Loading ...
Techceler...
Technology & Engineering
Manchester
360
0
Try Now
Log In
Pricing
3 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 If you’ve ever wondered who the top 100 tech companies in the North of England are, look no further. This publication showcases and celebrates the fastest-growing businesses in the region. It marks the second Northern Tech 100 league table, a list produced by our partner GP Bullhound, and it’s great to see so many companies remain on the table, as well as seeing so many new faces join the ranks. The Car Buying Group topped the table in 2017, and it’s impressive to see them take third position in 2018 having doubled staff numbers in the past year and grown 191% in three years. New entries this year include the social media influencer agency Social Chain and we were delighted to see data analytics firm Peak make it onto this year’s table – a company that’s been on both our Northern Stars and Upscale growth programmes. The league table was born out of GP Bullhound’s annual Northern Tech Awards. We saw an opportunity to work together to shine an even bigger spotlight on as many companies as possible, and that’s what this publication aims to do. We want to celebrate the growth of the sector in the North of England, chal- lenge the perception that most tech startups are based in London, share insights from the companies that are blazing a trail, and openly discuss some of the challenges the sector faces. We’d love to hear your views on this year’s league table and the growth of the tech scene in the North – let us know on Twitter using #NorthernTech100 and we’ll see you there. V I C K I S H I E L E D I T O R I N C H I E F Head of Content & Learning, Tech Nation @ V I C K I S H I E L O N T W I T T E R INTRO- DUCTION CON- TENTS Introduction Gerard Grech, Tech Nation Hugh Campbell, GP Bullhound Emma Rawlinson, In Touch Networks Darren Jobling, ZeroLight Coworking Spaces of the North Laurence Newman, CurrentBody Sarat Pediredla, Hedgehog Lab James Hall, Parallax Tech Nation Report 2018 Natasha Sayce-Zelem, Sky Rod Knox, Virtual College Credits 3 1 0 1 6 2 0 3 2 4 0 5 0 6 0 6 8 8 0 8 2 9 2 9 8 1. NEW ENTRY MOVED UP SINCE 2017 SAME POSITION MOVED DOWN SINCE 2017 6 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 1 . I N T O U C H N E T W O R K S M A N C H E S T E R , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S A Deloitte Fast 50 regional winner two years running and the 86th Fastest Growing Company in Europe according to the Financial Times, In Touch Networks has transformed the way companies hire board members and senior freelance professionals. In Touch Networks is made up of an expert group of online networks, remov- ing costs from the recruitment process and bringing elite professionals and employers together. The networks enable organisations like KPMG, Santander and the NHS to gain access to candidates of the highest calibre. 2 . C H A M E L E O N T E C H N O L O G Y H A R R O G A T E , H A R D W A R E Harrogate-based Chameleon Technology is one of Europe’s leading providers of connected home solutions — winning the European Energy Monitor of the Year award at the Smart Energy Summit in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Energy retailers across the UK and abroad rely on Chameleon’s accurate, easy-to-use in-home energy monitors. A focus on innovation and user-centred design underpins the company’s approach. 3 . T H E C A R B U Y I N G G R O U P W A K E F I E L D , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Since topping the Northern Tech 100 league table in 2017, The Car Buying Group has almost tripled its turnover, surpassing £50m within just four years of the company being founded. The company started when its founders recognised the opportunity to disrupt the monopoly held by one company in the online car purchasing and selling industry. By making customer convenience the firm’s primary focus, The Car Buying Group succeeded in grabbing a significant market share and enjoyed 191 per cent growth over three years. Since 2017, the company’s staff has doubled in size but the firm has remained loyal to the North, retaining its headquarters in Wakefield. 7 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 4 . F R U U G O . C O M U LV E R S T O N , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Fruugo has made it possible for people in 32 countries to access its transactional marketplace, offering retail services in 17 languages and 21 currencies — all from its base in Ulverston, Cumbria. With a mission to “provide great choice and the freedom to shop safely wherever you are”, Fruugo has attracted retailers by offering its services on a no sale, no fee basis. The company handles transactions, payments and the vast majority of customer service issues, making it excep- tionally easy for retailers to sell their products through Fruugo’s global checkout. Year-on-year growth of 141 per cent has helped Fruugo to forge partnerships with e-commerce firms like Visualsoft, whose client, online footwear retailer Charles Clinkard, reported an extra £40,000 of monthly revenue from having its products available on Fruugo. 5 . T H E L E A D A G E N C Y L I V E R P O O L , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Anton Hanley was 19-years-old when he founded The Lead Agency. Just 16 years later, he is at the helm of the largest new car lead generation business in the UK. The Lead Agency supports more than 25 UK automotive manufacturers, helping them to grow their customer base through lead technology and a multi-channel contact centre. The firm names Audi, BMW and Volkswagen among its clients and, on the back of its proven track record in the automotive industry, has expanded its offering into property and higher education. With a £10m turnover expected this year and new offices already open in London and New York, the Liverpool- based firm has doubled its workforce in the last 18 months. 6 . S O C I A L C H A I N M A N C H E S T E R , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Steven Bartlett, the 25-year-old CEO and co-founder of Social Chain, has become a sought-after public speaker and widely followed internet personality after the rapid success of his marketing agency. The company formed in 2014 and quickly attracted huge global brands to its client list by taking a “social first” approach to marketing, tailoring content for particular platforms and engaging audiences with remarkable success. The growth of Social Chain prompted Bartlett to establish Media Chain, which aims, in his own words, “to own big social media properties”. 7. O R I G I N B R O A D B A N D R O T H E R H A M , I T S E R V I C E S Origin Broadband is the UK’s sixth largest broadband company and is on target to surpass 250,000 customers by 2020. The company’s growth since its launch in 2011 attracted £5m investment from Calculus Capital in 2017, which allowed Origin to move its head office from two sites in Doncaster to a single, larger base in Rotherham. The award-winning ISP has made staff welfare a priority and the company’s team of 149 were offered shorter work- ing hours and increased holiday allowances. 8 . G I A C O M H E S S L E , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Winner of Distributor of the Year (sub £100m) at the 2017 CRN Channel awards, East Yorkshire-based service provider Giacom is enjoying unprecedented growth. Ranked 24th in last year’s Northern Tech 100, Giacom World Networks has been operating since 1991 and recently partnered with world-leading cyber security company Symantec to enhance the email and web protection it offers to tens of thousands of consumers and businesses. Giacom is the largest cloud marketplace in Europe for IT support professionals, providing customers with Office 365, Hosted Exchange, Acronis Cloud Backup, BitDefender Hosted Backup and Anti-Virus. 8 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 9 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 GERARD GRECH, CEO, TECH NATION LONDON 10 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 11 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 GERARD GRECH CEO OF TECH NATION W H A T D O E S T E C H N A T I O N O F F E R T E C H C O M P A N I E S I N T H E N O R T H O F E N G L A N D ? The digital tech sector in the North has expanded rapidly in the last few years, with many new companies, more jobs and more investment attracted to companies based in the region. We’re excited about this growth and are encouraging more companies to join our programmes and activities this year. The Northern Tech 100 league table shows just how many fast-growth compa- nies there are and we’d like to see more of them enter our growth programmes including Founders’ Network, Upscale and Future Fifty, depending on which growth stage. The Digital Business Academy also offers free online courses on everything from developing a digital product to running a social media campaign. W H Y T H E M O V E F R O M T E C H N O R T H A N D T E C H C I T Y U K T O T E C H N A T I O N ? We’re bringing together the resources of Tech City UK and Tech North to help us spread the lessons learned from the vibrant ecosystems in London and the North to other parts of the country. We aim to build a strong national network that is capable of helping businesses compete on the world stage. In April this year, Tech North and Tech City UK merged to become Tech Nation. The new organisation will take its growth programmes and initiatives to startups and scaleups across the UK. Here the organisation’s CEO Gerard Grech talks about what this expanded remit means for companies in the North of England. 12 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “Pulling together the resources of Tech City UK and Tech North, Tech Nation will provide new momentum to the acceleration of the digital tech sector in the North.” — GERARD GRECH, TECH NATION 13 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 W H A T ’ S T H E B I G V I S I O N ? We believe the UK is the best place in the world to start and grow a digital business. We demonstrate this through our data, insights and storytelling. We’re also facilitating this by building a national network of ambitious entrepreneurs, all of whom will benefit from improved access to knowledge and connections across the country. H O W W I L L Y O U A C H I E V E T H A T ? We focus on four main areas - growth programmes tailored to each stage of the business lifecycle, sharing digital entrepreneurship skills through the Digital Business Academy, providing access to Tier 1 visas to bring exceptional talent from overseas to the UK, and championing the UK’s digital sector through data, case studies and outreach. To carry on the work we have started in the North we want as many Northern companies as possible to join our growth programmes and other initiatives. H O W D O E S T H A T L O O K O N T H E G R O U N D ? Our team is spread out across the country, including Liverpool and Manchester in the North West, Leeds and Sheffield in Yorkshire, and Newcastle in the North East. This includes our National Entrepreneur Engagement Managers in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, whose role it is to work with companies in their wider regions to help them get involved in the programmes and networks that are right for them and their business. W H A T C A N C O M P A N I E S G E T I N V O LV E D W I T H N E X T ? Tech Nation is going on tour across the UK. There are events scheduled from May to October in 11 cities, and we hope to see a strong turnout from members of the UK’s digital tech community. I’d encourage companies to check out our new website technation.io for details on our events, programmes and initiatives that might benefit them, and to get involved in Tech Nation’s powerful network. TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO TECHNATION.IO 14 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 T H E U K N E T W O R K F O R A M B I T I O U S E N T R E P R E N E U R S We empower ambitious tech entrepreneurs to grow faster through growth programmes for early, mid and late-stage businesses, digital entrepreneurship skills, a visa scheme for exceptional talent, and by using data to champion the UK’s digital sector. Find out how we can help your business at technation.io @TechNation @TechNationHQ @TechNationHQ # W E A R E T E C H N A T I O N 15 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 HUGH CAMPBELL, CO-FOUNDER, GP BULLHOUND MANCHESTER 16 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 17 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 2018 marks the first year in which we have taken the Northern Tech Awards outside of England, in an effort which we hope will strengthen ties across the border. Scotland is already famous for delivering world-famous technology companies such as Skyscanner and FanDuel, however we are also excited by the long list of fast-growing businesses such as TVSquared, Outplay and Aquila Insights, which we hope will enjoy similar success. 