CellulaREvolution (nominated by Alex Buchan, investment director at Northstar Ventures)
CellulaREvolution is an innovative Newcastle University spin-out.
The company aims to revolutionise the way cells are grown at industrial scale and by doing so become the market leader in the field. The company was founded by Martina Miotto, Che Connon and Leo Groenewegen, and now consists of a team of seven.
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The interest in cultured meat, due to food scarcity and ethical considerations, is rapidly developing and the technology developed by CellulaREvolution is capable of allowing companies to scale up production and produce much higher quantities at a lower cost price. On top of that the technologies are also of interest in the biologics and cell therapy industries.
The technology also has a great positive impact on the environment and sustainability of our food chain and entire ecosystem, as
cultured meat has a much lower resource consumption and also means that fewer (or no) animals will need to be slaughtered.
Connection Flooring (nominated by Jonathan Lamb, chief executive of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum)
Connection Flooring started out as an online business when it was founded in 2012 by managing director Dan Foskett.
Since then the County Durham-based flooring company has developed a successful blend of online and in-store shopping experiences, having opened 16 stores nationwide in the past two-and-a-half years – with ambitious plans to develop a further 15 in 2020.
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It has also developed its own transport network, based on nine logistics hubs, to ensure next day delivery of its products to 98 per cent of postcodes.
Connection Flooring, which offers three brands – Flooring Superstore, Grass Direct and Direct Wood Flooring – currently employs more than 170 staff.
Wordnerds (nominated by Jim Mawdsley, CEO of Generator)
At only around two years old (if that), Wordnerds is the business on everyone’s lips in the tech community, having burst onto the scene following significant investment. It is certainly the start up that everyone has their eye on.
The ground-breaking company uses advanced linguistics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help organisations understand text. Whether it’s tweets and social media, online reviews and forums or customer service emails they can automate listening and understanding, allowing you to act – in short Wordnerds can tell what people really mean when they are posting, tweeting or sending emails.
Investment has come from the North East Innovation Fund as well as Paul and Gerard Callaghan from the Leighton group. With initial help from Sunderland Software City, Gateshead Council and Proto, this company shows all the signs of becoming a real regional gem.
Ricochet (nominated by Simon Hansen, North East development manager of the Federation of Small Businesses)
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Anyone in business knows that finding solid leads is one of the biggest challenges irrespective of size or sector.
Fortunately a superb business in the North East is helping to address that.
Ricochet is a B2B search engine that helps sales teams find and qualify new business leads faster. There’s a stellar team behind Ricochet that has seen the business grow from strength to strength in the back end of 2019, seeing an increase in subscribers and new features being developed. With some exciting plans and a growing team, 2020 promises to be a cracking year for Ricochet.
Tharsus (nominated by James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the North East England Chamber of Commerce)
I recommend Tharsus, based in Blyth as one to watch for 2020. The company won a national British Chambers of Commerce award in November as well as winning the North East Business Awards company of the year.
It is an outstanding and innovative developer of unique solutions to a whole range of companies’ requirements. The robotic solution – or as they call it, the ‘strategic machine’ – it provided for Ocado’s shopping selection process, for example, was ground-breaking.
Tharsus’ original equipment design and manufacture is second to none and we are extremely fortunate to have them in our region, creating highly skilled jobs and national recognition.
SoPost (nominated by David Elliott, office senior partner at KPMG in Newcastle)
SoPost has developed software enabling companies to connect with customers online through product sampling. It works with more than 100 brands which have included Yves Saint Laurent and Cadbury.
SoPost is headquartered in Newcastle with offices in London and New York, from where it is pursuing significant growth across North America.
2020 is anticipated to be a strong year for SoPost given its ambition to build on the 100% sales growth achieved in the last three years, causing it to be recognised as one of the fastest-growing tech firms in the 海角视频.
Its headcount has risen by nearly two thirds in 2019 and is expected to continue rising in 2020. Its growth plans largely target further international expansion.
Lixir Tonics (nominated by Journal business writer Coreena Ford)
Lixir Tonics is the latest Newcastle food and drink firm that’s proving to be a hit at a local, national and global level – and recent expansion should see it move up a level next year.
The firm is the brainchild of childhood friends Matt Mahatme and Jordan Palmer, who quit their jobs last year to concoct a range of five tonics, to pair with spirits or drink on their own.
