In June we held our third annual Tech Invest forum in London. As with previous years, we were hugely impressed with the quality of the companies who attended, as were the investors in the room.
Below is a list of all the exciting, innovative businesses we met as well as links to their full profiles. From smart car technology to an all-encompassing digital solution for dog-owners, there is as much variety as there is technological process among this lot.
Tech Invest London will return in June 2016. And in the meantime we have our Tech Invest Manchester forum coming up on 16 September 2015. There are still a very few slots left for presenting companies and investors, so before the end of the year it could be you appearing in the next of these articles.
1. Captive Media
Presenter: Gordon MacSween
Job title: CEO
Based in: London
Founded in: 2007
No. of Employees: 7
Gordon MacSween
Gordon is a graduate of Cambridge & Insead, and enjoyed a career in product marketing before starting his own business. He has spent five years researching and developing a product to help advertisers genuinely engage their audience, at a time when attention spans are on the wane.
He has raised £2 million to complete the development and establish a UK ad network, based around the product.
Recent Milestones
- Funding round 2x over-subscribed in 2014
- Network size tripled in 6 months
- Named MSN’s 2nd hottest UK start-up
- Revenues up 60% YOY
- Upcoming Milestones
- Reaching break-even in UK in 2015
- Extension into new market segment
Captive Media is building a media channel to help advertisers reach 18-30 year-old male consumers. It does so in a way consumers welcome and remember, close to their point of purchase, and with accurate audience measurement. The company has worked with brands like Diageo, Apple and 20th Century Fox and has sales in 12 countries worldwide.
See Captive Media’ full profile here
Compare Cloudware
Presenter: Gary Gould
Job title: Co-founder & CEO
Based in: London
Founded in: 2011
No. of Employees: 5
Gary Gould With over 20 years’ experience in the technology and communications sector, Gary has held senior marketing and commercial leadership positions with a number of global brands including Cisco, BT, Verizon, Panduit and Virgin Media. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, a Master’s Degree in International Marketing & Entrepreneurship.
Recent Milestones
Achieved proof of revenue from vendor/channel partners who want to appear on the platform as part of their indirect or channel strategy.
#1 rank on Google for Cloudware Services and Compare IT and Communication Services (now ahead of USwitch and MoneySupermarket).
Exceeded vendor/channel partner recruitment target by reaching 120 commercial agreements including big name brands such as 123Reg, Sage, Box and 1&1.3
Recognised as Guardian Startup of Year
Upcoming Milestones
Upcoming launch of our book ‘Small business and the cloud – what’s the big attraction of cloudware’
Production of Cloud Convertors case study programme
Migration to next generation CMS platform
Activation of first traffic generation marketing programme
Background Profile
The idea of a comparison website for IT/communications was born in June 2010. Whilst a simple and contemporary concept, the range of services, ecosystem complexity and emerging shift to Cloud required significant experimentation with the platform and business models – with the full categories going live late in 2014.
See Compare Cloudware’s full profile here
3. Coolio
Presenter: Shin Um
Job title: co-founder
Based in: Seoul, South Korea
Founded in: 2015
No. of Employees: 8
Shin Um
Shin Um lived in Japan as adolescence and started coding when he was 9; which was an influence from his uncle. He started his career as system developer for electronic center in Japan and experienced various industries after. Before he found coolio, he met his partner while serving in HQ of US forces Korea where he ETSed as a sergeant.
Recent Milestones
Received 600k as government grants from South Korean government.
Established marketing channel for China, Japan and Thailand.
Upcoming Milestones
Launch of android app for mobile phones
Localization in Thai, Japanese and English
Background Profile
Receiving $600k from government, Coolio is a prominent start-up located in the heart of Korean science city, Daejeon. With industry leading technology, social taste engine, it focuses on analyzing social data to provide quality information to the users.
By allowing users to be able to search and to be curated from the data that’s generated by users, it focuses on ameliorate the data acquisition process in everyday life.