2017 proved to be a prosperous year with stock markets finishing the year at all-time highs. The UK technology sector continued to demonstrate its promi- nence across Europe, securing over $5.4bn in VC funding – more than twice its nearest rivals in Germany and France. Such investment is coupled with strong competition to secure the best talent from around the world. The technology industry’s focus is shifting away from China and the USA towards Europe, where the UK is in pole position for investment. This has cre- ated an unprecedented opportunity for the North. Capital is being pushed to Europe by the high valuations of Chinese and American tech businesses. That capital is looking for better value, which is exactly what the North has to offer. HUGH CAMPBELL MANAGING PARTNER & CO-FOUNDER OF GP BULLHOUND Hugh has worked with all the leading growth equity funds in Europe and has sold businesses to Google, Facebook, Disney, Accenture and Experian amongst others. Here he reviews highlights from the GP Bullhound Northern Tech 100 league table and current challenges for the North. 18 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 The Northern Tech 100 league table shows that it’s not just about Manchester; it’s about the whole region. It demonstrates that successful technology busi- nesses can be built outside of the core tech clusters in the UK. Never before have we so consistently created billion-dollar technology companies, and the likes of Blue Prism, Radius Payments and The Hut Group are breaking through the Unicorn level. Institutional funds have huge amounts of capital to invest and they are looking at the region for the first time and they are seeing the success stories that they have missed out on. The recent acquisitions of CallCredit and Sky Bet, both with headquarters in Leeds and previously in the Northern Tech 100 League Table, for £1bn and £3.4bn respectively are testament to the value being created by businesses in the Northern tech ecosystem. We ran analysis on public-quoted technology companies and found there are 13 based in the North with a market cap of over £500m pounds. Public com- panies in this region are massively outperforming the general benchmarks, and underneath them are a whole bunch of firms that are growing quickly, some of which will remain independent while others go public. E-commerce remains a very strong sector across the whole region, particu- larly in Manchester where we have a history of trading that goes back to the industrial revolution. The success of businesses like Currentbody and Music Magpie underline the region’s prowess in e-commerce. Gaming continues to be another huge success story for the region. The stand- out deal in this space was the sale to Warner Brothers of Playdemic, whose game Golf Clash hit the App Store’s top five and is grossing somewhere between $1m -$2m dollars a day. Other notable recent successes in the gaming sector include Dundee’s Outplay, whose revenues are doubling year-on-year, and Sheffield-based Sumo, which acquired its fourth studio. Current challenges for the North centre around access to talent. The advent of Brexit means we have a reduced inflow of skills from the EU. The resulting uncertainty means a promising Polish software engineer might choose to go to Berlin rather than the UK. Hopefully that’s going to be temporary and, when there’s a clarification around freedom of movement, it might not be too restrictive. The second challenge is to build public recognition that this region is home to many great technology businesses. People look at the UK and still think about London alone. The PR challenge for the region is to change perceptions until the North is known less for football and more for tech. The graduate talent across all of these wonderful universities in the region continues to be strong. The big challenge is to make sure it doesn’t leave and go to London or overseas, thinking very carefully about how you get that and make sure that talent finds work locally. Here in the North we can offer much better, much lower costs of living and a much higher quality of life; local suc- cess stories provide the evidence that those who are thriving here, should stay. 19 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “Here in the North we can offer much better, much lower costs of living and a much higher quality of life; local success sto- ries provide the evidence that those who are thriving here, should stay.” — HUGH CAMPBELL, GP BULLHOUND 20 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 EMMA RAWLINSON, CEO, IN TOUCH NETWORKS MANCHESTER 21 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 EMMA RAWLINSON CEO OF IN TOUCH NETWORKS H O W D I D I N T O U C H N E T W O R K S B E G I N ? It was originally set up to turn the industry on its head, in a way. Our founder was an executive headhunter who had a lot of clients wanting non-exec roles, and a lot of clients on the other side who wanted non-execs but didn’t want to pay the fees for them. He said: ‘You know what, I’m going to put you guys together and we will charge the people who want a job, but not charge the people that are looking for non-execs.’ That was the initial concept and the business has just grown from there. H O W W O U L D Y O U D E S C R I B E A N O N - E X E C U T I V E ? Our business helps people transition from being an executive, for example from being a CEO, to being a non-executive. When you’re a CEO you’re used to being the loudest voice; you delegate, you’re in the detail and the day-to-day running of that business. When you switch into the role of a non-executive it’s very, very different. You’re there to influence, to add a different perspective, to look at the long-term strategy of the business and give an overview. That’s quite a transition for people. And that’s where we realised that just putting two groups of people together isn’t necessarily the best for either party. We developed a course called ‘Ahead of the Curve’, which is a seven-week webinar program taking people through that shift in mindset, including what will be expected of them in the boardroom, how they will add value, and how people will perceive them. H O W H A S T H E B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P E D ? It has been very fast-paced, but crucially we have devel- oped a culture that allows us to recognise the gaps in how customers’ needs are served. When customers say: ‘Does your membership do this?’ and our answer is no, we find out whether there is any reason why it can’t. We listen to what our customers want and try to offer them everything they need along the journey to achieving their goals. We met with Emma Rawlinson of In Touch Networks to talk about the Manchester-based company’s development, international expansion and what comes next. 22 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “When customers say: ‘Does your membership do this?’ and our answer is no, we find out whether there is any reason why it can’t.” — EMMA RAWLINSON, IN TOUCH NETWORKS 23 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 IN TOUCH NETWORKS, MANCHESTER 24 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 H O W H A S T H E C O M P A N Y G R O W N ? Our membership expanded; revenue growth has also come from the ad- dition of products, such as Ahead of the Curve, our CV writer service, and the one-to-one executive coaching we offer people who want to achieve specific goals. We also run a suite of events, because ultimately people need to network. There tends to be a speaker covering a specific topic at those events, but then there’s also the opportunity for candidates to speak to each other. Attendees tend to be people who are all at the same level, at the same stage of their career, and they all have similar questions, so it’s a good forum where they can bounce ideas off each other. H O W D O Y O U K E E P U P W I T H G R O W T H ? Our biggest recruitment drive is in sales. On average, we take on six people a fortnight in sales and trying to bring people in can be tough. You have to interview a lot of candidates to find people who fit with the culture and who want to be here. When a business grows very quickly, departments sprout up and you get to a pivotal point where you need a leader for each of those teams. We’ve just been on a recruitment drive for new directors in each of our different departments to make sure that each has its own leader. We have created a really fun culture and it’s all about people enjoying being at work. Everyone is on this growth train; they know where the business wants to get to and everybody has bought into that. When you’re all trying to achieve the same thing and you all believe in the business, that’s a happy place to be. 25 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 H O W D I D Y O U B E C O M E C E O ? I joined about six months ago. My background is predominantly private equity and finance, so I’d say my role here is to look at the business with a financial set of eyes and say: ‘Okay, how can I work alongside our sales and marketing director to make sure the core of this business is strong?’ C A N Y O U T E L L U S A B O U T B E I N G I N M A N C H E S T E R ? It’s brilliant, and it’s really exciting. It means it’s hard to recruit developers, because there’s a number of tech businesses based in Manchester all going for the same pool of people, but it’s exciting that Manchester has got so many of those businesses here. There’s more acceptance in the market that tech busi- nesses are expanding and that they are going to be the growth of the future. W H A T ’ S N E X T F O R I N T O U C H N E T W O R K S ? We’re moving into the US imminently, which is a big step for us. There’s a huge shift in the US towards people having a freelance career rather than a full-time career. International growth is one way that we can expand, and the other way is through our networks. We take a network and we grow it and build it and look at what is the best product for our customer. We’ve also got our eye on future networks; we are looking at what is working for various groups of people so that we can establish the most useful areas to build products around. 9 . H E D G E H O G L A B N E W C A S T L E U P T O N T Y N E , I T S E R V I C E S With offices in the UK, USA, Denmark and India, Hedgehog Lab has grown rapidly since Sarat Pediredla and Mark Forster founded the technology consultancy in 2007. Having built its reputation on exceptional digital applica- tions for smartphones, tablets, desktops and wearables, the Newcastle firm’s expanding team is now exploring how mobile, immersive and AI technologies can influence sectors such as retail, energy and utilities. Hedgehog Labs’ mission is “to be the best post-PC tech- nology consultancy in the world” and the company’s clients include Santander, Mitusbushi, EDF Energy and Channel 4 among others. 1 0 . M A T I L L I O N A LT R I N C H A M , I T S E R V I C E S Altrincham-based firm Matillion was founded in 2011 and hit the headlines three years later when it achieved reve- nues of £1m for the first time. The foundations of Matillion’s success were built on busi- ness intelligence and analytics software, which quickly became popular in the UK and abroad, helping the firm to achieve at least 50 per cent year-on-year growth in its first three years. The company’s focus is now on delivering modern, cloud-native data integration technology, providing simple, scalable, cost-effective cloud integration tools. Having launched in Knutsford, Matillion moved to its Altrincham office in 2017 following the launch of two flag- ship products: Matillion ETL for BigQuery and Matillion ETL for Snowflake. 