HOW TO BRING INNOVATIONS TO LIFE

Innovation

is vital for economic growth, creating more

and better-paid

jobs. It enables businesses to grow and improves UK competitiveness. But how do businesses bring their innovations to life?

Philip Johnston CEO Trackwise Designs

“We had supplied the telecoms industry for more than 20 years, but our traditional product line was becoming obsolete. Successful manufacturers must continually reinvent themselves and we do that, developing specialist products using printed circuit technology.

In our last issue we published our first Tech 100 where we revealed 100 ambitious technology companies from across the region.

In this issue, we invited a few of them to meet and talk at our tech tround table, discussing in more detail the challenges and successes of tech-driven businesses.

Round table participants

Robert Milnes, CEO, Fertility Focus, Warwick

James Hygate, Founder and CEO, Green Fuels, Berkeley, Gloucestershire

Paul Bentham, Chief Product Officer, Immersive Labs, Bristol

Lee Jackson, Client Success Director, Moneyhub Financial Technology, Bristol

Kevin Pope, Group Managing Director, Protrack Solutions and BioStart Security, Gloucester

Philip Johnston, CEO, Trackwise Designs, Tewkesbury

David Lynes, Founder and CEO, Unique:IQ, Worcester

Neill Ricketts, Founder and CEO, Versarien, Forest of Dean (virtual participant)

Sponsors:

BPE Solicitors, Sarah Kenshall, Technology Partner

Hazlewoods Accountants, David Clift, Innovation and Technology Tax Partner

“Our journey has been as much about corporate as technology development. Some years ago, Rolls Royce Aero Engines came to us with a need, but they saw a relatively small-scale telecoms industry supplier and developed their own product with another, larger supplier. We had the engineering innovation to meet their need, and had we presented a more corporate face, we may have secured the work.

“We continued to innovate our wire harness replacement and are now selling this into the electric vehicle, medical and aerospace markets – among others. In 2018, we floated on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and in the last two years we’ve undertaken two finance rounds, acquired a business, signed a massive manufacturing deal and bought a 70,000 sq ft facility in Stonehouse to expand our manufacturing capability. We are a now a £50 million market cap business and I still think we are too small.

“We now target the world’s leading innovators, because with our tech we are more likely to sell to those who are on the innovation journey.”

“A company can have the best tech in the world but if they don’t deliver it to the market in the right manner, it’s easy to be sidelined.”

Rob Milnes CEO Fertility Focus

“We make products for monitoring the female reproductive cycle.

“Our products can advise women on their ovulation and cycle characteristics –helping them to conceive naturally or seek clinical advice and monitor treatment if they struggle.

“We have launched a clinical portal which helps women and their doctors understand when they might be suffering from other problems such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) – a major cause of infertility. We are now looking at diversifying into other women’s health issues.

“Our tech came from Bristol’s veterinary school, from two vets having to cull cattle during the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2000. They wanted to measure rapid temperature rises in cattle. That resulted in a patent for measuring very small changes in temperature in humans as well as animals for the purposes of confirming ovulation. We can now accurately measure core body temperature throughout womens’ reproductive cycles and the product can be used in the home and by doctors.

“We began by targeting our sales at doctors but found more success selling our product direct to consumers. As more women leave it later in life to conceive, fertility problems are increasing and our product, Ovusense, can help.

“We have raised around £11 million since 2005. Most of our money came through angels to begin with, often from those who had direct or family experience of the problem.”

David Lynes Founder and CEO of Unique IQ

“We deliver workforce scheduling tools to the homecare sector and have expanded to include medication management, digital care planning and embedded analytics. We have clients in the UK, including Home Instead senior care, Mencap and independent care providers, and in Europe. We have recently seen major growth as technology changes how care is delivered.

“Last year we launched a complete care management software system for home care providers. It offers fast, portable, intuitive and data-rich technology so care staff can devote their energy to providing person-centred care.

“We fell into the homecare sector almost by accident. Our first platform was targeted towards visit verification of office contract cleaners. Then we won significant contracts with Home Instead Senior Care, the country’s highest-rated home care agency

“They saw the opportunity for the removal of paper timesheets, so we pivoted into that sector. They also needed medicine management and carer activity logging –software which helps send carers to the right place at the right time, dealing with skills and continuity – as well as making sure they get paid correctly, and that the clients are charged correctly.

“Winning a significant client early gave us the revenue to focus on that sector and look at what they needed.”

Kevin Pope Group Managing Director, Protrack

“Protrack specialises in vehicle tracking, telematics and fleet software. However, we have established a new business called Biostart to develop our patented biometric, driver identification solution.

“This can record employees’ fingerprints from remote locations and send them to the vehicle for authorisation. Users can be added or removed easily using passwordprotected software from the back office.

“Many logistics companies have problems with people stealing vehicles if drivers leave the keys in the ignition. Our programme safely shuts the vehicle down when drivers exit the vehicle – even if they leave the engine running.

“They can’t restart it without fingerprint recognition. This has been around a long time, but we’ve patented the ability to record a fingerprint and send it to any vehicle in the world remotely.

“The potential market for our product is huge, so we have secured a European patent for Biostart.

“We are talking to Amazon about a 200-unit trial – they have 100,000 units in Europe. We have a phenomenal opportunity with vehicle rental and industrial machinery.

“There are also huge opportunities in the insurance industry, and we are now talking to partners to take BioStart to the wider market.”

Lee Jackson Client Success Director, Moneyhub Financial Technology

“Moneyhub is an open finance platform and app established in 2014 which takes advantage of open banking.

