people can’t find a time
to meet or they have too many
back-and-forth emails to schedule
their meetings. There are all these
people who are running their own
business with booking as a central
condition for them to secure work.
If they get a good booking system,
they get more work. Our growth
rate is over 100% every year and
the volume is going up all the
time. Without us really knowing
or realising, we’ve actually built a
product that gives us this return
on viral growth, which we needed
because we didn’t have any money
or resources for marketing.”
Scheduling software YouCanBookMe
integrates with Google Calendar
or iCalendar, displaying a person’s
availability and allowing others to block
out a time slot in that person’s diary.
High-profile clients include Netflix, TED
and Uber. @YouCanBookMe
Cassandra Harris
Co-founder and managing director
Venturespring
“
With Venturespring the proposition is very much
focused on helping corporate organisations, specifically
the venture divisions – corporate incubators and
accelerators – to grow and scale products, systems
and solutions. We assist them in varying degrees, right
through from helping them to understand the opportunity
to what kind of areas they should be looking to innovate
within or incubate. We work with all kinds of organisations,
regardless of their stage of innovation. We look after a
number of the startups within the Vodafone xone portfolio.
Some of them are incredibly far advanced in terms of
innovation and incubation, whereas other organisations
are just starting out. We work with some from a build
perspective, helping to build up prototypes and ‘pretotypes’. We like to call it co-creation.”
Venture development studio Venturespring bridges the gap
between the corporate and startup worlds, working with brands
to develop products, systems and services. Its vision is to create
valuable connections between brands, startups and young talent,
to build game-changing products. @venturespringWW
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Tom Hatton
Bruce Hellman
Chief executive
RefME
Chief executive
uMotif
“
“
I felt that technology should automate the referencing process. There were tools that could
help in creating references but the quality of output was either poor or incorrect. I knew
that, if I built a tool that was easy to use and produced high-quality output, I’d be winning.
The goal is to build the best product while also growing as quickly as possible by hiring the
best team. We can deliver the growth as long as we get the product right. Due to the way that
RefME is set up and the information we collect, we believe that in two to three years we’ll be
positioned to validate information that you see anywhere, and that’s something we’re really
working towards.”
RefME automatically generates a bibliographic reference from a book’s barcode or a URL. Its Android and iOS
apps work by scanning that barcode and sending a request to an external database. In April 2015 it secured
US$5m in seed investment from Gems Education. @GetRefMe
Josefine Hedlund
Director and chief operations officer
GeekGirl Meetup UK
“
I met Heidi Harman, the founder of GeekGirl Sweden, at a
meetup there. The company puts on a big annual conference
with more than 200 people. We both moved to London and
one day we were hanging out and decided to set up GeekGirl
here. We started in 2011 with a conference at Google Campus.
It was amazing; we got 100 people. I’m at the core of it as project
manager. I am constantly keeping track of speakers, venues,
sponsors and the website. We don’t do GeekGirl to get rich –
we just want to have enough money to cover our expenses. Role
models are so important because if you don’t see people doing
things you might like to do, it’s hard to imagine yourself doing it.”
GeekGirl Meetup UK is a network of women and girls interested in all
things related to tech, design and startups. Its mission is to highlight
female role models in the industry and to create a network for the
exchange of knowledge, mentoring and the sharing of ideas. @ggmUK
We can bank online,
shop online, book
flights online. So it is
unbelievable and astounding
that in 2015 you can get
discharged from hospital
with no digital journey. That’s
the gap we’re hoping to fill.
The unique uMotif interface
is bright and visual and
allows you to score yourself
subjectively on aspects
of daily health. Every year
in Europe 100,000 people
die due to not taking their
meds, and the financial
costs are huge. Giving
people reminders can help
them with that. The thing
that’s exciting for us is
that you start from people
solving real problems for
real people. We’re making a
difference to people’s lives.”
uMotif’s software platform tackles
increasingly unaffordable health
systems by engaging patients in
self-management of long-term
conditions, such as diabetes and
Parkinson’s, and post-operative
recovery. uMotif strengthens
the patient-clinician relationship
through digital tech. @uMotif
43
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
James Hind
Founder and chief executive
Carwow
“
If you’re thinking about buying a new car, sign up for
Carwow and dealers will send you their best offers.
You will see who the dealer is, where it is and how well
rated it is. Then you go forward and contact the dealer and
buy the car directly from
it. You have all these ‘geek
speak’ car magazines that
aren’t very accessible, but
people use them to try to
work out whether a car
is good. We thought we’d
read all that content and
summarise it. People can
make an informed decision
on which car to buy through
reading just one source. I
always thought that to start
a business you had to be 40
and look like a businessman.
I didn’t realise just how easy
it is, how low-risk it is and
how little capital you need, so I just jumped into it.”
Reviews and deals site Carwow presents new-car buyers with offers
from dealers that could save them thousands of pounds. The platform
allows buyers to compare and buy directly from dealers. The idea was
inspired by the Rotten Tomatoes film review site. @carwowuk
Mads Holmen
Co-founder
Bibblio
Michael-George Hemus
Co-founder and managing director
Plumen
“
My business partner Nic Roope had the initial idea for
Plumen in 2007. He bought a low-energy light bulb and
hated it. There were only two designs: one that looked
like an ice cream whip and one that looked like a radiator.
It seemed crazy to us that there’s this product that saves
you energy and money, yet you need massive government
legislation and subsidies to get people to use it. For us, that
was a big failure in terms of a product solution. The reception
of our first product, 001, was amazing. The 002 is an energyefficient alternative to beautiful filament bulbs that you see
in bars and restaurants. The challenge is to make something
equally as beautiful with a light that is equally as nice and at a
price point that people can afford.”
Plumen creates desirable and attractive low-energy light bulbs designed
to be put on show. It invests in design, research and high-quality
components to get the best out of new lighting technologies. Its latest
product is starting to address the impact of lighting in smart homes.
@PLUMEN
44
“
Bibblio is a marketplace
for educational content.
We try to source the
best educational learning
resources both from
established institutional
players, which could be
the BBC or the Open
University, and from
what we like to call the
new players: teachers,
professors on YouTube,
bloggers, SoundCloud
users, people on
SlideShare. There are many fragmented islands of knowledge lying
around on the internet and it’s our vision that no one has really
made a conscious effort to filter and curate all the best of those
and put them in one place.”
Edtech startup Bibblio has created a marketplace for video content. It
sources the best content from established providers and new players
alike on YouTube, SoundCloud, the blogosphere and more, and puts
them in one place. @Bibblio_org
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Eddie Holmes
Founder and chief
executive
Launch 22
“
Launch 22 was
established with the
charitable purpose of
promoting entrepreneurship
and supporting
entrepreneurs. We provide
30% of our spaces for free to
people from disadvantaged
backgrounds. That is funded
by 70% of our members
paying to be here, but they
pay significantly lower than
market rate. Over the next 12
months we want to open between three and five new centres,
all outside of London. If you’re a member in Liverpool, you’ll
also be a member in Belfast, London and everywhere else.
It’ll mean you’ve always got somewhere to work, wherever
you are in the country. That should reduce barriers to doing
business at a regional or national level.”
Launch 22 is a co-working space that supports entrepreneurs rather
than the businesses they create. Teams of volunteers run a branch in
London and in Liverpool with the support of two full-time staff members.
The ‘stage agnostic’ and ‘sector agnostic’ centres hold between 15 and
20 events each month, including Entrepreneurs Anonymous.
@Launch22uk
Alex Hoye
Co-founder
Runway East
“
The first time I came to
Shoreditch was in 1999. I
needed cheap space that I
could rent on a very short-term
basis because I had no idea what
my runway was going to look
like. The nice thing is that, during
those 15 years, I have managed
to build a lot of great relationships
with the dynamic people you find
in this neighbourhood. I wanted to
surround myself and my company
with those kinds of people, so we found a lot of like minds
who wanted to work together. I love the fact that on a Sunday
there’s quite a few people here cranking away, and it feels
a lot better when you know you’re in the same revolution
together, making things happen.”
“
Runway East is a vibrant community for ambitious tech businesses.
It provides a platform for exceptional entrepreneurs to accelerate and
collaborate. It helps its members share knowledge and support each
other to grow businesses that are redefining how great products are
designed, made and sold worldwide. @RunwayEastLDN
Chineasy’s visual system allows people to understand and read
Chinese quickly and easily by transforming simple Chinese characters
into memorable illustrations. Hsueh spent years looking for a fun and
easy way to teach her own children and when she couldn’t find one,
she developed her own system. @Hello_Chineasy
ShaoLan Hsueh
Founder
Chineasy
The Chineasy book is just a little taste of what Chineasy is
about. Most of our followers follow us through the website,
through our Facebook daily teachings, and sometimes we
even teach on Twitter. Instead of creating our own technology,
we use other people’s platforms and we want to make sure
that the way to communicate with our followers is low cost and
effective in terms of their learning outcomes. It’s a labour of love
and an art project. I would love for all these illustrations to last a
long time. It’s my legacy; a piece of artwork I can leave behind
and be proud of.”
45
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Pete Jaco
Founder and chief executive
Puckily
“
Within the next 10 years, almost everything in your
house – from your toaster to your fish tank – will
have internet connectivity. Right now you need
different apps to run different systems. With Puckily, you
have one device that could control everything in your
home. We’ve created something that can add internetof-things intelligence to any environment where there
isn’t an internet-of-things infrastructure. We don’t think
of ourselves as a software or hardware company; we are
an integration company, so our challenge is making the
hardware work with the software and open standards.
There was a gap in the internet-of-things market for a
gateway device that gathered intelligence from buildings
and allowed people to use that data.”
Anne-Marie
Huby
Puckily is an intelligent control centre for connected-home
devices. It works with and can control dozens of different internetof-things technologies, offering users a central overview of their
home’s smart devices and the data they generate. It allows users
to adjust settings and set up alerts. @puckily
Co-founder and
managing director
JustGiving
Clare Johnston
“
Founder and chief
executive
The Up Group
We enable anyone who
cares passionately about
a cause to visit the site,
create an appeal and raise
tons of money for a charity or
a project. Fifteen years ago it
was clear that the web would
change the way people give.
At the time, I was running the
UK arm of Médecins Sans
Frontières. I was astonished
that I couldn’t find a platform
that would enable us to raise
money online. It was really
hard, expensive and tough.
When [co-founder] Zarine
Kharas and I met, we thought
there was a real need in the
market to enable charities to
be effective at receiving funds.
So we went out to build it.”
JustGiving is a fundraising
platform for good causes. It is
the world’s leading social giving
platform, with a mission to
connect the world’s causes with
people who care about them.
Since it was founded in 2001 it
has helped delivered more than
US$3bn to good causes.
@JustGiving
46
“
Our network provides a conduit
between startups, growth
companies and corporates in
the digital sector. We host events
that bring these very senior people
together. Basically, we put lots of
people in one room and help them
to connect. I love digital, I love the
growth space and I love people
and trying to add value. I wanted
to build an outstanding global
network of talent that we could use
to inject great people into these
businesses. I’m passionate about
the entrepreneurial scene and about
helping businesses and people to
grow.”
Networking and executive search
business The Up Group focuses on the
digital, mobile and technology sectors.
Its growing roster of events brings
together tech entrepreneurs, investors
and others to collaborate and innovate.
Its 2015 executive salary survey found
women were earning 90% of male
salaries. @TheUpGroup
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Ivailo Jordanov
Co-founder and director
23snaps
“
For some people, there is no such
thing as too many baby pictures,
even though others would say you
are over-sharing. Around every child,
there are probably five to 10 people
who just can’t get enough updates.
Today we have users that have children
who have their own phones, so it’s
migrating from a digital baby book to
showing how a family grows. I love
what I’m doing. Every day I get these
messages from families using the
system, saying how thankful they are
to us for offering this ability to be
connected to their children. That’s an
incredibly strong drive to ensure that
you just want to do better all the time.”
Private photo-sharing app 23Snaps is
designed with new parents in mind, so they
can securely share pictures of their children
with friends and family. The simple-to-use
online family album allows people to share
photos, videos, updates and multimedia
packages combining words and images.
@23Snaps
Hussein Kanji
Founder and analyst
Hoxton Ventures
“
We don’t specialise. We look for
companies that we think can turn out to
be billion-dollar companies. Rob Kniaz
and I are software-driven because we’re both
software guys. We have a cloud security
company, an enterprise security company,
a travel analytics company and we’re about
to do a fintech investment. For us, it’s a
question of where the new market is and if
the company is driven by software at the end
of the day. We’re geographically agnostic.
It’s nice to see London succeed, but we
care as much about Stockholm or Berlin.
There’s nothing that prevents us from doing
something in Scotland or Manchester. Pick a
city; it doesn’t make that much of a difference
to us.”
Hoxton Ventures is a US$40m early stage
European venture capital firm. Its sweet spot is
internet, mobile and software startup investing. By
summer 2015 it had a portfolio of 17 companies
– including Yieldify and DarkTrace – and had
backed 37 founders. @HoxtonVentures
Axel Katalan
Co-founder and chief
marketing officer
Pointr Labs
“
Pointr is a software
company that provides
indoor positioning and
navigation technology
for large venues. Think
about it like Google Maps
for department stores,
exhibition spaces and
networking events. It’s an
SDK [software development
kit] that we provide to
either the agency that is
working with the venue or
the venue itself. There are
two elements to the tech:
the software is what we
create and the hardware is
from third parties. These
Bluetooth beacon devices
have a sticky back. We stick
them to the ceiling and they
push out Bluetooth signals.
We built software that picks
up these signals and, along
with machine learning and
other smart programs, we
can understand the position
to one-metre accuracy.”
Pointr Labs has created indoor
navigation software that helps
people to find products or
locations within a closed space.
The startup’s tech team created
an SDK that plugs into a venue’s
software and opens when a
user enters the client’s app. The
technology then shows them
a map of their location and
destination across multiple floors.
@PointrLabs
47
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Tom Kihl
Director
London Belongs to Me
(The Kentishtowner)
“
Nick Katz
Co-founder and chief
executive
Splittable
“
Property is in my blood.
I’m basically completely
obsessed with real estate.
Once you’re actually in a
property, there aren’t very
many solutions for you as an
individual to connect to your
home digitally and manage it
on a daily or a weekly basis.
You download the app,
sign up to it and you can
immediately create placeholder
housemates for the people that
you live with and start splitting
the costs. You enter a cost into
the app manually and decide
what everyone’s exposure is
to that cost. There’s a space
to build a company that is
global in the next three years
that helps housemates in every
city in the world manage their
expenditure and live better
together.”
Splittable is an app, available on
Android, iOS and the web, that
makes shared living simpler. It
makes it easy to track and manage
shared costs and recurring
utility bills and household living
expenses. In October it secured
US$1.2m in investment, including
from Seedcamp and the London
Co-Investment Fund.
@SplittableApp
48
Because the genesis of the project
was a blog, we’ve never wanted to
be the local papers. We’re not doing
local news and quite a lot of people find
that quite hard to understand. It makes
perfect sense for us because we’re not
news journalists, we’re arts journalists
and that’s how it came about. The way
we would describe our relationship with
traditional local or hyperlocal news is that
we are the colour supplement and they’re
the front page. We secured funding from
NESTA in 2012 to explore digital hyperlocal models and, as part of that we did a
lot of work with geolocation. The model
in Kentish Town is working so we have
expanded.”
Award-winning Kentishtowner is a daily cultural
guide for north London, with 55,000 uniques
monthly online, subsidised by advertising for 20,000 in its print edition. Established in 2010, it covers food
and drink, lifestyle, the arts, travel and people. The Kentishtowner hyper-local model has rolled out to three
sister publications: Below the River, Gasholder and Leytonstoner. @kentishtowner
Alex Klein
Co-founder and chief
product officer
Kano
“
If you want to get your kids ready for
the future, Kano is a simple and fun way
to do it. I showed the tiny Raspberry Pi
computer to my six-year-old cousin Mica and
he said, ‘I want to make my own computer
that is as simple and fun as Lego.’ Yonatan
[Raz-Fridman] primarily focused on the
manufacturing and fulfilment side and I
started writing a step-by-step book. In 2013
we hand-folded 200 white boxes and put
inside cables, the Pi and some storybooks
for the Kickstarter campaign. Then we did a
workshop at a school. By the end of the hour
the students had made the computer. One
child told me, ‘We’re like superchildren.’”
Kano is a computer and coding kit for all ages,
built on Raspberry Pi. Kids and adults can use
the Kano kit to build a computer with plug-andplay pieces, customise it, make music with code,
create games like Pong and Snake and build
radios, servers and website. It was founded by
Klein, Raz-Fridman and Saul Klein. @teamkano
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Nidhima Kohli
Founder and chief
executive
My Beauty Matches
“
We’re very much focused
on personalisation and
that’s been identified as
one of the top retail trends for
2015 up to 2018. My Beauty
Matches was born from my
own pain. I was trying to find
the right beauty products for
me. In the media it was all
about the latest products.
With My Beauty Matches
people fill in a profile – we
ask you lots of questions
about skincare, haircare and
lifestyle choices – and we
help match you to the right
beauty products just for you.
We also provide an extra
service where we compare
the prices of the products.”
My Beauty Matches is a platform
that enables users to discover the
right beauty products for them.
It also collects data that enables
brands to make better decisions
in terms of marketing. Kohli, an
accredited beautician and makeup artist – and former investment banking strategist - launched the site in
2014. @MyBeautyMatches
Aleks Krotoski
Broadcaster and academic
“
Being an academic is about
picking apart broad, sweeping
generalisations, and being a
journalist means making those
generalisations. So shifting the voices
especially when I was writing up my
thesis was quite difficult. But it was
also quite refreshing because it’s too
easy to go down the rabbit hole of
one or the other. It’s nice to have the
critical eye in the journalism, it’s very
valuable but it’s also nice to be able
to communicate the academic work.
More than anything I hope that people
stop viewing technology as magic because if they do then they think it is responsible for who we are
and how we are. And that’s BS, frankly.”
Tech academic and journalist Krotoski wrote her thesis on the relationship between social networks and social
influence in the diffusion of information. Today she presents The Digital Human on BBC Radio 4 and until
earlier this year was the host of The Guardian’s Tech Weekly podcast. @aleksk
Simon Lee
Founder and chief
executive
Locassa
“
One of the nice things
about this business is
every single product we
do is unique to the client
and we love every single
one of them. We work with
the big brands but we also
work with startups and
individuals. We get between
five and 10 new product
enquiries a day, which is
exceptional particularly
for a small team. We did
some really nice work with
the Ministry of Defence for
the sending of letters to
forces overseas, so from a
feel-good factor that was
a really nice one. We’re not
just about producing apps,
we’re about producing
amazing beautiful apps and
that takes a certain type of
person.”