1 1 . B I G C H A N G E L E E D S , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Leeds-based app development firm BigChange cele- brated its fifth birthday in January, and has achieved remarkable growth since its launch on New Year’s Day 2013. While helping more than 600 SME and corporate clients to manage their business operations using mobile apps, BigChange doubled its turnover every year following its launch. The company specialises in providing manage- ment solutions for local and multinational logistics firms, such as Nixon Hire, Jet Aire, Silentnight and Komatsu. As well as helping businesses to go paperless through the use of BigChange apps, the company is launching an on-demand service app that allows firms to configure the service to their own requirements and apply their own branding to the tool. 1 2 . O U T P L AY E N T E R T A I N M E N T D U N D E E , B E T T I N G & G A M I N G After acquiring Eight Pixels Square in 2016, Outplay Entertainment co-founder Douglas Hare set his sights on a larger share of the independent mobile games market. The vast popularity of Outplay’s free-to-play games, such as Crafty Candy and Mystery Match, have helped the com- pany race towards its goals. In 2018, the Dundee-based company reported a 1,904 per cent growth in revenue since 2013, with revenues almost doubling year-on-year. The firm’s latest game, Angry Birds Pop, is its first venture into branded titles and the company remains focussed on user acquisition and running games as a service. 10. 26 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 1 3 . H Y P E R D R I V E I N N O VA T I O N S U N D E R L A N D , H A R D W A R E Electrification partner Hyperdrive Innovation has been recognised for its contributions to electric vehicle devel- opment with a number of industry awards. The Sunderland developer and manufacturer of lith- ium-ion battery technology was the first to secure the supply of battery modules for the trailblazing Nissan LEAF. The firm also supports customers in defining and integrat- ing systems for homes and businesses. Over the course of six years since the company launched it has helped to establish the North East as a global battery hub and recent projects include the government-backed High Energy Density Battery (HEDB) project, which allowed the company to triple its staff and grow its manufacturing capabilities. 1 4 . C A S T L I G H T F I N A N C I A L G L A S G O W, D A T A A N A LY T I C S Glasgow-based fintech company Castlight won the Deloitte ‘Kick Start a Start Up’ award in 2017, enabling chief executive and co-founder Phil Grady to grow his team and plan expansion into the US. Castlight developed the innovative Affordability Passport, which aims to change the way financial retailers make credit and lending decisions. By aggregating transac- tional data and providing real-time affordability analysis, Castlight is disrupting the traditional credit scoring and underwriting methodology. Founded in 2014 by Grady, along with Creditfix chief exec- utive Pearse Flynn, Castlight is engaged with 10 high-street banks and is receiving significant interest from interna- tional banks. The company’s platform is used by 60 per cent of the UK’s personal insolvency market. 1 5 . A C C E S S P AY M A N C H E S T E R , F I N T E C H After six years of growth, Manchester-based tech firm AccessPay received a £1m boost through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF). The company had already been named the fastest grow- ing fintech company outside of London in the 2017 Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50, following a hugely successful period for the company, which works with businesses and banks to adopt next generation payment services. Founded by Ali Moiyed in 2012 to help remove unnecessary cost and complexity from online payments processing, the firm is focused on driving next-generation financial services, tearing up the bricks and mortar concept asso- ciated with finance. 27 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 1 6 . T V S Q U A R E D E D I N B U R G H , D A T A A N A LY T I C S Edinburgh’s TVSquared has developed the capability to track the digital impact of broadcast TV advertisements across devices, having partnered with data onboarder LiveRamp and its IdentityLink service. The six-year-old company, founded by former Sumerian CEO Calum Smeaton in 2012, had already established itself as the gold standard for TV analytics and was working with more than 360 brands, agencies and networks across 48 countries to measure and optimize TV. Now, through its linkup with LiveRamp, the company has added the ‘who’ to the ‘what, when and how’ of its TV advertising analytics. This exciting devel- opment follows TVSquared’s acquisition of Germany’s wywy in November 2017, to bring real-time, accurate spot detection to TVSquared’s trademark product, Advantage TV. Headquartered in Edinburgh, TVSquared has opened offices in London, New York and Los Angeles. @TechNation @TechNationHQ @TechNationHQ 28 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 29 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 SKY, LEEDS 1 7. R E S U LT I N G M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S Resulting is a highly specialised SAP Consultancy, which works with companies like Nationwide, HMRC and Manchester Airport to assess IT operating models and help build self-sufficiency. Based in Warrington, Resulting provides advisory and con- sulting services to large enterprise businesses. Resulting’s consulting approach, Resultology, is based on 20 years of experience and research and addresses the factors that influence SAP success. Planned 2018 innovations include an AI powered SAP knowledge auditing tool. 1 8 . R E D U C O U N T Y D U R H A M , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Redu partners with some of the UK’s biggest brands to drive high volume sales through social, mobile and data- driven affiliate marketing. Founded in 2014 by Darren Williams, Sam Morton and Gary Hunter, the Seaham-based company has been winning awards throughout its history. In 2017 the firm was named Small Business of the Year at the NE Business Awards and runner-up in the Digital and Social category. Redu reaches over 33 million active buyers per month, driving more than 10 million post clicks and over £3m in retailer sales for brands like John Lewis, TK Maxx and Asda. 1 9 . L A D B I B L E M A N C H E S T E R , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Founded in 2012 after Alexander Solomou won £5,000 in a student competition, LADbible Group has grown to become one of the world’s biggest social publishers. The company grew through the immense popularity of its con- tent on Facebook and Solomou, along with childhood friend and co-founder Arian Kalantari, monetised the site through its brand partnerships licensing arm. While continuing to produce content the company pro- vides marketing consultancy services to the likes of Netflix and the NFL. In 2017, the company posted revenues of £9.2m, following a 200 per cent increase in sales over three years. 2 0 . L O O K I N G 4 . C O M L E E D S , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Since launching its airport parking and transfer compar- ison service in 2009, Looking4.com has expanded into 28 countries and now covers 198 airports. Headquartered in Leeds and originally called Looking4Parking.com, the firm was renamed after a management buy-back of the business from Purple Parking in a seven-figure deal in 2017. Managing director Martin Mansell is guiding the compa- ny’s growth, which has included expansion into Australia, France, Portugal and Japan in the last 12 months, and there are plans to extend its services into flights and hotels in the future. 2 1 . C U R R E N T B O D Y. C O M C H E A D L E , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S The exceptional sales growth of CurrentBody in 2017 led to a £5m growth capital minority investment from NVM Private Equity in 2018 to support the next phase of the company’s expansion. Manchester-based CurrentBody carved out a position for itself by specialising in beauty devices for home use, rec- ognising the fastest growing niche in the beauty industry. CurrentBody cofounders Laurence Newman and Andrew Showman aim to provide the largest selection of clinically proven, at-home health and beauty technology, partner- ing with brands such as L’Oreal and Unilever. 20. 30 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 2 2 . C L O U D T E C H N O L O G Y S O L U T I O N S M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S With more than 7 million users in 74 different countries, Cloud Technology Solutions (CTS) was founded in 2008 and has become one of the fastest-growing Google for Work Premier Partners in the world. The Manchester-based company’s migration tools and expertise help organisations to reduce costs and maintain efficiencies when moving to the cloud. CTS is trusted by clients including Manchester City Council, the RSPCA and HE Simm and achieved growth of 83 per cent between 2015 and 2018. An investment deal with Northedge Capital, signed in 2018, will underpin the continued growth of CTS. 2 3 . P E A K M A N C H E S T E R , D A T A A N A LY T I C S With offices in Manchester, Jaipur and Edinburgh, pioneer- ing data analytics firm Peak has grown rapidly since its launch in 2014. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, the company analyses data at scale to provide clients such as Morrisons, AstraZeneca and The Economist with clearly defined insights and recommendations that improve performance and drive growth. The company’s development centre opened in 2016. Peak then partnered with cloud engineering firm Cloudit before securing £2.5m in Series A capital in 2017 to fund the com- pany’s growth. The company’s Edinburgh office opened in 2018, to enable the growth of Peak’s development and sales teams and to improve the service provided to Scottish and Northern- based clients. 2 4 . Z E R O L I G H T N E W C A S T L E , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E ZeroLight has been disrupting the automotive retail sector since 2014, having created a multi-award winning car con- figurator solution. The Newcastle-based company uses advanced rendering techniques to create a live scene of a product that offers unparalleled customer engagement. By working with ZeroLight, clients such as Audi, Pagani and VW have changed the way their cars are specified and purchased, and the company’s agile, customer-centric model ensures their customers are engaged throughout the purchasing journey. ZeroLight’s omnichannel platform empowers OEMs and partners to create and deliver compelling experiences that drive customer engagement across all touchpoints, leading to higher specification sales in-store and online. 2 5 . E V O L U T I O N F U N D I N G C H E S T E R F I E L D , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Established in 2002 in Chesterfield, Evolution Funding employs 270 people UK-wide and provides market-leading motor finance products to consumers through a network of more than 4,000 approved dealer partnerships and groups. CEO Jeremy Levine is committed to reinvesting the com- pany’s profits to drive growth across the group, optimising operating efficiencies and customer journeys across the firm’s main brand, Evolution Motor Finance, as well as its vehicle loans business, vehicle rentals brand and vehicle retail arm. 31 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 DARREN JOBLING, CEO, ZEROLIGHT NEWCASTLE 32 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 33 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 DARREN JOBLING CEO OF ZEROLIGHT Darren Jobling has got a difficult job on his hands. In his own words, he is on a mission to bring the automotive industry “kicking and screaming” from the 1950s and propel it into the future. Fortunately, he is already well on the way to doing just that. Four years ago, Darren led the creation of ZeroLight as a separate business from computer games company Eutechnyx, which developed a pioneering piece of car visualisation software. Today, Darren leads a team of 100 people who are using 3D graphics to trans- form the way people choose and purchase vehicles. “We see games as highly engaging consumer experiences – that’s all they are,” says Darren, sitting by a window at ZeroLight’s riverside offices in Newcastle. “Buying a car is one of the most expensive things you can do after buying a house, so why shouldn’t that be an engaging consumer experience? It should be a pleasurable experience to buy a car, and that’s what we set out to achieve.” With the Tyne Bridge visible behind him, downriver from the glistening roof of The Sage, Darren reflects on the moment that he stepped away from game development after 20 years in the industry. He recalls: “IBM approached us and said: ‘We’ve sold a Jaguar F-Type con- figurator to Jaguar and it’s the Paris Motor Show in three months’ time. Sony recommended you - could you help us?’ We met with Darren Jobling from ZeroLight to talk about the company’s cre- ation and the software that’s taking the automotive industry to new levels. 