Open banking means banks can no longer hoard data and, in the right circumstances, can share it. Moneyhub’s app offers a picture of users’ spending habits and overall financial position and suggests ways to use that money more efficiently.

“We provide a version of the app to corporates such as Standard Life and Aon which offer it as a tool for their customers, or a perk. We secured significant funding from SPW ONE, established by Sir Peter Wood, the founder of Direct Line and Esure.

“Fintech companies come and go fast. Nearly a decade ago, when the open banking legislation was going through, one of our founders – a tech genius, wrote some analytical software to tell people how and what they were spending. It won prizes, got him noticed and initial investment.

“Early on the software started to attract investment from other businesses looking to shape the product to suit their needs.

“However, Dave Tonge, our Chief Technical Officer and Samantha Seaton, our CEO, had a clear vision for the product. Now the main users of our software are big pension companies and those providing financial services to corporates.

“Ideas germinate easily but can be lost just as quickly. It’s important to pivot to demand. There was a lot of early focus on selling the app direct to the consumer. That has potential, but a lot of competition too.”

Paul Bentham Chief Product O cer, Immersive Labs

“Immersive Labs was founded 2017 by James Hadley. We have grown fast and to date have raised $123 million. Our technology platform lets organisations understand the cybersecurity skills of their workforce and enhances their capabilities with targeted training.

“We currently employ around 260 people, mostly in Bristol and Boston, USA and are expanding globally. We plan to employ around 600 over the next two years.

“James Hadley is a force of nature. He previously worked for GCHQ, as I and several other of our employees did. He came up with the idea and built the prototype.

“He focused on growth. After pitching his business idea he’d go straight back to work calling prospects and networking while others would be in the bar or playing table tennis. James’ drive got us our first customers and investors, one of which was Goldman Sachs. When you have such a customer, it opens lots of doors.

“Our business is where it is because of our people and those early investors who took a punt.

“We are also lucky to have Robert Hannigan, the former Director of GCHQ, chairing our advisory board. His reputation gives us credibility.

“One of our biggest challenges is finding talented people. We are in Bristol because there’s a talent pool in the city and we make sure that the people we employ share our culture and values.”

Neill Ricketts Founder and CEO, Versarien

“I established Versarien in 2011 to exploit graphene in a number of ways. Currently this is in electronics in South Korea, energy in Spain, construction and textiles in the UK and paints and coatings in the US.

“We floated on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM the same year and have undertaken an acquisition or created a company every year since we floated.

“Getting a business up and running needs bravery and resilience We’ve had Brexit, Covid, the pingdemic, fuel shortages etc – but so has every business. Those with the determination to get up after being knocked are more likely to thrive.

“Funding has been an issue, as with many other businesses developing new innovations, and we have been fortunate in securing Innovate UK funding. Like Immersive Labs, getting the right skilled people to work for us is challenging too.

“We set up schemes in local secondary schools aiming to make students excited about our industry by the time they’re teenagers.

“For schools, teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) can be expensive, so for me that’s a big gap in government thinking.

“If I can offer good quality jobs to people at our new Forest of Dean factory, they’ll stay with us. For years the Forest of Dean was the centre of Rank Xerox’s European HQ and there are still highly skilled people in the area who currently travel outside to find work.”

James Hygate Founder and CEO, Green Fuels

“I established Green Fuels in 2003. We manufacture biorefineries, make biofuels from waste and undertake research and development to advance sustainable biofuels. We have operational plants across the world, including in Oman, India and Brazil, making fuel from products such as waste cooking oils and animal fats.

“Waste-derived biodiesel is one of the most carbon- efficient fuels available, and to date our equipment has displaced an estimated 6.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions (CO2 equivalent).

“Our customers produce around half a billion litres a year of fuel using our machines. In key markets we establish and operate our own production facilities.

“The Indian government has committed to cease exporting waste oil and will repurpose instead. It will require four billion litres a year so Green Fuels is setting up facilities to meet that requirement.”

“Recently Prince Charles revealed that his Aston Martin was converted to run on surplus English wine and whey from the cheese-making process. This was an early project for us which led to the company being granted a Royal Warrant. We also converted the Royal train to run purely on waste-derived biodiesel: the first in the world.”

“While we have had a lot of R&D grant funding from organisations such as Innovate UK, Horizon 2020 and the Department of Transport – probably up to £20 million, we fund the business out of our own income.”

Sarah Kenshall Technology Partner BPE Solicitors

“It was fascinating to hear the various challenges faced by our round table companies. A common thread was the familiar challenge around juggling the roles a founder must play. A great idea isn’t enough. You also need to secure the finance and be out there selling at the same time. Of course, in the technology space nothing stands still. It was interesting to hear how each company was able to adapt its great ideas, pivoting to new product lines in response to a changing world.

David Clift Innovation and Technology Tax Partner, Hazlewoods accountants

“It was great to hear some of the ‘reallife’ journeys covering such different technologies and sectors. For me, a particularly poignant theme was the importance of a tech company being able to pivot quickly to exploit new opportunities in an increasingly fastmoving tech environment. Whether moving from supplying traditional industries to high-tech customers (Trackwise), from targeting doctors to selling direct to the public (Fertility Focus), from servicing a contract cleaning market to a homecare market (Unique IQ), considering applying a logistics technology to an insurance market (Protrack); or adapting analytical banking software for pensions services (Moneyhub), Successful tech companies are those that not only have an interesting tech in the first place, but are also adept at finding innovative new uses, markets and variations for it. To misquote the song: ‘It’s not (just) what you’ve got, it’s the way that you use it.”