See Coolio’s full profile here
4. eSeller Express
Presenter: Neel Shah
Job title: Managing Director
Based in: London
Founded in: 2014
No. of Employees: 4
Neel Shah
Neel is a seasoned entrepreneur with experience spanning a variety of industry sectors including technology, finance, retail and fast-food. He has strong managerial, financial and operational skills and is able to think out of the box. He has a passion for technology and strives for excellence in everything he does.
Recent Milestones
Product is well developed and undergoing testing in beta
Execution of well defined marketing plan has been commenced
Upcoming Milestones
Strengthening of the team: sales & marketing and development team
Establishment of an affiliate / partnerships program
Development of an API to allow 3rd parties to integrate with core system quickly and easily – a more diverse range of integrations will create more customer opportunities
Background Profile
Ecommerce revenues continue to grow at substantial rates globally with an increasing number of SME’s seeking to participate in the market.
This introduces a variety of new challenges that need to be overcome. ESeller Express provides a ready-to-go solution to address some of these challenges.
See eSeller Express’s full profile here
5. Fortress Innovation
Presenter: S. Hoon Yoon
Job title: COO
Based in: Seoul, Korea
Founded in: 2013
No. of Employees: 4
S. Hoon Yoon
Established new electronic trading desks for firms like Salomon, Merrill, Bear, Knight, Samsung, and Dresdner. Worked as think tank and consultant at Samsung SDS and Accenture. Well versed in developing cost effective trading venues, compliance, and RM structures for institutions. Responsible for One-Stop-Shop and developing the overall firm’s strategy.
Recent Milestones
Selected as a strategic KAIST partner (* see Alliances below for info on KAIST)
Excel Booster completion & Patent Received
Proof of Concept at #2 & #3 local insurer
Upcoming Milestones
Regulatory Change
Variable Annuity Calculator sales to #2 & #3
Multiple other VA & DH from foreign Life insurers contact
Background Profile
Fortinno was established to aid life insurers to new regulatory requirement. To this end we have developed automated conversion from Excel VBA to GPU Parallel computing Code to reduce cost by 1/100th and speed up the processing. Based on this technology, we provide advisory, reserve calculation, and derivative trading services.
See Fortress Innovation’s full profile here
6. Horizon Strategic Partners Ltd
Presenter: Mike Northall & Eamus Halpin
Job title: CEO & Design Mentor
Based in: Leeds
Founded in: 2007
No. of Employees: 6
Mike Northall
MN. Founder of Horizon, previously founder of CSF Group, technology company employing 200 staff and sold to Logicalis in 2007.
Eamus Halpin
Public and Private company CEO & Chairman. Corporate strategist. Technology design and process mentor. Horizon investor.
Recent Milestones
Sold MicroGuide to 26% of acute hospital trusts in UK since launch in 2013.
30,000 UK registered users, most downloaded Healthcare App on App store in August 2014
Won Novartis Antimicrobial award in 2014 and Infection Control Prize awarded by NHS Dept of Health Innovation Challenge in 2015
Sold to first overseas customers in 2014
Upcoming Milestones
Marketing of MultiGuide in 2015 to existing and new MicroGuide users
Opening markets in Community and Primary Care
Expanding market opportunities in Australia, New Zealand and North America
New applications will be written and launched to healthcare markets in UK
Background Profile
Horizon was set up to focus on provision of technology in healthcare. Won consulting projects with Dept of Health and Bupa. Developed MicroGuide from initial work conducted by doctors at Southampton General Hospital.
Continue to develop MicroGuide as well as three new software products, due to be released in 2015.