A year later, the drinks have won awards and are on sale in the likes of Fenwick, Selfridges, numerous bars and restaurants and they also have a raft of wholesaler listings.
Having expanded from a two-man team to five full-time employees, the pair have also taken on three non-exec directors with a wealth of experience who will be helping to grow Lixir’s overseas reach, which already extends into 10 international markets.
Datatrial (nominated by Dr Séamus O’Neill, chief executive of the Northern Health Science Alliance nominates Datatrial)
This innovative company based in Newcastle provides ground-breaking solutions using data expertise and technology across the global healthcare sector to ultimately improve the lives of patients.
Recently it has launched a new platform, Nucleus eTMF, with support from an Innovate 海角视频 grant. Alongside North West company Aptus Clinical it has co-developed the Electronic Trial Master File (eTMF) which is intended to give a cost effective and efficient solution for use in early phase clinical trials.
I’m excited to see where it is heading to in 2020.
Graphene Composites (nominated by Journal business writer Jonathon Manning)
The Sedgefield firm is gearing up for a very strong year after developing a bulletproof shield that can be used to protect school children from gun violence.
The company has developed its GC Shield so that it can be folded into backpacks or connected to other shields to protect large groups of kids.
After raising more than £600,000 through a crowdfunding campaign the business has now taken its products to market and struck a $1.2m deal with a school in the US. Its sales pipeline includes around a dozen other schools and places of worship.
Plastech – nominated by Sarah Glendinning, regional director of the CBI
This year I was delighted to meet a young team of entrepreneurial scientists, proving the benefits of university and business collaboration.
Plastech Innovation are an award-winning, market-disrupting, North East-based start-up and joint venture with Durham University.
It is developing patentable technologies to transform waste plastic into plastic aggregates for use in construction materials.
Its vision is to identify waste streams from various industries and apply their technical knowledge to produce innovative materials, creating value from the valueless whilst having a positive social and environmental impact on the 海角视频 and the world. Phenomenal!
Notify Technology (nominated by Jason Hobbs, CEO of the North East Fund)
Notify Technology has seen huge success in a relatively short period of time and is one company that I predict we’re going to see much greater things from in the near future.
The business has developed an intuitive, industry-focused, smart software platform to help organisations reduce risk, better manage compliance and significantly improve H&S in the workplace, and is currently working with companies in over 65 countries.
The strength of its management team in terms of technical expertise, creative foresight and ambition, is impressive, and with investment, they have grown the company three-fold in relation to turnover.
In little over one year, they have acquired an impressive and diverse client base that includes Travis Perkins, Siemens, Alexandra Palace and Birmingham City University.
At the other end, their products help the smallest SMEs to implement immediate safety improvements through a cloud-based, interface solution. It is this ability to offer fit-for-purpose, consumer-friendly, innovative products to all-sized businesses across all sectors that I believe will help deliver significant business growth on a national and international stage.
Bastion Security Products (nominated by Dr Yvonne Gale, chief executive of NEL Fund Managers
Bastion Security Products is a Government and MoD-approved supplier of industry-leading physical security systems and received a £500,000 investment from the North East Growth Capital Fund to support its rapid business growth and job creation plans.
Since then, the Newcastle-based firm has moved to larger, more suitable premises, ramped up production and taken on around 20 new employees.
It is progressing significant research and development projects, both to improve existing products and develop new ones, and is also working on a major export drive into security-friendly new markets which it hopes will help enable it to become the 海角视频 benchmark supplier of highest-level multi-threat modular systems within the next five years.
The management team has a clear vision of how it wants the business to develop through 2020 and beyond, and is already successfully executing its ambitious scale up plans.
Endoxa (nominated by Paul Lancaster, founder of Newcastle Start-Up Week)
I’d like to nominate Endoxa Learning – an exciting new EdTech company that helps A-Level students better understand ‘argumentation’ and how it can be applied to their study of a range of academic subjects.
I got to know its founder and CEO Julian Plumley at the end of last year when he came to see me for advice on how to find people to help him take his idea forward and develop his platform.
Since then, I’ve been very impressed with how far he has come by making the most of the advice and support available for tech startups in the region.
He’s been getting some fantastic feedback from educational establishments in recent months so his team have just launched their beta version of the product and are inviting A Level students (and their parents) to try it for free. I think they have a very exciting year ahead of them.
