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Tech City UK reveals inaugural Upscale programme lineup

Tech City UK has today announced the 30 digital companies who will comprise its inaugural Upscale programme.

The programme, which is backed by big tech names including Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström and LoveFilm’s Simon Calver, aims to provide mentorship and support to emerging digital businesses who exhibit exemplary potential for national and international growth.

Digital companies with revenues of at least £500,000, or who had successfully completed a Seed A funding round, were encouraged to apply when applications opened last November.

The list of 30 chosen companies represent a wide-range of digital specialisms including fintech, e-commerce and edtech, among others, and features names such as crowdfunding platform Seedrs, virtual reality company Touch Surgery and SpatialOS developer’s Improbable.

The full list of Upscale companies includes:

• E-commerce: Depop, Metail, Pact Coffee, Snap Fashion, Thread, Bloom & Wild
• Fintech: Seedrs, Elliptic, Growth Street, Property Partner, Sybenetix, Receipt Bank
• Data & Analytics: Growth Intel, Import.io, Improbable, Ometria, EDITED
• Edtech: Administrate, Kano, Lingvist, Show My Homework
• Hardware & IoT: Cocoon, M Squared Lasers, SAM Labs
• Healthtech and biology: Touch Surgery, Zesty, Synthace
• Other: Global App Testing, Wakelet, Appear Here.

Following the announcement, Gerard Grech, Chief Executive Officer of Tech City UK, said: “Upscale from Tech City UK is a grassroots initiative to coach the next generation of UK-based entrepreneurs.

“Upscale has been built from the ground up, using direct feedback from company founders, investors and ecosystem partners. I’d like to welcome everyone aboard and thank all of our advisors and friends who helped this take off.”

One of the companies included in this first batch of successful applicants is Kano, who design and manufacture computer kits to get children into coding. Its co-founder, Alex Klein, believes the networking opportunities provided by Upscale are invaluable and added: “Finding opportunities to connect with other startups is very valuable. It’s incredibly helpful for our team to meet their peers in other companies, as part of the Upscale programme, so that everyone can learn from each other.”

During the programme, the Upscale companies will work in conjunction with Scale Coaches with the ultimate aim of fostering the UK’s next billion dollar tech organisation, or ‘unicorn’ as they are known within the industry.

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