Locomizer, a Collider Startup, Featured in the Startups 100 List

Startups.co.uk has today revealed the UK’s 100 most exciting and innovative new businesses that make up the 2013 Startups 100. Launched in 2008, Startups 100 was the first index of its kind – a celebration of the best in new British businesses. Now in its fourth year, the list is Startups.co.uk’s biggest and most popular annual feature, counting down the top 100 start-ups to have launched in the last three years. Entrants are judged by the Startups team against a host of criteria, but primarily for innovation, impressive financials and growth potential.

Included in this list is Locomizer, a Collider12 startup.  Alex Polykov, a co-founder of Locomizer, said that "We are very excited to be part of this year's 100 startup list. There was a rigorous selection process and the fact that we have made the list serves as a perfect validation for locomizer's product vision. There is still some room for improvement and we are determined to move up the ranks next year."

After more than 10 years of scientific research on cell behaviour in nature and humans, Polyakov and Poliakov came up with an idea to invent a new method of audience discovery. Locomizer and the nature-based algorithm behind it is the final product of that idea. Using its specialised algorithm, the company enables businesses to better understand their customer profiles by providing them with accurate user interest profiles generated by the places and surroundings where they spend their time. The concept behind it being that our real-life interests and preferences are a ‘product of our local footprint’. Launched only recently with £150,000 of seed capital from business angels, the company has already signed five major clients to its service and has a series of growth plans in place. Over the next year it’s looking to expand its engineering team which in turn will help develop the scale-up of its commercial infrastructure. It also has strategies in place to execute full-scale launches of its personal location data service with select commercial partners.

Learn more about Locomizer here and read more about Startups 100 here.

Investor Breakfast at Warner Yard

We recently held an Investor Breakfast at Warner Yard, where startups and investor chatted informally while sipping coffee and snacking on bacon sarnies. We were pleased to be able to introduce Beem and Miappi to Russell Buckley from Ball Park Ventures/ UKTI, Federico Pirzio-Biroli from Playfaircapital and Pamir Gelenbe from Hummingbird Ventures. The investors got to try out the technology for themselves, ask the founders any questions, and offer hard-earned advice. One particular theme which came up a few times was the question regarding whether your startup is a vitamin or a painkiller. There has been quite a few articles written around this subject (you can find one here) but it's also good to question your own startup. Are you solving a real problem to a large pain (a painkiller), or are you simply providing a short-term solution (a vitamin)?

We love holding events where we can introduce our tech startups to our wide network of investors. If you want to become a Collider startup and join our accelerator, apply here.

Avocarrot crowned as The Next Big Thing!

This week saw our competition at ad:tech come to a dramatic end where the final 8 startups pitched to a panel of impressive brands. It was a great two days where the startups also had stands which allowed them to chat to the thousands of visitors,  and show off their tech creations. We're also pleased to announce that the judges selected Avocarrot, a Collider12 startup, as the winner! Yep, Avocarrot has now been officially named The Next Big Thing by  Chris Sponiar (Principal at Unilever Ventures), Max Benitz (Principle at Ingenious Ventures), Conrad Poulson (Head of Startup Business at Orange France Telecom) and Anu Shah (Director of Ventures at BBH Global).

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Judges Feedback

All 8 startups were commended for their creative visions of a tech future. Locomizer and MarcaMe both promised interesting things in the mobile space, but questions rose about their ability to get customers to opt-in, while Miappi, LBM and Tamoco all bought visions of the future, questions were raised by the judges how soon they'll be able to succeed in their goals. This left Evrything, PlayCaptcha, and Avocarrot as the final 3.

Evrything is a great idea, especially as the digital-physical space is really hot right now and will most likely be in the future.  However, perhaps more focus is needed which could be controlled by working through some use-cases. Play Captcha have a good concept with real potential to grow past the initial stage offering with a concept that delivers a win for brand and consumer, as well as having an impressive team.  However, they need to keep a close eye on their major US competitor and stay close to developments in the hackerspace who may be able to crack the security on offer.

And finally Avocarot, who were ultimately chosen due to their excellent concept which holds a lot of promise in being able to customise ads towards the app-user. The team are impressive and well-placed to achieve what they have set out to do: revolutionise mobile advertising.  In being crowned ad:tech's Next Big Thing, they have won the opportunity to pilot their technology with Unilever and pitch for investment from Ingenious Ventures and leading creative advertising agency BBH.

Calling All Startups

Collider13 is coming to regions across England to find and accelerate the best startup’s!

Collider is a startup accelerator that provides money, mentoring and market access to young tech companies to help them achieve quick growth. We specialise in helping a select group of startups which operate in the B2Brand area. This means they have technology which solves the problems brands face, such as marketing goals, consumer engagement, or selling more stuff.

