Sci-Tech Daresbury announce new business programme for North West start ups

The Future Club. The programme provides a range of technical and business support to innovative science and technology start-ups, and will help each business to realise its growth potential.

All based in the North West and hand-picked by Sci-Tech Daresbury, the specially selected group were chosen in recognition of their significant business potential. Membership benefits include early access to the business support expertise, partnerships and networks at the campus, as well as receiving greater visibility within the business and scientific communities.

The campus’s vibrant working environment provides a range of hot desk, office, laboratory and workshop facilities across a number of buildings on the site. In addition, Sci-Tech Daresbury is also renowned in the region for its high-value networking events and collaboration opportunities. This coupled with its business and funding support activities has seen business survival rates for companies on site of 95% and sales growth rates in excess of 25% per year.

The members are as follows:

• Potentialisation is an online platform which provides an automated holistic coaching system around personology (including emotional intelligence, motivation and personality traits). In collaboration with a variety of experts, the company aims to deliver learning paths and tools and will use artificial intelligence, large data and machine learning to research and improve its service offering. Commenting on their new membership, co-founder

Jon Twigge, said: “We are really pleased to be joining the Sci-Tech network. The Future Club’s many benefits will be vital in bringing Potentialisation to the human growth market and helping us to improve the UK’s productivity and wellbeing. The support of Sci-Tech Daresbury has the potential to open many doors on an international scale, and we look forward to partnering with organisations from the North West and beyond.”

• Inspirze is an award-winning digital employee engagement platform which addresses the challenge of sustaining an organisation’s ability to live the brand. First established in South Africa, its recent expansion to the UK has seen it embark on a strategy of participation and growth in the Liverpool City Region, including taking an active part in the LCR SUSTAIN Programme as part of the Metro Mayor's Business Growth Package.

Gary Swale, CEO of Inspirze, said: “We are thrilled to have been selected to join The Future Club. The prestige and increased visibility provided by Sci-Tech Daresbury will add significantly to the Inspirze brand and reputation and is a natural next step from the LCR Programmes and our role on the Sci-Tech Network, allowing us to build on the relationships we have established over the last year in a more targeted and focused way.”

• SMETER (incorporated in December 2020 as SMETER Research Ltd) is a business advisory firm, designed to deconstruct and support organisations in practicing effective sustainability. Its directors are Malcolm Evans, primarily a financier/entrepreneur and Andrew Beechener, an IT moderniser.

Commenting on the company’s new membership, Malcolm said: “Market experience shows that there is a major business appetite for sustainability activities. We are already well-aware of Sci-Tech Daresbury and convinced that it is the perfect centre for mass-scale activity around a quasi-scientific national and international quest. The Future Club provides just such a base and we look forward to the future and current conversations it has already enabled with both government and business leaders.”

• Circada was first established in late 2017. The start-up aims to improve health and wellbeing through the production and manufacture of its straightforward health-oriented smart lighting product, which works by synchronising the body’s natural clock with nature. The company is working with Durham University under an Innovate UK grant to undertake user-testing in intensive care. Circada hopes to bring further benefits to other markets such as offices and the consumer, and are in talks with Liverpool John Moores University to trial in care homes.

Commenting on The Future Club, Director at Circada, Sam Lewtas, said: “The Sci-Tech Daresbury campus is a key destination for research and development within the region, and we are really looking forward to making use of its excellent support and facilities. Paired with a convenient location in the Liverpool City Region and strong transport links across the North West technology network, the many skills and opportunities offered by the Future Club will no-doubt provide us with excellent market access.”

• Inventia is a technology and innovation company and provides multiple R&D products for a broad range of industries, as well as software and electronics consultancy services. Founded in 2019, it was recently granted £75K by Innovate UK to develop the SimX app, the first sim-based track and trace app built to help government authorities fight against COVID-19 using both telecommunications and big data analytics.

Amir Kotb, Head of Technology and founder of Inventia, said: “We have enjoyed great success over the past year thanks to our SimX app, and we are really look forward to utilising Sci-Tech Daresbury’s extensive network of similar minded companies and opportunities to  further this progress and collaborate with the governmental agencies through the campus.”

Sci-Tech Daresbury is one of the UK’s leading science and innovation campuses and is a private-public joint-venture partnership between developer Langtree, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Halton Borough Council. Last year, despite business and economic disruptions caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the site welcomed 28 new and expanding tenants.

Each of the Future Club members will also be able to benefit from the expertise of Sci-Tech Daresbury’s Gold Partners; eight handpicked organisations which offer first-class support for Sci-Tech Daresbury tenants in a range of business and research areas, including Grant Thornton, IBM and the University of Liverpool. In addition, Active Coach and Techcelerate Ventures have also agreed to provide additional support and expertise to Future Club members.

John Downes, chief executive of Langtree and chairman of Sci-Tech Daresbury, said: “Our status as a global innovation leader attracts both new and established businesses on an international scale, and collaborative schemes such as the Future Club are crucial in enabling us to provide companies with dynamic networking and funding opportunities.

“UK businesses have needed more help than ever in 2020 due to the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and now is a particularly important time for us to be investing in the support and growth of science and technology companies. We are thrilled to welcome these five ambitious start-ups to our growing list of tenants and look forward to seeing them develop further throughout the programme.”