Ordnance Survey - English
Printable version

Government bodies adapt to continue support for British start-ups through Covid-19

Promising digital innovators to receive focused guidance, access to quality data, and technical and financial resources to help fuel their growth.

Ordnance Survey (OS) and HM Land Registry (HMLR) continue to provide financial support and expert help through their successful Geovation Programme, as four new businesses join.

The Accelerator Programme is designed to propel pre-seed or seed stage start-ups, in the location and property industries, to the next level.

Since launching in 2015, the Programme has helped 117 start-ups introduce innovative digital products and services to their respective markets, which in turn has seen them raise more than £77M in third-party funding, creating 484 new jobs.

To mitigate the added challenges Covid-19 Geovation has responded and adapted.

It has provided events, workshops and development support through its networks to ensure it continues to offer the next generation of digital businesses an all-encompassing package through remote digital solutions.

This includes access to:

  • Up to £20,000 in grant funding
  • High quality data from OS, HMLR and British Geological Survey
  • Geospatial expertise from OS and land and property insight from HMLR
  • Business and strategy development capabilities
  • A team of full stack developers to help build their proof of concept/minimum viable product
  • Business mentorship and coachingfrom third-party professionals
  • Hub space at Geovation London, as well as partner hubs in Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh
  • An extensive business network, including connection with investors and potential partners.

The businesses joining the Programme are:

BioCap: BioCap is working with landowners and partners to develop "The Opportunity Map" – a mapped plan for a region’s countryside, which highlights existing important ecosystems, and then recommends further Nature-based interventions to create more valuable wildlife habitat and capture carbon.

Sail Homes: Sail Homes offers homeowners a stress-free sale by identifying the best buyer and quickly tying up the many legal details that can cause delays.

Mappin Technologies: Mappin Technologies develops solutions for administrators and users to interact digitally with buildings, from indoor navigation to asset-tracking, to create a digital smart-building ecosystem.

adoor: adoor opens on November 9th. adoor is the platform to track your house move. Keeping everyone involved up to date, all in one place. adoor.at

Paul Cruddace, Head of Innovation and Geovation, yesterday said:

“New businesses, new thinking and innovation will be key to the British economy as the nation comes through the Covid pandemic. Start-ups face many challenges, regardless of Covid, and so at this extraordinary time Ordnance Survey, HM Land Registry and the Geovation team will relish supporting these businesses to succeed.”

Andrew Trigg, acting Director of Digital, Data and Technology at HMLR, yesterday commented:

“Our ongoing support for Proptech SMEs on the Geovation Programme is enabling them to seize disruptive opportunities in the housing, land and planning sectors. We couldn’t be more excited by the new innovators joining the programme, and can’t wait for them to add to an already glowing track record of products, services, and job creation as an exciting part of the UK’s digital economy.”

Talking about her start-up’s experience of being on the Geovation Programme, Iris Kramer of ArchAI yesterday said:

“Geovation helped us develop our commercial skills base, expand customer exploration and market penetration strategies.

"Because of COVID and the lockdown, every business owner has had to quickly shift to being online.

"Being part of Geovation has given us the opportunity to learn how to navigate this situation from dedicated experts through workshops, and by sharing experiences with the other founders in the cohort during group coaching sessions.

"This helped quickly apply our learnings to grow our business, automating archaeology assessments to speed up construction planning, something which would have taken us much longer to arrive at on our own.”

For more information on Geovation’s accelerator programme, and its wider PropTech and GeoTech membership community, please visit https://geovation.uk/.

 

Channel website: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

Original article link: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/news/government-bodies-adapt-to-continue-support-for-british-start-ups-through-covid-19

Share this article

Latest News from
Ordnance Survey - English

Free, Secure, Compliant UK Public Sector IT Recycling Service