Our first programme, Collider12, launched earlier this year to great acclaim, investing in 9 of England’s best startups and developing technologies that helps big brands. Over a 3 month period they were introduced to over 20 brand and marketeers from brands such as Unilever, William, BBC WW and CBS. They were also extensively mentored by entrepreneurs who have all been there before, allowing us to help build some solid startups in the ad tech space.

The results speak for themselves – already 4 of the 9 have received more investment and 5 of them are negotiating commercial deals with the brands involved. Now, Collider13 is focusing on startups based outside of London.

If you are a talented team with a prototype or product that can help brands, come and talk to us and hear how we can collide.

• -Bristol: Tues 10th -  Weds 11th September, book your slot here
• -Manchester: Weds 18^th Sept – 3-5pm, book your slot here
• -More dates and locations to be added soon, so keep checking back!

Interview with Dibbz

Dibbz is a London-based startup that is making brand engagement in apps and games more meaningful than the regular old banner ads we’re used to. As one of the Collider12 startups, they are receiving lots of support and mentorship to help their thriving business along. To share what they've learnt, we caught up with Nick and Elliot, the co-founders of Dibbz. 1. How did you come up with the idea?

Nick: Elliot and I are both keen gamers, and we were just so frustrated with banner adverts on mobiles.

Elliot: It felt that mobile games were moving so fast but there was no decent way for the developers to monetise. Good games were getting played less because of the frustration over banner ads.

N: We met while completing our a Masters in Technology Entrepreneurship from the University of London, and shared this hatred of banner ads.

2. So you got the idea, but what was the actual push to make it? So many people have a creative idea, but it takes a lot of guts to pull it off.  

E: During our degree, we had the chance to pitch our idea to people in the industry. We also went to Match and Hack events to look for developers. So even while the idea was still floating about, we had the concept printed onto paper to demonstrate it to everyone we met.

N: This was in July 2012, and although we did meet people, no one seemed to really run with the idea. We don't blame them, we were so early it was ridiculous to expect anything else.

3. So how did you meet your developer?

E: In the end, a friend posted on Facebook asking for a developer and we found a great friend of a friend to make the first version of the demo. Unfortunately his parents got ill so he had to leave.

N: After this sad set back, we decided we would give ourselves a 3 month deadline to work on it full time, and then call it a day after that if it doesn't work.

E: Everything was moving so quickly, and having those 3 months to work solidly on it made all the difference.

N: We got through to Wayra as well, but we turned it down to work with Collider.

E: And we're both very pleased we chose Collider.

4. How has Collider helped Dibbz grow?

E: Having Andy Tait as a mentor at Collider has been an invaluable experience. He has been the truest definition of a mentor, and been such a  great help at events by advising us which ones to go and offering to make introductions.

6. What is the biggest landmark in the growth of Dibbz?

N: Our aim as always remained the same, so probably the biggest landmarks have come in our strategy. With help from Fiona, we decided to no longer make cold calls; we have so many connections from Collider, we have no need to anymore.

E: We were just focusing on games at first, because its what we know and love. However, when talking to an app publisher at an event, they asked if it could go on all games, and so we thought 'why not?' If the demand is there, why limit to games? That's a pretty big landmark too.

7. How do you keep maintain motivation?

N: We are relaxed about working hours, so to avoid the rush hour we tend to come to the offices between 10-11am, and then stay unitl the evening and go to networking events.

E: We really think this new modern way of working is far more productive than the normal 9-5.30 routine. We play games on Fridays, have an shared Spotify for the office, and hold regular debates about which is the best Star Wars. We always look forward to going to work, and even play games which each other remotely in our free time.

8. What's next for Dibbz?

• Be releasing IOS and Android soon
• Affiliates: burger king, ask Italian, vouchers
• Quotsta:
• Go to the app store to the download it
• Android Launching: 10-50million distribution, t player reactor
• Sods law developed on IOS, give data from the IOS

9. What advice do you give to other startups?

• Networking in startup events, likeminded scene
• intimate community helps each other out, very impressed
• Making intros, seeing new faces,
• Apps Junction, Mobile Mondays, Games Jams great way to meet games developers
• Like Hackathon but for games, gameathon
• LIUG, Google Campus host a lot, Games Developer Lunch
• Using twitter to contact developers as they are active on that

5. How did you expand your team?

1. Hired Piers, friend from School
2. Found Gurav, Prof in Computer Science, past in ad and was excited and asked to come in and pitch to make it an academic project
3. Already had an app in the iStore, entrepreneurial too, built the
4. IOS Developer, also designed all the SDK, built it and programmed it
5. Pivotal and fundamental to the app
6. Hired Piers, Jan, and Gurav in Februrary

Thanks Team Dibbz! keep up the great work and we'll check  in again soon.