Opportunities in Reading?

Previous Tech Nation reports have highlighted talent shortages. We’re starting to see more initiatives coming through to address this locally, such as Activate Learning announcing it’s part of a successful bid to develop a new Institute of Digital Technology (IoT),  leading to significant investment at its Oxford and Reading campuses.

Challenges?

Proximity to London and Oxford means competition for talent is fierce, and with both easily accessible via transport links we’re definitely seeing skills migrating away from the town. At the same time, the Crossrail connection has ensured that price per sq foot on office space remains high. Whilst we’ve made significant progress to create a more connected tech ecosystem in the last year, there’s still a way to go for Reading.

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Opportunities in Southampton?

Opportunities that exist here are very much around the sorts of things that are the planks of the government’s industrial strategy. Areas include the intelligent manipulation of data and what I’d call environmental improvements – such as battery tech applicable to electric cars – and muscular-skeletal medicine.

Challenges?

One of the things about the south coast is that it’s not Oxford, Cambridge or London. As a consequence of that, it generally speaking has a low profile and is difficult for startups to access funding without travelling further afield. The region is rich in tech innovation and startups, but it somehow manages to remain under the radar of people.

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Opportunities in Brighton?

Brighton has a powerful blend of tech and creative talent that already represents the future skills and collaborative practices demanded in the wider workplace. As a place to work it offers stimulating career opportunities and is fertile ground for ambitious startups. As a place to live, nothing beats it.

Challenges?

Brighton is growing more popular, so investment is needed in infrastructure, work and living spaces. Digital businesses are growing in confidence, capability and scale. Government policy makers should take note and provide the necessary support to accelerate development and global awareness of what is a true centre of excellence.

Vitaccess is a digital health consultancy based in Oxford that develops smartphone apps for patients globally, to help the pharmaceutical industry and researchers understand the impact of treatments and diseases in the real world, not just when patients attend clinics.

Why Oxford?

With Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest acute teaching trusts in the UK, plus two outstanding universities and multiple science parks, the city attracts global talent in both healthcare and tech. The Oxford Centre for Innovation is our home and we participate in hackathons and tech events all the time.

National and international focus?

Our potential reach is global – any location where clinical research takes place and patients have access to smartphones. Our digital work has so far been launched in Europe, US and Canada. We tackle Japan in 2020. Our team is majority UK based and female, with some colleagues in the US, Paris, Romania and Athens.

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Futrli exists to help small businesses succeed: positively impacting families, communities and economies globally.

Why Brighton?

The real answer is because I fell in love with my husband who lived here! But fortuitously, Brighton is an amazing melting pot of bright minds and innovation. Our 80-strong team here are going from strength to strength and we’re sending the Brighton vibe to the other offices we have in Belfast, Sydney, Melbourne and Australia.

National and international focus?

We’ve been international from day one. Launching in Sydney almost 5 years ago, our ANZ market is fantastic. The UK and ANZ are our core markets, but we are moving more aggressively into the US now and seeing fantastic results.

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From its offices on the campus of Reading University, Assuria develops and markets a government-grade portfolio of cybersecurity monitoring and defence software solutions and managed services to a world customer base.

Why Reading?

Reading in itself is a fantastic technology hub, close to London, with a strong skills base, great University, excellent facilities of every kind, and for a company like Assuria with clients in many countries, it’s proximity to Heathrow airport is a massive advantage.

National and international focus?

UK wide client base and a growing global base of clients in the US, UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Japan and Hong Kong. New regions being explored right now include the whole ASEAN region, Australia, Nepal, Canada and Nordic.

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Generic Robotics work at the interface of humans and robots, specialising in “haptics” – technologies which replicate the sense of touch when interacting with the digital world.

Why reading?

I completed a BSc then PhD at the University of Reading then established Generic Robotics with four very talented colleagues, originally as an R&D consultancy before moving on to commercialising our in-house IP. When expanding, we spent quite some time looking for the ideal location, only to discover the University itself was able to provide affordable office space which grew as we did and a landlord understanding of the growing pains that come with start-up life. Along with our existing connections in Reading, the excellent transport links and facilities it made sense to grow the company right here.

National and international focus?

While the potential applications of our technologies are broad, our current focus and passion is healthcare education, something which does not recognise borders.

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Oxehealth’s Digital Care Assistant helps nurses and carers reduce injuries, improve the patient experience & operate more efficiently.

Why Oxford?

We were founded by Professor Lionel Tarassenko, Head of Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  We’ve stayed close to our roots!

National and international focus?

Our solution is currently contracted to 17% of English Mental Health Trusts, three UK care home providers, police and prison customers.  We also operate in Sweden, where we serve care home customers. We plan to expand further internationally in the coming year.

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We’re an immersive technology company which develops AR and VR products for the market research industry.

Why Brighton?

The founding team have lived here for years however, because we’re so different, we probably wouldn’t have met if we lived elsewhere. Brighton celebrates diversity and this unique mix of liberal arts, technology and creativity is the reason we got together in the first place. I recently found out that Silicon Valley’s perfect founding team is apparently a Geek, a Suit and a Hippie – which is a happy coincidence.

National and international focus?

We’ve got a long way to go before we’ve saturated the UK market however enquiries from North America and other countries in Europe have led to our tech being deployed in multiple markets. I’ve been in global roles before so our ambition is definitely to scale beyond the British Isles.

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We’re a B2B data analytics company. Our innovative red.thread technology uses digital twins, big data and advanced predictive analytics to enable critical client outcomes.

Why Southampton?

Southampton has a long history of using advanced technology to solve real world challenges. Our own roots are in aerospace – a sector in which Southampton has a proud history of innovation. In this digital age, our location at Southampton Science Park is providing us with the essential network of talent and support to solve new challenges.

National and international focus?

We operate worldwide, with over 80% of our revenue coming from export. Our people, technology and services are all located in Southampton, UK.  Our home market is also our main platform for developing and proving technology solutions that can be deployed globally.

• Oxford – Oxford Startups
• Oxford – Enterprising Oxford events calendar

• Reading – Grow@Green Park
• Reading – Work Life
• Reading – Central Working
• Reading – QH (coming soon)

• Oxford – Oxford Centre for Innovation
• Oxford – One St Aldates
• Oxford – Wood Centre for Innovation

• Witney – Witney Business & Innovation Centre

• Barclays Innovation Catalyst
• Digital Gum
• ScaleUp Berkshire
• Enterprising Oxford – Accelerators, Incubators & Workspaces
• Enterprising Oxford – Entrepreneurship Resource Maps

• Henley Business Angels
• The FSEGroup
• ADV