digital business briefing october 2014
DESCRIPTION
A summary of useful funding, support and research for UK digital businesses for October 2014.TRANSCRIPT
Digital Business Briefing
October 2014
What is this briefing?
• A digest of useful information for UK digital businesses seeking funding and support, updated every month
• Brought to you by the following organisations:
Contents
• Public funding calls• Other public funding• Private financing • Other financing mechanisms• Non-financial support for your business • Relevant events• Other information• Useful reports
Open funding calls
IC tomorrow Connected Cities
Key feature: Grant funding to work with industrial partners to develop new solutions for connected cities
Scale:• Up to £35k grants, 100% funded• Specifically for micro, small or medium sized businesses
Closes: 14th October 2014
More info on innovateuk.org
Public funding calls
Key feature: Innovation voucher scheme funding for start-up, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to work with an external expert to gain the knowledge to innovate and grow.
Scale:• Up to £5k funding for SMEs
Closes: on 22 October 2014
More info on innovateuk.org
Innovation Vouchers
Public funding calls
Food open data challenge
Key feature: A grant to use available open data to develop products and services to support people to make better choices with their food.
Scale:• Finalists receive £5k• A “Grand prize” of up to £40k for successfully evidenced
services
Closes: 27th October 2014
More info on Nesta website
Open funding calls
Design the Future
Key feature: Researching how designers use the integration of new engineering and technologies leading to develop future products and processes.
Scale:• Up to £3m to fund a number of small, feasibility-style
projects (up to £300,000 and 18-months duration)
Closes: on 29 October 2014
More info on epsrc.ac.uk
Open funding calls
Digital Healthcare Innovation
Key feature: The fund is for small creative and digital businesses (SMEs) with innovative concepts or prototypes using digital technology to improve patient care and health services in areas such as dementia, social care, and cardiovascular and medication management.
Scale:• £1m over four programmes – £250 per programme, x5
investments of £50k per programme
Closes: 31st October, 2014 (West Midlands Interactive Healthcare Fund – 1st programme)
More info on creativeengland.co.uk
Public funding calls
Horizon 2020 ICT-19-2015
Key feature: R&D funding of new or emerging technologies (e.g. 3D and augmented reality technologies) for digital content creation to support the creative and media industries and for unlocking complex information and media and interacting with them.
Scale: €561,000,000
Opens:15th October 2014 Closes: 14th April 2015
Further info: Horizon 2020 website, UK list of National Contact Points for Horizon 2020 and the Enterprise Europe Networks
Public funding calls
Horizon 2020 ICT-20-2015
Key feature: This challenge encourages public procurement of innovative solutions to address the needs of the digital learning ecosystem in making better use of educational cloud solutions, mobile technology, learning analytics and big data, and to facilitate the use, re-use and creation of learning material and new ways to educate and learn online.
Scale: €561,000,000
Opens:15th October 2014 Closes: 14th April 2015
Further info: Horizon 2020 website, UK list of National Contact Points for Horizon 2020 and the Enterprise Europe Networks
Public funding calls
"Smart" grants for start-ups and small businesses
Key feature: A grant scheme which offers funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects in the strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology.
Scale:• Proof of market - up to £25k - 60% of project cost• Proof of concept - up to £100k - 60% of project cost• Prototype development - up to £250k - up to 45% of project
cost
Closes: 27th November 2014
More info on innovateuk.org
Public funding calls
An integrated future for cities
Key feature: large-scale SBRI contracts to encourage new ways of achieving better integration of infrastructure and services across a city. Contracts will be to develop prototypes, must link up cities and will enable users to interact with multiple models to tackle different city problems.
Scale:• Contracts of between £1.5 - 2m – 100% funded• Single contract, but able to sub-contract out work
Closes: registration closes on 7 January 2015
More info on innovateuk.org
Public funding calls
Social Seed Fund
Key feature: Funding and mentoring support for new digital ventures for social impact
Scale:• Between £15-50k• A “Grand prize” of up to £40k for successfully evidenced
services
Opened: 22nd September 2014
Closes: on-going
More info on Nominet Trust website
Public funding callsNesta Impact Investment
Key feature: An equity investment fund investing in social ventures with innovative products or services that are addressing some of the UK’s most pressing challenges. Investments are made in areas that tackle:
• the health and wellbeing of an ageing population• the educational attainment and employability of children and
young people• the social and environmental sustainability of communities.