Specialist mobile app design
and development agency
Locassa provides backend
services to support the mobile
apps it creates, as well as client
workshops on marketing and
monetisation. Developer Lee set
up the service in 2009.
@locassa
49
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Guy Levin
Executive director
Coadec
“
Marjorie
Leonidas
Managing director
Taggstar
“
Taggstar is a SaaS model
for digital marketing and
persuasive messaging
technology. Put simply,
social proof marketing
enables customers to see
transparently how many
people are looking at a
particular item. We provide
people with a sense of
excitement when they are
online, that they aren’t
shopping by themselves.
I feel I have hit a new
threshold in terms of where
I want to be in technology
and what I want to be
doing, and that is leading
companies in innovative
spaces, particularly in cloudhosted SaaS models. It’s
a huge growth area at the
moment as more people are
outsourcing what they do.”
Taggstar aims to convert online
browsers into buyers. Messages
powered by its ‘social proof
engine’ tell the customers of
online retailers what other
shoppers have bought, increasing
engagement and conversion
rates. @taggstartalk
50
We set out our ideas in the Coadec
Startup Manifesto and it was great
that Chuka Umunna, the [then]
Labour shadow business secretary, as
well as a minister on the Conservative
side welcomed it. So there is interest on
all sides and we would like to see that
continued. Digital technology is apolitical
and even those coming from different
political traditions should be able to agree
on that. One of the best things David
Cameron and George Osborne have
done has been to listen to and engage
with the startup community. They created
a structure and a framework through
which government could engage with the
digital sector.”
Coadec, the coalition for a digital economy,
aims to be the policy voice for technology
startups. The non-partisan non-profit works
with digital entrepreneurs and policymakers
to create better policy for the digital economy
and helps startups connect better with
government. @coadec
Rhydian Lewis
Chief executive
RateSetter
“
We came to the market with a
fundamentally different alternative
that involved something called the
RateSetter provision fund, which is
designed to make peer-to-peer lending
simple and safe. That’s allowed us to
be very popular with everyday savers.
On average they are aged 55, affluent
without being wealthy, in control of their
own finances, have some savings and
care a lot about the return they get on
them. They are willing to try new things.
The borrowers are on average in their late
30s with an income of £35,000 and they
borrow for large purchases like cars and
home improvements. We concentrate
on our customers and our customer
proposition and doing the best job we can
for them. If what we do has value then people will keep signing up to RateSetter.”
The UK’s largest peer-to-peer lending platform, by summer 2015 Ratesetter was matching £40m in loans
every month. It also had 27,000 active investors, 147,000 active personal and commercial borrowers and over
a million registered users. RateSetter has partnered with mobile network giffgaff, allowing its customers to
purchase SIM-free phones with a loan. @RateSetter
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Rose Lewis
Julia Macmillan
Co-founder
Collider
Founder
Raddiso
“
“
At Collider, we support startups in their first year of
growth by giving them cash and advice. The main thing is
connections to brands and agencies, because our focus
is on marketing and
advertising tech. My
two co-founders and
I had backgrounds in
marketing, advertising
and startups. We
felt that London
was a great place to
launch a very focused
accelerator, given our
skills, experience and
credibility in marketing
and advertising globally.
We invest some cash
in startups and that
cash is very smart. All
of our investors come
from a marketing and
advertising background.
That way they can offer
expert advice but also
amazing connections.”
Collider is an accelerator
for startups in adtech and
madtech. It invests capital in
the startups, coaches them through a highly structured programme and
connects them to potential corporate customers and investors. Its aim is
to help the companies become sustainable and fast-growing businesses.
@ColliderGB
I have always loved the idea of very creative food and the
nexus between art and food. It’s evolved from just doing
pop-ups. We started getting food and drink companies
asking us to do digital,
text or video content for
them. Other companies
were asking us to arrange
pop-ups for them. Now
we’re getting asked to
come up with creative
ideas for launches. Our
site has a database and
the whole point is that it
should stimulate ideas
between people so they
can contact each other
if they want to. They can
comment on events and
get discussions going
– so for that, tech is
actually quite important.
People come up with
suggestions, so it’s a lot
more interactive than it
might seem.”
Raddiso is a free platform
to enable people to create
exciting food- and drink-related
events. It facilitates connections between independent food producers,
up-and-coming chefs, designers, artists and people with spaces where
events could be hosted. Macmillan previously ran cougar and toyboy
dating site Toyboy Warehouse. @RadicalDining
Roberta Lucca
Chief executive and co-founder
WonderLuk
“
There are so many talented designers creating beautiful
products and they don’t have any place to sell those products
to people. WonderLuk is a platform where they can go and
sell direct to consumers. The way we allow customisation to work
is by using the magic of 3D printing. Nowadays you can 3D print
something plastic, titanium, silver or gold and we connect to a
lot of amazing suppliers across the globe, who are able to make
those products happen. Nothing is produced without someone
wanting it. You can go to WonderLuk.com and choose a piece
that you love, which can be a ring, a pair of earrings or a necklace
and you can customise it the way that you want.”
3D printing marketplace WonderLuk offers buyers and designers of
unique, 3D-printed fashion accessories and jewelry a platform to buy
and sell, with the motto ‘Don’t blend in. Ever.’ Customers can buy
bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings, iPhone cases and more.
@WonderLuk
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TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Jan Matern
Co-founder and chief
executive
Emerge Venture Lab
“
There weren’t any
specialised accelerators or
incubators for education
technology companies,
which we thought was an
obvious gap. There was no
single space for them to
channel their expertise and
knowledge towards new
founders and they are really
excited to be able to do that now. We knew that if we built a
great network of experts, investors, publishers and partners
around the space that we could then attract some of the best
entrepreneurs around the world. We bring in mentors, people
from schools and universities and the education sector to
give them advice. We have 250 schools happy to beta test
new products. The idea was to create a space in which we
bring together innovators in the education space and help
them riff off each other.”
The flagship programme of Emerge Venture Lab is the Shoreditchbased Emerge Education, a three-month accelerator programme for
startups looking to improve educational outcomes worldwide.
@emergelab
Ivan Mazour
Chief executive and co-founder
Ometria
Tina Mashaalahi
Co-founder and chief operating officer
KweekWeek
“
I came across a problem. How could I find events
and receive a ticket there and then through my phone
and just show up at the door? [A service that had]
consumers and organisers in one place, on one platform,
didn’t exist. KweekWeek is a marketplace for events, bringing
organisers and consumers together in a one-stop shop.
We’re developing and refining an algorithm that picks up on
behavioural patterns that will slowly adapt to consumers
over a period of time and suggest the most relevant things
to them. The organisers are able to track their regular
customers. And it makes their lives a lot easier as they don’t
have to spend so much time marketing.”
Events discovery and ticketing management platform KweekWeek lets
attendees discover and book events and receive suggestions and their
tickets directly in the app. It also benefits hosts, allowing them to build a
following, target audiences and track sales in real time. @kweekweek
52
“
We are a software platform that provides customer and
marketing automation for retailers. We help them understand
their customer but also act on the understanding to improve
their engagement and improve
revenues. We want to make sure that
retailers are sending messages to the
consumers that are personalised and
relevant. That increases engagement
levels to a very high extent, reducing
unsubscribe levels. There is a big
transformational shift here, moving
away from the concept of marketing
campaigns. In the future there are
going to be 10 to 15 channels we
haven’t come across yet. There
will be no way to do it without
having a machine take charge and
personalising all of them.”
Ometria combines predictive software
and e-commerce marketing to help retailers acquire and retain
customers through the clever use of data. Clients include high-end
makeup brand Charlotte Tilbury and 232-year-old knitwear brand John
Smedley. @OmetriaData
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Ian Merricks
Founder and investor
Accelerator Academy
“
I had struggled to find, in any one
programme, the kind of support I
would have found useful when I
was building my businesses. I ended
up creating a syllabus. I had input for
the syllabus from London Business
School, Cass Business School,
Manchester Business School and UCL.
It was structured around the theme
of delivering high-growth training in
short, sharp bursts, with very specific
training around not how do you do
it but how do you do it better. And
then rather than have it delivered by
academics we had it delivered by
people who had actually been there.
Our mentors are technology, media
and telecoms entrepreneurs.”
Accelerator Academy is an established
12-week high-growth, training and
mentoring programme for ambitious
digital entrepreneurs looking to grow their
businesses. Between 10 and 12 startups
and early-stage businesses with high-growth
potential are selected to receive 150 hours
of training, mentoring and support.
@ianmerricks1
Prash Naidu
Founder and chief
executive
Rezonence
“
The big difference between
print and digital is that
content is now given away
for free. Publishers are trying
to monetise, with the two
options being to give away
their content using advertising
– which doesn’t really work
because the yields are so
low – or to put up a paywall,
but then you lose over 90% of
your audience. Rezonence is
trying to fix that by making sure
that the content remains free
Partner, Cushman & Wakefield
and accessible to everyone, so
you can keep the high levels
Head of property, Tech City UK
of users but raise the yields
The fundamental challenge for property is that it
from free content. We do
relies on long-term contracts for money. Pension
that by effectively monetising
funds buy buildings and buildings have leases,
engagement. A user’s time
so those funds can see the leases have X amount of
and attention is much more
valuable to the advertiser than
money that is secure for a number of years. The other
the article is to the audience.
side of that is a burgeoning venture capital-funded tech
scene in London, including many startups that can’t sign By building engagement we
find we can build a model that
a long lease. So we have a fundamental tension in this
market around the demands of the property industry and is sustainable for publishers in
the long run.”
its investment structures and the requirements of the
tech industry. Until a startup becomes financially stable
Advertising technology startup
Rezonence helps online
after flotation, exit or acquisition, the property industry
publishers pay for their content
finds it difficult to give them the space in the shape and
at the price they need. Co-working fixes some problems and brands secure better
engagement with their adverts.
and creates others because it absorbs any of the
With the main alternatives lying
available space in the market.”
Juliette Morgan
“
Through her multiple roles, Juliette Morgan is one of London’s
best-informed experts when it comes to property for tech
businesses. She believes that entrepreneurs need protected work
and live spaces, but also that property owners are nervous about
the stability of VC-backed businesses. @Juliettemorgan
in banner ads or subscriptionbased paywalls, Rezonence’s
trademarked FreeWall
technology offers another way.
@RezonenceHQ
53
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Suzanne Noble
Founder and chief executive
Frugl
“
Frugl’s users are highly engaged and really like the
service. I run into people who say, ‘I know and love your
app and use it all the time,’ so that’s great validation for
us. We also have a website. As groovy and sexy as it is to
have an app, a lot of people still browse the web, and nobody
can ignore the web. They can definitely delete you from their
phone. We do see that the future is mobile and every website
has got to be mobile-compatible. Now people have the ability
to add to Frugl events and offers on the fly in a really simple
way. We can react very quickly, so we’ve modified ourselves
to say that we’re a real-time marketplace now for events and
offers.”
Melinda Nicci
Frugl offers real-time access to events in the coming week that cost £10
or less. Aimed at ‘socially mobile’ people aged 18 to 35, Frugl aims to
make it easier for people to create and promote their own events, and
even easier for other people to discover them. @frugl
Founder and chief executive
Baby2Body
“
The primary problem is that women want to have a healthy
baby and also want to look after themselves. Most of the
information on websites and in books focuses on the baby
and not the mother. They don’t address the psychological side of
things like emotions, stress, anxiety, sleep, sex or relationships.
We want to innovate the way women experience antenatal
education by giving it to them on their smartphone, through video,
downloadable PDFs and MP3s. Women wanted to know more
about the changes that their bodies were undergoing. I decided
Baby2Body 2.0 needed to be evidence-based, expert-led and
give women information on three things: what is happening to
them, why it is happening and how to fix it.”
Premium content platform Baby2Body aims to change the way that
women experience pregnancy and motherhood. It offers pregnant
women and new mothers with children up to the age of three advice
and information on their baby, wellbeing, fitness and food, as well as
fashion and beauty. @baby2body
Emer O’Daly
Co-founder and chief executive
Love & Robots
“
Everything on our site is digitally manufactured, which naturally means it’s made from a digital file.
3D printing is the most famous but we use different types of digital manufacturing, so also laser
etching and laser cutting. With 3D printing and digital manufacturing there are no economies of
scale, so every product can be different. One of our most popular items is a bowtie with a map on
it and necklaces tend to be very popular as well. We came at this from the idea of co-creating with
customers rather than supplying something that was already made. I started Love & Robots with
my two sisters. I wouldn’t change it for anything. They’re two of my best friends and I trust them
completely.”
Design platform Love & Robots allows customers to tweak and personalise products. Buyers can commission
necklaces, bracelets, earrings, bowties and cufflinks. The co-founders are the O’Daly sisters, who have
backgrounds in architecture, design and communication. @LoveandRobotsHQ
54
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Aaron O’Hearn
Co-founder
Startup Institute
“
It’s hard for highgrowth companies
to find great people
directly, but we help to
create those people. The
UK has a big problem
where there is a thriving
tech ecosystem but there
is still a shortage of talent
for these companies.
Startup Institute has
created an educational
experience that transcends
the delivery of content.
It’s about the experience
and engagement with a
community. Our curriculum
takes people through a
focused development
of hard and soft skills
that, when combined,
are a powerful force for
differentiating people
in the jobs market. We
receive a lot of really
incredible applicants.
They’re going to be very hireable.”
Rhea
PapanicolaouFrangista
Founder
Prettly
“
Boston-founded Startup Institute offers eight-week full-time courses to give people the skills, mindset and
network to get a job in a startup. Students specialise in technical marketing, web design, web development or
sales and account management. The institute also offers part-time introductory courses in JavaScript, Ruby and
web design. @aaron0
George Olver
Co-founder
Movidiam
“
Movidiam is two things: it’s a social network
for filmmakers and it’s a project management
tool. When you are crewing up for a film,
where do you start? We have a very clear
search by geography and role. Once you have
a team together we have a project management
dashboard where we have a whole bunch of
features specifically designed for filmmakers. In
the pre-Movidiam world, the marketing person
rings someone who knows someone who knows
a production company, and the company will ring around its freelancers to find someone who is
available. We want to build visibility among professionals who are doing this with the greatest brands
in the world. There’s a very palpable sense of a new generation of freelancers who are inexpensively
clothing themselves with equipment and produce very high-quality work.”
Movidiam is a new social network and project management platform that is looking to transform the way films
are made. Its network and project management application allows brands, agencies and filmmakers to connect,
collaborate and create films, wherever they are. @Movidiam
I heard about mobile
beauty professionals
here through the
grapevine. As soon as I had
my nails done, I instantly
felt an urge to recreate
this experience for other
women like myself in the
city. Ultimately, it’s a solution
that makes life easier for
busy women when it comes
to their grooming. It’s for
women who are either
stay-at-home mothers or
professional women who
work during the day. It
literally takes three taps
to book someone and our
review system means that
the customer can select the
professional they want to
have. We understand women
and we are trying to create a
lifestyle brand that will really
inspire them and make their
lives easier.”
Prettly is a startup that allows
women to book mobile beauty
professionals for manicures and
pedicures at home, at work or any
other location within zones one
to three in London. The certified
mobile beauty professionals are
screened and tested before being
sent out to customers.
@PRETTLYbeauty
55
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Belinda Parmar
Chief executive
Lady Geek/Little Miss Geek
“
Lady Geek is a
consultancy that helps
companies engage
women as customers and
employees. Our whole
platform is around measuring
empathy. We look at empathy
levels within an organisation
and then come up with ideas
and innovations around how
they can speak more to
women. When you start to
talk to girls about how you
can use technology to solve
world problems then they
get excited. I want everyone,
young men and young women,
to be conversant in code. That
is the language of the future
and is the equivalent of learning a foreign language.”
Lady Geek helps some of the world’s biggest companies to become
more appealing to women as customers and employees, to help drive
their growth. Parmar is also founder of Little Miss Geek, set up to inspire
young women to be tech pioneers.
@ladygeek
Samiya Parvez
Co-founder and chief operations officer
Andiamo
Rahul Parekh
Co-founder and co-chief executive
Eat First
“
We combine great tasting, healthy meals and convenience.
We have a simple app. You see the menu with your two
food options, you see the drink, you can order within a
few clicks and you can track your driver. When they arrive,
you collect your delivery kerbside. We want customers to see
this as a guilt-free experience. For us it’s important that we’re
sustainable in many areas, so we’re trying to move our delivery
fleet to bicycles and make our packaging as eco-friendly as
we can. My ex-colleague knew I was entrepreneurial and made
the introduction to Rocket Internet. I talked to them about the
business idea and they really liked it.”
Healthy food delivery startup Eat First offers London customers lunches
for less than £10, arriving at the side of the road within 15 minutes of
placing their order. Parekh, backed by German startup factory Rocket
Internet, has extended the offering and now Eat First Home provides
dinner delivery. @EatFirstUK
56
“
An orthosis is any body bracing that you wear on top of
your limbs to keep it in good posture. With a new orthosis,
a child has to wear it and then tell you if it is working or
not. And then you have to create another one as they grow
and compare that one to the one before. My husband Naveed
attended the Monki Gras tech conference, where somebody
was talking about 3D scanning and 3D printing – and
something clicked. People have contacted us online wanting
to be part of the trials as well,
because we’re still in the R&D
phase. We’re starting off with
a one-week turnaround and
ideally 48 hours.”
Husband-and-wife team Naveed and
Samiya Parvez set up healthtech
startup Andiamo after their son
Diamo needed an orthosis. Their
technology harnesses the power of
3D scanning and printing to make
measuring and producing orthoses
faster, more accurately and even
themed to match the interests of the
patient.
@AndiamoHQ
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Alastair Paterson
Chief executive
Digital Shadows
“
Our series A round this year was huge for us. We raised US$8m. Up to that
point we’d had US$2m. Scale-wise that was the first big injection of capital that
we’d had. Its primary purpose was to scale up what we had in the UK and open
up in the US market, so it’s enabled us to open a San Francisco office and make
hires in Chicago, New York and Austin. It’s allowed us to drive at the market in a way
that we couldn’t have done just out of London. So it’s a huge, transformational change
for us and we are growing faster than ever right now. We were keen whenever we took
any investment to make sure that it was about more than just the money. Passion Capital
has been very supportive all the way through and we couldn’t have asked for more. We
highly endorse them.”