34 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “That’s how we got started in the industry and it just gathered tremendous momentum.” Darren and the ZeroLight team took a bold step into the world of motoring, but they were armed with hard-earned experience. “We had dealt with the automotive industry over a number of years,” says Darren, whose easy-going demeanour belies the furiously innovative spirit of his company. “But we were on the other side of the table, licensing their intellectual property to go into games like NASCAR, Formula 1, and Ferrari Challenge. We were famil- iar with automotive but we weren’t experts in the people we were dealing with. “It was an evolution of our relationship but not a revolution.” At the heart of that evolution was ZeroLight - a piece of software that made perfect sense to Darren and his team but was completely alien to some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers. “Sometimes it can seem like your solutions are coming from another planet,” Darren says. “It can be hard for them to think that something that was a manual process can be totally automated by software. “They’re a little bit suspicious of how we can do this.” Despite meeting with suspicion from automotive traditionalists, the impact of ZeroLight’s immersive visualisations quickly delivered results for firms like Audi, Volkswagen and Toyota. The software’s performance now speaks for itself, and Darren’s job is to ascer- tain who will listen. He explains: “Audi has been public in saying that if you use ZeroLight, people spend more on a car. The data is there and manufacturers have got an appe- tite for it, but it is quite a mindset change for those who are used to doing everything manually. “It’s like the way Henry Ford used to build cars versus the production line, and car manufacturers are going through that evolution. They are getting that from all areas at the moment - every part of their business is being disrupted.” 35 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 He adds: “Some people aren’t quite there yet. They say: ‘Look at our beau- tiful static images’. To me, it’s a bit like the Mona Lisa versus the Shawshank Redemption. The Mona Lisa is a beautiful image but it can’t hold your interest for two hours.” ZeroLight’s rapid success and growth has been fuelled in no small part by the ambition of its leader (“Whatever your forecasts are, you should multiply them by 10”), but also by an unswerving commitment to innovation – even when it fails. “We give people a lot of time to be innovative and we don’t try and prescribe or say: ‘This is where we are going,’” says Darren. “What we always say is: try and build trust. If there’s a circle and you’re innovating at the edge of the circle, you need to make sure that people are there behind you and have got your back, because innovation works sometimes but not always. “If the innovation doesn’t work you’ve got to celebrate that lack of success as much as you’d celebrate the success, because it means we learned it didn’t work and we’re going to do something about it nice and early.” With four years under its belt, ZeroLight is gearing up for expansion into new territories in 2018, having signed its first deals in Japan and the USA. While cars remain the focus for now, other markets are opening up as the software becomes more flexible, versatile and user-friendly. Darren’s confidence in the product is obvious and well-founded, and he has a tendency to bring discussions about its strengths back around to a team he rightly feels proud of. “Augmented reality will deliver on the hype of virtual reality,” he states, assur- edly. “It’s easily accessible - you don’t need to wear a headset to see what a car would look like sitting on your drive. It’s going to be huge. The team here is brilliant and it’s all down to them - I just see myself as the conductor, not the key driver. They’re driving it forward. “We’re definitely not complacent but we’re definitely optimistic.” “If the innovation doesn’t work you’ve got to celebrate that lack of success as much as you’d celebrate the success, because it means we learned it didn’t work and we’re going to do something about it.” — DARREN JOBLING, ZEROLIGHT 36 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 37 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 2 6 . C U B I C M O T I O N M A N C H E S T E R , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Founded in Manchester in 2009, Cubic Motion creates facial animation for hit games like Call Of Duty, Spiderman and Hellblade. The company’s real-time capture allows game developers to create lifelike characters in a vastly reduced timeframe when compared to traditional approaches to CGI, and Cubic Motion delivered facial ani- mation for three of the five nominees for Best Performance at The Game Awards 2017. Cubic Motion’s pioneering method of capturing eye and lip movement has transformed the games development process and it has enabled actors to control virtual char- acters in real-time, opening up applications beyond the gaming world. The company’s production team is more than 50-strong and is complemented by a growing research and devel- opment team at the Cubic Motion offices in Manchester Science Park. 2 7. I D H L G R O U P H A R R O G A T E , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Founded in 2000 by CEO Dennis Engel, Harrogate’s IDHL Group comprises WMG, Ingenuity Digital, NetConstruct and, following a buyout in late 2017, Pinpoint Designs. IDHL Group employs more than 130 people across the four companies and its senior management team completed a £30m management buyout of the business in June 2017. The buyout followed IDHL’s record financial performance and move to new headquarters in 2016 and the company is among the UK’s largest full service digital agencies. 2 8 . P E R F O R M A N C E H O R I Z O N N E W C A S T L E , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E In the eight years since its launch, Performance Horizon has grown its digital marketing business to a point where more than 100 employees are delivering more than $3bn in top line advertising revenues. The firm’s headquarters are in Newcastle, and with mar- keting partners in more than 183 countries, Performance Horizon offices have opened in the U.S., Japan and Australia. Clients include Nike, Emirates, Google, Sainsbury’s and TripAdvisor, and the success of core product Performance Horizon Enterprise has led to the company becoming the leading provider of SaaS software for partner marketing. 2 9 . G O D E L T E C H N O L O G I E S G R O U P M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S Placed at number one in the 2018 Megabuyte Emerging Stars Awards rankings, Godel Technologies provides agile development services to clients including Jet2, Experian and First Utility. The company, which is headquartered in Manchester and employs around 500 staff, is recognised by Microsoft as a Gold partner and has offices in London, Minsk, Brest and Grodno. Godel was recognised by Megabuyte for its ability to pro- vide services in high demand areas where there are skill shortages, winning the Best Performing Company award and the Best Performing Consulting & Systems Integration Company award. 38 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 3 0 . S H I E L D S A F E T Y G R O U P M A N C H E S T E R , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Shield Safety CTO and co-owner Richard Jordan was named Business Person of the Year at the 2018 Greater Manchester Business Awards, in recognition for his contri- bution to the company’s continued growth and success. Jordan bought into the company in 2004 – one year after its launch – and joined Mark Flanagan in building Shield Safety’s reputation around food, fire, and health and safety services and software for multi-location businesses within the hospitality industry. The company’s award-winning SaaS risk and safety man- agement system uses a unique algorithm to calculate risk, and its proven track record is leading to increased growth across retail, manufacturing and SMEs. 3 1 . E C O M E T R I C A E D I N B U R G H , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Working with leading organisations from private, public and non-profit sectors, Ecometrica helps businesses meet challenges around sustainability while reducing costs and boosting performance. Founded in Edinburgh in 2008, the company was placed on the Deloitte 2017 Technology Fast 500 EMEA list after a year in which it posted record sales and profits and partnered with NASA and the UK Space Agency. The Ecometrica Platform is used to tackle a variety of operational and environmental challenges facing businesses and has won awards for its outstanding envi- ronmental accounting capabilities and satellite mapping technology. 3 2 . P R O O F I D M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S Founded in 2008, Manchester-based ProofID delivers iden- tity management systems to organisations in 73 countries around the world. ProofID’s identity and access management platform helps the company’s clients to secure enterprise data, manage hybrid cloud environments, secure mobile apps and provide access to services. ProofID manages more than 750,000 identities, with clients reporting benefits to their security, productivity, compliance and revenues. In 2017, ProofID merged with Colorado-based PEGRight in a £4m transaction, increasing the group turnover to more than £6m and growing its staff from 32 to 48. The company now operates across Europe and North America. 3 3 . C O N V E R G E T E C H N O L O G Y S P E C I A L I S T S D A R E S B U R Y, I T S E R V I C E S Converge Technology Specialists (CTS) provides hosted and managed IT services through private cloud to more than 6,000 law firms across the UK. The firm was founded in Daresbury, Cheshire, in 2006 by CEO Nigel Wright and opened a London office in 2016 after exceptional organic growth. CTS has achieved 50 per cent revenue growth year-on-year for the last three years, and is on course to hit £10m turnover by 2019. New clients and an increased demand for CTS services led to investment from private equity firm Tenzing in early 2018 and the company also signed a new partnership to deliver enhanced cloud solutions, disaster recovery functionality and hosted infrastructure to Thomson Reuters Elite. 30. 39 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 COWORKING SPACES LEEDS LIVERPOOLSHEFFIELDMANCHESTERSUNDERLAND TEESSIDE NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE HULL OF THE NORTH 40 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 C4DI 31-38 QUEEN STREET, HULL A workspace and incubator located at the Fruit Market in Hull. Tenancy comes with a variety of perks from companies like AWS, FreeAgent, PwC, FreshDesk, Cloud App and WP Engine. PLATFORM NEW STATION ST, LEEDS Based in a former British Railways building, Platform is a new o ce space and home of a tech hub. Tenants have access to 410 desks, meetup areas and events, including Leeds Digital Co ee Morning, Cereal Networking and netWINEing. ELECTRIC WORKS SHEFFIELD DIGITAL CAMPUS, SHEFFIELD Home of a three story helter skelter, the only one in a UK o ce; tenants can ride from the top oor to reception in seven seconds. The space is furnished with pieces from designers like Vitra, Bouroullec, Jasper Morrison, Ray and Charles Eames and George Nelson. PLATFORM C4DI ELECTRIC WORKS YORKSHIRE & HUMBER 41 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 AMAZING LOCATION BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED INDOOR SLIDE RIVER VIEWS NET-WINE-ING WEWORK QUAY ST, MANCHESTER WeWork has 253 coworking and o ce spaces in 74 cities internationally, with two locations in Manchester. Known for their beautifully designed interiors. Amenities include bike storage, cra beer on dra and micro-roast- ed co ee. ALTSPACE 31 STAMFORD STREET, ALTRINCHAM altspace is defying the traditional city centre location of coworking spaces. The success of the venture and demand for space required a move to a larger building in January 2018. ZIFERBLAT 4 ST PAUL'S SQUARE, LIVERPOOL L3 Established in 2011, Ziferblat is the rst pay per minute coworking space in the world. With an international presence, Ziferblat has several editions in the north including Manchester and Liverpool. All amenities — which include co ees, cakes and wi — are free. ALTSPACE WEWORK ZIFERBLAT NORTH WEST 42 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 OUTSIDE CITY CENTRE INTERNATIONAL CYCLING CLUB CRAFT BEER ON DRAUGHT PAY PER MINUTE CAMPUS NORTH 5 CARLIOL SQUARE, NEWCASTLE A coworking space and the home of accelerator Ignite. The organisation recently announced it will close its doors in December 2018, but will carry on its legacy as Tech For Life — an education initiative that introduces people of all ages and skill sets to tech. BOHO ZONE BOHO ONE @ BRIDGE ST W, MIDDLESBROUGH A series of six buildings; its agship building Boho One is environmentally friendly, with heating and cooling using a groundwater heat pump, heat retaining concrete ceilings, com- puter modelled natural lighting, solar shading and wind turbines. SUNDERLAND SOFTWARE CITY TAVISTOCK PLACE, SUNDERLAND The home of more than 60 businesses. Sunderland So ware City o er business support, skills and education as well as training in the region. Known for their Go Reboot programme, introducing people from any educational or employment background onto a pathway into a career in digital industries. BOHO ZONE CAMPUS NORTH SOFTWARE CITY NORTH EAST 43 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 ACCELERATOR ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS 3 4 . T R A K G L O B A L G R O U P C R E W E , I T S E R V I C E S The continued success of Trak Global Group was recog- nised in December 2017, when the telematics solutions firm won the Amazon Growing Business Award for Mid-Sized Business, having claimed the gong for smaller companies the previous year. Since its launch in 2009, the group has grown to become one of the world’s largest telematics companies, gathering and interpreting data from connected devices to help organisations manage driver and vehicle risk. The Crewe- based company received the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2015 for its work in reducing young driver accident frequency. In 2017, Trak Global developed an app-based solution called Apply Fleet, which enables employers to promote and monitor workplace driver safety and reduce oper- ating costs. 