Scale: between £150k - £1m
Closes: on-going
More info on Nesta Investments
Other public funding
Key features: Online guide to over 4,000 grants, contracts and other forms of finance:
• Fully searchable based on finance type, scale and your geographical location
• Constantly updated – especially good for businesses seeking charitable or grant funding
More info on Funding Central and Finance Finder
Funding Central and Finance Finder websites
Private financing
Connect Ventures, London – invest in mobile, internet and digital media businesses; invest at the early stage and focus on seed investments; investment size ranges from £200K-£600k
Edge Investments, London - specialist investment house focused on the creative industries sector, in particular media and entertainment, which has raised more than £145m since launch
Growth Accelerator, Cornwall – provided by some of the UK’s leading growth specialists; works with businesses from a diverse range of sectors; key eligibility criteria include fewer than 250 employees and annual turnover under £40m
Index Ventures, London, San Francisco & Geneva – venture capital firm making investments in information technology and life sciences companies, since 1996 they have teamed up with technology entrepreneurs in more than 30 countries
Private financingIngenious Media, London – a UK media investment and advisory group with operating divisions of Investments, Ventures, Asset Management and Corporate Finance; since 1998 they have raised and invested over £9bn in the media and entertainment, clean energy and real estate sectors
Notion Capital, London – invest in B2B Cloud & SaaS companies who have sustained 100% Year-over-Year growth; investment areas include adtech, communications and collaboration tools, ecommerce, enterprise software, fintech and security; portfolio raised over £200m in 2014
Silicon Valley Bank – global bank dedicated to the innovation sector with focus on technology businesses; have supported clients such as Shazam, The Foundry and Cambridge Broadband Networks
Other financing mechanismsCrowdfunder.co.uk – UK’s largest crowdfunding network having launched 1000’s of projects and raised over £2m, platform launched by KEO digital and partners include Nesta and Plymouth University
Funding Circle – an online marketplace which allows savers to lend money directly to SMEs; the first site to use peer-to-peer lending for business funding in the UK; as of February 2014 Funding Circle has facilitated £223 in loans to SMEs
Kickstarter.com – a global crowdfunding platform based in the United States; the company’s stated mission is to help to bring creative projects to life; since launching in 2009, 7m people have pledged $1bn, funding 70,000 creative projects
Seedcamp is a London based accelerator that provides startups with seed money, mentorship, office space, support over a year long programme.
Launching a new digital business?• The Open Data Institute runs a start-up programme that
helps start-ups build business models around open data
• Tech City UK offers advice and support to start-ups looking for guidance in and around London. It has just launched its Digital Business Academy. Tech City UK can also endorse visa applications to help recruit talent to Britain.
• Innovate UK - IC tomorrow connects start-ups and SMEs with leading commercial partners and investors, through funded contests, events, and strategic matchmaking opportunities.
• Transmit Start Ups provide financial support and mentoring to creative and digital entrepreneurs that would not normally be available via traditional banking relationships.
Are you an existing digital business seeking non-financial advice or support?• Nesta runs a creative business mentor network for
digital businesses looking to grow
• The UKTI offers advice to help with exporting
• Tech City UK can help advise on inward investment
• The British Business Angels Association can help put you in touch with relevant business angel investors
• The Digital Catapult can help you showcase your business
Are you an existing digital business seeking advice or support?
• Subsidised costs to work with a specialist to build and deliver business growth – GrowthAccelerator
• Use the IP Health check to identify commercial IP in your business
• AngelList – helps source angel investors
Training and skills
• Training in Open Data from the Open Data Institute
• Digital Project Management – via @IABUK
• Digital Acceleration – 22-24th October via @hyperisland_uk
• Digital training – via @Econsultancy – e-marketing courses
Develop your skills with these world-class cour-ses:
Relevant events in October• AOP Autumn Conference - London 9th October
• Play Expo – Manchester 11th-12th October
• Bar Camp Manchester – Manchester 18th-19th October
• TechCrunch Disrupt Europe – London 20th October
• User-Centred Design conference (UCD2014) – London 24-25th October
• Bristol digital events – via @goramandvincent
• Wired Sussex events – via @WiredSussex
• Manchester events – via @McrDig
• For all events in and around London, check out Tech City News
Other information
• The Digital Catapult Centre opens its doors on November 5th. The Centre will be the cornerstone of the Connected Digital Economy Catapult and the many new collaborations it convenes between business, universities and other digital stakeholders.
• The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) recently published their Startup Manifesto setting out 24 ways the next government should make Britain a world leader in digital innovation.
• Tech City UK launches Tech Nation Survey to map the UK’s digital economy.
• As of 19th August 2014 video games companies across the UK can now claim corporation tax relief for the production of games qualifying under new cultural test regulations. Ask your accountant for more details.
Useful reports
• Communications Market report 2014 – via @Ofcom: supporting Ofcom’s regulatory goal to research markets and to remain at the forefront of technological understanding, this is their eleventh annual Communications Market report.
• Digital landscape report via @ukaop (membership required)
• Making Sense of the UK Collaborative Economy – via @nesta_uk and Collaborative Lab: examines the progress and potential of the UK's collaborative economy, who is operating and participating in it, and how it can be supported and managed.
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