See Horizon Strategic Partners’ full profile here
7. MeasureMyEnergy
Presenter: Ben Murphy
Job title: Founder & Managing Director
Based in: Chandlers Ford, Hampshire
Founded in: 2012
No. of Employees: 29
Ben Murphy
Ben Murphy is a serial entrepreneur in technology companies; from his first enterprise in 1999 to Techtrack100 listings Ben has developed groundbreaking ideas into valuable commercial operations in short timeframes. MeasureMyEnergy is the latest project and already two years in is leading the market through bold innovation and execution.
Recent Milestones
Setting the standard for simple, incisive energy management
Building the client list through referral and partnerships to include some of the world’s best know brands; Hilton, Kingfisher, Citadines, Royal Opera House, United Nations, EDF
A truly global platform with customers on five continents
A thriving, energetic business employing bright individuals across the globe
Upcoming Milestones
Launch next generation wireless network devices for total estate coverage
Launch industrial Power Meter for very high power applications (manufacturing and industrial processes)
Forecast to grow by ten times in five years through geographical expansion and market share
To provide services to national utility companies (electricity, gas and water) for their consumers and business customers
Background Profile
MeasureMyEnergy shows you when and where you spend money on energy. It’s like having an itemised bill for your utilities! With the detailed information available and the simplest of user interfaces companies and individuals can identify wasted energy, change behaviour and apply controls and technologies to save money.
See MeasureMyEnergy’s full profile here
8. Mtov Inc
Presenter: Frank Jung
Job title: CEO/Founder
Based in: S. Korea
Founded in: 2013
No. of Employees: 7
Frank Jung
Dr. Frank Jung is the founder and CEO of MtoV. He received his Ph.D. in wireless networks from KAIST, Korea, 2010. Prior to founding MtoV, he worked for Korea Telecom and National Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He has filed or been granted more than 50 patents, as an inventor.
Recent Milestones
Product Design Completed
Beta Version Development Completed
Under Beta Test in Korea
Partnerships with Car Repair Shops, Car rentals, and Insurance Companies
Upcoming Milestones
Service Open in the World
Fleet Management Solution Development
Service Extension for Connected Cars
Technology Application for Self-Driving Cars
Background Profile
Our purpose is connecting all vehicles in the earth so as to create new values on the constructed vehicular networks. MtoV is acquiring market share by securing agreement with various car-related parties. As these parties are all international players, MtoV will quickly become a global leader in smart-car industries.
See Mtov’s full profile here
9. MyCognition
Presenter: Keiron Sparrowhawk
Job title: Founder & Chairman
Based in: London
Founded in: 2011
No. of Employees: 8
Keiron Sparrowhawk
Keiron Sparrowhawk founded MyCognition in 2011. He sold his first business, PriceSpective in 2012. He has led the UK Chapter of Entrepreneur’s Organisation. Keiron is a renowned global expert in drug development, pricing and market access. He designed and delivered a related Diploma at Cambridge University.
Recent Milestones
Patent application in US, Canada & Australia – Adaptive Cognitive Skills Training, March, 2014/15.
Published at FENS – Federation of all European Neuroscience Societies in Milan, July 2014 and ISPOR – International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research in Amsterdam, November 2014.
The controlled study of 600 children 11-13 years to enhance their cognition using MyCognition’s first game Monster Valley.
Clinical trials – Amsterdam Medical Center, psychiatric trial with 120 patients, which is an exploratory study; Maastricht University Medical Centre
Parkinson’s clinical study, with 300 individuals, which is a phase II study.
Identifying students with low cognition and implementing training to rectify underlying issues. The results showed that 8 hours or more of training improved all areas of cognition, class behaviour and test scores.
Upcoming Milestones
In September 2015 MyCognition will be launching the Unique website for the parents of Special Educational Needs (SEN) children, entering the consumer market for the first time
The development of a new platform is underway to improve reporting and the user experience, to be implemented by Autumn 2015
The cognitive assessment MyCQ will be upgraded later in the year
Background Profile
MyCognition is the world’s first company to integrate cognitive assessment with training. Our assessments are based on 200 years of research and measure the five cognitive domains of cognitive health.