3 5 . Q U I N T G R O U P M A C C L E S F I E L D , F I N T E C H Named the UK’s 40th best small company to work for by the Sunday Times in 2017, Macclesfield-based fintech firm Quint Group services over 50,000 international consumers a day and originates over £1.5bn of consumer lending per year in the UK alone. The company’s portfolio of businesses includes MoneyGuru.com, Monevo, Monevo Data Services and Credit Angel, and in 2017 the firm secured a £10m financ- ing deal with Manchester’s Tosca Debt Capital to fund its recapitalisation. Quint Group, which was founded in 2009 by CEO Greg Cox, is growing its international presence and currently has operations in the U.S., China, Australia, South Africa and Poland. 3 6 . P L A N I X S G R P M A N C H E S T E R , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Manchester-based provider of big data analytics Planixs was founded in 2011 with the aim of helping compa- nies optimise their critical decision-making. The Planixs Graphite Platform offers predictive analytics and decision automation among a suite of tools that have enabled clients such as Vodafone, BBC, Barclays and HMRC to develop real-time, intelligent solutions through cloud architectures. In 2017, the company announced the release of Enterprise Workforce, which further enhances its Human Capital Management capabilities. 3 7. I N V E N T R Y LT D L E E D S , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E InVentry’s sign-in and visitor management system is used by more than 4,000 schools, from primaries all the way through to sixth form colleges, and handles 49 sign-ins every second. The company was established in 2010 in Leeds with the aim of helping schools to streamline their sign-in processes and transition away from paper records. InVentry enables schools to stay fully abreast of who is on site and ensures the security of identity information. The system includes a stylish touchscreen for visitors to use, and staff can use InVentry to sign-in via barcode or mobile app. After seven years of organic growth, with the number of schools using the system rising from 100 in 2012 to 4,000 in 2017, InVentry was named in Deloitte’s Fast 500 list of companies. @TechNation @TechNationHQ @TechNationHQ 44 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 3 8 . T H E H U T G R O U P M A N C H E S T E R , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S The Hut Group has gone from strength to strength since being named the winner of the overall judges award at the Northern Tech Awards in 2017. That award came on the back of a spectacular 2016 for the UK’s leading mul- ti-website online retailer, in which sales rose by 50 per cent to £501m and investment of £252m fuelled the company’s international and domestic expansion. The company focused on acquisitions in 2017, bringing international beauty box leader GLOSSYBOX and spa and skincare brand ESPA into its growing portfolio of brands. Headquartered in Cheshire, The Hut Group receives more than 400 million website visitors each year and ships to 192 countries. 3 9 . V O L C A N I C M A N C H E S T E R , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Stockport’s Volcanic has opened offices on four conti- nents since it was founded back in 2010 and has become known for consistently bringing new technologies to the online recruitment and staffing market. The firm has created innovative websites and enterprise level content management systems for companies in 35 countries and in 15 languages, proudly delivering more than 20 million visitors and two million candidate regis- trations for its clients. Commercial success in recent years led to the open- ing of offices in Malaysia, Australia and Mexico, and in 2018 Volcanic was recognised as one of Manchester’s most innovative companies after being named in the Innovation100 Report, produced by BQ and the Business Growth Hub. 4 0 . S K Y B E T T I N G & G A M I N G L E E D S , B E T T I N G & G A M I N G Sky Betting & Gaming was formed in 2001 and now has a team of more than 1,000 employees. The company is led by CEO Richard Flint, with headquarters in Leeds and offices in Sheffield, Solihull, London, Munich and Rome. Sky Betting & Gaming was named the UK’s 53rd best com- pany to work for at Best Companies 2018. In April 2018 the company was acquired by Canadian-owned company The Stars Group for £3.4bn. 4 1 . M 2 4 S E V E N M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S When Metronet acquired M24Seven for £46.5m in October 2016, the company began its transformation from success- ful wireless-based ISP to a business that delivers full LAN and WAN connectivity as well as managed cloud services internationally. The last 12 months have seen the company adopt the M24Seven branding, refresh its systems and establish a presence in London. This was aided by the company’s acquisition of London-focused network operator Venus Business Communications in March 2017. Led by CEO Lee Perkins, M24Seven has more than doubled in size over the last 18 months. 40. 45 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 4 2 . U I N S U R E M A N C H E S T E R , F I N T E C H Manchester-based general insurance provider Uinsure was the first company of its kind to offer advisers a panel of leading insurers with a common policy wording when it was founded by CEO Simon Taylor in 2007. Uinsure offers five-star-rated insurance via trusted brands and provides customers with a Defaqto compare tool to help them quickly find home insurance products. The company built on a successful year in 2017, when it was named Best General Insurance Provider at the Paradigm Lender & Provider Awards, by winning the GI Provider of the Year gong at the 2018 Personal Touch Live Awards. 4 3 . R R A D A R H U L L , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Leeds-based law firm rradar has enjoyed a year of excep- tional growth, winning a number of awards and completing a move to new premises along the way. Originally launched in Hull in 2012, rradar moved to Leeds in 2016 but quickly outgrew its offices and moved to the Bruntwood building Platform in January 2018. Having started out as a company with just 10 employees and a turnover of £0.8m, rradar now employs more than 100 people and its turnover is estimated at £5m. The company, which focuses on delivering a modern, proactive, positive client experience of the law, was rec- ognised for its groundbreaking legal virtual assistant, rradarGrace, when it was awarded the Innovation of the Year prize at the Modern Law Awards in 2018. 4 4 . O P E N C A S T S O F T W A R E E U R O P E LT D N E W C A S T L E U P O N T Y N E , I T S E R V I C E S Newcastle’s burgeoning tech sector provided the ideal setting for Opencast Software’s 2012 launch and founder Mike O’Brien has successfully grown his technology and software services company from a team of one – himself – to a highly respected firm of more than 65 people. Opencast specialises in the design, build, maintenance and operation of business-critical systems, providing software development, technology consultancy and staff augmentation services to help organisations work better. The company has established offices in Newcastle, London and New York and attracted clients like Barclays, Betfair, Sage and NHS. 4 5 . P U R P L E W I F I LT D O L D H A M , D A T A A N A LY T I C S Global leaders in guest WiFi analytics, Oldham-based Purple WiFi has been disrupting the market since Gavin Wheeldon founded the company in May 2012. Purple Wifi’s software allows businesses to monitor their physical spaces and promote their brand, while providing insights into customer behaviour. Growth in the hospitality, retail, healthcare and communication sectors in the last four years was boosted by investments of $13m into the company, whose global partner network has expanded significantly in recent months with NLT Networks and Shopronics both becoming Purple Wifi resellers. In February 2018 Purple Wifi announced a huge shake-up in their free and licensed WiFi solutions by offering their enhanced solution, Purple SMB, free of charge to busi- nesses with five access points or fewer. 46 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 4 6 . E V O K E C R E A T I V E W I R R A L , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Evoke Creative’s move to a purpose-built HQ in January 2018 followed an outstanding period of growth and suc- cess during the previous few years. The company was founded in 2003 by Dean Ward, Neil Clark, Graham Boyd and Iain Quayle, and quickly estab- lished itself as a market-leading designer of interactive digital products including self-service kiosks, video walls, digital signage, information points, payment terminals and interactive experiences. The company supplies major blue-chip clients such as JD Sports, Debenhams, Google and McDonald’s. Wirral-based Evoke now operates from its own 60,000 square foot premises and was named 2017 Manufacturer of the Year (under £25m) at Insider’s Made in the UK Awards after a number of notable successes, including a contract with Vue cinemas to provide state-of-the-art ticket machines. 4 7. B E D E G A M I N G N E W C A S T L E U P O N T Y N E , B E T T I N G & G A M I N G Bede Gaming is an award-winning supplier of software to the online gaming industry. With headquarters in Newcastle and offices in London and Sofia, Bulgaria, Bede processes over 200 million transactions and handles more than £550m of wagers per month, powering some of the largest online gambling operators and lotteries worldwide. The company started 2018 hot on the heels of the announcement of its expansion into South Africa through a partnership with Sun International, and soon followed up that news by announcing deals with Kiron Interactive, Genii, Gamevy and Playson. Bede is working with leading operators to make advances in platform level compliance, providing its customers with its most robust and fair gaming platform to date. 4 8 . E - D AY S A B S E N C E M A N A G E M E N T N O T T I N G H A M , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Nottingham-based e-days provides more than 1,000 clients around the world with a cloud-based absence management solution. e-days helps organisations in more than 80 countries to combat absenteeism, reduce staff administration time and gain insights into attendance through detailed reports, and the company’s clients include Canon Europe, Sony Music, Standard Bank and NBCUniversal. The 13-year-old company has enjoyed a successful growth period in recent years, culminating in an investment from private equity firm Palatine in November 2017. 4 9 . C O N N E X O N E M A N C H E S T E R , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Cloud-based, omnichannel engagement platform Connex One allows organisations to interface with customers using voice, SMS, email, live chat and social media and has a track record of success, delivering a sales uplift of 25 per cent within four weeks to new clients. The Manchester company was founded in 2013 and has since worked with clients in finance, retail, government, education, recruitment and media, helping businesses to increase the amount of time they spend communicating with customers to boost sales and retention. 