Digital Shadows provides ‘cyber-situational awareness’ to help its financial services
clients to protect against cyber attacks, loss of intellectual property and more.
The firm is now one of London’s fintech superstars with 20% month-onmonth growth. @digitalshadows
Mutaz Qubbaj
Steven Renwick
Chief executive
Squirrel
Founder and chief executive
Satago
“
“
We’ve kept Squirrel as simple and intuitive as possible to
make sure the people who need it the most can use it.
That means people who are in financial distress or those
who have certain saving and budgeting habits and want to
improve how they manage their finances. Users can specify
their commitments across their bills and essentials. They can
also tell us what they want to save for and we can set them
up with the ability to save directly from their pay. If somebody
is saving £500 for Christmas and it’s 10 months away, we will
set aside £50 every month until Christmas and then push that
through to their current account.”
Financial wellbeing platform Squirrel is designed to empower people by
helping them to save, budget and manage their money more effectively
and also save them money on their bills. Employers sign up and offer
Squirrel accounts as a workplace benefit. @asksquirrel
We are a general
product for any
SME. We make
the credit control
person more efficient.
We automate large
parts of the mundane
stuff. There is no
reason why you
should be emailing
your customers
individually to remind
them of payment. We
also automatically
send monthly
statements that show
the status of all the
open invoices and,
at a glance, users
can see the status of
debts owed and how
much is outstanding.
Satago pulls in all your
open invoices and it
checks once a day so
you know what’s open,
what’s been paid and
what needs to be chased. Some companies have said to us, ‘We
were about to go bankrupt until we turned on Satago.’”
Credit control system Satago offers any business a customer
relationship management platform that connects to its existing
accounting software. Renwick grew up seeing his father’s construction
business negatively affected by late payments and decided to do
something about it. @SatagoHQ
57
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Anthony Rose
Co-founder
6Tribes
“
Pretty much everyone in our
18-25 target audience is on
Facebook, but increasingly
people don’t love Facebook.
The real problem that they have,
particularly as young people,
is that their posts will
not be seen just by their
friends, but we know that
recruiters are increasingly
looking at Facebook, so it
could affect their career.
Because everything you
post is public, it’s raising
the bar, making it harder
for people to want to
post. As a result, people
are opting for closed
networks like Snapchat
or WhatsApp. People
tell us that they want
something in the middle.
We have never really
seen a social network
based on topics rather than
people you went to school
with or celebrities you follow.
Our research indicated a
huge desire for exactly that.”
6Tribes is a new social network brought
to you by the team behind secondscreen TV app Beamly and the BBC
iPlayer that connects millennials who have
things in common by tapping into their
existing social preferences and music, to
group them into tribes of shared interest.
@anthonyrose
Julia Salasky
Founder
CrowdJustice
“
CrowdJustice is a crowdfunding platform for public
interest litigation. Court fees have gone up exponentially,
legal aid has been cut and other changes to legislation
have made it harder to challenge government decisions and
hold the government to account. There was no real way for
people who weren’t directly taking a case that affects lots
of people to get involved and to channel their energy and
financial resources into that case. CrowdJustice enables
people to do that. Often people don’t feel the law is relevant
or accessible to them, but CrowdJustice is aiming to make
the law available to everyone. People are investing in cases
in the sense of investing in a social good rather than for a
financial return.”
CrowdJustice helps claimants bring legal challenges that could set a
precedent or affect a community. It allows a person bringing a case to
raise money from a group that goes directly to an instructed solicitor.
@CrowdJusticeUK
Michael Seres
Founder
11Health
“
11Health is the first company to make a sensor device for stoma patients. At the age of 12,
I was diagnosed with an incurable bowel condition called Crohn’s disease. Three years ago
I became the 11th person in the UK to undergo a rare bowel transplant. A procedure took
part of my bowel to the outside of my stomach, collecting bodily waste in a stoma bag. You lose
complete control over going to the toilet. I had a lot of time in hospital. Googling, I bought a few
parts on eBay including a flexible sensor strip from a Nintendo Wii glove, bought a bit of kit and,
thanks to YouTube, built a prototype. The sensor sent a signal from the bag to alert you when it
was filling.”
Medical startup 11Health harnesses mobile and sensor technology to help the 150,000 users of stoma bags in
the UK to have a better quality of life. Smart technology alerts them when their bags need emptying and offers
clinicians a chance to gather data. Seres’s experience made him realise the limits of existing options. @mjseres
58
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Titus Sharpe
Chief executive
MVF Global
“
We have a very international staff.
When people come to London for jobs
they don’t necessarily have a strong
network, so if you can provide them with a
lovely network of friends and bubbly social
life within the workplace it makes them very
loyal. Providing a really great environment is
an important way of keeping great staff. We let
anyone who wants to start a new sport buy the kit,
giving them the budget they need. There’s
a lot of extra-curricular activity. We
are very keen on setting a financial
company goal. Everyone gets
behind it and we all see the
benefit. Last year we hit a major
milestone, so we took 150 staff
to Ibiza. It was an absolute
scream and was one of the best
weekends of my life.”
Marketing technology business
MVF is one of the UK’s fastest
growing tech firms, with a focus
on helping corporate clients
across verticals to build their
customer bases. And thanks
to a ‘perkplace’ culture, MVF is
widely regarded as one of the
best companies to work for in
the country. @MVFGlobal
Liv Sibony
Co-founder
Grub Club
“
Grub Club enables people to search out and
attend interesting social dining experiences or
find out about creative independent chefs who
cater in unique underused spaces around London.
They showcase their dinners on our platform and
diners can book and then attend the dinners.
We noticed that supper clubs were happening in
pockets but were very difficult to find and seemingly
very exclusive, but when you attend them they are
the most welcoming and interesting, fun experiences.
We realised that if we set up a platform to help
people to find these dinners, then London could be
a happier place. The technology is enabling all of this
to happen.”
Private dining platform Grub Club connects food lovers
with the best pop-up restaurants and supper clubs in their
area. The startup – funded by a successful £325,000
Crowdcube raise in 2015 – is harnessing technology to
build a powerful community of foodies. @grub_club
Peter Smith
Co-founder and chief
executive
Blockchain
“
I heard about Bitcoin in
2011 from a mailing list.
This was back when there
were really very few services.
If you lost your laptop then
you lost all your bitcoin. We
built software that could be
used on any device and we
have a tokenised encrypted
backup on servers. You get
the convenience of a bitcoin
wallet that can be accessed
from any laptop or any cell
phone. You can set it up in
minutes and you have the
security of not having to
trust someone else with
your bitcoin. No one has
more wallets, no one has
more experience than
Blockchain and I think that
counts for a lot.”
Blockchain is the world’s most
popular bitcoin wallet, allowing
users to access their digital
currency through iOS and
Android wallets. By mid-2015
it had nearly four million users
and handled more than 50,000
transactions a day. It is widely
regarded as the most trusted
brand in bitcoin. @blockchain
59
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
John Spindler
Chief executive
Capital Enterprise
“
George Spencer
Founder
Rentify
“
We saw an opportunity
to do the same thing with
letting agents as has
been done with travel agents
and bookstores. The service
is online, so you can be at
home at 10pm using it in your
underpants if you want. You
press a button on our website
and before 9am the next
day someone will turn up at
your property in their Rentify
uniform and with an ID badge.
They will take the keys to your
rental property and will get in
a professional photographer
who is on our staff to take the
photos. They will value the
property and get the advert
live, and they’ll do all that much
faster and much better than a
typical estate agent. And we
have the UK’s most popular
tenancy agreement.”
Rentify is a technology-enabled
letting agent whose service is
used by more than 200,000
landlords. It offers them three
levels of service: let my property,
manage my property or do-ityourself. Speaking in summer
2015, Spencer said 10,000 new
landlords joined the platform
every month. @Rentify
60
My job is to run this membership organisation
and represent the members to corporations
and governments, and help them generate
resources and funding so they can offer their
services to tech entrepreneurs. What we try
and do is make it to their advantage to work
together, share knowledge and share intelligence.
The London Co-Investment Fund was set up
to address the funding gap at the seed stage
facing London’s digital, science and technology
startups. It was conceived and managed by
Capital Enterprise in partnership with funding
agency Funding London. It launched with
the aim of investing in London-based digital,
science and technology businesses with six
co-investment partners: Crowdcube, Playfair,
Capital, AngelLab, Firestartr and London Business
Angels.”
Capital Enterprise’s network connects people who
support entrepreneurs, including incubators and accelerators. The non-profit organisation also counts among
its members universities and colleges, investors and funders, local enterprise agencies and council and
business libraries. @capenterprise
Jason Stockwood
Chief executive
Simply Business
“
I’m heavily influenced by what
I’ve done. There’s a model of
digital businesses that has
shrunk the distance between
the company and its customers
down to zero. I believe that the
cultures and businesses that will be
successful represent a value system
that basically values people over
processes, data and technology.
Those values and those capabilities
translate directly into customer
values. When you live and breathe
this type of business, you can
believe that that’s representative
of the UK economy or business
culture. I certainly think there are a
growing number of businesses that
share the same values and modes
of operating, but it’s unclear to me
how much of a minority that is. But I
definitely think it will change. It has
to change.”
The UK’s largest online business insurer, with 300,000 customers and revenues of £30m by summer 2015,
Simply Business was also named best company to work for in 2015. Stockwood previously held senior
positions at Match.com and Lastminute.com. @simplybusiness
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Paulina Sygulska Tenner
Adizah Tejani
Co-founder and director
GrantTree
Co-founder,
Filanthrophy
Head of ecosystem
development, Level39
“
When Daniel – my partner in business and life – and I set up the company, we wanted to create
a type of business that we would want to work for. The role of so-called management is not to
watch people’s every step and threaten them with consequences if they do something wrong. I
strongly believe in creating and running companies that are the ultimate tool to have an impact on
the world and create something good, both internally and externally. Technology is one of our unique
advantages; it’s essentially the centre of our business. It helps us be much more efficient and more
transparent. Going forward, it will help us to be more accessible to a wider range of companies.”
GrantTree helps small technology businesses find, apply for and secure government funding, advising them
about grants and applications. It also operates a radical management culture inspired by thinker Frederic
Laloux. @GrantTree
Freddie Talberg
Founder and chief executive
PIE Mapping
“
London is a nightmare to drive in. Who wants to drive
a huge truck in the middle of London? Our job is to
make sure that we have all the data and that the drivers’
navigation systems, even if they have to go off-route, navigate
them to avoid bridges and width restrictions. A project we’re
doing for Canary Wharf Group is providing driver navigation
for construction logistics companies. We’re in the process of
negotiating with the CWG to work out how we execute this.
We’re helping construction companies by giving information
and navigation advice to the drivers for a particular time of
day. The key is helping those drivers get to the construction
site as safely as possible.”
PIE Mapping was set up in 2004 producing maps and guides for
motorcyclists and disabled drivers. The company now collects and
processes road network data from local and unitary authorities across
the UK and provides online products like London Lorry Route
Approver and the TfL Freight Journey Planner. @PieMapping
“
Filanthropy is a nonprofit that engages in
entrepreneurship and
social enterprise. It is a way for
social projects to get that first
bit of pre-seed funding, like
£1,000. It’s a similar format
to a demo day where people
come in and pitch but the
thing that’s different is that
the attendees all pay £10. On
the night, they decide which
project they want to give that
£10 to. I found out about
Level39 when it first started,
and the rest is history. I’m
working with entrepreneurs,
I’m working with techies and
that’s what I love doing. Under
no circumstances am I leaving
unless someone drags me out
of this industry.”
Filanthropy organises events to
stimulate collaboration for social
change. It has raised money
for many deserving projects,
including The Real Junk Food
Project and Touring Local
Cinema. Tejani’s day job is at
Level39 in Canary Wharf.
@Adizah_Tejani
61
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Fabio Torlini
Managing director, EMEA
WP Engine
“
We effectively take WordPress and optimise it for security, speed, adding a caching layer
and a bunch of tools that allows users to utilise the platform more effectively. The company
was founded by Jason Cohen, a blogger, who wanted people who run WordPress to have
a secure, scaleable solution. It is by far the most popular content management system out
there. Of all websites globally, about 24% run on WordPress. We build tools for developers
and for marketing people. A key customer is Network Rail, along with banks and others from
the startup community, including Digital Shoreditch and Unruly. As a company, we continue to
double in size year-on-year. Our focus for the next two years is the UK.”
WP Engine is a managed WordPress platform offering users of the world’s dominant content management
system extra security, speed and tools. In 2015 it opened up to the London startup market, following a
US$15m funding investment round. @wpengine
Sarah Turner
Daniel van Binsbergen
Founder
Angel Academe
Co-founder and chief executive
Lexoo
“
I think the statistics are that, although we control more than
half the net wealth in this country, women are only about 6%
or 7% of the angel population. At all the various groups I went
along to, women were very under-represented, so I thought that
was an interesting opportunity. I also noticed that when women
came to pitch to these very male-dominated groups, it wasn’t as
comfortable an experience as it might be. So from that I thought
there was an interesting opportunity to create a group that would
appeal to women founders and women raising money and try
to bring some more women into the angel market. It was about
giving our entrepreneurs access to these mentors for one-on-one
advice.”
I was practising
as a lawyer and
often had friends
in startups and SMEs
asking me for lawyer
recommendations.
So I started to create
a shortlist. I wanted
to replicate what I
was doing for my
friends on a much
larger scale when I
started Lexoo. We
specialise in helping
businesses of any
size easily get and
compare quotes
from prescreened
lawyers. A lot of
clients, especially
small business
owners, have grown
accustomed to
a certain level of
convenience in their
lives. When they
take out insurance,
they do not call up
multiple insurance companies to get their quotes, they go to a
price comparison website. Large parts of the law still operate
that way.”
Angel Academe is the UK’s leading angel network for women. Most of
the members are women and it invests in ambitious tech startups with
at least one woman on the founding team. Angel Academe runs regular
pitch events presenting screened investment opportunities to its angel
group. @angelacademe
Lexoo is an online marketplace that enables businesses to tender
out legal work by getting up to four quotes within 24 hours from
prescreened lawyers. Founders of startups or SMEs can post a job on
the site for free, receive the quotes and then have a no-obligation call
with their chosen lawyer. @Lexoo
“
62
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Alexandra
Vanthournout
Founder and creative
director
Fashercise
“
Fashercise is about having fun
while getting fit and feeling good
while being active. People come
back to the site over and over, not
because we have new stock, but
because there is something new
to read. With online shops, once
you’ve been on it there’s no reason
for you to come back the next day.
Our customers love it when we write
about the 10 best running shorts,
for example, but if the 10 best are all
ones that we sell, no one is going to take us seriously. Because we use affiliate marketing we end up
earning money on both sides of the story. I’ve always been a big fan of a good mix between editorial
and e-commerce. It’s important to have that synergy.”
One part online luxury sportswear shop and one part fitness and lifestyle blog, Fashercise is aimed at stylish,
active women. Founded by Vanthournout and Camille Roegiers de Silva, it generates revenue through affiliate
marketing and e-commerce. The founders are also passionate about supporting up-and-coming sportswear
designers. @Fashercise
Aneesh Varma
Founder
Aire
“
I am a global nomad and I
moved here eight years ago.
In my mind I had a perfect
financial history but I struggled to
open a bank account. I realised
that there are cracks in the credit
scoring system that didn’t know
how to handle people like me. I
thought, ‘It’s time to take a fresh
look at building credit scores
in the modern era’ – and that
manifested itself into Aire. One
user told me, ‘I have been paying
my Spotify Premium bill for a
year and half. Can I show that
to you as a sign that I have been
making regular payments?’ We
love looking at and accepting
non-standard, non-structured
data and providing a holistic
view about that person. It gives
us the ability to bring in amazing
datasets.”
Aire helps people with no credit history to qualify for essential financial products by giving them an alternative
credit score. Aire can look at things like regular payments to Spotify Premium and Netflix. It is for new
borrowers like students, expats, migrants and even the military. @AireScore
Antony Waldorf
Founder and chief
executive
Virtual Walkthrough
“
I’ve always liked building
things. I’ve built and
refurbished houses, but
I was shocked that when I
went to sell or rent a house,
the tech that was there to
do it was quite basic. We
shoot photographs in very
high resolution, the highest
for a professional camera
– and we don’t just shoot
one shot, we shoot five so
that we have a very dynamic
range of light. Then we find
another location and do five
more shots again. We try to
reproduce the experience of
actually walking through a
home, so our camera sits at
head height to give headlevel perspective. We had
so many meetings where
people stood up, walked
around and said, ‘I’ve never
seen anything like this.’ So
the enthusiasm levels are
really high.”
Software technology Virtual
Walkthrough processes the 35
to 60 high-resolution images
shot by its photographers for
each property and stitches
them together to create several
‘panorama bubbles’ – composites
of a series of pictures shot from
the same vantage point that
give the viewer a 360-degree
perspective. @VWalkthrough
63
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | London
Jozef Wallis
Co-founder
Toothpick
“
Toothpick is a marketplace.
We’re about making dentistry
a lot more accessible and
consumer friendly. We bring to
the surface all the information
you need to make an informed
choice over which dental
practice to go with: pricing,
reviews, the bios, information
about awards or accreditation,
whether it is NHS or private. We take the marketing burden away
from the practice so that it can spend more time with its patients,
providing good services. Patient education is still very low in
regards to what the NHS is, how it works, how much it costs,
who is eligible and how private or cosmetic appointments can be
booked online. Our challenge is to get the word out there that this
service can provide a lot of value for patients.”
Toothpick allows users to book a dentist online in under 60 seconds.
It was launched in 2013 as a platform for booking emergency medical
procedures in central London, but Wallis and co-founder Sandeep
Senghera realised the problem affected all kinds of dentistry and
presented a business opportunity. @Toothpick
Florence
Wilkinson
Founder
Warblr
Imogen Wethered
Co-founder and chief executive
Qudini
“
We went to a near-field communication-themed hackathon
where we brainstormed a problem that annoyed everyone,
and we came up with queueing. The main reason people
walk out of stores is because waiting is indefinite and
insecure. They don’t like that. We give them an expectation
of when they can be seen. Qudini is for any retailer that is
improving their service offering. With the retail product, it’s
an app the store can use. So a concierge figure at the front
of the store is holding a device that has the Qudini app, then
when a customer comes into the store they can take their
name and their details and Qudini calculates what time the
wait time is for the customer.”