See MyCognition’s full profile here
10. PIE Mapping
Presenter: Freddie Talberg or Xavier Delestrade
Job title: CEO (FT) or CFO/COO (XD)
Based in: London
Founded in: 2009
No. of Employees: 20
Freddie Talberg or Xavier Delestrade
Freddie Talberg is CEO of PIE Mapping and a serial entrepreneur. Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and has more than 15 years technical experience within the telecom sector and ten years working in the mapping and navigation industry. Set up and sold his first global telecoms business in 2002.
Recent Milestones
Selected for Cognicity Smart City Programme – Integrated Transport for Canary Wharf Group.
Selected by DPD – Last Mile Lab Accelerator to innovate PIE’s technology into the parcel delivery business.
Piloting leading navigation solution for London to limited cycle and HGV collision using PIE Mapping smart Routing.
Invited to speak on Radio 5 Live (June 2015) Tech Hour on innovative freight navigation services.
Upcoming Milestones
Launch of the PIE platform (described below)
Series A fundraising
Background Profile
We are the creators and operators of the Transport for London Freight Journey Planner and the VIP and Logistics Journey Planning Platform for the 2012 Olympics which was a great success.
See PIE Mapping’s full profile here
11. Pooch Technologies Limited
Presenter: Dan Bauer
Job title: Founder
Based in: London
Founded in: 2014
No. of Employees: 6
Dan Bauer
Dan Bauer began his career as a software developer and has been involved in technology at the managerial level for 20 years including roles at NCR, Commtouch, and Hutchison 3G (‘3’).
For the past 10 years, he has been involved in a number of startups as founder or CEO including a ringtones and mobile games business acquired by Trinity Mirror plc, and a wearable technology startup focused on the seniors market. Dan has an MBA from Said Business School at the University of Oxford.
Recent Milestones
Launched PoochPal Beta version 0.9 (iOS)
Reached first 1,000 users within a couple of weeks
Conversion rates 3x higher than industry average
App engagement high 2-3x a day, 6 days a week
Upcoming Milestones
Release version 1.0 of PoochPal (iOS)
PoochPal for Android
Increased marketing reach
Background Profile
PoochPal is a smartphone app which helps dog owners find new friends, connect with existing friends, and go on walks or arrange doggie play dates in their local area. PoochPal is focused on building its user base throughout the UK and in major US cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
The business will eventually monetise through targeted national or local advertising of pet-related products and services.
See Pooch Technology’s full profile here
12. Sardinia Systems
Presenter: Dr Kenneth Tan
Job title: CEO
Based in: London
Founded in: 2014
No. of Employees: 6
Dr Kenneth Tan
Dr Kenneth Tan has 18+ years industry experience in selling products and services to major data center operators (automotive, energy, defence, meteo, finance), and in IP-rich transactions involving Tier-1 system vendors. He built OptimaNumerics to 8-figure valuation by SGI. He has led teams in UK, Germany, FSU.
Recent Milestones
Commercially validated FishDirector, ground breaking software for automating energy optimization and utilization improvement for
OpenStack data centers
Chosen for managing 150,000 VMs at a large scale R&D facility
Established distributorships in Japan, Europe, and N America
Value of FishDirector acknowledged by SUSE, IBM, Red Hat
Upcoming Milestones
Sales expansion, foothold in finance, bioinformatics and aerospace; target 100k VMs in next 6 months
System vendor co-marketing (HP, IBM, Red Hat, SuSE, Oracle, Cisco)
Build-up of commercial and technical teams: establish sales team in N America, EMEA, Russia, expand existing development team
Address additional virtualization areas: network function virtualization, storage virtualization, while focusing on operations optimization and automation
Background profile
Sardina Systems was founded in 2014 to develop cloud data centerinfrastructure management and automation software.
The product was developed based on the founders’ operations challenges and experience on large scale systems in investment banking, numerous supercomputing systems, including top 3 global weather forecasting system and world’s largest supercomputers.