47 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 5 0 . S Y K E S C O T T A G E S C H E S T E R , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Sykes Cottages has been at the forefront of the holiday lettings industry for over 25 years; in November 2017 the company won the British Travel Awards prize for Best Large UK Holiday Cottage Booking Company for the fifth con- secutive year. The company was founded in 1991 when Clive Sykes and his mother formed a family business letting their own holiday cottages and those of their friends. Sykes Cottages now provides booking and management services to over 8,000 cottages in the UK and Ireland. 50. 48 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 PLATFORM, LEEDS 49 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 LAURENCE NEWMAN, CEO, CURRENTBODY MANCHESTER 50 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 51 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 LAURENCE NEWMAN CEO OF CURRENTBODY According to Laurence Newman, one in five people would recognise the home- use beauty device that has broken records by selling 15 million units worldwide. That device is the Clarisonic cleansing face brush, Manchester entrepreneur Laurence first encountered, more than 10 years ago when he was the marketing director for a chain of clinics and salons. The product’s popularity was yet to take off outside of professional settings but, recognising the potential for the Clarisonic to lead a new market of home-use products, Laurence contacted its distributor with an idea. “My idea was a website as a pure play in home-use beauty devices, which is all very well if you’ve got lots of products to sell but we didn’t really have much to sell at the time,” Laurence explains. It was then that he met Andrew Showman, who had a track record of success in e-commerce for digital cameras. Laurence describes their conversation at that time, saying: “Digital cameras were wavering a little due to the influx of camera-phones, so it was quite a good time for him and I to meet. “I said: ‘Look, my e-commerce experience is very limited. I’ve been told that this is something you’re very proficient in. I’ve got a very good background in professional beauty products. This is my idea.’” The pair launched CurrentBody.com, which has since emerged as a leading online retail destination for a beauty devices market estimated to be worth $94.4bn by 2023. We sat down with Laurence Newman to talk about the foundations of CurrentBody and maintaining startup culture alongside international expansion. 52 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 The company’s rapid success led to a £5m investment of growth capital from NVM Private Equity earlier this year, but Laurence has not forgotten the hurdles he and Andrew had to overcome to arrive at this point. Back in 2009, he had to convince the beauty industry that e-commerce really was the way forward. “Most beauty companies and manufacturers at the time wanted to see their products in Harrods, Selfridges, Space NK and the like,” says Laurence, sit- ting in the mezzanine meeting room that overlooks CurrentBody’s open-plan offices in Cheadle, Greater Manchester. “Doing it through bricks and mortar is very difficult. You need someone on a stand who knows enough about these products and there’s a big turnover of staff in stores. “I was out there saying look, you need to be on our website. This is the future of it, this is where you need to showcase your product. It might be that we’re not selling thousands of them but we’ll give you content, videos, experienced customer service, and we can do surveys with our customers. “All the things that they weren’t able to focus on, we could do.” Laurence’s confidence in his idea was well placed: online now represents 51 per cent of all sales of beauty devices and his firm has grown from a staff of two in a small office outside Wilmslow to a dynamic team of 30 experienced marketers and product specialists. That growth was fuelled by a combination of intelligent business strategy and, Laurence admits, the odd stroke of good fortune. “The first product that we were fortunate enough to start selling was Clarisonic,” he says. “You have the odd break and that was our break. Clarisonic was acquired by L’Oreal, and L’Oreal becoming a key partner was a major success for us as a very small business. “We’ve now gone from a point where we would buy and sell these products, to full marketing plans with 12-month or 18-month pipelines of new products and touchpoints throughout the year for discounting, product launches, exclusive content and so on. 53 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “The most important thing we did in this business was put in a board and a chairman to help put a specific plan together. You might think to yourself that in a small business you don’t need board meetings, you don’t need strategy, you don’t need to revisit the strategy and the budget, but actually the more you stick to those disciplines the more you have a chance of success.” As sales of beauty devices continue to dwindle in stores and grow rapidly online, the prospects for CurrentBody are of international growth and a global reach. That will likely mean expansion for Laurence’s team, but he is keen to retain the small business mentality that has helped him forge a strong bond with his staff. “I’ve been very transparent with the team all the way through,” he says. “I believe it’s the right way to be. I owe a lot to this team for getting us to this point. “There were times when we’d be short-staffed in the warehouse and people from my marketing team would go and help. That’s how it should be. I’m trying to keep a startup feel to the business because, even though we’re bigger than a startup, in some respects we’re still in ‘startup mode’. I think that’s an important part of the culture. “It’s still a bit chaotic and a little bit all-hands-to-the-pump, but that’s exciting.” 5 1 . M O B Y S O F T M A N C H E S T E R , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E During its 15-year history, Mobysoft has become an important part of the social housing landscape by deliv- ering efficiencies to landlords through its award-winning software. The company was founded in 2003 by Derek Steele and built its foundations by providing SMS solutions across various verticals through its SMS solution, MobileLogic. Now, its cloud-based analytic rent arrears software helps to tackle welfare reform, providing landlords with a 15.8 per cent arrears reduction on average in the first year as well as an average efficiency saving of 25 per cent. Mobysoft’s easy-to-install RentSense software picked up a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation and the Housing Excellence Best IT system in 2016. 5 2 . C O N T R A C T H I R E A N D L E A S I N G . C O M S T O C K P O R T, E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Founded in 2000, ContractHireAndLeasing.com offered car leasing companies an alternative to traditional offline advertising and quickly emerged as the leading website in the car leasing industry. Now the largest dedicated new car, contract hire and vehi- cle leasing website in the UK, ContractHireAndLeasing. com has more than four million live deals available at any one time. The company is based in purpose-built office in Hazel Grove, Stockport, and works with the UK’s main dealers, independent dealerships and brokers. 5 3 . A Z Z U R E I T S H E F F I E L D , I T S E R V I C E S Winner of the Yorkshire Post Fastest 50 Award for two years running in 2015 and 2016, and a two-time Deloitte Fast UK tech company, Azzure IT has continued its trajectory of growth to become the leading provider of Microsoft Dynamics. From its headquarters in Sheffield and its offices in Reading and Newcastle, the company helps businesses to realise the full potential of the Microsoft Dynamics suite, working across sectors including manufacturing, distribu- tion, professional services and not-for-profit. Managing director Craig Such successfully built several ERP businesses before founding Assure IT in 2011. 5 4 . T H E F L O O W S H E F F I E L D , H A R D W A R E Telematics company The Floow announced the open- ing of its first North American office in September 2017 following an outstanding year of growth and success in which the Sheffield-based firm won Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe award. As well as expanding into America, the company is part- nering with an ever-increasing number of European firms such as Portuguese insurance market leader Fidelidade, who appointed The Floow to work on its first telematics pilot using smartphone app technology. 54 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 5 5 . R 2 C O N L I N E S H E F F I E L D , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E R2C’s market-leading vehicle management platform is used by more than 20,000 fleets and 800 workshops worldwide. The company’s reputation has been built around specialist knowledge of the automotive space, along with its proven track record of low-cost accelerated deployment model and rapid ROI. The world’s leading vehicle manufacturers and operators, including Iveco, Scania, Renault Trucks, Isuzu and Tesco. com are turning to R2C’s SaaS platform, which was used to detect more than 3.5m safety-related vehicle defects in 2017. The company was founded in 2003 and continues to grow the business internationally from its headquarters in Sheffield. 5 6 . M T E C H I T S O L U T I O N S L E E D S , I T S E R V I C E S With companies across the UK working hard to become GDPR compliant, Leeds-based firm MTech enjoyed a busy year. The 10-year-old company is a Microsoft Gold partner in cloud solutions and works with more than 60 companies, providing IT support and management advice. GDPR legislation forced many businesses to review their security and data recovery protocols, and MTech has worked closely with clients like Leeds Rugby, Yorkshire Cricket, Springfield Healthcare and Proper Music through- out the process, providing strategic IT support to ensure they remain productive and prosperous into the future. 5 7. B E T T E R 2 K N O W M O R E C A M B E , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Better2Know revolutionised access to sexual health testing services with the launch of its round-the-clock appointment service in 2008. Over the course of the last decade, the Lancashire-based company has become the UK’s largest private provider of these services, delivering thousands of tests to patients who can remain anonymous and receive test results extremely quickly – often within minutes. Company CEO Mike Asher, previously Chief Executive at the Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences, has 20 years’ experience in biotechnology and he worked with regional government to negotiate funding, regional development strategies and growth plans for the business. 5 8 . A S P I R E T E C H N O L O G Y S O L U T I O N S G A T E S H E A D , I T S E R V I C E S Aspire Technology Solutions achieved record levels of customer engagement and a net promoter score of 64 in 2017, having made a trio of key appointments earlier in the year. The managed services company, which improves organisations’ existing IT systems, appointed a new chief technical architect along with new heads of services man- agement and delivery following a sustained period of growth. Following its launch in 2006, Aspire grew to a staff of 40 by 2013 and surpassed 100 staff in 2017. The company works with organisations of all sizes and across sectors includ- ing health, retail, construction, utilities, pharmaceuticals, fashion, the motor industry, and education. 