Cloud-based digital queue and appointment management platform
Qudini allows businesses to manage their customers coming into a
store or restaurant and sends them text messages about when they
will be seen. After securing £1m in funding from Wayra, Qudini is now
being used by companies including House of Fraser, O2 and Honest
Burger. @Qudini
64
“
Warblr is an application for
learning about the natural
world. People use the
app for the joy of identifying
birds. Every time someone
records a species of bird, we
automatically take the geodata and build up a repository
of how many species are being
spotted, when and where. I was
working with young people in
Brixton who really are a generation of digital natives but they
struggle to name common plants or birds. We’re losing our
biodiversity at a rate of 1,000 to 10,000 times the natural rate of
extinction, so our environment is in greater need of protection
than ever before. If people aren’t attuned to what’s happening
on their doorstep then how are they possibly going to care
about broader environmental issues?”
Warblr automatically recognises birds by their song and shows the user
images and descriptions of the birds it has identified. It is also a citizen
science project, with the recordings and data collected freely available to
be used for research and conservation purposes. @warblrUK
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Juliana Zarate
Barney Worfolk-Smith
Director
That Lot
“
The phrase ’social content company’ didn’t probably exist until a year or so ago. But ultimately
it meets a need, which is that communications across social and interactive platforms between
brands and people are different to how they would have been previously through TV or press. In
a social and digital world, those communications need to be more human and more interactive, and
that’s ultimately what we do. The advertising industry overall is splitting into two. Madtech, which is
programmatic and about reach, is on one side, and on the other is the content that will sit on that
reach mechanism, and that previously would have been called social, content marketing, PR or even
journalism. All of those things are becoming a much more amorphous group of communications. I
enjoy delivering the message in a way that is effective and fun and cuts through.”
Social content startup That Lot connects brands and people better, drawing on a rare combination of knowhow in social and a talent for comedy. Worfolk-Smith says That Lot adds value compared with today’s mega
social network platforms. @mightybarnski
Will Wynne
Co-founder and managing director
Smart Pension
“
I was talking about pensions in 2013 when no one was
talking about pensions. After that we had a budget and
autumn statement that brought in a host of pension
reforms, so it’s become a bit of a hot topic. We’re the
right option for SMEs, be it for the price or the speed or
the security of the service. The platform, which is free for
businesses, reduces to minutes the time it takes for firms
to auto-enrol. It’s going to get super busy and smaller
companies are going to be signing up. They’re going to be
less organised and less prepared. We are super quick, using
technology to make our platform the fastest.”
Smart Pension has developed a system to tackle the challenges posed
by pension auto-enrolment for SMEs. It allows companies to set up
their government-mandated workplace pension scheme in minutes,
with immediate setup confirmation – and all available at no fee to the
company. @smartpensionuk
Co-founder and chief
executive
Mucho (formerly Cookit)
“
I’ve always loved food. I
come from a food-loving
family and have always
been used to problem
solving. I’m also driven by
social issues. My business
partner and I decided that
we wanted to have a go at
trying to solve a big social
issue by creating a company.
We believe the market can
be a source for good. I don’t
believe you should tax food
because I think that’s a
negative incentive. I think
you should reward good
food. Food is a very personal
issue and I believe that the
more personal the issue
is, the bigger the market,
but also the harder it is to
execute. You are getting into
people’s homes and taking
the food to them.”
Mucho is a food delivery service
that helps its users find the
best-quality food for the money
available, offering weekly recipes
that suit users’ budgets . Its clever
‘grandmother’ algorithm dispels
the myth that you always have to
pay more for the best. In 2015
Zarate was selected as a global
female founder in Silicon Valley’s
Blackbox accelerator, supported
by Google for Entrepreneurs.
@JulianaZarate
65
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Malvern
Mike Gogan
Director
Virtual Experience Company
Of all tech clusters, the most surprising is
picturesque and peaceful Malvern. Beneath
this rural exterior are 80-plus companies
focusing primarily on cyber-security.
T
he key moment in Malvern’s tech history was the
government’s 1939 decision to move the UK’s military
radar research effort to the relative rural isolation of the
town as the Second World War broke out.
The secretive work that followed in the Malvern Hills was
arguably as crucial to the war effort as the code-breaking
activity at Bletchley Park.
After the war ended, defence research continued in Malvern,
leading to the development of advanced radar systems, touchsensitive display screens, liquid crystal display materials and
passive infra-red detectors.
Today, the defence research organisation has become
QinetiQ, with its Malvern campus still the largest employer in
the town.
Another key player is Malvern Instruments, a materials and
biophysical characterisation company providing equipment
and technical services for particle, protein and macromolecule
characterisation.
A focus for smaller R&D companies to start and grow was
provided in 2000 by the opening of the Malvern Hills Science
Park. The site attracted spin-offs from QinetiQ, but now the mix
includes businesses expanding from other locations.
Entrepreneurs and micro-businesses are further supported by
the Wyche Innovation Centre, which opened in 2012. The lowcost flexible terms for small offices and hot desks help to get
ventures off the ground and enable businesses to expand more
easily and take on new staff, before they grow in the Malvern
Hills Science Park or Enigma Business Park.
Malvern is a recognised centre for the cyber-security industry,
helping to protect businesses and consumers from the threat
of online crime. This has happened because of QinetiQ and the
close proximity of Malvern to GCHQ in Cheltenham and SAS
training in Herefordshire.
The Malvern Cyber Security Cluster was set up in 2011 to
bring together the small to medium-sized enterprises working
in this sector, often in isolation and so unable to share their
experiences with peers. The UK Cyber Security Forum was
created in Malvern to help coordinate the growth of other
clusters in the sector around the country.
The annual Malvern Festival of Innovation showcases relevant
technological themes and promotes enterprise, for business
professionals and also for school pupils and their families.
The Minerva business angel investor network tends to meet
monthly in Malvern to provide pitching opportunities and
financial support to entrepreneurs looking for equity finance.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Malvern is Adrian
Burden of Wyche Innovation (www.wyche-innovation.com).
66
“
We use real-time 3D to enable
people to access historic places
that were hitherto inaccessible to
them. That would mean somewhere
like Shakespeare’s birthplace, where
the upper floor of the building is
inaccessible to a disabled person.
Traditionally, the person who couldn’t
go upstairs would be given a video,
book of postcards, a pat on the head and a cup of tea. Essentially
what they would be shown would be something that somebody
else had decided they should see. Using real-time 3D, which
we’ve installed, the person who can’t go upstairs can now wander
around the room. They can spot a piece of furniture, go over and
click on it and spin an object around. They can actually see it in a
way that person who is physically upstairs can’t.”
The Virtual Experience Company uses real-time 3D modelling and
gaming technologies to make historic spaces – from Shakespeare’s
birthplace to Tintern Abbey to the palace of an Omani prince – more
accessible.
Robin King
Chief executive
Deep-Secure
“
Deep-Secure is a
specialist software
security business
that has grown out of
previous organisations,
with the sole intention
of building products that
can meet some of the
most onerous challenges
in cyber security. There’s
a particular need where
organisations need to
share highly sensitive
information. It’s been
really exciting because
we’ve brought together people with a variety of specialist
expertise and focused them on building a range of products
centred on that core cyber-security protection mission. Our
provenance is building products that have had great utility in
the defence and intelligence space. The exciting opportunity
now is to take those products and internationalise the
business – and, most importantly, to look at those other
market sectors that are saying, ‘What’s good enough for
defence is good enough for us.’”
Deep-Secure’s cyber-security products offer high security for any
organisation, especially those working in defence and intelligence, that
has to safeguard sensitive data. It builds security products capable of
facing the most advanced and persistent of attackers. @DeepSecureLtd
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Emma Philpott
Founder and managing director,
Malvern Cyber Security Cluster
Chief executive, IASME
Consortium
“
Cyber security is everything from just
making sure you change your password
all the way to clever encryption to stop
other countries hacking in to find out your
secrets. The Malvern cluster is a strange
thing. We have GCHQ down the road. We
have the SAS regiment in the same vicinity,
and QinetiQ. This branch of QinetiQ was
brought here in the Second World War to
protect the radar research and has always
done cyber security and secure electronics.
It’s super-interesting to see the number of
small cyber security companies that are
here. You would never have known about them before and they’ve all just emerged. We started off with only about eight and now we
have more than 80 just in this region that are part of the cluster, and it is really exciting.”
Cyber-security scientist Philpott heads the UK cyber security forum, representing businesses in the sector nationwide, and IASME, a body that helps
small businesses to become more secure online. @IASME1
Alastair Shortland
Nick Tudor
Founder and chief executive
Textlocal
Business director
D-RisQ
Textlocal was founded with the vision of taking mobile
messaging to the mass market – every single business, service
and community group. At the time there were large aggregator
companies that would send messages for brands but no one
had ever created anything simple, a one-page simple website
where you could upload your contacts and send a message to
groups of people
in seconds. I saw a
gap in the market
and, rather than
create one piece
of downloadable
software and have to
support thousands
of installations, I
thought it made
sense to make a
website because
it’s only a piece of
software to support.
I learned how to
programme, how to make a website and built one of the fastestgrowing technology companies in Europe in 2013, according to
the Deloitte Fast Fifty index.”
“
“
Textlocal is the UK’s most popular and well-known business SMS
service. With the power of text, the company exploits the native app
on every phone to help the businesses that use it to engage with their
customers. @textlocal
D-RisQ is in the business of ‘trying to change the way the world
develops software’. Critically, it shows its business users the
consequences of software not doing what it is supposed to.
@WycheInnovation
The problem
with all software
systems is the cost
of verification and
showing that they do
what you want them to
do. There’s also a real
cost in demonstrating
that they don’t do
what you don’t want
them to, ever. That
cost is massive –
probably round about
80% of the cost of
the development of
a system in the first place. We have numerous examples of
the government’s latest IT initiatives going wrong, mostly
because they didn’t know what they wanted and didn’t have
a system and development process that showed how the
impact of change could be costed. That’s one of the aspects
that we’re developing here and the further you go through the
development process into the development of code, the more
expensive it becomes to actually take account if any of those
requirements change.”
67
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Manchester
Claire
Braithwaite
Head
Tech North
There are an estimated 56,000 jobs in the
Manchester tech economy. With £24m startup
campus Forward Manchester imminent,
the city claims centre stage in the Northern
Powerhouse.
M
anchester is small enough to enable collaboration
across the city – but also big enough to be able to
compete globally.
Historically, the city has had a point to prove – that it can do
things differently and make things better. It is where slavery
was abolished, and is the birthplace of the Suffragettes and the
co-operative movement.
Graphene, recently discovered in Manchester, is set to
replace the likes of silicone and be in most products we take
for granted each day.
The city has world-leading biotech companies based at the
Manchester Science Park, and the collaboration between
Manchester Science Partnerships and the city’s universities is
UK-leading.
Manchester is also very strong media-wise. Salford’s Media
City has the BBC and ITV at its heart, and a community
building around it. In east Manchester, the Sharp Project is
leading in digital creation.
The Northern Quarter in the centre of Manchester has been
dubbed the centre of the city’s thriving tech cluster. Now,
Forward – a 100,000-square-foot building, four times the size
of Google Campus – is on the horizon, designed to be the
heart of the UK tech community. Forward will be a charity, with
tenants contributing to a pot to employ a team dedicated to
accelerating Manchester’s tech community.
The UK government backed Forward with £4m in the March
2015 budget and will help push Manchester towards being
one of Europe’s top-five startup destinations.
The Northern Powerhouse concept, created by the UK
government and championed by chancellor George Osborne,
sees Manchester as the engine of the powerhouse.
Among startups worth keeping an eye on are Juliand Digital,
making supply chains more efficient, and the UK’s fastestgrowing internet service provider, Telcom.io. And Wakelet is
making searching more personable.
London is only two hours away but costs around twice
as much to live in as Manchester. With the biggest student
population in Europe, the city is flooded with fresh talent each
year. This is vital for the growth of Manchester’s technology
businesses.
TechCityinsider’s ambassador for Manchester is Rob Mulgan of
SpaceportX (spaceportx.com)
68
“
What’s striking to me are
the hopes and ambitions
the tech sector has in the
North at the moment. It’s really
inspired me in our mission
to develop Tech North as
something that looks at the
needs and opportunities in the
North to build an initiative in
response to that. The North is the birthplace of the industrial
revolution – it’s where computing was born and we have
incredible strengths in manufacturing. If we look at today and
the future, it’s about building on those legacies. We have many
strengths. It’s our remit to drive inward investment, build digital
employment, to increase the number of startups and scaleups,
and also to drive more VC and angel investment.”
A key part of the government’s ‘northern powerhouse’ agenda, and
part of Tech City UK, Tech North was created to build and accelerate
the tech economy in the north of England. Entrepreneur and former
consultant Braithwaite also leads TN’s Northern Stars showcase.
@TechNorthHQ
John Kershaw
Founder
Brisltr
“
If you have a beard,
we match you with
people who are
looking for a beard to
stroke. And if you don’t
have a beard, we’ll find
you the beard for you
to stroke. So we are a
very niche dating site.
Everyone on the service
is already someone who
you are probably going
to want to go on a date
with. By May 2015 we’d
closed in on a third
of a million matches
between people, matching people in the evening once every 12
seconds. We have highly targeted ads and merchandise, but we
also make money through an in-app purchase tied to the price of
a coffee in a Manchester shop.”
‘Tinder for beards’ describes Bristlr perfectly: a dating app designed for
people looking for romance with people with beards. Hirsute founder
Kershaw started up in Manchester and grew as part of the Ignite100
accelerator. @BristlrApp
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
David Levine
Chief executive
Digital Bridge
“
The problem we are solving is that of the imagination gap
– our inability to imagine what our wallpaper, carpets,
furniture, laminate or whatever might look like in your
room. With us, you can walk into a room, hold your iPad up,
take a single picture, then the computer vision platform we
have developed automatically recognises the walls, floors,
ceilings and lighting conditions in that room, then allows the
consumer to visualise what things will look like. There are a
number of tools that use augmented reality, but decoration
is a considered purchase. With us you can take your time.”
Retail technology startup Digital Bridge helps home shoppers visualise
what a store’s products will look like in their own homes, with a
simple-to-use computer vision platform that recognises the space.
@DigitalBridgeEU
Eudie Thompson
Founder and chief
executive
Bright Future
“
Al Mackin
Founder
Formisimo
“
There’s a huge problem for every online business – converting website visitors into paying
customers. A critical end point in the online buying or interest process is to fill in a form or a
checkout. The processes are painful, annoying and really frustrating. People hate them. It’s
not that businesses don’t care, it’s that they don’t have the data to show them how to make a
great process. Formisimo’s analytics platform shows our customers what their customers are
doing with online forms and checkouts. We reveal the pain points and show companies how to
make their process awesome and increase online sales.”
Online retailers are losing revenue, and goodwill, because of poorly designed online forms. As many as two in
three forms are abandoned before final payment. Formisimo offers compelling evidence of the need to improve
form design. @formisimo
We all talk about skill
shortages and every
single business that we
come across talks about
the shortage of IT software
people. We are exporting
IP by having software
developed offshore, due to
companies wrongly thinking
that it’s cheaper. The whole
idea behind Bright Future
is to take a long-term view.
For the first three years,
we developed a number
of apprentices, alongside
strong experienced staff
who monitor and do
programme with them. We
take on 140 apprentices
each year and we are
building what I believe
will become the strongest
technology business in the
country.”
Salford-based software business
Bright Future aims to keep IT
onshore in the face of the tech
skills shortage by drawing heavily
on apprenticeships, with new
young staff coming through from
Manchester schools.
@GetBrightFuture
69
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | North East
Jo York
Co-founder
Reframed.tv
With more than 30,000 tech jobs, England’s
North East – including the cities of Newcastle
and Sunderland – is now clearly one of the
UK’s leading technology business clusters.
T
he North East, once so proud of its shipyards and coal
mines, is now seeking to redefine itself as one of the UK’s
fastest-rising technology clusters.
More than 30,000 people are employed in the tech sector
across the North East today – with another 1,500 jobs added
each year. The region has moved fast from coal to data mining.
The existence of world-leading academic institutions – one,
Northumbria University, produced iPhone inventor Jonathan
Ive – is pivotal. A strong and vibrant academic base, with more
than 40,000 students and specialisms in medicine and life
sciences, is generating hundreds of new tech-savvy graduates
every year.
The North East also has a strong native technology business
sector. The sector’s biggest employer is accounting software
giant Sage, which employs 2,500 people across the region and
13,000 worldwide. It remains Europe’s only FTSE 100-listed
software company.
Sage is accompanied by big public sector players, none
bigger than government tax agency HMRC, which feeds
the region’s technology ecosystem by outsourcing work to
medium-sized local software providers.
New not-for-profit Dynamo is helping to amplify a tech
community that hitherto had no collective voice. It brings the
big players together with the medium-sized businesses and the
startups so they can gel and start to work together.
At the heart of the startup scene is Ignite, Newcastle’s
leading tech startup accelerator, incubator and events space.
Ignite grew from a one-off 14-week programme, tapping into
Newcastle’s strong native tech scene and broadening its work
to become an ongoing incubator and events space.
Among Ignite’s alumni are adtech business Adludio, sports
social platform MatchChat and sound specialist EarSoft.
Launched in 2014, the 10,000 square-foot, Kickstarterfunded Campus North offers space to 150 startup founders, as
well as a free meetup and events venue.
Startup investment is available through local VC Northstar
Ventures, which has more than £80m under its management.
A £125m pot of finance for business in the North East also
comes from the EU’s JEREMIE fund, providing debt and equity
finance from £1,000 to £1.25m for firms based in or relocating
to the region.
Newcastle City Council is now working with BT on new
superfast broadband technology, with a target of 97% coverage.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for the North East is Tristan
Watson of Ignite (www.ignite.io).
70
“
Reframed allows you to
comment, discuss and
share moments of video.
We’ve been described as
‘SoundCloud for video’. Rather
than just allowing people to
comment outside of the video,
we time-stamp comments
from the moment you start
typing, then display it as a
graph over the timeline so you
can skip to the interesting bits
that everyone is talking about.
We display comments next to the video at the moment that
they’re relevant. Reframed is being used during conferences
with live streams. It allows organisers to pull in tweets from
the audience and bring them together. It gives them an
archive of the reactions. Once we’ve got all that data, we can
run things like sentiment analysis. It seems like a really easy
idea but it turns out it’s quite hard.”