See Sardinia Systems’ full profile here
13. Shopitize
Presenter: Carl Engelmarc
Job title: General Manager
Based in: London
Founded in: 2010
No. of Employees: 19
Carl Engelmarc
Carl Engelmarc is an experienced entrepreneur who has built numerous successful start-ups and global mature businesses in the advertising, media and digital space. Being a total tech-geek, Carl has a burning interest in advertising technology and big data, in particular how it can be used to create competitive edge for clients.
Recent Milestones
Run the flagship promotional campaign for Pepsi (Walkers Crisps) in the UK – it was printed on 90m packs!
Sold the first promotional campaign in Australia
Done a successful trial with Rakuten in extending our proposition to merchants
Chosen as a Global case study for UK Trade & Investment
Upcoming Milestones
Establishing the first strategic partnership with one of the largest US market research companies
Consumer launch in Australia in partnership with the largest coalition loyalty player in ANZ (10m members)
Partnership with one of the largest shopping audience holders in the UK
Launching market test in the US
Background Profile
Shopitize is a unique mobile marketing platform that enables brands and merchants to grow sales and drive loyalty by providing tailored offers and promotions to shoppers.
In so doing, Shopitize significantly improves brand and merchant ROI by influencing individual shoppers’ path-to-purchase and closing the loop between their engagement and purchase decisions across multiple retailers without the need for any retailer POS integration.
See Shopitize’s full profile here
14. Smartzer
Presenter: Karoline Gross
Job title: Founder and CEO
Based in: London
Founded in: 2012
No. of Employees: 7
Karoline Gross
Karoline Gross is currently the Founder and CEO of a video technology startup Smartzer that helps online retailers with demand prediction as well as increasing sales from videos.
Karoline has previous startup experience as founder of Blackpearl Pictures LLC a Los Angeles based production company, as well as experience in fashion, retail, and marketing.
In 2014 Karoline graduated with a degree in MSc Technology Entrepreneurship graduate from UCL, London. Since official launch in 2014, Karoline has built Smartzer to an award winning startup in the fashion and retail industry.
Recent Milestones
Recent milestones include signing on clients such as Puma, Graziashop and Boux Avenue and seeing the success of the results.
Upcoming Milestones
One of the main upcoming milestones is the launch of our interactive video based website. This will include a curated list of interactive videos with initial focus in fashion.
Background Profile
Smartzer was founded in 2012, initial as an interactive video app. Through a number of iterations the product as now evolved to a web based interactive video player any company can use on their website. The player allows consumers to click on items within a video to make purchases or pre order items.
There is also an extensive analytics component providing valuable demand prediction analytics as well as deep understanding of how consumers interact with video content.
See Smartzer’s full profile here
15. Tevva Motors Limited
Presenter: Asher Bennett
Job title: Founder
Based in: London
Founded in: 2013
No. of Employees: 9
Asher Bennett
Asher Bennett has more than 18 years experience in electric vehicles, devising and implementing high value added production / supply solutions. He is a former submarine Naval Officer and has MBA from IMD, Switzerland.
Recent Milestones
First prototype vehicle completion in January 2015 / Completion of retrofit powertrain for commercial fleet operator / Successful completion of vehicle testing / Securing Series A funding
Upcoming Milestones
First vehicle entering service with a global commercial fleet operator
August 2015 / Completion of second prototype vehicle
See Tevva Motors’ full profile here
16. Turtleclass
Presenter: Steena Sunyong Lee
Job title: CEO
Based in: Seoul, Korea
Founded in: 2015
No. of Employees: 3
Steena Sunyong Lee
CEO of turtleclass (company name is Sundplanet)
KOCCA academy, 3D animation production
Ex-IBM senior consultant
Graduated Seoul National Univ., Business major
Recent Milestones
Beta platform launched and 25+ oneday classes collected and operated
Group customers from large corporate company
Start-up exhibition and media publicized about our start-up company on ‘Cultural Day at KT olleh square’
Upcoming Milestones
Platform is under-development to become ‘Creator’s ultimate marketplace’ (til mid-June)
Guerilla marketing to recruit power creators on this June and July
Nominated in a global start-up acceleration program in New York, USA on this Sep/Oct
Background Profile
We started our company from Dec. 2014 as a 1st winner team in KOCCA CKL start-up masters program. Upon lean start-up model, we developed our beta platform in 2 months, and service/marketing model in 1 month.
