he north’s digital economy is creating jobs at 10 times the rate of the region’s non-digital sectors, according to a recent report.
To celebrate and promote the emergence of this so-called digital powerhouse, Tech North on Thursday night held the grand final of its Northern Stars competition to uncover the region’s 10 brightest tech startups.
Twenty finalists, who made it through regional heats, pitched their businesses in front of three judges and a crowd of 300 at Manchester’s old Granada studios.
The prize for the 10 winning companies includes a stand at TechCrunch Disrupt in London, an investor pitch event at Bloomberg HQ, also in London, and access to subsidised Tech North delegations – such as to SXSW, the interactive media festival held in Austin, Texas.
Tech North, which carried out the report into the north’s digital economy, is a non-profit created to support the growth of digital businesses across the region. This year, its Northern Stars were:
DueCourse
Manchester-based DueCourse allows SMEs to release funds tied up in their unpaid invoices – taking the stress out of getting paid on time. The FinTech company has created a risk and pricing algorithm to assess which invoices to offer an advance against.
Judge Harry Davies, from Telefonica’s start-up accelerator Wayra, said: “DueCourse offer a very interesting solution in terms of helping small businesses grow, thrive and scale in a way that helps them manage their cash flow. Small businesses are the lifeblood of the UK so it’s a great problem to be solving.”
SwapBots are a collectable toy and video game hybrid brought to life by a smartphone or tablet using augmented reality. The Liverpool-based business offers toys at pocket-money prices and the parent-friendly product has no in-app purchasing, meaning children can’t buy upgrades with one click.
Judge Karen Kerrigan, chief legal officer at crowdfunding platform Seedrs, said: “This proposition is absolutely captivating. They are using augmented in a really appropriate way for the modern child market.”
Ash.TV
Hull-based Ash.TV has created an auto-playing video advertising platform for mobile, where advertisers can target audiences by selecting their age, gender, location, interests and occupation.
CEO Ash Lewis said: “This award will give us an amazing opportunity to meet partners and investors – and to break through from the north to the south of England, too. That is really important to a company like ours which relies on partners in the media, marketing and advertising industries.”
Judge Karen Kerrigan said: “Video advertising is something I’m naturally sceptical about, but Ash.TV is addressing a flaw by optimising muted video. I think they’re going to go a long way.”
Dream Agility
Bury-based Dream Agility is designed to help retailers and digital agencies that manage campaigns using Google Shopping – automating most of the work involved. It offers retailers a cheaper and quicker way for their products to get noticed on Google Shopping. Its tech also manages Facebook, Amazon, eBay and Affiliate Window.
CEO Elizabeth Clark said the company had been described as the “Rolls-Royce of feeds”. Judge Karen Kerrigan said: “I was impressed by Elizabeth’s energy and passion. If you have those things, you’re 50% there in terms of running a successful startup.”
Radio.co
Based in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, Radio.co is a live streaming platform that allows anyone to create an online radio station. It runs entirely from the cloud and replaces conventional desktop software that is still commonplace in the radio industry.
James Mulvaney, the founder and CEO, said: “Manchester’s an up-and-coming city and it’s easy to hire talent here. When I first came to Manchester there wasn’t a tech scene as such whereas now it’s very clear there is an emerging tech scene, and a culture around startups, which is great.”
Judge Harry Davies said: “This is a really tough market to crack – it’s a crowded space – but Radio.co has already got some really good traction.”
Valuechain
Based in Lancaster, Valuechain has developed a smart manufacturing software system that it hopes will become the Facebook of business-to-business collaboration – improving competitiveness of global advanced manufacturing supply chains. It helps small businesses to improve their systems and collect good data, allows businesses to share data with their customers and suppliers, and lets big companies look at risk and how to improve the supply chain.
CEO Tom Dawes said: “We’re all engineers from a manufacturing background so we’re not in any tech circles. This award will allow us to network with other tech startups, meet investors and link up with strategic partners.”
Judge Karen Kerrigan said: “Tom has identified a need that even big corporations are prepared to adopt. His projected £50m revenue was very impressive, too.”
Living Lens
Liverpool-based Living Lens turns video content into manageable data by analysing speech, actions and sentiment. For example a brand could use data mined from video to get feedback from its customers, so it can better understand them.
CEO Carl Wong said: “The thing we do is in a very embryonic industry. The big consumer insight companies and huge brands are just now starting to realise that it’s very valuable because the world now talks to each other in video.”
TopicDNA is a social profiling and ad targeting technology that uses a classification system to profile every individual’s interests and passions across all major social networks. The Liverpool-based firm helps brands to profile their social audiences and assists them in targeting potential new customers.
Co-founder Jason Binks said: “We’re a really, early stage startup, we’re pre-funding, so we wouldn’t be able to attend the prize events on our own steam.”
Judge Karen Kerrigan said: “If TopicDNA can deliver on what Facebook has achieved in profiling users then they will have the lion’s share of the non-Facebook market and therefore a captive user base.”
ProxiSmart
ProxiSmart’s flagship solution, ParkingPerx, aims to take make city centre car parking cheaper and easier. The Newcastle business has created an app which allows the user to get free parking by making qualified purchases in nearby shops, increasing footfall and spending in declining high streets.
Judge Harry Davies said: “Who wouldn’t want to park for free? Even now in 2016, parking is a nightmare that hasn’t been solved. ProxiSmart has a unique angle in that both the customers and merchants win.”
Airtime Rewards
FinTech startup Airtime Rewards has created a retail reward system for mobile users. The Manchester business has developed a new reward currency, giving major retailers the capability to reward consumers back to their mobile phone accounts – leading to cheaper phone bills.
Co-Founder and CEO Adam Ward said: “For us, exposure is the most important thing. I’ve followed the successes of the winners from last year and I’m looking forward to our journey over the next 12 months.”
Judge Karen Kerrigan said: “This is a smart company that has engaged an impressive suite of retailers, which stands them in good stead for the challenges ahead.”
NOTE CREDIT: https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2016/nov/19/top-10-tech-startups-north-england?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-2