Reframed.tv makes video more social by enabling users to make timespecific comments on YouTube, Vimeo and self-hosted video. Its mission
is to be the glue between social media and video. @Reframedtv
Si Brown
Co-founder and chief marketing officer
Skignz
“
Four out of five people can't read maps, and that is the key
idea behind Skignz. People also get lost quite often at large
events or in strange places. We've developed an augmentedreality platform that pretty much covers the whole globe. Our
product and platform can be used almost by anybody personally
or professionally. We use geolocation. People sign up for a free
account and get three free Skignz. They can place one above the
tent at a festival, they can place one above the car when they've
parked in a field somewhere
here and they can have one above their
heads so their friends can
an find them
e in
a crowd. We want to become
ecome the
browser of choice for augmented
ugmented
reality content in the skyy – so
o not
digital recognition but geolocated
eoloc
ocat
a ed
information.”
Augmented reality platform
m Ski
Skignz
kignz
kign
helps people find their wayy ar
around
rou
o nd
n
unfamiliar places, using geolocation
eolocation
o to
allow people and brands to
o aadd
dd a ‘skign’
– a sign in the sky – above
e any location,
or person, anywhere. Skignz
nz won
best startup at Thinking
Digital 2015. @skignz
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Tristan Watson
Programme director, Ignite100
Founder, Campus North
“
Ignite100 is a 14-week, mentor-led accelerator programme.
We take 10 teams and invest a small amount of seed
capital into each of them and help them develop their
idea, build a viable business and then look at a long-term
plan to grow and become a significant tech company in the
UK. Newcastle needed an accelerator programme like Ignite
because it already had a rich culture of technical ability and
great design skills that had grown out of the agency culture
from the 80s and 90s, but there wasn’t yet a startup culture
where people were willing to take risks to follow their dreams.
The first programme was in 2011 as a one-off. We now run
three programmes a year.”
Accelerator programme Ignite focuses on pre-seed stage businesses.
In 2015 it expanded its programme from its Newcastle home to London
and Manchester to become a nationwide operator. Back in Newcastle, it
also runs the Campus North incubator. @Ignite100
Alasdair Greig
Director
Northstar Ventures
“
We’re a venture capital firm covering the whole North East region. We focus on tech
companies but we do also do non-tech and, increasingly, social investment. Newcastle is
going through a fundamental transformation. I moved here in 2006 when there was very
little equity investment around. There were people with great ideas, and companies spinning
out of the university, but there wasn’t a great track record of turning those ideas into good,
scalable businesses. What’s happened in the past 10 years is a deep change in that. We’ve
got high-net-worth individuals investing in pre-seed and seed stage companies. We have the
Ignite100 programme, Campus North co-working space and Dynamo now focusing on scaleup business. There’s a lot going on and a lot more people involved.”
Early-stage venture capital firm Northstar backs innovative, high-growth technology businesses – including
software startup Palringo and the Ignite 100 accelerator – alongside social investment activity. @NorthstarVent
David Dunn
Chief executive
Sunderland Software
City
“
Everywhere else seems
to focus on cities,
apart from in the North
East, where our focus
is as a broader cluster.
There is an understanding
across Newcastle,
Gateshead, Durham and
Northumberland that acting
as a larger ecosystem
makes much more sense.
It’s more collaborative, it’s
more appealing to investors
and you get a bit more of a
community. You will have
certain niche specialities
occurring in different areas:
Gateshead focusing on
virtual reality and augmented
reality, Sunderland doing
a really good job around
enterprise technology and
some great gaming work
going on in Sunderland and
Newcastle. We have good
companies and strong job
opportunities but people just
don’t know about them. We
need to have somebody at a
higher stratospheric level
saying there are really good
things happening here.”
Sunderland Software City is
a publicly funded support
organisation aimed at increasing
and growing the software industry
right across the North East of
England. Sunderland is the first
UK city to offer blanket superfast
broadband. @SunSoftCity
71
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Norwich
Neil Garner
Founder and chief
executive
Proxama
Business leaders in Norwich have worked hard
to get the Norfolk city recognised as one of the
key non-London tech clusters outside London,
with a fast-growing digital sector specialising
in creative media and gaming.
N
orwich’s economy was historically based firmly on
manufacturing: textiles, shoemaking and mustard – the
city was famously once the home of the Colman’s brand.
Over time, Norwich went through a transition to a more
service-based economy, with an increase in insurance firms
and other financial services companies. Aviva (formerly Norwich
Union) is the largest and longest established in the city.
Norwich is also associated with an innovative, creative and
pioneering culture, particularly in art, literature and publishing.
In 2012, it became England’s first UNESCO city of literature.
Today’s emerging digital sector in Norwich is closely linked to
these creative sectors, with strong specialisms in content and
media production and digital marketing, as well as a fast-growing
game development sector. Digital businesses and jobs are part
of Norwich’s strategy for the next wave of strong, high-value
economic growth. Tech City UK’s 2015 Tech Nation report
showed that there was a 21% increase in the number of digital
companies incorporated in Norfolk between 2010 and 2013.
Within Norwich, there are many proactive, grassroots digital
meet-up groups, such as SyncDevelopHER and SyncNorwich,
Norfolk Developers, Norfolk Indie Game Developers, Hot
Source and Norfolk Network.
Norwich has seen considerable recent investment in the
infrastructure of the digital sector. In 2014, White Space was
established in Norwich by Proxama as a co-working space
for dynamic, high-growth digital, creative and technology
businesses. Based in an old textile mill, White Space at
St James Mill (pictured) is now a focal point for the digital,
creative and technology community in the city.
Norwich Research Park is an internationally renowned
science and business community and Europe’s leading centre
for research into food, health and the environment.
In 2015 Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) opened its
Ideas Factory Centre and UX Lab, which offers high-quality
incubation space and support for new digital businesses.
There are some well-established tech businesses like mobile
proximity marketing firm Proxama, insurance technology solutions
company Validus, multi-channel customer feedback business
ServiceTick and Liftshare, the UK’s first car-sharing scheme.
Exciting new startups such as Supapass (connecting fans
to artists) and Rainbird (using artificial intelligence to automate
knowledge work), add to the mix.
The next step for Norwich is to use its strong local digital
communities and businesses to establish partnerships further
afield – both nationally and internationally.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Norwich is Fiona Lettice
from Norwich Business School (www.uea.ac.uk/nbs).
72
“
We’ve been working on
proximity commerce. It’s
using technologies that are
now in our smartphones – NFC
and Bluetooth – for engaging
with consumers. We cover a
whole portfolio of things –
from marketing, to loyalty, to
payments. We’ve spent the
past 10 years working with
the pioneers in the space. In
order for a new technology
for payments to really come to market, you need a holistic
audience. It’s no good if it only works on Android phones;
it’s got to work on all devices. With the launch of Apple Pay
– Apple was the last organisation to enable the technology
– we’ve got the fundamental building blocks for payments. If
you can use your mobile phone as your payment instrument,
that’s totally groundbreaking because there’s no need to have
a wallet.”
Proxama provides mobile technology to operators and handset makers,
working with card issuers to convert their plastic into mobile wallets, by
harnessing near-field technology and more. @Proxama
James Duez
Co-founder and chair, Rainbird Technologies
Non-exec director, White Space
“
Rainbird is a very special project. It is about capturing human
intelligence in software so that large organisations can be
much more efficient about applying that knowledge in a work
scenario. We’re working with all sorts of interesting projects,
from government and job centres through to large banks, helping
them to be more efficient and improving customer service by
making software tools much smarter. Norwich has an increasingly
vibrant digital creative community. White Space is a co-working
space with a difference, as it
has a brand. It is aimed at tech
and digital creative companies.
It hasn’t been over managed –
nobody has tried to structure it
too much. It has been allowed
to evolve and it’s become very
strong as a result.”
Rainbird Technologies helps
businesses model the concepts,
relationships and business logic
that drive decision making. White
Space is a dedicated co-working
space in Norwich to grow ideas and
ambitions. @RainBirdAI
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Fiona Lettice
Professor of innovation
management
Norwich Business
School
Ali Clabburn
Founder and chief executive
Liftshare
“
I was a broke student down in Bristol trying to get home to Norwich at the end of term. I
couldn’t afford the train so I put up a notice in the student union. A guy offered me a lift and
we had great fun. I opened up the notice board to all other students. In my final year, my
friend set up a website so we built Liftshare.com that summer. It was the first sharing economy
site online, and we were a social network before Facebook. Liftshare is different because we
focus on helping all people share all journeys, not just long one-off trips. Startup culture has
been in Norwich forever but it hasn’t been very good at coming together. Norfolk is full of
micro entrepreneurs who work out of barns, sheds and small offices, but never realise that
their next-door neighbour is also doing the same thing.”
Liftshare is the UK’s original car-sharing startup. Founded in 1998 and based in Norwich, the company runs
nearly 700 car-share schemes for corporates, universities and festivals, licensing its white-label product. It is
also the UK’s biggest sharing economy website. @Liftshare
John Fagan
Chief technical officer, Axon Vibe
Co-founder, Sync Norwich
“
At Axon Vibe, mapping and location are our core themes.
Right now we’re focusing on our location context platform
and building a consumer-facing product on top of that.
We’re interested in the intelligence you can pull from location
tracks. If you analyse in detail and do the data analytics on
individual location tracks, you can understand a lot about
a user. It’s not really big data – it’s actually small data. We
are looking at how we can reinvent mapping and make it
more social in real time. We’re working with a big transport
company in Switzerland and some credit card suppliers to
see if we can make their apps more relevant to their users,
using contextual solutions.”
Location-based app Axon Vibe detects and predicts human behaviour.
Sync Norwich is one of the biggest tech meet-ups outside of London,
with more than 900 members. @axonvibe @SyncNorwich
“
Norwich started to
recognise itself as a tech
cluster around 2010 and
it’s brought people together
through different meet-up
groups. Hot Source was
founded that year, Sync
Norwich in 2012 and Norfolk
Developers in 2013. These
have brought a sense of
community. People from
London, Ipswich and other
places are attracted to the
events here. What we’ve
started to see as well is
people who didn’t realise
there was a tech community
here wanting to come and
live in Norwich and start
a business. It’s definitely
having an escalating effect.
Norwich is strongest
around the digital creative
– marketing and advertising
technology – but we also
have quite a strong software
development community, as
well as a vibrant telecoms
tech sector.”
Lettice, an experienced academic
researcher and lecturer,
understands more than most the
challenges facing Norwich in
becoming a key UK tech cluster,
pointing to the pivotal role of
academic institutions like the
University of East Anglia.
@FLettice
73
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Oxford
Michalis Papadakis
Co-founder and chief executive
Brainomix
“
Oxford University’s Isis software incubator is
a key player in driving the city’s tech startup
successes and placing it on the UK cluster map.
O
xford, home of the UK’s oldest university, has a
burgeoning digital startup scene.
Isis Innovation, the university’s technology transfer
company, has an established incubator to support nascent
software ventures emerging from the university’s increasingly
prolific ecosystem.
Since Isis opened in 2010, the pace of digital innovation
has increased. By summer 2015, the total number of ventures
admitted to the Isis programme was 40, with 22 having reached
its second phase and being incorporated as companies.
Nine ventures have graduated from the programme
altogether and have raised £10m between them, including
Onfido, Bounts, Brainomix, Esplorio and MeVitae (see profiles
alongside).
TheySay is a sentiment analysis and text analytics venture
out of Oxford University’s Computer Science department.
And Oxford Biochron specialises in behaviour-based user
authentication.
As these more mature companies take off, a new generation
of ventures has taken their place and the firms are taking their
first steps.
Prolific Academic is the world’s largest crowdsourcing
community of people who love science. Researchers post
studies and recruit the right participants fast.
BusinessBinder is an enterprise social network that enables
businesses to find and connect with other credible local or
global businesses on the platform using a broad range of
connection tools.
Singular Intelligence offers a cloud-based big-data product
that empowers its customers to dynamically explore, predict and
simulate business scenarios using organisational and big data.
Oxpert provides online tools for small tradespeople and
specifically gas and heating engineers to scale faster and
better compete with large corporations through brand and
operations management.
Starticles is a platform where people can be recognised
for the content they create rather than the qualifications they
have. Users share their ideas or research, and the Starticles
community rates this content.
Isis maintains a rolling application process. You do not need
to be based in Oxford to be supported by it but, as a universityaffiliated initiative, Isis does require that your venture has an
Oxford link.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Oxford is Roy Azoulay
from Isis Software Incubator.
74
Strokes can be devastating
and life-changing. Up to
25% of patients who are
eligible to receive the lifesaving benefits of established
stroke treatment are missing
out because worldwide there
is a lack of readily available
expertise to properly interpret
brain CT scans. We have
developed medical imaging
software aimed at improving
the diagnosis and treatment
of stroke patients. Oxford is an ideal place for innovation; an
ideal place for a startup. Having access to Isis Innovation,
and Oxford University, you have access to world-class people
from both science and business. You have the support of
experienced individuals and teams that can give you the
foundation you need as a startup.”
Oxford-based medtech startup Brainomix works to improve the treatment
of those affected by strokes – one of the great killers of our time – by
deploying medical imaging software that evaluates damage on CT scans
to ensure accurate and diagnosis, within the critical four-hour timescale
needed to boost chances of recovery. @Brainomix
Husayn Kassai
Co-founder and chief executive
Onfido
“
At university we were
background checked for
internships at different
banks. It was a paper-based
and unnecessarily cumbersome
process. We felt that, from an
applicant perspective, there
didn’t seem to be a working
model and, from a client
perspective, there was clear
scope to improve. We started
to develop the first version of
the technology to automate this
background-checking process to reduce turnaround times, cut
the cost and also lower the amount of human touch required
and thereby increase quality by stripping out the human error.
Many sharing economy platforms have raised a lot of investment
themselves, so when the VCs did due diligence on them, they
could see that a key enabler for these businesses was Onfido.”
Oxford-founded background checks business Onfido offers automated
services for employers. Onfido’s investors include lastminute.com
founder Brent Hoberman and the co-founders of Blablacar, Onefinestay
and Artfinder. @Onfido
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
John Stuart
Founder and chief executive
Espolorio
Founder and chief
executive
Bounts
“
“
Tim Fernando
Esplorio makes it really simple for people to keep track of the places they’ve been, their
experiences, photographs they’ve taken, the restaurants they’ve eaten in and the hotels
they’ve stayed in. People want more detail than a standard photo album can provide. With
all the existing solutions, like blogs or trip journalling applications, you have to put in a lot
of effort to get an end result. Esplorio has seen the boom of Oxford, which is a hub of very
intelligent people. It’s a great networking area. Oxford Geek Night event has been running for
many years and is very popular. Every two months, typically at the Jericho Tavern, maybe 200
people turn up for an evening of talks and beer and wine.”
Esplorio is looking to make it easier for people to record and share their travels with friends and family. They can
use their Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare and other social media accounts to map out their travels. @esplorio
Riham Satti
Co-founder
MeVitae
“
They say 80% of employee turnover is down to bad hiring.
Recruiters usually write a job description, post it to job
boards, get a bunch of candidates, flick through their
CVs one at a time – spending about six seconds on each
one – and pick the candidate they like. Nine months later,
the candidate has been fired or has left. A lot of time, energy
and money is lost in the process. We’ve automated the talent
acquisition process. We have a hiring algorithm that finds the
best candidates, shortlists them and shows the top 10 to the
companies. It is eight times faster and a third cheaper than
doing it manually.”
MeVitae helps companies find talent and vice versa by automating key
parts of the process through a candidate selection algorithm. Candidates
can sign up for a digital CV, while recruiters can use its intelligent job
description maker. @MeVitae
Bounts works simply by
you proving that you’ve
done exercise. With
something like a Fitbit, you
have to do more than 7,000
steps a day. We convert this
into points – just like air
miles – which you can then
spend on vouchers in our
shop. Our vouchers include
proper £5 cash vouchers for
supermarkets like Morrisons
or Waitrose as well as other
high-street shops. I did a
postgraduate at Oxford while
developing this business
idea. The most attractive
thing to me about going into
Oxford University’s incubator
was the fact that we could
use the university name to
prove we were legitimate.
From that moment, we really
accelerated because people
trusted we were going to be
around for a while.”
Bounts is an exercise reward
programme and motivational tool
for everybody. It is free to use and
anyone can join and earn points
from activities tracked by fitness
apps, devices and gyms.
@bountsit
75
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Sheffield
Paul Brooks
Co-founder
Twile
“
With an industrial history forged in steel,
Sheffield is today one of our great creative
and entrepreneurial cities – with a vibrant tech
startup culture to match.
T
he city of Sheffield was forged though grit and steel. With
the Made in Sheffield brand emblazoned on its cutlery, the
city’s mark of excellence became known across the world.
That spirit of manufacturing and ‘making’ now sees Sheffield
emerging as one of the UK’s great tech cities.
This focus of making has massively influenced how the
city has embraced digital tech as a tool to continue to make
products of real excellence.
Access Space is one of the very first of the generation of
Maker Spaces established in 2000 by artist James Wallbank.
The space uses recycled computers and offers people from
all backgrounds and experiences access to technology and
support to learn coding skills.
The PiBow case is a product created for Raspberry Pi and
was made over a weekend, spawning a company that now
supports an incredibly diverse community of makers using
coding and basic computer kits to build new products.
Just as important has been the growth of a number of large
tech companies that were born in Sheffield or adopted the city
as their home. PlusNet, WanDisco, Servelec, Localphone and
Sumo all invested in the workforce and built up large teams of
software engineers.
Startup Weekend, at the University of Sheffield, has become
an important breeding ground for students and professionals to
create new companies.
Sheffield is also the chosen home for Dotforge, co-founded
by a group of entrepreneurs and angels including Lee Strafford,
Jon Burrows and Julie Kenny to bring together the ecosystem
around tech startups. The programme attracts outstanding
founders from around the world.
The tech industry also benefits from two strong universities,
with over 8,000 students enrolled in creative and digital
subjects.
To build the ecosystem Digital Sheffield has been established
as the voice of the local industry, working as a focal point for
many of the established companies.
A much larger dedicated space to support the convergence
of the maker and tech community is now becoming a reality,
with Maker Hub awarded £3.5m by the government in the
2015 budget.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Sheffield is Emma
Cheshire of the Dotforge accelerator (www.dotforge.com).
76
There is increasingly often
one person in a family who
spends their spare time
researching their family tree,
doing research in libraries
and online to dig up birth,
marriage and death records and
collate the family tree. What
Twile is trying to do is to help
family historians to share the
interesting information that they
find with the rest of the family.
Twile lets them create a visual
timeline of their family history.