For 5 months of beta operation, we have seen many great market signals such as satisfied customers, group classes, and media press release.
See Turtleclass’s full profile here
17. Wisejet
Presenter: Chul Soon Park
Job title: CEO
Based in: Daejon, Korea
Founded in: 2015
No. of Employees: 7
Chul Soon Park
Chul Soon Park founded the WiseJet as a provider of a low power, zero-
delay, and plug-and-play Gbps wireless solution for smartphone-centric file editing and transfers, video streaming, and wireless gaming.
Since 1985 he has been involved in high speed semiconductor circuits, the core of the WiseJet, at ETRI, ICU, and KAIST in Korea.
Recent Milestones
Founded the WiseJet, February, 2015
Fund from KITE foundation, April, 2015
Fund from KITE Angel Club, May, 2015
“The Venture” certification by Korea government, May, 2015
Upcoming Milestones
Proto type, June, 2015
Pilot product, September, 2015
Launch the first product, Wise Jet®, Q1, 2016
Background Profile
The WiseJet is a KAIST spin-off company founded by Chul Soon Park, In-
Yeol Oh, and Byung- Nam Ahn. They have been studying millimeter-wave circuits and associated SW for video streaming system implementation at KAIST for years.
See Wisejet’s full profile here
18. 3D Repo Limited
Presenter: Dr Jozef Doboš
Job title: Company founder
Based in: London
Founded in: 2014
No. of Employees: 3
Dr Jozef Doboš
Jozef is the founder and CEO of 3D Repo Ltd, a spin-out from his Engineering Doctorate (2015) in Virtual Environments, Imaging & Visualisation (Computer Science) at University College London.
In 2009, he received his Master of Engineering in Artificial Intelligence degree from Imperial College London and in 2011 Master of Research in VEIV from UCL. Jozef is a professional member of the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT.
Recent Milestones
InnovateUK Smart grant
EIT Digital Trusted Cloud High Impact Initiative with British Telecom, Telecom Italia, F-Secure and VTT
Initial software pilot on the London Olympic Stadium Transformation project with Balfour Beatty via Breakthrough Information Technology
Winner of the Virtual Design & Construction
Cognicity Challenge Award by Canary Wharf Group
Upcoming Milestones
InnovateUK Digitising the Construction Sector grant Bid4Free with
Balfour Beatty and the FIS www.bimplus.co.uk/technology/if-my-mum-
can-use-it-anyone-can
UK BIM mandate
Background Profile
3D Repo is a multi-award winning open source software for Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the cloud.
Instead of architects, consultants and contractors sharing massive proprietary files in a costly and time consuming manner, they can simply point their web browser to an encrypted online repository in order to examine all project stages virtually, even on mobile devices.
Over 40 different 3D file formats are decomposed and federated in our big data repository. 3D Repo has collaborated on a number of large-scale industrial projects with companies such as ARUP, Balfour Beatty and British Telecom.
In 2014, 3D Repo won the MongoDB World Innovation Award, the UCL Bright Ideas Award, the Breakthrough Information Technology Exchange Award and was shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Awards as well as the EPSRC UK ICT Research Pioneers Awards.
This year, 3D Repo won the Cognicity Challenge by Canary Wharf Group. 3D Repo is part-funded by InnovateUK and EIT Digital.
See 3D Repo’s full profile here
