A UNIQUE IDEA SECURES INVESTMENT FUNDING FOR GROWTH

How do you support your remote and mobile workforce as they go about their daily work? It’s a question being asked more often, in particular by local authorities having to stretch their social care budgets even further.

Enter Unique IQ. Founded in 2003 by David Lynes, this Redditch software company serves the health, social care and cleaning sectors.

Unique IQ is now growing at a phenomenal rate as its key products, the IQ:timecard and IQ:careplanner are being more widely adopted by major home care franchises such as Home Instead and high-profile charities including Marie Curie and the Carers Trust.

The IQ:timecard management software for remote workers enables businesses to monitor, schedule and manage field staff via a centralised system. The IQ:careplanner is a home care scheduling and care planning software.

Necessary form-filling takes precious contact time away from the care worker with their patients. Unique IQ’s systems can free up the care worker’s time by enabling them to dictate rather than writing their notes, and monitor patients’ medications in real time, rather than writing notes which may not be read in time.

Last November, Unique IQ secured £250,000 of scale-up investment from venture capital firm Midven, which is managing part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund.

David said: “The investment allowed us to nearly triple our workforce. Now we employ 22 and have expanded our sales, marketing, finance, administration and customer support teams.

“Now we are more proactive and we’ve won some significant contracts.”

The company is on a five-year growth strategy, which includes expansion overseas – it already works with clients in Ireland, Switzerland and the USA. By growing existing contracts as well as securing new ones, David predicts company turnover will increase eight-fold within five years.

“I own and run the business, and for nearly 15 years I’ve worked long days and hard nights, but in the last 18 months it’s really taken off and we have renewed our enthusiasm as we see the benefits for hardpressed care workers in particular.”