I’m not a genealogist but I have
three people in my family who are. Their research is not in an
interesting or digestible format. I have two young children and it
occurred to me that they will probably never have access to or
an understanding of that family history unless we find a way of
storing it and passing it forward.”
Twile helps family historians make their discoveries more engaging to
the wider family – especially younger people. It lets them create visual
timelines, allowing family to contribute their own content. @TwileTweets
Carl Cavers
Managing director
Sumo Digital
“
You are forever learning new experiences. When I became
involved, the PlayStation 1 was about to launch and back
then teams had gone from one or two to five or six. We
now have teams of over 100
people working on projects.
The scale is immense. The
technology has moved on, not
just in terms of the fidelity of the
games, but also the mechanics
of how that is delivered. The
sophistication has changed
beyond belief. That’s one of the
most exciting things about the
industry that we are involved in. It
always remains cutting-edge. We
are not chasing anything. We are
constantly trying to optimise and
it keeps it fresh. Every few years
there is something new. We have
lots of little sayings and one is that we are only as good as
the last game we release.”
Sumo, an award-winning game development studio, has more than
260 people working from its Sheffield base (with another 50 in India),
focusing on console games, including franchises like Sony’s Little Big
Planet. @SumoDigitalLtd
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Aldo Monteforte
Founder and chief
executive
The Floow
“
Our mission is to make
mobility safer and
cheaper. We do that
using technology called
telematics, collecting data
from sensors about individual
mobility. Smartphones
can be sensors, or it could
be technology installed
by drivers or fitted by car
manufacturers. We specialise
in collecting, cleansing,
standardising and enriching
this data with contextual
information, like atmospheric
weather, complexity of road
infrastructure, curvature
of the road, or presence of
pubs or schools. We turn this
data into insights and scores for insurance professionals. They use our insights for better
understanding the risk of their portfolio, for offering discounts and, ultimately, for pricing
insurance. We also use this data to build services that are delivered to end users, services that
are designed to educate drivers to become responsible.”
The Floow uses long-distance information transmission to provide motor insurers and auto organisations with
actionable analytics to increase customer loyalty and return on investment. It monitors driver behaviour and car
safety. @thefloowltd
Giles Moore
Chief executive
Airstoc
“
Airstoc is a marketplace for
drone-related activity. We
have two sides. One, which is
the main focus going forward, is
allowing for more bespoke jobs
to take place. So anyone from
anywhere, in any industry can book
a drone job anywhere in the world
through our platform. The other part
is the stock photography, stock
footage side of things, which is
where our USP is. It is all related
to drones and 90% of the stuff we
have on there is exclusive to Airstoc.
We want it to be so quick that if
someone wants to book a drone for their wedding, or do some mapping or surveying, they can come
through and choose a package and within a matter of days or weeks, they’ll have that finished and
there’s a set price for it.”
The world’s first dedicated marketplace for the professional drone industry, Airstoc connects customers with
drone operators around the world with a simple platform that enables customers to book bespoke work and
source drone footage. @airstoc
Paul Rawlings
Founder and chief
executive
Deliverd
“
We deliver good food
to busy people and
we’re solely focused on
the lunchtime market . We
outsource all our production
so we actually don’t own any
of the facilities that produce
our food. Our Michelintrained chef walks into a
local kitchen. We train them
how to produce our menu,
we create the demand, send
the demand to the kitchen
and then our network picks it
up and delivers it just in time
for the customers’ lunch. We
are a social venture with a
social mission. We outsource
all our production to local
businesses, so we’re putting
money back into the local
economy but we also work
with social impact kitchens.
In Sheffield, we’re working
with the Cathedral Arts
Project kitchen.”
Sheffield-based food delivery
service Deliverd was inspired by
the Indian dabbawallah system,
which seamlessly delivers
home-cooked food from home
to the workplace. The startup
is on a social and eco mission,
using local food producers and
delivering fresh by pushbike only.
@EatDeliverd
77
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | South Wales
Neil Cocker
Co-founder, Dizzyjam
Co-founder, Cardiff
Start
“
The South Wales cities of Cardiff, Swansea
and Newport form an emerging startup cluster
that is helping to replace jobs lost from the
region’s old industries.
T
he industrial past of South Wales is well known. Tiger
Bay was once home to the busiest docks in the world,
exporting coal and steel from the area to the world. And
the surrounding valleys contain one of the world’s best-known
coalfields, exploited for centuries by the mining industry.
Now the Welsh economy is looking to another sector for
growth. Led by specialisms in sports and health tech as well as
data management, the digital companies springing up across
the cluster are promising high returns.
This growth has not gone unnoticed: Cardiff is the fastestgrowing core city in the UK and is also the fastest-growing
capital city in Europe.
The talent pool is of exceptional quality, with three universities
and around 45,000 students in Cardiff alone. Combined with
the low cost of overheads, this makes for a very attractive
environment for startups.
What South Wales is missing is a tech legacy. There is no
long-standing culture of tech ingrained into the collective
consciousness, and this is where other UK clusters have an
advantage. One of the consequences of this is a scarcity of
informed and experienced investors in the newly flourishing
tech sector.
Hence Cardiff Start was born: an unfunded volunteer
organisation to provide a community for tech companies in the
Cardiff city region. It provides mentorship, business advice and
meet-ups for those working in the tech community.
Alongside Cardiff Start, organisations like TechHub in
Swansea and Welsh ICE, a co-working space in Caerphilly,
which is home to more than 85 early-stage companies, are
working hard to provide targeted support for the thriving tech
community.
The sports and health tech sectors show real promise. With
everything a sports person could possibly want, from a Ryder
Cup golf course, Ashes cricket ground to a Rugby World Cup
stadium, South Wales is the perfect place for testing sports
technology.
The growth of the region and government investment in the
Life Sciences Hub and Research Centre on Cardiff Bay have
provided a great opportunity for startups specialising in sports
tech and health tech.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for South Wales is Neil
Cocker from Cardiff Start (www.cardiffstart.com)
78
After graduation I had a
record label with some
friends. The idea for Dizzyjam
came from having a big enough
fan base that wanted to buy our
merchandise but not having the
infrastructure or capital to take
advantage of that. We were
teaching ourselves to print t-shirts and were getting clients. I
realised that we were a print on-demand e-commerce business
that happened to be servicing the music industry. I was doing
huge amounts of reading of blogs and Twitter feeds about tech
startups. I didn’t see any visible community or support for tech in
Cardiff, so I wrote a long blog post about it. It rallied a few people
to get in touch. We ended up having a few coffees, then meetups,
then a Facebook group, then a newsletter. It’s snowballed into a
strong community.”
T-shirt printing business turned e-commerce platform Dizzyjam is trying
to change the nature of music merchandising. Former DJ Cocker has
turned his attention to helping grow the South Welsh tech scene by
creating Cardiff Start. @Dizzyjam
Warren Fauvel
Chief executive
Nudjed
“
We work with large corporations to figure out how to
make health and wellness more strategic. We help them
to measure workforce health quickly. We’ve developed
some interesting tools that learn and create insights around
health and wellness from
workforces. Then we provide
a tailored communications
platform that talks to users
and we individualise that
health content that they
might want to share with their
workforces and so, hopefully,
contribute to more sustainable
or efficient health and
wellness programmes. We are
vanilla webtech and we work
via email and text message.
You can launch with iOS and
Android apps but actually a
lot of the larger workforces we look at use BlackBerry and
Windows. You have a broad range of devices so we went
tech-agnostic.”
Health technology platform Nudjed, based in Caerphilly, measures the
health of employees then tailors advice to suit, using an algorithm that
recommends behaviour changes. @nudjed
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Tom Gallard
Founder
Pwinty
“
I was looking for something like Pwinty and it didn’t exist. I wanted
to add photo printing into an app that I was building. We have an
API and receive orders through that from apps or websites. We look
at those orders then farm them out to the right printers in the country
closest to the delivery address. The end customer gets the order and
we just take a cut of the profit on every order. The community in Cardiff
is really supportive. There are organisations like Cardiff Start, which
offers advice on fundraising, customer acquisition or office space. What
we’re really missing is that generation of people who have sold their
businesses, who have really been through it and are able to offer us
good advice.”
Global white-label printing service Pwinty helps businesses to sell printed products,
whether they be photo prints, phone cases, magnets or posters, through their app or
website. @PwintyApp
Ollie
Gardener
Co-founder
NoddlePod
“
We have a
business school in
France that runs
a very entrepreneurial
leadership development
programme. Our
software helps it
connect with its
students and the
leaders on the
programme in a
community of mutual
support. They can
share knowledge,
experiences,
frustrations and
lessons learned online
in a supportive, trusted
community. We charge
our business schools
a yearly fee to have a
number of users on
their system and they
can have as many groups as they want and to structure those
groups differently for each course. We provide a lot of facilitation
and guidance and will follow up on a customer once a month.
To be in a community like Welsh ICE tech hub has been hugely
valuable and it reaches beyond the building and into Cardiff and
South Wales more generally.”
NoddlePod’s peer-to-peer learning platform is designed to help
business schools and their students connect, share and learn from each
other. Gardener co-founded the business with her husband and runs it
from Caerphilly’s Welsh ICE co-working space. @NoddlePod
Jason Smith
Chief executive
Blurrt
“
We are able to do very accurate, high-level, sentiment
and emotion analysis – and in real time. It is a crowded
marketplace but as far am I’m aware, there are very few
companies around who are able to do that. In fact, I’m not
sure anyone else does emotional analysis in real time other
than us. We did a couple of the leader debates during the
general election. We ran live sentiment Twitter worms for
each of the leader debates and they ran on a sentiment
graph, which we then embedded on ITV’s website. This gave
the audience’s reaction to each leader.”
Newport-based social media analytics platform Blurrt allows customers
to understand social conversations by collecting and curating data and
making sense of audience reactions. It aims to be a must-have tool for
the broadcast media industry. @BlurrtUK
79
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Thames Valley
Louize Clarke
Reading and the surrounding Thames Valley
have long been home to big enterprise
and consumer tech like Microsoft, Dell and
Symantec. Can it now claim a position as a
UK startup cluster?
C
an the Thames Valley consider itself to be the UK’s
Silicon Valley? While it is rich in established techbased businesses such as global giants Microsoft, Dell,
Oracle, Symantec and Verizon, the question the region now
faces is how to harness new, disruptive thinking.
In 2015, Tech City UK reported that when looking at the
number of digital jobs, Reading came in fourth – behind inner
London, Bristol and Bath and Greater Manchester – with
54,527.
Reading’s location in the M4 enterprise belt, surrounded
by traditional telecommunications HQs, means that one in
five businesses there is a tech firm. Despite this, skills and
employability remain the biggest challenges facing Thames
Valley tech companies.
In 2014, Adam Clark and Louize Clarke set up ConnectTVT,
with a clear mission to put the Thames Valley back on the tech
cluster map. It is working to develop partnerships to harness
the support needed to unlock the region’s technology and
startup potential and talent. Funding, grassroots support and
nurturing entrepreneurship are its priorities.
ConnectTVT works out of the innovation hub GROW@
Green Park, offering a flexible, personal and buzzing co-working
space. GROW aims to bring together like-minded businesses
to meet, network and collaborate.
The Festival of Digital Disruption is a big item on the Reading
calendar. From a digital skills day and the inaugural GROW
Film Festival & Awards Ceremony through to the launch of a
10-week startup bootcamp and drone time trials, 2015’s weeklong event celebrated all things digital in the Thames Valley.
Thames Valley Tech Week followed in November 2015.
Leading tech specialist law firm Pitmans has a
long-established commitment to supporting the
entrepreneurial community across the Thames Valley
and beyond. Its drop-in sessions enable startups to
access Pitmans’ advice on key legal issues to be aware of
when setting up and launching a venture.
TechCityinsider’s TechCities ambassador for Reading and
the Thames Valley is Louize Clarke of Thames Valley TVT
(www.connecttvt.co.uk).
80
Co-founder
ConnectTVT
“
I’ve been in the Thames Valley all my life and felt the area
needed a wake-up call because we were disappearing off the
UK cluster maps. I wanted to bring back some attention to a
region I’m passionate about. It has a lot of interesting companies.
I found a co-founder, Adam Clark, and I drove around the region
for six months saying, ‘Shall we get the cluster back on the map?’
Adam built a marvellous website and we launched with no money.
We’re going to be a noise-making machine shouting about the
Thames Valley, finding startups and building the cluster statistics.
The day after we launched I got a bit bored and thought, ‘What do
we do next?’ So we launched Thames Valley Tech Week.”
Reading-based tech accelerator ConnectTVT is dedicated to raising
the profile of the Thames Valley’s incredible entrepreneurial talent and
resources. It is based in a pop-up co-working space at wind-turbinepowered Green Park. @ConnectTVT
Alex Jacques
Managing director
Creative Jar
“
Twyford was a convenient place for us to start a business.
I live in High Wycombe and our other co-founder lives in
Marlow. Twyford came to our attention because of the
rail links into London – we’re only 35 minutes away from the
city – which is incredibly convenient. We’re also slap bang
in the middle of the M4 corridor. We work with a few local
businesses and it’s really worked for us. If you look at who’s
local to the area – Microsoft, Oracle, CGI and Adobe – there’s
a definite technology focus in this
area. When we set up Creative
Jar I was working in an e-learning
consultancy as a Flash designer
and developer. I enjoyed that work
and it made me realise there was
a different way of doing things that
made the most of technology.”
Creative Jar is a veteran independent
digital agency based in the Berkshire
village of Twyford, which is surprisingly
close to some large technology players. Its
own Tudor building is an unlikely HQ for
its tech-driven business. @creativejar
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
Adam Smith
Chris Sykes
Owner
Rawnet
Chief executive
Volume
“
I’ve come from a product background
where conversion is important. Yes, I love
great graphics, yes I still get excited and
yes I’m quite geeky about tech. But I’m
still very commercial, so how much
revenue we are driving per visitor
is still very key to everything we
do. Rawnet itself wasn’t started
by me but by Ross Williams in his
bedroom when he was at university
20 years ago now. After Ross left
to do the dating side of things [at
Venntro], we sat down, thought
about who we were, what clients
we were interested in and it
was more or less starting a
new agency. We started from
scratch. It gave me a sense of
owning it and moving forward
with something that I could
feel more part of.”
Ascot-based Rawnet has
carved a niche in the supercompetitive digital agency
market by offering its corporate
media clients highly usable web
products backed by heavy-tech backend build, responding to a tech-savvy
client base with higher expections than
ever. @Rawnet
“
I incorporated
Volume in 1997
when all the big
US hardware and
software companies
were coming to the
area. HP came in, then
Microsoft, Oracle and
Dell. The internet was
emerging. Dell was the
innovator in that space
at the time. They were
getting their senior
execs focused on how
to web-enable their
business. We were
early transitioners into
the online world and
developed websites,
campaign microsites
and landing pads.
Reading has been central to that. All our clients were 10
minutes from us. It was really easy to service. We didn’t have
go into town or spend ages on the M4. At that time all these
US companies were growing, expanding into EMEA and
beyond and we hung off the back off that.”
Award-winning Volume is a global provider of digital content, technology
and innovation. It was named the UK’s most innovative digital media
company in the 2015 Global Business Excellence awards.
@VolumeLtd
Ross Williams
Founder and chief executive
Venntro Media Group (formerly Global Personals)
“
We are the largest privately owned dating company in Europe.
Many people haven’t heard of us because most of our revenue
comes from white-label sites. We’re the guys who run sites
on behalf of newspapers, magazines and radio stations. We work
behind the scenes, putting our partners’ brands first. We run
the technology, database, customer care and payment systems
behind those sites through our application, whitelabeldating.com. I
founded the business in 2003 with my business partner Steve
Pammenter. I was running a digital agency and in the down time
we came up with the idea of a white-label dating business. The
real cost of an online dating business is acquiring the customer
and the beauty of a white-label model is that cost becomes the
responsibility of partners.”
Venntro – rebranded from Global Personals in 2015 – is a littleknown but highly successful online dating site business, licensing an
impressive 25,000 white-label sites on its platform and generating
£50m in revenue in 2015. @venntro
81
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Partners
Students put City first in capital of tech
C
ity University London is a
leading global university
with origins providing
high-quality education relevant to
business and the professions in
London dating back 160 years.
Like the diverse districts
around our campus centres, in
Clerkenwell, Old Street, Farringdon
and the northern City of London,
the University has moved with
the times. City has increased
its commitment to academic
excellence, including innovative
research, while remaining focused
on the business and professional
sectors that shape our locality.
These days, alongside wellknown Cass Business School,
the University also includes a
School of Mathematics, Computer
Science and Engineering; the City
Law School; a School of Social
Sciences; and a School of Health
Sciences. From this broad base,
City caters to those interested in
the creative, government, health
and technology professions, as well
as the classic London destinations
of business services, financial and
legal professions.
In a typical year our student
community numbers 18,000, of
whom 5,000 are at Cass.
With the rise of London’s
digital business sector, and the
expansion of Tech City to become
the tech capital of Europe, many
students have found City’s lively
and direct connections with this
creative engine of commerce have
transformed their time at university.
In 2015, City was rated the
top university in London for
student satisfaction (National
Student Survey, 2015). At the
same time, participation in our
enterprise education activities,
aimed at developing students’
entrepreneurial insight and
capability, surged to record levels.
The CityStarters programme,
which offers City students a
range of free extra-curricular
activities, resources and skills
development opportunities for their
entrepreneurship and employability
journey, has gone from strength
to strength. It has been supported
by Tech City entrepreneurs,
membership bodies and networks,
our London alumni, and corporate
partners. Partners include Unruly
Ltd, the viral video specialist,
whose founders and staff helped
City academics create the pop-up
business school City Unrulyversity.
Many business partners also back
an annual business competition,
CitySpark, as well as a range of insyllabus activities to boost students’
experience and readiness for
technology-enabled workplaces.
On our MSc Data Science
programme, for example, students
can meet industry visitors via Data
Bites, a series that has attracted
companies and organisations that
showcase their needs for advanced
analytics and visualisation to solve
data challenges.
Tech City companies have also
stepped up to meet students taking
the MICL (Masters in Innovation,
Creativity and Leadership), a
ground-breaking course anchored
by Cass Business School.
For more information, email
strategic partnerships manager
Andrew Huddart at a.huddart@
city.ac.uk
Supporting you to build billion-pound businesses
C
ongratulations to all
those featured in the
TechNation200 Almanac
for 2015! The quality of the people
profiled in this Almanac, together
with the alumni from previous
years, clearly demonstrates the
current growth and potential of the
UK technology sector.
