Here’s your weekly round up of news about startup competitions, awards, co-working spaces, accelerators and any other exciting things happening in the UK tech sector.
Digital Catapult and Seedcamp partnership
Digital Catapult and Seedcamp have partnered to launch Augmentor, an equity free programme to support early stage tech businesses developing applications of immersive technologies.
The ten-week programme will seek to help advance next generation virtual, augmented and mixed reality early stage tech companies by providing technical and business mentorship.
DigitalCatapult’s centre in London will be available to successful Augmentor applicants as a space to work.
Dr Jeremy Silver, CEO Digital Catapult said: “Immersive technologies are fast becoming a central part of the digital economy and there is a real demand for access to expertise and equipment in this space. Our new lab will help to provide businesses with access to state-of-the-art immersive technologies under one roof, providing a vital opportunity for them to refine their ideas and test products across the range of equipment on the market today.”
Dave Haynes, from Seedcamp’s investment team, commented: “Having invested in several immersive companies including Splash and TheWaveVR, we’re excited to be launching this initiative to develop a new wave of entrepreneurs solving problems with emerging technologies.
“We’re still on the frontier of what immersive tech can do and what founders need. And European founders will need an investment of both time, expertise and money to succeed. That’s how Seedcamp has been helping startups for years now. Augmentor is the first program in London looking to bridge that gap for companies working with VR and AR.”
The Augmentor programme is open for entrants now. Applications will close at midnight on 26th February.
Winton Labs demo day
Winton Labs has announced its second cohort from its accelerator.
The five companies, which pitched at a demo day on 9th February, focused on AI, machine learning and data science.
The programme has been run in collaboration with The Alan Turing Institute, whose academics served as mentors to the startups.
Matt Ridley from Winton Ventures, said: “London is home to world-class academics, start-ups, data scientists and innovators. By bringing these ingredients together into an organised acceleration programme, Winton Labs is helping entrepreneurs to build new, value-generating companies that are able to compete on a global scale.”
The second cohort of Winton Labs comprises:
Cognitiv+: an artificial intelligence platform that automates knowledge extraction from legal data.
SMAP Energy: which use energy consumption data collected via smart meters to innovate the energy sector.
Warwick Analytics: which automate predictive analytics even with heterogeneous data.
Terrabotics: Transform terabytes of satellite and aerial imagery into very high precision true 3D terrain data to model the Earth.
Alterest: a cloud platform providing institutional debt investors an efficient way to access the growing non-bank lending market.
Free co-working space for a year
The Office Group is offering the chance for 100 startups, run by young entrepreneurs, to win free co-working space for 12 months over the next three years.
To qualify, the startups must have four members or less and one of the founders of the company must be aged between 18 and 25.
Olly Olsen, Co-CEO at TOG, commented: “We have never forgotten how hard it was to get off the ground, so we’re delighted to be able to provide space for young, ambitious start-ups to grow and succeed amongst like-minded people.
“We pride ourselves in creating environments with a buzz and creative edge at iconic locations, including The Shard and Tech City, and we can’t wait to welcome our new members and help them mature.”
To enter the first round of the competition, register your details here. Applications must be submitted by 31 March 2017.
Activate Capital calls for applications
Activate Capital has announced that applications are now open for its digital Startup Lab.
The accelerator programme takes place in Ealing, London over a six-week period includes strategy and planning, product design, advance on company structure as well as pitch coaching for future funding rounds.
Paolo Valdemarin, co-founding partner at Active Capital, said: “Today’s accelerator model is totally broken with an average success rate of just one in ten. At Activate our mission is to ensure that all of those that go on our programme succeed. We are committed to working hand-in-hand with start-ups to ensure that they get the advice, insights and support that they need.”
Once the programme has finished, successful applicants have the opportunity to gain access to seed investment of £100K, used to optimise product development and secure future finance.
Apply here by 8pm on 24th March.
Imperial College London opens new hackspace
Imperial College London is seeking to support a new generation of inventors, tech leaders and budding entrepreneurs by creating a new dedicated hackspace.
The colleage has also said that it will be opening up a network of labs and workshops to more scientists.
Imperial staff, students, alumni and commercial partners will use the facilities to work together in an attempt to convert research ideas into breakthrough prototype products. Many will be aimed at addressing major global challenges, such as respiratory illness or infant mortality.
Norwich startup makes the final cut
Norwich-based Epos Now has been named as one of the finalists, and Ruban d’Honneur recipients, in the 2016-17 European Business Awards.
The firm is one of 110 finalists narrowed down from more than 33,000 businesses selected by a panel of expert judges.
Jacyn Heaven, the CEO, said: “It was very humbling to be selected as British national champions so to go round to the next stage of the competition is fantastic. It’s amazing to see what my little startup in Norwich has achieved in five short years. We strive every day to deliver new and innovative products to our customers.”
The company will now undertake an in depth face-to-face interview and will find out if it is a winner of one of the 11 categories at in May.