55 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 5 9 . P R A E S T O C O N S U LT I N G D A R L I N G T O N , I T S E R V I C E S Praesto Consulting is widening access to its unique cloud-based IT solutions, unlocking game-changing business analytics systems for a growing network of clients across Europe and North America. In March 2018, the company celebrated nine years since its launch by open- ing a new office in Rotterdam, having amplified its growth in North America with the acquisition of CRM and business intelligence consultancy Accelsior Corporation only five months earlier. Managing director Jem Ranson founded the company in 2009 and has since grown Praesto into a market-leading IT consultancy specialising in the imple- mentation of business intelligence, enterprise performance and CRM systems. @TechNation @TechNationHQ @TechNationHQ 56 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 6 0 . M U S I C M A G P I E M A N C H E S T E R , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S After 10 years of sustained growth, musicMagpie moved to new headquarters at Stockport’s Exchange office devel- opment in 2017 having become the first business in the world to achieve a feedback score of 5m on eBay. The company was founded in 2007 and run from Steve Oliver’s garage in Stockport, where he and co-founder Walter Gleeson recognised the huge demand for hard-to- find films, novels and music. The launch of an eBay store in 2011 accelerated the company’s growth and musicMagpie now employs more than 1,000 people in Stockport. 6 1 . P A R C E L 2 G O B O LT O N , E - C O M M E R C E & M A R K E T P L A C E S Bolton-based Parcel2Go has gone from strength to strength since being ranked in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 in 2011, running websites and customer services for Europe’s leading courier firms. Parcel2Go.com is the country’s leading parcel delivery comparison website and the company is also the UK’s leading parcel broker, offer- ing a full range of national and international destinations with same-day, next-day and economy services. The company was founded by Fil Adams-Mercer in 2004 and works with couriers including TNT, Hermes, DPD and UPS throughout Europe. 6 2 . P R O V U H U D D E R S F I E L D , I T S E R V I C E S With headquarters in Huddersfield, ProVu are distributors of voice over IP hardware. The company’s award-winning ProSys reseller portal has empowered resellers to take control of their orders and the system’s popularity has fuelled ProVu’s ongoing growth and success. In November 2017 the company announced that it is part of Sennheiser UK’s selective distribution system, providing its customers with some of the most sought-after office and contact centre headsets on the market. 6 3 . V I R T U A L C O L L E G E I L K L E Y, E D T E C H Based in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Virtual College has been helping people in the public and private sectors to reach their potential since 1995 and now has a growing user base of over 3m registered learners, growing at a rate of 1,500 per day. Virtual College’s learning management system pro- vides access to more than 300 online courses, and the company’s commitment to helping enhance traditional learning through the careful integration of technology has earned it several accolades. Named Supplier of the Year by Learning Technologies in 2016, the company aims to reach 20m learners by 2020. 60. 58 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 64. RIPE THINKING M A N C H E S T E R , F I N T E C H With an annual turnover of £11m, Ripe Thinking was named the UK’s Best Specialist Insurance Provider at the 2018 Insurance Choice Awards. The company’s strategy involves using data and machine learning to drive growth and more than 190,000 policyholders are registered with the firm. Ripe Thinking secured funding from the government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, to develop a knowl- edge-sharing partnership with the University of Salford that will investigate the use of AI and machine learning to improve customer experience. 65. DIGITAL NEXT M A N C H E S T E R , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Digital Next achieved a turnover of £1m within two years of its 2009 launch and now operates as a full service digital agency with 80 staff in five countries around the world. The company was founded by brothers Mark and Justin Blackhurst and joined the Federation of Small Businesses in its second year. In 2017 the company won the FSB’s Business of the Year award for Manchester and North Cheshire. Specialising in SEO, SEM, PPC and paid social media ser- vices, Digital Next is a Google Premier Partner and is on course to achieve a £4m turnover in 2018. 66. AIRANGEL W A R R I N G T O N , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Warrington-based provider of guest WiFi solutions Airangel expanded its operations throughout 2017, acquir- ing numerous European brands and securing significant investment. The company, which was founded by Chris Airey and Dean Wilkinson in 2005, has more than 50 million registered users of its WiFi products at apartment buildings and large public venues, which cover over 360,000 rooms and units in 42 different countries. Their clients include Mercedes-Benz, Malmaison, Hotel du Vin and the NHS, and the company has opened an office in Dubai to cover its Middle East and Africa operations. 67. SONOCENT L E E D S , E D T E C H Sonocent’s Audio Notetaker tool is transforming learning by making audio as easy to access and manipulate as text. The tool gained more than 52,000 new users in 2017, while nearly 27,000 new users utilised Sonocent’s Recorder and Link apps for note-taking on the go, and in a company survey 72 per cent of students said the products had con- tributed to grade improvements. Roger Tucker founded Sonocent in Leeds in 2007; the company is planning to move to new offices in 2018 while continuing to develop products in conjunction with prestigious learning institutions such as Vision West Nottinghamshire College, The University of Bath, University College Cork and the University of the District of Columbia. 68. MANDO L I V E R P O O L , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Mando has been helping to shape the digital strategies of global brands in the utilities, manufacturing, financial services, and telecoms sectors for over 20 years, winning numerous awards along the way. Ian Finch, who founded the company in Liverpool back in 1997, picked up the Agency Leader of the Year prize at The Drum’s 2015 Network Awards, and Mando has since con- tinued to strengthen its reputation for delivering simple, efficient digital experiences, helping organisations such as Warburtons, Thomas Cook Group, TalkTalk and Transport for London achieve success. 59 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 SARAT PEDIREDLA, CEO, HEDGEHOG LAB NEWCASTLE 60 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 61 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 SARAT PEDIREDLA CEO OF HEDGEHOG LAB Founded in 2007, Newcastle-based Hedgehog Lab has built its reputation on exceptional digital applications for smartphones, tablets, desktops and wearables. With offices across North America and India, Hedgehog Lab’s expanding team is now exploring how mobile, immersive and AI technologies can influence sectors such as retail, energy and utilities. We met with Sarat Pediredla, CEO of Hedgehog Lab at their headquarters in Newcastle to talk about the company’s evolution. H O W D I D H E D G E H O G L A B B E G I N ? I used to be a software developer. I was working for a company before I formed Hedgehog Lab with my co-founder Mark. It did really well and it grew mas- sively. But there was no where else for me to go in the organisation; I wanted to progress. In 2007, Mark and I left our jobs and set up the company. In the early days, we didn’t really have a business plan. We created a software business in the financial services sector, because we had experience with that. Originally we were just doing financial software on browsers. Then in 2008 the financial crisis happened and the whole industry went from spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on software to locking their wallets up. We had a bit of software we had spent six months creating that no one wanted to use. So we had to pivot the company very quickly and we did the next best thing we could do, which was to become a digital agency. We met with Sarat Pediredla at Hedgehog Lab’s flagship office in Newcastle to talk about the company’s development. 62 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “There were people ringing up from Los Angeles, New York. And we were just baffled. I used to remember going on the phone and saying, ‘you do realise we’re in Newcastle, right?’” — SARAT PEDIREDLA, HEDGEHOG LAB HEDGEHOG LAB, NEWCASTLE 63 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 64 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 WHAT C AN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PR OGRESSION? I became really excited by what the iPhone was doing. We started experimenting with building apps. I remember saying to Mark, ‘this is going to be big’. But the problem was, even in 2008, 2009 there wasn’t really a market for it. We kept doing what we were doing, and we grew slowly. Then in 2010 I suffered from a serious illness and was out of work for about 6-9 months of that year. We had a really tough year with the business, and when I came back, everyone seemed to be doing websites. The business wasn’t going anywhere. We were still playing around with mobile apps and we thought: why don’t we reposition ourselves as a post-pc tech consultancy and just focus on apps? We’ve been growing year by year everP since then. W H Y D I D Y O U M A K E T H E D E C I S I O N T O E X P A N D I N T E R N A T I O N A L LY ? By 2014, the business was really starting to scale out. And we were really struggling. Because we were considered a micro business we couldn’t attract people; we didn’t have a brand, we didn’t have a presence. No one really knew about us. At the same time, we had to constantly turn down work because of it. It didn’t seem like there was a lot of people that did apps, and those that do are out of reach in terms of the size of the market. I’m originally from India, and I was talking to one of my cousins there. He was telling me about the skills of people there, and it just kind of dawned on me if we set up an India office we could access a talent pool; that was our first foray into international business. We set up a team there, went and recruited people. As the business grew, we started to see a lot more inter- est from America. There were people ringing up from Los Angeles, New York. And we were just baffled. I used to remember going on the phone and saying, ‘you do realise we’re in Newcastle, right?’ We started scouting, went on some R&D missions looking for locations. And then fate just connected us with Pat, who runs our US office. In 2016 we formerly set up the US company. HO W DO YOU MAINTAIN YOUR W ORKING CULTURE A S THE BUSINESS GR O W S? In 2016, we were named one of the best places to work in Newcastle by Glassdoor. When we doubled our team last year, there was a real challenge of maintaining the culture, especially in a global team. We didn’t have a tem- plate for culture, we did things that we wanted to do. It’s common sense stuff. Treat people fairly, be transparent. There’s no secret. Fundamentally I think all businesses have good culture, because they start with that. Our challenge was not to get in the way of that, with roadblocks and processes. As long as we’re aware of that, and we’re learning, then it will be fine. HEDGEHOG LAB, NEWCASTLE 65 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 6 9 . L E A D T E C H L E E D S , D A T A A N A LY T I C S Customer generation business Lead Tech spends more than £3m on market- ing its clients to consumers each year, and by the end of 2018 aims to have returned at least £1bn in revenue for brands in the financial services, legal and clean energy sectors. Lead Tech was founded in Otley in 2008 by Nigel Borwell and Paul Walsh, and the company moved to new offices in nearby Pool-in-Wharfedale in late 2016, creating 70 new jobs as part of a business plan that includes a target turnover of £16.7m by the end of FY2019. 66 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 67 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 JAMES HALL, DIRECTOR, PARALLAX LEEDS 68 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “I don’t suppose there was really any grand vision. It was just: this could be cool. We didn’t really know if it was going to work or not.” James Hall sits under a skylight in a 150-year-old building — originally a brew- ing and bottling warehouse — a stone’s throw from the River Aire in Leeds and home to his digital media company, Parallax. There is a hushed air of focus around their airy office, which James puts down to the Parallax team being “quite devvy”. But it wasn’t always like this. “In the beginning it was us four playing really loud music and trying to shout over each other, but now it’s quite quiet and relaxing,” he says. “We’ve still got a bit of that culture; we’ve got a beer vending machine. We used to have beer on tap but we don’t drink as much as we used to, which is a good thing I guess. We sometimes play video games on an afternoon.” Parallax originally consisted of James and Lawrence Dudley handing “the techie side of things”, while Andy Fitch and Dario Grandich specialised in development and design, respectively. “We had a good mix of different kinds of development skills, design, and being able to go out and sell it, and we thought: there’s enough difference in all of us to go and make a well-rounded company from this,” says James. The four friends quickly discovered that their particular blend of talents would set them apart from other digital agencies. “We started off doing some quite technical projects involving LED billboards, which is why we’ve got that techie streak throughout the agency,” he says. “Quite early on we managed to bag British Airways as a client. 