Business-minded technologists
have always hatched grand plans
for global business empires. Where
it used to take decades to make
an impact globally, today it can be
more or less instantaneous. This
creates threats and opportunities.
Scaling operations and teams
Depending on their level of
maturity, the challenge for
companies in the space differs, but
the principle remains the same:
grow or die. To be the next billionpound tech brand, CEOs need to
scale and normalise faster than
rivals – without compromising the
DNA of the business.
Raising the capital you need
Ongoing access to finance is a key
issue for high-growth businesses.
Those that lack financial firepower
may find their growth constrained.
Others may encounter problems
with cashflow during day-to-day
operations. At the same time, the
funding landscape has changed
drastically since the financial crisis
of 2008 – and continues to evolve.
Understanding how to navigate
through an evolving ecosystem of
funding options is key.
Keeping pace with tax to
support growth aspirations
When several world-leading tech
companies made front-page news
for their tax affairs in 2013, nobody
in the business world was left
in any doubt: tax matters more
than ever to today’s ambitious
companies. The government
is creating a tax system that
encourages innovation and
entrepreneurship and is attracting
investment and talent to the UK.
Positive approach to regulation
Tech companies must build into
their products the functionality
and capability to comply with a
large and diverse set of conflicting
international standards. They must
give customers confidence that
their services and products are
secure, protect their privacy and
support compliance with other
emerging standards. And if that
isn’t enough, tech companies need
to protect their own infrastructure
and data as much as, if not more
than, any other organisation.
Infrastructure fit for purpose
With rapid expansion comes the
need to rationalise infrastructure
fast – particularly after establishing
a presence in a new market. If
companies do not invest time and
resources in making infrastructure
more efficient – eliminating
redundancies in processes, systems
and the operating structure – they
will not only face significant costs
later on but it will slow them down.
Scaling for tomorrow
Our technology industry specialists
can work with you to scale your
business. Helping you to plan for
growth; adapt your processes
and controls for a changing
business model; manage risk;
meet regulatory requirements and
develop growth strategies. We
focus on dynamic, high-growth
companies. More than any other
industry, our strategy directly
aligns with the industry’s critical
measures of success: growth.
To learn how we can help you
build for the future, email Steve
Leith, UK media and technology
director, at steven.leith@uk.gt.com
83
Get in touch
020 7040 0927
cass-masters@city.ac.uk
@creativity_city #theMICL
www.cass.city.ac.uk/msc-creativity
City Uni 8829 - TechCityinsider almanac Advert AW Outlined.indd 1
05/11/2015 15:32
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Partners
Put IP strategy at the heart of business
S
o how was 2015 for you?
Here at Williams Powell,
we have had a busy year
protecting and enforcing our
clients’ technological innovation
and branding.
Some highlights include:
The technology and investment sectors have shown strong growth in 2015. As Williams Powell
looks forward to 2016, it reminds us that an active intellectual property strategy is the key to
successfully leveraging innovation.
attracting investment, securing
market position and, ultimately,
increasing profits.
Questions to ask yourself as you
plan for next year:
•
Filing patent applications for
many startups in fields as diverse
as:
• Flood management systems
• Improved domain name
registration systems
• Electrical cable joint protectors
• Thermal treatment devices for
sports injuries
• Internet of things and app
control technologies
• Helping a jewellery business
to face off threats from a major
auction house, and negotiating a
co-existence agreement
Filing a series of patent
•applications
for Vantablack, the
world’s darkest material
Enforcing the Crittall trade mark
on behalf of Crittall Windows
Assisting a UK medical devices
client in its acquisition of the IP of a
US company.
•
•
These clients understand that
strong legal protection of their
innovation and branding pays
dividends when it comes to
•
•
•
Have you carried out an IP
audit?
Have you registered any IP?
Have you ensured that the IP
that does exist is actually owned by
your company?
Have you carried out due
diligence to ensure you are free to
launch your product?
Do you have an IP strategy in
place?
•
•
Investors don’t expect you to
have a fully fledged IP portfolio
from day one.
They understand that a startup
cannot possibly have the same
approach to IP as a FTSE-100
company. What they do expect,
however, is for you to recognise the
value of IP, to have asked the right
questions, and to have in place
an appropriate (and developing)
IP strategy tailored to suit your
company as it stands right now.
If you would like our help putting
in place an IP strategy for the new
year, please contact Ian Tollett (ian.
tollett@williamspowell.com) quoting
#IPresolution for an hour’s free
advice to get you ready for 2016.
85
The Future. Faster.
Can you benefit from being better connected?
Join the network and find out.
— Connect with 60,000+ members across all industries
and technologies
— Access expertise about projects, markets and research
— Connect to UK and EU public funding calls and programmes
— Engage with disruptive technologies in specialist groups
— Collaborate with industry and the research base
— Get help to build the business case for investment
— Develop more sustainable business models
ktn-uk.org
@KTNUK
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Partners
12 months of innovation and change
V
itamin T has been a partner
of TechCityinsider for the
past three years, as we
believe in recognising exceptional
talent in our peers as well as in the
talent we represent.
Vitamin T is a talent agency
for digital creatives. We are a
division of Aquent, created
to exclusively meet the
unique needs of ad
agencies, startups, midsized companies and
the digital creatives we
all love.
We are all about
helping companies adapt
to change, find new ways to
work, and stay competitive. We
offer creative talent a broad
range of services, from portfolio
reviews, expert interviews to
free online courses. This helps
global companies and creative
agencies add technical expertise
to their marketing and creative
departments, increase the
bandwidth of their in-house teams,
and more. With a notable client
list, international talent network,
and training opportunities, Aquent
and Vitamin T attract and place
in-demand talent on assignment
worldwide.
We listen to our clients
and act on their business
and industry needs. We
know that as a business,
if you want to meet the
needs of the clients and
do your best work, it’s
best to continuously adapt
to new media and be bold with
innovation, new approaches and
new possibilities.
2015 has been an interesting
year in the tech sector from our
perspective. We have seen the
death of Flash, which for most
online users is a positive move.
However, this has meant demand
for talent qualified in HTML5. Upskilling is even more important to
today’s digital creatives.
UX is ubiquitous. You can’t meet
with a new digital startup or be
immersed within the tech sector
without UX being a hot topic. We
have found more digital designers
are starting to cross over into this
discipline, as UX roles become
more defined. We have found that
many still don’t quite understand
the complexities of UX and the
roles within this skillset. If you are a
client it is important to understand
what you require for a project.
As talent, you need to know your
strengths within the UX spectrum.
The synergy between design
and content is becoming more
relevant, if not necessary. The way
clients want to convey their key
messaging via digital channels
is very much interlinked with the
design, and as a result there has
been an integration of content in
design roles.
In the current creative digital
landscape we have found a need
for all-rounders. Clients expect
more function in a role, someone
who has an eye for design but also
understands how to code. Talent
need to be prepared and equipped
for these demands.
Recently internet-ready mobile
devices have gone from a luxury
bonus to an everyday essential.
Users expect everything that is
online to be perfectly digestible
on a mobile device. Businesses
are ensuring their services
accommodate this expectation.
For creative, marketing and digital
recruitment requirements and
opportunities please call 020
7404 0077 or visit aquent.co.uk or
vitamintalent.co.uk
Three themes defining the year in tech
2
015 has been the biggest
year for Tech London
Advocates to date. We’ve
hosted a series of international
events from Bangalore to San
Francisco and expanded into
Norway. We’ve tackled some of the
most important tech issues head-on,
making our voice as a unified tech
community heard amongst the UK’s
policy makers and leaders.
As investment in London’s
technology sector reaches
unprecedented levels, the
capital’s status as the digital
home of Europe has never been
stronger.
However, challenges remain.
And in the past 12 months, three
main themes have defined this year
for the tech sector: infrastructure,
diversity and unicorns.
Infrastructure
In London, tech companies at every
stage of the growth trajectory are
lacking some of the most basic
tools for the industry. Without a
concerted, collaborative effort
to tackle London’s infrastructure
problem, the industry’s potential for
growth will be challenged.
Take connectivity, the bedrock
of digital business. Nearly half of
companies in a recent Tech London
Advocates report, Joining the Dots,
said that a lack of broadband in
the capital is damaging the city’s
reputation as a centre for digital
excellence.
From broadband to transport,
London’s digital businesses must
commit to some joined-up thinking.
If each of these infrastructure
issues is tackled through
private sector collaboration and
government support, London can
expect to continue to harness the
power of technological growth in
years to come.
success building billion-dollar tech
firms it is to these new emerging
sectors we must be turning.
Unicorns
A survey by GP Bullhound recently
showed that the UK already has
the largest number of unicorn
companies. London, and the UK
as a whole, is leading the charge
of new developments in this
field. It is no surprise that 75% of
tech professionals in the capital
believe London is the digital
capital of Europe.
The future unicorns of the UK
lie in London’s retail tech sector.
This is according to a fifth of Tech
London Advocates in a study of
the growth drivers of London’s
technology industry.
It is clear that London retail tech
has the right foundations to support
the next generation of unicorns. The
growth of retail tech will be one of
the defining developments of the
next few years. To continue our
Diversity
A survey distributed by Tech
London Advocates in the summer
revealed one in four (23%) firms in
London’s tech community employ
no women at board level. In fact, as
Baroness Lane Fox noted, there is
a greater proportion of women in
the House of Lords than in British
tech companies.
The sector is in need of a steady
stream of new talent. Experts
predict that by 2020 we will suffer
from a shortage of 300,000 digital
experts and 70% of Tech London
Advocates feel this is holding back
London’s tech sector growth.
Bringing more women into the
heart of the sector would mobilise
underused talent, which would
enormously benefit the industry, as
well as the economy as a whole.
www.techlondonadvocates.org.uk
87
The independent, private sector network of
experts, leaders and investors in the capital’s
cVaWeW]UcRPV]^Z^UhP^\\d]Wch͙
More than 2,000 Advocates now operate in 20 countries
around the world. We champion, we connect, we support.
WWW.TECHLONDONADVOCATES.ORG.UK
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | Partners
2015: the year the clichés rang true
A
fter 20 years or so
of working in various
digital/tech communities
right across the UK, I believe
there are two clichés that
get wheeled out annually
towards the end of the year –
at Christmas parties, awards
ceremonies or, indeed, both.
The first is that technology
is developing faster than ever,
with an ever-increasing speed
from idea to market.
The second is that the
convergence of different
technologies is, at last,
coming to pass, creating a
(future) world where we are
ubiquitously connected to
an internet that meets all our
human needs.
Reflecting on 2015, who
am I to disappoint you? Both
assertions hold up when
looking at the state of the
tech nation over the past 12
months. The more interesting
topic of conversation when
we’re sporting our tuxedos or
falling out of our party dresses
is, perhaps, to explore exactly
where the rates of tech change
are happening and where the
convergence has made the
most exciting difference.
The evidence is clear. The
two areas of digital tech that
have accelerated far beyond
the pack are those focused on
block-chain (distributed ledger)
applications and interactive
user experience design (UX).
Blockchain tech is
increasingly deployed with
varying success across not
just fintech and cyber-security,
but also digital healthcare,
legal and content production
and consumption. The
applications are potentially
endless, so the steam isn’t
running out anytime soon.
And even before the
world began to discover
VR and to thirst for
truly immersive user
experiences, UX design had
won the ideological battle
over CEOs who demanded
any mobile service, so long
as it was blue. Today there
is no such thing as product
design – only user-centred
service design, which may
happen to include real-world
manifestations of great UX.
Which brings us to the
subject of convergence. The
past year has brought an
acceleration of wearable tech,
pay tech, internet-of-things
tech and autonomous tech,
which, being increasingly
stitched together, is beginning
to offer a glimpse of what Adam
Greenfield calls Everyware.
Don’t replace your fleshy arm
with a robotic one yet – but,
equally, start to think where
your digital business can add
value as these disparate fields
come together. Convergence
here will really speed up when
the security and UX can be…
oh, please see above.
Jon Kingsbury, head of digital
economy, Knowledge Transfer
Network. www.ktn-uk.co.uk
Beating the business fear factor
N
ew research from
NatWest shows that the
nation’s appetite to set
up in business and become
self-employed is greater than
ever – but the fear of failure is
holding the majority back.
The latest edition of the
NatWest Entrepreneurship
Monitor – a quarterly survey
of people across the UK –
shows more than a quarter of
respondents think now is a
good time to start a business.
However, only 5% are actually
currently setting up on their own.
This reveals that, despite
improving economic conditions
and a widely held desire to be
self-employed, few people are
actually taking the plunge.
The other findings include
that 43% have considered
starting their own business and
nearly half would prefer to be
self-employed, but 56% are
held back by the fear of failure.
In addition, 57% of
respondents who want to
start their own business say
business advice is the thing
that would help them most, but
just one in 10 would consider
going to a bank for advice.
Furthermore,
over half of
adults who
want to start a
business don’t
think there is enough support in
their local area.
These findings show that
we have a nation of potential
entrepreneurs, but a lack of
knowledge is holding us back.
NatWest wants to fill these
gaps by helping people to
take their ideas forward.
So in partnership with
Entrepreneurial Spark and
KPMG, we are launching free
business accelerator hubs in
our buildings across the UK.
Hubs in Birmingham, Brighton,
Bristol and Leeds opened
in 2015, with further hubs in
Manchester, Belfast, Edinburgh,
Cardiff, Newcastle and Milton
Keynes due to open in 2016
and in London the
following year.
Our plan is to
support 7,000
entrepreneurs
over the next five years through
this partnership. As part of the
programme, we are providing
aspiring entrepreneurs with
free facilities, business advice,
mentoring and support networks
and access to the region’s wider
business ecosystem.
Our Entrepreneurship Monitor
shows that starting your own
business is more popular than
ever, with more firms registered
with zero employees. In fact, last
year was the first time there had
been over five million businesses
in the UK, of which more than
99% are SMEs.
The enthusiasm programmes
such as Entrepreneurial Spark
generate shows that the
appetite is there for people to
set up on their own – it is just
about creating the right network
of support to help them do it.
For more information about
NatWest’s support for startups in
the technology and media sector,
and our activities within London’s
technology and media community,
contact director Jeff Mudge
on 07786 703491 or jeffrey.
mudge@natwest.com. For further
information about Entrepreneurial
Spark powered by NatWest, visit
www.entrepreneurial-spark.com
89
The most influential
group in UK tech business
Connect with 500+ tech businesses and
thought leaders through the TCi Network
Get on the inside track as
a TechCityinsider partner:
www.techcityinsider.net/engage
TCi Network | TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16
TCi Network hits 500
The TechCityinsider Network is one of the most notable groups of technology business people in the
UK. Everyone we have profiled in our annual TechCityinsider100 (and in 2015 TechNation200) series
is a member. Since we started in 2012, the network has grown to 500 strong. These pages list the 300
people profiled by TechCityinsider between 2012 and 2014.
