What happens to our startups after they leave the Accelerator Programme?

We caught up with some of the companies from our Spring 2019 cohort, to find out how they were doing and what news they had to share with the Geovation community.

Alex Middleton from RenKap, told us that in recent months they have:

• Growing Team
  Since September, RenKap has welcomed 3 new recruits to their team. This includes a Content Marketer who will be researching and implementing a bespoke route-to-market strategy, as well as a Tech Lead and a Product Designer who will be taking the reins from the Geovation Development team and manage the in-house development of RenKap’s MMC Development Management Platform.
• Received Seed Investment
  RenKap has secured SEIS seed investment from a strategic HNI. The investment will allow RenKap to accelerate their growth and help them meet the growing demand for their platform.
• Innovate UK Success
  RenKap has recently won a Innovate UK grant that’s focused on supporting new business models that can help the UK economy recover from the pandemic in a sustainable manner. Receiving this funding means that RenKap are able to accelerate the development of all of the products within their MMC Development Management Platform. If successful in Phase 1, RenKap will have the opportunity to access several million pounds in Phase 2. To find out more about their Innovate UK success, check out their blog post here.
• G-Cloud Framework – RenKap becomes a Government Approved SupplierRenKap has also been accepted as an approved supplier on the G-Cloud government framework. The G-Cloud framework allows public sector clients to easily access innovative tech suppliers via a Digital Marketplace. This means that the public sector can now procure RenKap’s services easily and most importantly – very quickly! To find out more about the G-Cloud or how to procure RenKap’s services, find out more from their blog post!
• New Projects
  After launching the first of their products during a very turbulent year, RenKap has continued to win work with major Housing Associations and Local Authorities. Their existing clients keep coming back for more and RenKap has reported they’ve received 100% repeat business from all their initial clients whilst also growing their pipeline of new clients.

Guy Walker from WatchKeeper updated us:

• Covid-19 Back-to-Work Model.
  Created in partnership with Risk Advisory Group, WatchKeeper developed a powerful and easily deployable Covid-19 modelling tool to help organisations make data driven back-to-work decisions across a global portfolio of offices and facilities.The model aggregates local-level clinical data and risk information into a format that provides objective empirical metrics for organisations to judge whether a location should consider reopening.WatchKeeper is currently aiding a Fortune 500 financial services company with their re-opening strategy across six continents.
• ATI Restoration Contract
  We signed a 3-year deal for our new unified situational awareness platform with ATI Restoration, a US-based disaster recovery firm. ATI helps businesses and homeowners with restoration and reconstruction following natural or man-made disasters.WatchKeeper helped ATI better service their current clients and gain new business through the worst hurricane and wildfire seasons on record.
• Partnerships
  With Mapbox:  Granted MapBox Community membership, helping MapBox support organisations, NGOs and government agencies manage risks associated with natural disasters.
• With FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency): WatchKeeper’s unified situational awareness platform includes the integration of FEMA’s IPAWS data (local and state emergency communications system in the United States). Last month, WatchKeeper’s CEO Hugh Farquhar, gave a demonstration of the platform and how it uses IPAWS data to FEMA and, in the coming months, WatchKeeper will deploy its platform into the IPAWS Lab.

Annette Jezierska from The Future Fox shared the following news:

• Went live with several clients, engaging over 3,000 people and receiving over 30,000 comments, and counting: Glasgow City Council on their new Local Development Plan in partnership with Scottish Government; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on spatial policy views of residents from the Oxford to Cambridge Arc region, Devon County Council & Exeter City Council on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Exeter, Southampton City Council and AR Urbanism on a masterplan for the Mayflower Quarter, new mixed-use city centre quarter for the city by 2040.
• Rolling out new, advanced analytics to clients to bring richer, spatial insight. We worked with the Science and Technology Facilities Council to develop these through an Innovate UK grant we won last year. Won further Innovate UK funding (Continuity Grant) to support this.
• Launched a community-fuelled library of tactical public realm ideas, tactical.space, to inspire and share successes in adapting to Covid and its legacy.
• Upgraded our infrastructure to guarantee 99.95% uptime.
• Grew the team, bringing on Product Manager, a further developer and marketing support. Met up face to face as a team before the second lockdown.
• Annette our CEO spoke at two ministerial roundtables with Rt Hon Robert Jendrick and Rt Hon Christopher Pincher, including on the Government’s proposed planning reforms white paper, and submitted The Future Fox’s response to the consultation.

We’re busy catching up with other cohorts, so watch this space for more updates from our startups soon.