69 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 JAMES HALL DIRECTOR OF PARALLAX In their airy offices in Leeds, Director James Hall tells us about Parallax’s journey from four friends drinking afternoon beers to a burgeoning digital media agency working with adidas and the NHS. 70 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 “We’re pioneers of Amazon’s tech in this part of the world and off the back of that they say: ‘Do you know anyone?’ And they’ll point to us.” — JAMES HALL, PARALLAX We started doing all their business lounge stuff and off the back of that we got Eurostar. “We’re half development, half traditional marketing agency, and we’ve had an Internet Of Things streak running through us. We’ll often find that other agencies nearby pick up a lot of web jobs but when they’ve got something more involved to do, they’ll come to us.” The company’s capability to produce software for con- nected devices along with core online marketing assets put them in contention to win flagship projects for global brands. When adidas needed interactive displays for their Kate Moss Originals campaign in 2016 they turned to Parallax, whose track record of successful public engagement has led them onto pioneering projects with city councils and the NHS. “We’ve taken on two large NHS projects, one of which is coming to an end and has been really successful,” says James. “We’ve built them a minimum viable product to improve the way they spend their money on management training. “We’ve moved onto doing street lighting. We’re trying to save councils money on their electricity bills by putting radios in the streetlights themselves so that they can con- trol them over time. It’s a really cool project. “I know air pollution is a big thing – there was a report this morning about how pollution in Yorkshire affected childhood asthma and there’s a direct link there. It’ll be interesting to see how tech can help with that problem and what councils are looking to do with it.” James received personal recognition for his work when he was named as an Amazon Community Hero — one of only 13 expert developers in Europe and the Middle East to be given the title for their outstanding knowledge of Amazon Web Services (AWS). “I didn’t even get a cape or anything,” says James. “We’re pioneers of their tech in this part of the world and off the back of that people go to Amazon and say: ‘Do you know anyone?’ And they’ll point to us. “We’ve been running an AWS meetup, originally at our offices but we’ve outgrown it in the last couple of years. It is getting to the size of about 80 or 90 people so we’re thinking about moving it.” You get the feeling Parallax may need to move its team to larger premises in the coming years as the company continues to flourish, but James has no plans to uproot from a Northern tech scene he believes is thriving. “We have a satellite office in London,” he says. “We’ll often go down and meet clients in London but they’re keen to meet with agencies up North because the cost of living in London is so great, developers are expensive, so London companies are moving their resource to Leeds and Manchester. “Leeds and Manchester is where it’s at, I think.” 71 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 W A X D I G I T A L H Y D E , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Spend Management and eProcurement firm Wax Digital is the UK’s number one source-to-pay vendor and among the top five globally. The company powers procurement and sourcing processes for 260,000 users in 103 countries, and 18 per cent of Wax Digital’s turnover is reinvested in project development. Founded in Manchester in 2001 by Daniel Ball and Paul Ellis, Wax Digital’s web3 for Healthcare product is helping NHS Trusts to maintain service levels while delivering on cost-cutting and savings directives from central govern- ment. The company also provides eProcurement products to Nissan, Xerox, Durham University and ITV. 7 1 . U N I F O R M L I V E R P O O L , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Over the last 20 years, Uniform has grown from the startup project of three design students at Liverpool John Moores University, to a team of 54 creatives who provide inno- vative solutions for clients like Gatorade, Arsenal FC and Canary Wharf. The company was featured in the The Guardian in 2017 after creating Solo, the ‘emotional radio’ that selects music based on listeners’ emotional state, and it is this playful approach to design that has made Uniform one of the country’s most sought-after agencies. 7 2 . W A T E R S T O N S D U R H A M , I T S E R V I C E S Following financial growth of close to 30 per cent in 2017, creative IT consultancy Waterstons announced a move to new premises as the company aims to continue its upward trajectory. Founded in 1994, and with a client list including Shell, Leeds Beckett University, and the University of York, Waterstons works with businesses to define and develop technology, process and governance architectures, helping them to improve performance. The company has offices in London and Glasgow, employing 133 staff, and is planning expansion into the Asia-Pacific region in the near future. 7 3 . M O B I C A W I L M S L O W, I T S E R V I C E S Featured in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 five times since its launch in 2004, Mobica brings next-generation, time-critical products to life for the connected device market. The company was founded by Nick Stammers and Jon Clayton and has earned a stellar reputation for its soft- ware services and technology solutions. Mobica has 11 research and development hubs around the world, push- ing the company forward in the creation of cutting edge products for sectors including fintech, automotive and semiconductor. In 2017, the Wilmslow-based company announced key appointments to bolster its senior leadership team, who are working towards a target of 3,000 employees by 2020. 70. 72 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 7 4 . F I R E F I S H S O F T W A R E G L A S G O W, E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Glasgow recruitment software company Firefish began in 2006 when a team of recruiters decided to address the limitations of existing solutions by developing their own. Within four years of successfully growing an agency using their own award-winning in-house software, the Firefish team were in a position to offer their platform out to other companies. The success of Firefish resides in its ability to revive ‘dead’ data and engage candidates who would otherwise remain hidden. The company won the ScotlandIS Digital Technology Award for Best Newcomer in 2012, and the company is a finalist in the 2018 Digital Tech Awards for Best B2B Tech. 7 5 . V I S U A L S O F T T E E S S I D E , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Visualsoft boasts a hugely successful e-commerce plat- form with a proven track record of helping retailers such as TJ Hughes, Charles Clinkard and Shoetique grow and sustain their businesses online. Named one of Econsultancy’s Top 100 Digital Agencies in 2017, Visualsoft works with more than 1,000 retailers and over the course of two decades since its launch in Stockton-on-Tees the company has added offices in Manchester, Newcastle and London and signed part- nerships with industry heavyweights like Google, PayPal, Barclaycard and Trustpilot. 7 6 . VA I O N I G R O U P M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S Vaioni is a Ethernet and cloud solutions company, creat- ing bespoke networks to put customers in control of their connectivity. Since launching in Manchester in 2008, the company has developed a carrier grade infrastructure, the Vaioni Ethernet Network, which connects London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle. Following a successful year of growth, the company was named Best Fixed Line Network Provider of the Year at the 2017 Comms National Awards and Connectivity Provider of the Year at the 2017 Comms Business Awards. 7 7. P A R A L L A X L E E D S , D I G I T A L A G E N C Y Having started out as four friends working out of their bedrooms in York back in 2009, Parallax is now firmly established as a major player in the thriving Leeds tech scene and has worked with clients as prestigious and diverse as British Airways, Nespresso, Hisense, American Express, Dyson, and The Sunday Times. As well as being one of the most trusted digital agencies in the north for design, development, online marketing and PR, Parallax gives back to the Leeds community through its work with local charities such as homeless shelter St George’s Crypt. 78. CABOODLE TECHNOLOGY C R E W E , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Formerly Salary Exchange, employee benefit and engage- ment firm Caboodle changed its name in 2017 to reflect the breadth of its offering. Since 2009, the company has been developing a mar- ket-leading employee benefits platform, Salary Extras, which can be tailored to the specific programme and needs of every client. Caboodle is now one of the UK’s leading independent companies of its kind, servicing more than 8,000 UK organisations, and was named Business of the Year (11 to 50 employees) in the NatWest Cheshire Business Awards 2017. 73 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0 79. ELEMENTARY TECHNOLOGY L E E D S , H A R D W A R E The opening of a Customer Experience Centre at Elementary Technology’s Leeds headquarters has helped the 15-year-old company provide a number of new ser- vices to its customers around the country. Visitors can now experience the very latest interactive audio-visual tech- nology for education for themselves, under the guidance of Elementary’s experienced staff members. Working across education and enterprise marketplaces, the company supports thousands of UK schools, helping them to implement education technology to improve teaching and learning. 80. ANS M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S Ranked at number 18 in The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For in 2018, Manchester’s ANS offers public, pri- vate and hybrid cloud services, helping more than 300 customers to become cloud enabled. Founded in 1996, the company has partnered with Cisco, NetApp, Microsoft and AWS to develop successful cloud migration solutions for its customers, becoming the country’s leading cloud services provider. ANS has been given 3-star accreditation by The Sunday Times to denote its ‘extraordinary’ rating as an employer, and the company has nurtured 65 apprentices in the last five years, as well as raising more than £400,000 through charitable activities. 81. OPENCRM R I C H M O N D , E N T E R P R I S E S O F T W A R E Graham Anderson founded OpenCRM in Richmond in 2005. Graham, who was part of Apple’s UK Mac launch team before establishing the company, is now system architect and managing director and he works alongside many of the firm’s original staff members. OpenCRM provides a cloud-based CRM solution along with flexible consultancy, training and support to custom- ers such as Gresham Books, Launchpad Research and Waterlogic. 82. UKFAST M A N C H E S T E R , I T S E R V I C E S Manchester cloud management and hosting specialists UKFast are renowned for servicing some of the world’s biggest brands and providing its growing workforce with an exceptional working environment. Having achieved a turnover of £40m in 2016, the company went on to feature in the Financial Times 1000 Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies and won Cloud Services Provider of the Year at the CRN Channel Awards 2016-17. UKFast has offices in Manchester, London and Glasgow, and provides employees with sleeping pods, on-site crèche services, yoga classes and office dogs, so it is little sur- prise the company featured in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2017. 80. 74 N O R T H E R N T E C H 1 0 0