2012
Michael Acton Smith, Mind Candy
Tom Allason, Shutl
Nick D’Aloisio, Summly
Jorge Armanet, HealthUnlocked
Charles Armstrong, Trampoline
Systems/Trampery
Azeem Azhar, PeerIndex (now a
consultant)
Dave Bailey, Mediatonic
Sam Barnett, Struq
Oli Barrett, StartUp Britain
Katie Bell, Stardoll (now at Playmob)
Mike Bennett, Oil Studios (now at Djinn)
Paul Bennun, Somethin’ Else
Patrick Bergel, Chirp
George Berkowski, Hailo (now at
IceCream)
Swati Bhargava, Pouring Pounds
Annie Blackmore, Hackney UTC
(now at London Borough of Barking and
Dagenham)
Stephanie Bouchet, RougeFrog
Josef Dunne/Mayel deBorniol,
Babelverse
Courtney Boyd Myers, General
Assembly (now at Summit Series)
Paulina Bozek, Inensu
Mike Bracken, Government Digital
Service (now at Co-operative Group)
Jon Bradford, Springboard (now
TechStars)
Sally (Broom) Davey, Tripbod
Eileen Burbidge, Passion Capital
Jessica Butcher, Blippar
Mike Butcher, TechHub/TechCrunch
Steve Callanan, WireWAX
Alexandra Chong, Lulu
Chris Clarke, Lbi
Judith Clegg, The Glasshouse
Graham Cooke, QuBit
Justin Cooke, Possible UK (now at
Northzone Ventures)
Chelsea Cooper, Uber (now at Hired)
Sherry Coutu, angel investor
Errol Damelin, Wonga (now an investor)
Simon Devonshire, Wayra Academy
(now at Talent Cupboard)
Rajeeb Dey, Enternships
Ben Drury, 7 Digital
Julian Ehrhardt, UsTwo
Georg Ell, Yammer (now at Tesla
Motors)
Anthony Eskanazi, ParkatmyHouse
(now JustPark)
Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp
Dean Fankhauser, Nuji (now at The
Publishers)
Andrew Fisher, Shazam
Nathalie Gaveau, Shopcade
Anil Hansjee, Angel investor
Victor Henning, Mendeley
Ian Hogarth, Songkick
Andrew Humphries, UKTI
Bindi Karia, Microsoft BizSpark (now in a
new venture)
Laurence Kemball-Cook, Pavegen
Damian Kimmelman, Duedil
Jon Kingsbury, Nesta (now at
Knowledge Transfer Network)
Martha Lane Fox, UK Digital Champion/
Open University/House of Lords
Iris Lapinski, Apps for Good
James Layfield, Central Working
Brad Liebmann, Geocast
Jeff Lynn, Seedrs
Andrew Lyons, Ultra Knowledge
Joshua March, Conversocial
Greg Marsh, Onefinestay
Julian McCrea, Portal Entertainment
Elizabeth/Rebecca McPherson,
Feelings in a Flash
Donna Kelly/Sarah McVittie, Dressipi
Andy Millns, Inition
Alastair Mitchell, Huddle
Tim Morgan, Summer Chimney
(now at Mint Digital)
Richard Moross, Moo
Chris Morton, Lyst
Ian Mulcahey, Gensler
Emma Mulqueeny, Rewired State
Alicia Navarro, Skimlinks
Henrique Olifiers, Bossa Studios
Jude Ower, Playmob
Francesca Panetta, Hackney Podcast
Kathryn Parsons, Decoded
Karen Pearson, Folded Wing
Gavin Poole, Here East
Malcolm Poynton, SapientNitro (now at
Cheil Worldwide)
Deborah Rippol, StartupWeekend (now
at Buffer)
Sonali deRycker, Accel
Bill Scott, Easel.tv
Amit Shafrir, Badoo (now at lert.ly)
Glenn Shoosmith, BookingBug
Jeremy Silver, Mediaclarity
Tiffany St James, Stimulation
Kam Star, Digital Shoreditch/PlayGen
Gavin Starks, Open Data Institute
James Swanston, Carbon Voyage (now
Voyage Control)
Alice Taylor, Makielab
Jason Trost, Smarkets
Cate Trotter, Insider Trends
Eze Vidra, Google Campus (now at
Google Ventures)
Darren Westlake, Crowdcube
Natalie Downe/Simon Willison,
Lanyrd
Dylan Williams, Mother London (now at
Publicis Worldwide/Drugstore)
Mike Wilson, Ditto
Robin Wong, Weir+Wong
Sarah Wood, Unruly
Milo Yiannopoulos, The Kernel (now at
breitbart.com)
91
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | TCi Network
2013
Dupsy Abiola, Intern Avenue
Dana Al Salem, FanFactory
Giles Andrews, Zopa
Jennifer Arcuri, Innotech
Robin Baker, Ravensbourne (now a
consultant)
Anna Bance, Girl Meets Dress
Jason Bates, Freeformers (now at Mondo
Bank)
Thomas Benski, Pulse Films
Arnaud Bertrand, HouseTrip (now a VR
entrepreneur)
Suzanne Biegel, ClearlySo
Matt Black, Ninja Tune/Coldcut
Sue Black, UCL/Bletchley Park
Tom Blomfield, GoCardless (now at
Mondo Bank)
Maya Bogle, Talenthouse
James Booth, Rockabox (now Scoota)
Glenn Calvert, Affec.tv
Lily Cole, Impossible
James Connelly, Fetch
Stefan Cordiner, Lime&Tonic
Brendon Craigie, Hotwire PR
Zoe Cunningham, Softwire
Martyn Davies, SendGrid/Music
Hackday
Charles Delingpole, Market Invoice
(now at Comply Advantage)
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino,
Goodnight Lamp
Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, x.Million
Capital
Mel Exon, BBH
Tony Fish, Ineed
Sheila Flavell, FDM Group
Mark Freeman, Movement
Michelle Gallen, Shhmooze
Gerlinde Gniewosz, KO-SU
Jason Goodman, Albion
Simon Gordon, Facewatch
92
Roger Gorman, Profinda
Sarah Greasley, IBM
Ben Hammersley, Applied futurist
Alex Haw, Atmos Studio
Brynne Herbert, MOVE Guides
Taavet Hinrikus, TransferWise
Nick Hungerford, Nutmeg
Rupert Hunt, Spareroom
Kate Jackson, TableCrowd
Shivvy Jervis, Telefonica Digital
Nikita Johnson, RE.WORK
Viktoras Jucikas, Yplan
Bryce Keane, 3Beards
Raf Keustermans, Plumbee
Julian King, Volta (now at Zenium)
Jemima Kiss, Guardian
Michael Langguth, Poq Studio
Ed Lea, Paddle
Ian Livingstone, Eidos (now at Sumo
Digital and the government’s creative
industries champion)
Emily Mackay, Crowdsurfer
Matthias Metternich, Believe.in (now in
a new venture)
Christian Miccio, MPMe (now at First
Data Corp)
Charlie Muirhead, Rightster
Tim Murphy, Amee (now at Hanh
Murphy)
Dale Murray, Angel investor
Bobby Nayyar, Limehouse Books/
Foundation
Jane ní Dhulchaointigh, Sugru
Guy Nicholson, London Borough of
Hackney
Matt O’Mara, VICE UK
Ian O’Rourke, Adthena
Tom Page, PLA Studios
James Parton, Twilio
Carl Petrou, Pondera
Maggie Philbin, Teen Tech
Simon Prockter, Housebites (now a
consultant)
Tom Quick, Smesh
Peter Rankin, Fits.me (now at Social
Annex)
Maila Reeves, Change20
Alice Regester, 33Seconds
Seena Rejal, 3D Industries
Jon Reynolds, Swiftkey
Liz Rice, Tank Top TV
Andrew Rogoff, Resource Guru
Nicolas Roope, POKE
Zack Sabban, Festicket
Ernesto Schmitt, Zeebox (now at
6Tribes)
Robyn Scott, OneLeap/
Intros.to
Nikhil Shah, Mixcloud
Joanna Shields, TCIO (now at
Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Ami Shpiro, Innovation Warehouse
Stuart Silberg, Hotels.com
Ben Southworth, evangelist and
community builder
Bertie Stephens, Flubit
Wendy Tan White, Moonfruit
Brian Taylor, PixelPin
Stelio Tzonis, Urturn
Odera Ume-Ezeoke, Viewsy
Eric van der Kleij, Level39
Elizabeth Varley, Tech Hub
Roger Wade, Boxpark
Dan Wagner, Powa Technologies
Emma Watkinson, SilkFred
Matt Webb, Berg (now a consultant)
Ian Wharton, Zolmo (now at AKQA)
David White, Import.io
Mark Wilson, Wilson Fletcher
Niklas Zennström, Atomico
TCi Network | TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16
2014
Joanna Alpe, Makelight Interactive
Pru Ashby, London & Partners
Ian Ashman, Hackney Community
College
Rod Banner, Banner Corp (now at 3LA)
Alex Berezovskiy, Leto
Jonathan Berlin, Iconeme
Maggie Berry, Women in Technology
Ghislaine Boddington,
Body>Data>Space/Women Shift Digital
Emily Brooke, Blaze
Dan Burgess, Good for Nothing
Javier Buron, SocialBro
Ed Bussey, Quill
David Buttress, Just Eat
Zabetta Camilleri, Sales Gossip
Cristiana Camisotti, Silicon
Milkroundabout
Gareth Capon, Grabyo
Matt Celuczak, CrowdEmotion
Paul Clarke, BusinessBecause (now at
GTI Media)
James Clark, TLA Triage
Paul Clement, Resident Advisor
Paul Coby, John Lewis
Jamie Conway, MADE Television
Warren Cowan, Greenlight
Myke Crosby, Oobedoo
Matt Cynamon, General Assembly
Alex Depledge, Hassle
Wendy Devolder, Skills Matter
James Eder, Beans Group
Charmaine Eggberry, Wayra Academy
(now at NED and Avanti Communications/
Buzzmove)
Robyn Exton, Datch (now HER)
Akin Fernandez, Azte.co
Claire Flynn Levy, Essentia Analytics
Angel Gambino, Alchemists Collective
Tom Gatten, Growth Intelligence
Drummond Gilbert, GoCarShare
John Goodall, Landbay
Josephine Goube, Sharehoods (now
Migreat)
James Governor, Shoreditch Works
Gerard Grech, Tech City UK
Jenny Griffiths, Snap Fashion
Juan Guerra, StudentFunder
Logan Hall, Movebubble (now at Rebel
Hack Studios)
Nick Halstead, Datasift (now at Cognitive
Logic)
Peter Hames, Big Health/Sleep.io
Julien Hammerson, Calastone
Zia Hayat, CallSign
Even Heggernes, Airbnb (now at
NaboBil.no)
Andrew Hunter, Adzuna
Kay Hutchison, Belle Media
Anne-Marie Imafidon, Stemettes
Anthony Impey, Optimity
Maria Ingold, Mireality
Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive
Pip Jamieson, The Dots
Daniel Kaplansky, One Fine Meal (now
at POD Point)
Howard Kingston, Future Ad Labs (now
AdLudio)
Saul Klein, Index Ventures
Ruben Kostucki, Makers Academy
Steve Lemon, Currency Cloud
Stef Lewandowski, Makeshift (now at a
new startup studio)
Gavin Littlejohn, MoneyDashboard
Alberto Lopez-Valenzuela, Alva
Group
Sinead Mac Manus, Fluency
Martin Macmillan, Pollen
Ben Males, XOX
Audrey Mandela, Mandela Associates
Glen Mehn, Bethnal Green Ventures
Juliana Meyer, SupaPass
Julie Meyer, Ariadne
Niall Murphy, Evrythng
Dan Murray, Grabble
Sara Murray, Buddi
Ted Nash, Tapdaq
Berhnard Niesner, Busuu
Renate Nyborg, Pleo (now at Apple)
Leslie Onyesoh, Kwanji
Zoe Peden, Insane Logic
Priya Prakash, Design for Social
Change
Gregor Pryor, Reed Smith
Rob Rebholz, SpaceWays (now at
optilyz)
Runar Reistrup, Depop
Nick Russell, We Are Pop Up
Tobi Schneidler, Bouncepad
Russ Shaw, Tech London Advocates
Paul Sheedy, Reward Technology
Chris Sheldrick, What3Words
Dame Stephanie Shirley, entrepreneurturned-philanthropist
Rohan Silva, Second Home
Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp
Ashon Spooner, Phundee
Lucy Stonehill, BridgeU
Clare Sutcliffe, Code Club
Jess Tyrrell, Centre for London/
Connecting Tech City
Tom Valentine, Secret Escapes
Alick Varma, Osper
Nick Walters, Hopster
Ben Whitaker, Masabi
Pete Williams, Localz
Adrian Woolard, BBC Connected
Studio
Marc Zornes, Winnow.
Information correct as of November 2015.
View any updates on our TCi Network
pages at www.techcityinsider.net/network
93
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16 | TCi Dinners
Food for thought
S
ometimes, you just have to
take the evening off, break
bread and reflect on what
it is that you do.
That’s why every month,
TechCityinsider hosts a monthly
invite-only business networking
dinner at its Shoreditch offices.
These dinners, which have been
running since 2012, bring together
folk from the tech startup business
community to share ideas and get
to know each other better.
They are a chance for members
of our 500-strong TechCityinsider
Network to meet face to face,
away from the office. Our expert
partners, from City University
London, Grant Thornton,
Knowledge Transfer Network,
NatWest, Tech London Advocates,
Vitamin T and Williams Powell also
attend.
The dinners are first and
foremost informal affairs, but we
always follow a theme. This helps
inform the editorial content that
94
Since starting work covering the London tech startup scene in 2012,
TechCityinsider has hosted a monthly business networking dinner. These
events have grown in influence to become real agenda setters.
follows on TechCityinsider.net in
the weeks that follow.
Themes during 2015 included
Food Technology, Digital
Democracy, Big Data, The Internet
of Things, Adtech/Mediatech,
Retail Technology, Smart Cities
and two women-in-tech-themed
dinners: Rising Women Stars and
Women Backing Women. Every
one our meals generated serious
food for thought.
Finding guests from our network
for the Rising Women Stars
network was easy – we’ve shared
lots of stories of women founders
since we started – but getting
the list down to a manageable 20
was tricky. In the end we settled
for a list that included founders
from Grub Club, WonderLuk,
KweekWeek and Buzzmove.
The response to that dinner
led to a provocative feature being
published on TechCityinsider by The
Dots founder Pip Jamieson, arguing
for more women to back more
women entrepreneurs. That piece,
among our most shared of the
year, led to the follow-up Women
Backing Women gathering.
Jamieson was among the
entrepreneurs around the table
and was joined by the founders of
Fluency, Frugl, Andiamo and others,
alongside investors from Cabot
Square Capital, Potential Female
Founders and Angel Academe,
whose head, Sarah Turner, urged
more women to get into investing.
At our Adtech-Madtech
gathering, we heard from
branding and advertising sage
Rod Banner, who offered us
his wisdom on the rise and rise
of data-driven advertising and
marketing technologies. Others
there included Affec.tv and
Growth Intelligence, which are
both changing the advertising and
marketing game.
Onfido told our Data dinner
guests about the growth of online
background checks and how that’s
set to disrupt a sector shrouded
in mystery and inefficiency, while
Datasift gave us a glimpse into
its new work with Facebook,
accessing its firehose for new
levels of marketing analytics.
2015 was also, of course,
election year. An excellent Digital
Democracy night heard from the
likes of Bite the Ballot and Vote for
Policies on political engagement,
while Coadec and Futuregov
See the full profile interviews at www.techcityinsider.net
2015 TechCityinsider dinners: themes and guests
Women Backing
Women
Andiamo
Angel Academe
Cabot Square Capital
The Dots
Fluency
Frugl
Prettly
Smart Cities
Arcola Energy
Atmos Studio
Dyson
Eight Inc
Future Cities Catapult
Greenwich University
Inngenii
Stickyworld
Rising Women Stars
Buzzmove
Crowdjustice
GrantTree
Grub Club
KweekWeek
Venturespring
Warblr
WonderLuk
Retail Technology
Appear Here
offered tech policy options.
We’ve also had inspiring and
entertaining evenings on The
Internet of Things, Smart Cities and
Retail Tech. And, of course, no tech
dinner roster would be complete
without a Food Tech gathering.
We were joined by Winnow,
TableCrowd, Mucho and Farmdrop
to figure out how tech is changing
what we eat, and how.
So food for thought indeed. We
often had a lot of fun around the
table, too. Read the full guest list
above.
The catering for TechCityinsider’s
dinners have been provided by our
Divido
Grabble
Made.com
Pointr
Poq Studio
Reward Technology
Viewsy
Adtech/Mediatech
3LA
Adludio
Affec.tv
Growth Intelligence
Proxama
SocialBro
Internet of Things
Arqiva
Claire Rowland
Evolveyourself
EVRYTHNG
Hackney Council
Intamac
Plumen
Resin.io
Think Innovate
RefME
SalesGossip
Sandtable
Satago
Taggstar
Digital Democracy
Bite the Ballot
Centre for London
Coadec
FutureGov
Rewired State
techUK
Tinder Foundation
Vote for Policies
YouCanBookMe
Food Technology
Mucho
Deliveroo
Farmdrop
Farmhopping
Food Startup School
Ministry of Startups
Raddiso
LoveThyChef
TableCrowd
TechCityinsider100
Dinner
Acorn Aspirations
My Beauty Matches
London& Partners
RefME
Student Funder
Stemettes
YouCanBookMe
Zealify
TCi partners attending
City University London
Grant Thornton
Knowledge Transfer
Network
NatWest
Tech London Advocates
Vitamin T
Williams Powell
Big Data
Attraqt
Big Brother Watch
Datasift
Onfido
two brilliant resident chefs, Asma
Khan from Darjeeling Express and
Nikita Gulhane from Spice Monkey.
Thanks to both for their culinary
efforts!
Also in 2015, TCi hosted
its second annual Tech House
Party. This bash, during Digital
Shoreditch 2015, gathered
more than 200 guests from the
community for a night of music,
drinking and dancing at our
Shoreditch HQ.
If you’re interested in attending a
TCi event, email techcityinsider@
c21media.net
95
TechCity
insider
Defining next-generation
digital business across the UK.
Read, watch and listen to us
every day at TechCityinsider.net
TechNation200 Almanac 2015/16
Welcome to
the tech nation
TechCityinsider’s annual almanac has doubled
in size. C21Media’s editor-in-chief & managing
director David Jenkinson explains why.
H
ard to believe, but it’s now four years since
C21Media launched TechCityinsider.
When we started work at the back end
of 2011, we were responding to the tech startup
phenomenon happening around our East London home.
We’d been in business in Shoreditch since 1997,
one of the first digital startups in the area, launching a
website to cover the international TV content business
before most people knew what banner ads were. So we felt part of the story.
We knew the tech media was already offering plenty of news about the startup sector,
and we didn’t want to replicate that. So we decided to take a different tack, aiming to
understand what it was that was driving the people behind new technology businesses –
the entrepreneurs – and tell their stories.
The ambition was to build a bank of experience and wisdom that others could learn
from and share. And so TechCityinsider.net came to be.
We began with a very sharp focus on the East London startup scene: Tech City, Silicon
Roundabout, or to many of us just plain old Shoreditch. We spoke to 100 business
leaders, mostly entrepreneurs but also investors and others, to hear their stories and what
it was that they wanted to achieve.
As we moved into 2013 and 2014 we started to broaden our horizons to take in
a number of other emerging clusters of activity around London, whether in Croydon,
Bermondsey or Kentish Town.
By the end of 2014, it became clear that a wider UK agenda was fast emerging – that
of a tech nation. Significant technology business clusters were growing around the UK.
The truth is, in places such as Cambridge, Manchester and Edinburgh, these clusters
had been around for a long time. But like Tech City UK, with its landmark Tech Nation
report, we wanted to broaden our remit and recognise the national picture, having
started on home turf.
So where previous almanacs have contained 100 companies, largely based in London,
this one contains 200, featuring digital game-changers across the UK.
Each business story is different, of course, but there are strong trends and drivers. Tech
entrepreneurs are in business to make money, like the rest of us. And digital startup offers
the possibility of rapid success at a low entry cost.
But the tech startup agenda is very often about more than profit. Ideas are driven by
personal experience and frustration and a desire to change the world. Or to use that alltoo ubiquitous term, to disrupt.
We’ve been on a journey – quite literally – to bring those stories to light. We’re
supported in our work by some great partners, whose content appears in this almanac,
and whose input helps inform. If you’re interested in becoming a partner please do get in
touch. You will be in very good company.
We hope that this almanac gives you a greater understanding of what is now
undeniably a tech nation and look forward to telling more great stories in 2016.
98
C21Media
Second Floor, 148 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AT
020 7720 7460
techcity@c21media.net
Editor
Julian Blake
julian@c21media.net
Editor of C21Media.net & FutureMedia
Jonathan Webdale
jonathan@c21media.net
News editor
Clive Whittingham
clive@c21media.net
Senior reporters
Andrew Dickens
andrew@c21media.net
Richard MIddleton
rich@c21media.net
Nico Franks
nico@c21media.net
Reporter
Toni Sekinah
toni@c21media.net
Chief sub editor
Gary Smitherman
gary@c21media.net
Sub editor
John Winfield
john@c21media.net
Head of production
Lucy Scott
lucy@c21media.net
Head of television
Jason Olive
jason@c21media.net
Video editor
Will Lambert
will@c21media.net
Sales directors
Odiri Iwuji
odiri@c21media.net
Peter Treacher
peter@c21media.net
Head of special projects and events
Leanne Farrell
leanne@c21media.net
Senior sales executive
Richard Segal
richard@c21media.net
Telesales executive
Hayley Salt
hayley@c21media.net
Finance director
Paul Freedman
paul@c21media.net
Finance manager
Susan Dean
susan@c21media.net
Editorial director
Ed Waller
ed@c21media.net
Editor-in-chief & managing director
David Jenkinson
david@c21media.net
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