Last year saw Yorkshire-based company Vet AI (Leeds) succeed in being a crowned winner of our Rising Stars 2019 competition. Early-stage companies from across the UK are once again set to pitch at this year’s Rising Stars 2.0 semi-final on 15-16 January in Manchester – and we’ve had a chat with founders of three competitors who are set to represent Yorkshire. Read on for their thoughts on reaching the semi-final, and what it’s like to be a digital tech company based in the region.
Check out all of our Rising Stars 2.0 semi-finalists Cooperative InnovationsCooperative Innovations (@cooperativeinnovations) build, license and implement high-quality immersive development tools to create worlds to play in, explore, learn from and share with others, regardless of sector or end-user. Cofounder Simon Barratt tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars semi-finalist?
It is a huge honour to be selected as a Rising Stars semi-finalist, especially considering the competition in the region. We’ve invested so much in the business, the team and in our technology – and it feels like this is the beginning of that hard work paying off. Our growth in the last 18 months has been supported by our seed round investment and a substantial new client win in the summer. We’ve also been busy further developing our technology and our new game Spaceteam VR, which showcases our technology and is set for release in February.
What’s it like being a digital tech company in Yorkshire?
The growth that we’re experiencing in a relatively young industry means we’re often recruiting outside the region, but it has been really easy to convince people to move to Leeds, a city we love. We’re right the heart of a thriving innovative community, and we’re well-supported by universities and organisations such as Game Republic, GaMaYo, the LEP and Leeds City Council.
See AIThe shortage of radiologists in the UK is causing an increase in the number of misdiagnoses. SeeAI (@seeai_ltd) addresses this by using AI to reduce the number of images assigned to radiologists for reporting – only sending complex images to human specialists and automatically reporting the remaining images. Saille Villegas, cofounder at SeeAI, tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars semi-finalist?
It’s exciting to have been chosen as a Rising Stars semi-finalist – we’re very happy to have Tech Nation’s recognition. It’s like a “launch-pad” that puts us closer to achieving our vision. We can establish a strong path to help radiologists make use of their full potential and improve patient care.
What’s it like being a digital tech company in Yorkshire?
SeeAI is part of Yorkshire’s digital ecosystem. Many tech businesses have relocated to the county and the tech sector here is expanding across the region, turning it into the perfect place to have our company. It is exciting to be among a fast-growing community of tech businesses of all sizes.
BrandswerBrandswer (@thebranswer) is a smart content writing platform that helps businesses write effective customer communications. Writing prompts give users peace of mind that they have included the right information, tone analysis measures content, and AI insights determine whether it matches brand values. Cofounder Kayla Herbert tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars semi-finalist?
I’m incredibly proud of Branswer being recognised as one of the top companies in Yorkshire. I think this will be an amazing experience for Branswer and our unique content writing platform. It’s great to see that our vision to empower everyone to tell their story has been recognised by this prestigious competition. It’s a fantastic opportunity to help even more people keep their comms on-brand. I can’t wait to share our ambitious growth goals with the Rising Stars community.
What’s it like being a digital tech company in Yorkshire?
We’re very proud to be based in Yorkshire. We’ve seen first-hand our community’s willingness to network and collaborate with us. This kind of peer-to-peer learning has been invaluable to us and has really helped us grow to where we are today. Since we started just a few years ago, we’ve really benefited from the great network and community of tech companies here in Leeds.
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