Aero Commerce (nominated by Gill Hall, managing partner at Square One Law)
Online sales technology and ecommerce platforms are significant growth markets and Aero Commerce is a great example of a business that has successfully carved out a niche in this expanding sector, with excellent prospects shaping the future of online retail.
The Aero ecommerce platform is made available to digital agencies and developers to build sustainable and intuitive ecommerce solutions that can be scaled up as their business grows.
The solution combines a modern technology stack with a fresh approach to building online shopping experiences. The result is a lean, robust platform that is changing the face of ecommerce.
The company’s management team, led by CEO Richard Bendelow, CTO Matt Burton and head of platform engineering Tim Spratt have a proven track record of building digital businesses and represent the skills, talent and innovation that exists in the region’s digital sector.
They also have the confidence of the investment community having secured funding through Maven Capital Partners from the North East Development Fund, which will enable further growth and job creation as the company expands with a new office in Newcastle whilst developing into new ecommerce markets.
Pete Cheyne - founder of Block Matrix (nominated by tech enthusiast Paul Smith)
Building the future is hard, because it means going all in on a vision that the majority of people don’t believe in - and that governments haven’t yet figured out how to govern.
Blockchain - a technology that can create trust and security in payments and contracting - is one of those embryonic areas. Pete Cheyne believe it’s our future, and I wouldn’t bet against him.
Pete is one of the region’s established technology entrepreneurs - part of the team at Newcastle-based buy.at which exited to AOL in 2009 for over $120M, before co-founding Partnerize in 2010.
His latest venture, a global payment wallet for crypto-currency, closed down just this month, falling victim to regulations that didn’t exist when it launched. But now the rules have been determined, I think we can expect Pete to return in 2020 with innovative solutions that will have world-changing benefits.
Spareable (nominated by Professor Sharon Mavin, director of Newcastle University Business School)
Spareable is another success story from the university’s START UP programme and is proof that an idea emerging from e-business can be applied to a social enterprise just as effectively as a commercial organisation.
Set up by Newcastle University Business School graduate, Masitano Sichone, Spareable is an app that lets food banks send out alerts when they need donations of essential items and when there are volunteering opportunities available.
With food banks facing an increased demand, Spareable is having an amazing impact and just a few months after launching has helped to increase food donations to Newcastle’s West End Food Bank by 25%.
As a social enterprise itself, Spareable is providing an innovative, digital solution to help tackle food poverty, and now, other food banks around the country are showing interest in using the app.
Advanced Electric Machines (nominated by Roy Sandbach)
For a truly vibrant economy, the North East must successfully commercialise world-leading research from our universities, and I want to nominate a Newcastle University spin-out, AEM, designing and manufacturing innovative electric motors, as my one to watch for 2020.
Since spin out in 2017 the company has created some of the world’s most sustainable motor technologies for the transport sector and beyond.
Awarded over £15m in innovation grants, AEM is working with leading global brands including Bentley Motors. Its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Washington is capable of producing up to 12,000 motors a year, has its first major commercial contract and is reaching across the globe.
There’s more to come from our universities through Northern Accelerator, a collaborative programme that is already step-changing the potential of spin-outs from Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria and Sunderland universities. Let’s hope that many follow in AEM’s footsteps.
Hirestreet, Evidence Based Education and Henry’s Local (nominated by Journal business editor Graeme Whitfield)
As part of the judging process for this year’s North East Business Executive Awards, I got to visit all three nominees for the young business person of the year prize. The good news is that they were all brilliant.
The eventual winner, Isabella West, is founder and chief executive of Hirestreet, which is striking back against the trend of fast fashion by encouraging women to rent eveningwear rather than buying clothes they will hardly wear. The company has already won six-figure investment to support ambitious expansion plans and there will be more exciting announcements from it in 2020.
Sunderland’s Evidence Based Education aims to improve educational outcomes around the world by delivering training to teachers and conducting bespoke research and development. The company this year won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise and sells more than half of its products in export markets.
And Henry’s Local, run by Whitley Bay’s Henry Malton, is aiming to take on the supermarket giants with a delivery service has used social media and word-of-mouth to grow its customer base and capitalise on demand for more sustainable, eco-friendly shopping.
All three are led by inspiring young entrepreneurs and I am expecting great things of them in 2020.