TECH CITY UK IDENTIFIES BRITAIN’S FUTURE DIGITAL
SCALEUPS
The Upscale programme from Tech City UK will power 30 of the fastest growing
UK tech companies on their scaling journey
28th January 2016 – LONDON: Tech City UK today announces the 30 digital
companies selected to join the first intake of its new Upscale programme. Following a
high level of exceptional applications and a competitive judging process, the
companies selected represent the emerging digital businesses with the most potential
for rapid scale and international growth.
Upscale in numbers:
• 90% of companies incorporated in the last six years
• Average fund raise thus far: $8M
• Average revenue: $1.8M
• Average number of employees: 30
• Average growth of sales revenue was 53% month-on-month - over the last
three months, where indicated as primary business metric
The first intake of businesses reflects the growing diversity of the UK’s digital
specialisms. Upscale companies also demonstrate the range of sectors being disrupted
by data-led innovation, where growth businesses are making sophisticated use of data
analytics to help with everything from determining credit risk to choosing what to
wear.
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Improbable uses data to allow us to build simulated worlds which lets us test
the impact of introducing autonomous cars, or changing patterns of energy
consumption
Touch Surgery allows surgeons to practice operations in virtual reality using
data to guide them step-by-step through each procedure
Lingvist is using mathematical and statistical models to build next generation
software to make language learning almost 10 times faster
Growth Intel uses data and machine-learning to provide clients with an
accurate market overview
The full list of Upscale companies is:
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E-commerce: Depop, Metail, Pact Coffee, Snap Fashion, Thread, Bloom &
Wild
Fintech: Seedrs, Elliptic, Growth Street, Property Partner, Sybenetix, Receipt
Bank
Data & Analytics: Growth Intel, Import, Improbable, Ometria, EDITED
Edtech: Administrate, Kano, Lingvist, Show My Homework
Hardware & IoT: Cocoon, M Squared Lasers, SAM Labs
Healthtech and biology: Touch Surgery, Zesty, Synthace
Other: Global App Testing, Wakelet, Appear Here
As part of the programme, the 30 Upscale companies will work with Scale Coaches
that have a proven track record of growing successful tech companies across the
world. Scale Coaches - including Skype founder Niklas Zennström, Techstars cofounder Brad Feld, and Unruly co-founder Sarah Wood - will share their experience
to help Upscale entrepreneurs address the specific challenges encountered by fastgrowth businesses.
Programme partners Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley LLP will support Upscale
entrepreneurs by offering bespoke legal and financial advice on scaling, including
those looking to expand into new markets like China or the US.
Upscale builds on Tech City UK’s commitment to support UK digital businesses at
every stage of their lifecycle and growth trajectory, from the Digital Business
Academy for very early stage entrepreneurs, to Future Fifty for much later stage
businesses.
Gerard Grech, CEO of Tech City UK, said: “Upscale from Tech City UK is a
grassroots initiative to coach the next generation of UK-based entrepreneurs. Upscale
has been built from the ground up, using direct feedback from company founders,
investors and ecosystem partners. I’d like to welcome everyone aboard and thank all
of our advisors and friends who helped this take off.”
Eileen Burbidge, Chair of Tech City UK and Upscale Advisor, said: “I’m thrilled
that Tech City UK is launching Upscale, which will provide valuable support and
resource to some of our fastest growing and most promising digital businesses in
Britain.”
Scale Coach Alex Chesterman, founder of Zoopla, said: “One thing I learned
during my time with Zoopla is that any UK digital company has the potential to
become a global player if they take advantage of the available resources. I’m glad to
help pass this on and see what I can learn from the next generation of digital success
stories.”
Scale Coach Sarah Wood, co-founder of Unruly, said: “I’m delighted to be a part
of this programme. Passing on the experience I gained leading a start-up from the
beginning through to acquisition will not only be rewarding on a personal level, but
beneficial to the digital economy as a whole.”
Alex Klein, co-founder of Kano, said: “Finding opportunities to connect with other
startups is very valuable. It’s incredibly helpful for our team to meet their peers in
other companies, as part of the Upscale programme, so that everyone can learn from
each other.”
Lloyd Price, co-founder of Zesty, said: “We think this Upscale is an exciting
programme to help us entrepreneurs share really difficult truths and lessons in order to
scale up. We’re proud to be a part of it.”
