A first-of-its-kind hybrid event for North Wales will see cutting-edge start-ups and small businesses showcase their exciting investment opportunities.
Den y Dreigiau (Dragon’s Den) by M-SParc, GlobalWelsh and partners, will put eight Welsh firm in front of dozens of investors - virtually and face-to-face - on Thursday.
The hope is that they will be persuaded to invest either money and/or expertise to help the innovators take their products to the next stage.
Business Post met some of those businesses ahead of the event at Menai Science park on Anglesey.
Haia
Haia is a web-based platform allowing people to create online or hybrid events.
They have major organisations asking them to quote for high profiles events and are in a “very good” place in the development.
Founder Tom Burke said it changed the way people could experience online or hybrid events with unique features like the way users can “move around” in an event.
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He said: “We are looking for £500,000 to build up a team, part of it would be sales and development, marketing and PR. We could scale up. Our real growth will come in the private sector and we have a real drive now to get out there.”
There are five full time workers at the moment with hopes to add another three or four if they get funding support.
He added: “By the end of next year we could be looking at 8-10 people and several sub-contractors.”
They said the pandemic had changed the landscape and even as people return to live events there would still be demand for a hybrid service so they could connect to more people.
Tom added: “If it wasn’t for the pandemic then this whole new market probably would not be here but now it’s a huge potential market.
“We think this event is a great opportunity.”
See to test the beta version of the platform.
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Dewin.tech
Dewin.tech is an agri-tech company providing LoRaWAN solutions to service providers and businesses.
Co-founder Geraint Hughes said they used their knowledge of agriculture - looking at tech solutions to common rural problems.
This includes their open/close technology which would alert landowners when a gate or door is left open. It is about ensuring livestock are safe and also providing peace of mind to landowners as well as reducing hassle.
They are developing two other products including an AI platform that monitors the behaviour of cows - with a focus on calving, using tech to assist a farmer to know when a cow is due to calf. Another invention is a water monitoring device.
They have secured seed funding but need more support to move forward.
He said: “The agri-tech revolution is happening now but Wales is not leading it.” He warned vital data is being lost from farms to more tech savvy nations like the US.
They are not bidding for money and are instead asking for mentoring to help them with future funding rounds and expose their ideas to others.
PlantSea
PlantSea aims to replace environmentally damaging petroleum-based plastics with sustainable and biodegradable alternatives.
Gianmarco Sanfratello, co-founder of PlantSea, said: “We are a bio-tech start-up, we work with seaweed and transform it into a material suitable for replacing single use plastics.
“Our vision is turning the ride on plastic pollution, we are focused on working to eliminate plastic.”
He is working with two friends on the venture and they won an inventor prize at Aberystwyth University, and they are part of the BioAccelerate programme. He added: “That was the start, and we knew people liked the idea. It is still the three of us and we moved to M-SParc. This event is a good opportunity to seek investment to fund a research project and grow to commercialisation.”
They are looking for £500,000.
He added: “If we receive this investment we could reach commercialisation in 2024 which is very exciting.
“That money would really help us.”
Other bidders include:
Ceridwen Oncology - A pre-clinical drug discovery company combining innovative state-of-the-art computational chemistry and cancer biology to identify new, first-in-class anti-cancer therapeutics.
Micron Agritech - The Micron Kit is a pen-side testing kit that allows farmers or vets to rapidly detect parasitic infections in livestock.
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