Daniel Jeffreys
CEO, Resooma

How is Resooma disrupting a part of the economy?

Resooma is disrupting the economy in a few different ways as there are multiple issues within our market, which is divided up into the B2C side, the tenants, and the B2C side of the property owners. The issue with both of those is that they have an extremely hard time renting properties. Resooma is disrupting this area of the market by creating an end-to-end rental marketplace that serves both tenants and property owners.

We allow tenants and property owners to list and search properties for free, while reducing their travel costs with VR viewings. They can then manage and book properties via their smartphones. Complicated admin such as reference checks, contracts, and processing of rental payments is all handled by Resooma as part of our main service. That ultimately makes it much easier to rent on both sides of the marketplace.

What markets do Resooma operate in?

Resooma operates in the private rental sector; that’s all private housing, so our clients are generally based in the UK in one of the major cities, though we do have people in towns as well. The add-on insurance products that we do are generally for the UK – but we have a couple of US options too that we’re working on.

In terms of who we’re booking properties to, we have tenants from the UK – of course – in addition to Europe, China, India, and Africa as well other countries. We have partnerships in many different international places, but we’re technically not booking rooms in international buildings just yet – that’s obviously for the future.

David Janczewski
CEO, Coincover

What problem is your business solving/addressing?

Coincover removes the risks associated with owning cryptocurrency. We have created the world’s first insured protection against online cryptocurrency theft and our technology platform has removed the risk of anyone ever losing their cryptocurrency. We are making owning cryptocurrency as safe as any other financial investment and enabling wider adoption for the large and fast-growing number of first-time cryptocurrency investors.

Why did you choose to base your company in South Wales?

South Wales has a thriving tech and startup scene with a growing support network for sectors like fintech – and it has an established pool of talent. There is funding, development and technical support available from the Welsh Government, Angels Invest Wales and local universities such as Cardiff Met.

Having worked in the area, we knew we could access talent and office space at a lower cost. The good transport links were also a major factor. We are big supporters of flexible and remote working with team members all over the UK and investors and customers in London.

Coincover is a company founded in Wales, based in Wales and with significant Welsh investment, but our reach and our aspirations are global. We have a global product at the forefront of cryptocurrency and blockchain – probably the fastest growing areas in the financial sector in the world today. The market for digital assets has grown from nothing to $350bn in value in just 11 years and is predicted to be worth trillions over the next decade.

Afroditi Konidari
Director, Tendertec Limited

What problem is your business solving/addressing?

Tendertec, the Cardiff-based, award-winning startup, has opened the door to personalised, preventative, and cost-effective elder care.

Established in 2017 by myself and Rui Zhang, we develop AI-powered room sensing technology to support independent living for elderly and vulnerable people, providing their families with the peace of mind that if anything harmful happens at their loved one’s home, it won’t go unnoticed.

What challenges are you facing in your business?

Many. One is a lack of local talent in the areas of machine learning, embedded software engineering, and hardware design.

Additionally, candidates with experience coming outside of Wales are demanding London-style salaries regardless of the lower costs of living in Wales. Graduate candidates pose a management challenge as they lack working life and soft skills.

It’d be great if London-based accelerators, hubs, platforms and events could provide virtual participation to startups based in other parts of the UK whose transport links to London are too costly or time-consuming.

Chris Ganje
CEO, Amplyfi

What about Wales has enabled you to scale your business?

The funding and long-term support available from organisations such as the Development Bank of Wales and the Welsh Government, more broadly, have been pivotal to helping us to succeed in this location. As one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech clusters, Cardiff hosts leading innovation ecosystems.

This is underpinned by hubs such as Tramshed Tech, where AMPLYFI is headquartered, as well as programmes such as NatWest’s flagship Accelerator in Cardiff, which gave us access to free office space, coaching, leadership development and an entrepreneurial community.

How could your place or region be better suited to the creation of billion-dollar value businesses?

The one missing ingredient – funding for scaleups – impacts when exciting enterprises start to scale and seek to raise their Series B and beyond. Up to this point, strong local investor networks working alongside the Development Bank of Wales provide readily accessible levels of capital for early-stage enterprises.

For those with true unicorn ambitions and potential, there is a need to engage with top tier VCs from Series B onwards to raise the capital amounts needed to grow to a global scale. It inevitably means – at the moment – turning to London, the USA, or, increasingly, Asia. Such investors are generally unaware of the opportunities that this region offers.

What are the opportunities and challenges for digital tech founders in Wales?

Featuring comment from Tramshed Tech, Resooma, and Careercake.