– ENDS –
Press contact:
Ben Honan
020 7199 2213
[email protected]
NOTES TO EDITORS
Upscale companies
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Administrate: provides training management and learning management
software to help organisations define, track, and deliver high quality education
Appear Here: is the leading marketplace for short-term space. Find, book and
list retail space, all online
Bloom & Wild: exists to make sending and receiving flowers the joy that it
should be, every time
Cocoon: creates an all-in-one home security product that protects the most
important place your life
Depop: is a mobile-first marketplace for consumer goods
EDITED: is the industry standard for how fashion retailers get their pricing
and product right
Elliptic: identify illicit activity on the Bitcoin blockchain, and our clients
include financial institutions and law enforcement agencies
Global App Testing: makes the feedback loop between development and test
instant, helping you release high quality products in the fastest time
Growth Street: an alternative finance platform for SMEs, that offers
borrowers great finance terms on business overdrafts and delivers a superior,
risk-adjusted return for lenders
GrowthIntel: accelerates B2B trade using NLP, data science and machine
learning – turning primary source unstructured data into predictive go-tomarket intelligence
Import.io: is a web-data platform that puts the power of the machine-readable
web in your hands. Individuals and businesses can turn messy websites into
structured tables of data
Improbable: Improbable is developing SpatialOS; a distributed operating
system that makes building simulated worlds possible
Kano: wants to inspire a new creative generation that has the toolkit to make,
learn and play with technology
Lingvist: is building the next generation language learning software. The goal
is to make language learning 10x faster by using mathematical and statistical
methods
M Squared Lasers Ltd: research, design and manufacture world-class lasers
and advanced photonic systems for use in a myriad of academic and
commercial applications
Metail: creates technology that enables consumers to try on clothing online
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Ometria: is a customer insight and marketing automation platform that helps
retailers truly understand their customers, and personalise the way they
communicate with each one
Pact Coffee: delivers incredible freshly roasted coffee by post – shipping the
coffee within 7 days of roasting and grinding it at the last moment, to make it
easy for people to drink fresher coffee everyday
Property Partner: allows anyone to buy and sell shares in residential
property at the click of a button
Receipt Bank: is the leading provider of automation to accountants and
bookkeepers around the world
SAM Labs: creates an amazing Internet of Things education kit
Seedrs: is the leading equity crowdfunding platform in Europe
Show My Homework: is a platform that is re-inventing the century old
problem of homework for education systems around the world
Snap Fashion: leads consumers to exactly what they want to buy online
through visual search
Sybenetix: the working with hedge funds, banks and asset managers to
systematically improve investment performance and conduct management
Synthace: engineers biology for applications across health, food, energy and
manufacturing
Thread: helps men dress well using a combination of human stylists and
machine learning algorithms
Touch Surgery: empowers and connects a global community of surgeons to
make better decisions. The app takes the operating room and puts it into your
pocket though virtual reality
Wakelet: helps people to organise content from across the web into stunning,
shareable collections
Zesty: is the UK’s leading Digital Health Platform that allows patients to book
and manage healthcare appointments, on any device, in under 60 seconds
Scale Coaches
 Niklas Zennström – Skype, Atomico
 Brad Feld – Techstars, Foundry Group
 Alex Chesterman – Zoopla
 Saul Klein – LoveFilm, Seedcamp
 Sarah Wood – Unruly
 Greg Marsh – One Fine Stay
 Simon Calver – LoveFilm, Moo
 Jerry Colonna – Reboot.io
 Alexandra Depledge – Hassle.com
 Tracy Doree – Llustre, Spring Ventures
 Doug Monro – Adzuna
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Anthony Fletcher – Graze
About Tech City UK
Tech City UK is a publicly, funded non-profit team with a private sector mentality.
Our focus is on creating the optimum conditions for digital technology businesses and
entrepreneurs to thrive across the UK. Through our programmes and policy work, we
accelerate the growth of digital businesses in London and across cities at all stages of
their development. We advocate and aim to make life better for digital entrepreneurs.
We started life in 2010, with a mission to support the emerging Silicon Roundabout
tech cluster in East London. Anchored in Shoreditch, we’ve grown into an
organisation that accelerates the growth of digital businesses at all stages of their
development, in London and cities across the UK. Examples of our programmes
include Future Fifty, Upscale, Digital Business Academy, Tech Nation, HQUK and Tech North.
About Upscale
Upscale is a new pilot programme designed to provide scale-up tech businesses with
expertise from a set of world-class Scale Coaches – who have been influential in the
growth of some of the world’s most successful digital companies.