The Venturefest Bristol & Bath 2015 Start-Up Village is offering you the chance to meet up with 30 innovative startups based in the South West and they are keen for you to play with their amazing products and services.
Venturefest is taking place at the Engine Shed and Passenger Shed in Bristol next Tuesday (9 June), and as well as mixing with the minds behind these cutting-edge tech companies, those attending will benefit from access to established global companies, investors, academic inventors and some of the region’s most innovative and enterprising established businesses.
There were a huge number of applications to the Venturefest Start-up Village, which means it is now hosting 30 of the region’s most promising and innovative startups.
The startups
Here’s a list of some of the startups who will be there:
500 More develops mobile apps for health and wellbeing. It uses gamification and persuasive design to create apps that engage people in unique ways to think about and improve their wellbeing; physically and emotionally.
The startup has created Walking Safari, an app to encourage walking. Now it is turning steps into currency through its ‘Walk to Give’ programme, allowing users to pledge and donate their steps to charity.
Agilic LtdAgilic, a startup based at the Bristol Robotics Lab incubator, has been developing a range of education robots that inspire learning and play for children.
Agilic has two initial educational robotic kit products that allow anyone to build and then program their own pet robot. These kits are groundbreaking in terms of features versus cost and will open up robotics and programming to new audiences.
PiJuice from Agilic: Some of the impressive gadgets you
can make yourself with Agilic tech
Bagzit makes inaudible digital codes which sync all types of broadcast adverts to the user’s mobiles enabling brands and their marketers to automatically send personalised offers directly to their customers.
Blispa is the beacon service that makes it easy to engage, inform and entertain your customers. Blispa develops apps triggered by beacons including games, tours and guides.
Other developers can use the Blispa “beacons as a service” platform to create and manage their own proximity applications. Blispa is currently developing a festival experience with collaboration partners WOMAD and LifeJak Limited as part of a £996k InnovateUK competition project.
Blurrt has developed world leading social media analytics software which analyses emotion expressed in micro-blogging sites including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Blurrt’s social media analytics software consists of an online dashboard and reports function, which is ideal for detailed analysis of public opinion, and a live analytics app which is used for real time audience engagement. Blurrt is currently used by the media, sports and brand markets for real time online research.
CelebVM makes it quick, safe, fun and easy for celebrities to record personal video messages for fans.
100s of celebrities have already recorded 1,000s of videos for birthdays, Christmas, valentines, proposals and weddings. They use it to monetise social media, support charities or connect with fans in a unique way. They record videos at any price they choose, when it’s convenient for them on any smartphone or computer, while getting paid instantly for each video.
Claritize (@claritize)
Claritize is a big data analytics software startup looking to disrupt the data analytics market. The first two Claritize products using their innovative processing engine are a data quality report (DQR) and automatic data analysis software.
The software uses statistical profiling to spot patterns and anomalies in large volumes of data. What makes Claritize unique is that it does this automatically with no need for user input or setup compared with the complex toolkits on the market that typically need a data scientist or programmer. The Data Quality Report can be used to hugely de-risk any new Big Data project, and speed up the initial phase by months.
- You may like: Insights in 5 clicks: Claritize officially launches its unique data analytics software
Crocodile is an online platform and smartphone app for schools and parents to facilitate the organisation of walking buses to school. To engage the children, the app enables gamification through reward schemes for pupils. Crocodile also creates useful analytics for schools, helping them understand trends in walking bus activities.
Its solution promotes confidence in parents by delivering a positive confirmation of arrival and a secure approach to digitised personal details. Reduced car travel means environmental benefits, and an active start to the day ensures health benefits and increases social interaction between children.
Duel is the world’s first mobile app for photo duelling, challenges, decisions and voting.
Two photos make a duel. Choose between them, respond to friends’ with your own. You will see all of your friends’ duels in the Arena. Photos are no longer passive – respond & vote on them! Challenge – send an image to your friends & challenge them to respond with something better. Ask – send two images and ask your friends to decide which they prefer.
Paul Archer launches the Duel app: By launching himself off a crane!
Fusion Processing
Fusion Processing provide world leading sensor fusion and situational awareness products to the transport and automotive sectors. Our proprietary FusionCoreTM technology platform combines advanced processing technology and algorithms to ensure our products achieve world leading performance.
Fusion’s flagship product is CycleEye, the world leading cyclist detection system that fits to the side of a truck or bus and detects cyclists, alerting the driver to any that are in a dangerous position. CycleEye will save lives.
- You may like: Safe cycling technology trialled in Bristol
FreeMe
FreeMe is not just an app, it’s a new movement; a breath of fresh air. It aims to bring the world closer together by opening your eyes to the opportunities around you through a truly interactive map.
With the world in constant activity, share, explore and create this vibrant photosphere, discovering thoughts, photos and impressions of the excitement around you. Crafted with a light, fun and user-friendly interface, its genius is in its simplicity.
Fundsurfer will help you get the funding you need through crowdfunding, start-up loans, peer-to-peer loans, social funding, green investment and more. Fundsurfer also provide additional support to get investment ready.
You need funding. It gets it. Start your funding journey today.
- You may like: Startup Profile: Crowd-funding platform Fundsurfer
Future City Simulator
Future City Simulator is an educational framework and sandbox designed to engage players with food sustainability issues and long term impact effects on health and environment within cities.
Habu is elegant, fresh and innovative software for the expanding world of flexible working and space management. It offers value for any business that has bookable space – whether internal or external, short-term or long term, fixed or flexible.
Habu integrates people, space & time management reducing the admin grind & helping businesses deliver better services, renting out more spaces with less stress.
Health Apps Ltd (@healthapps_uk)
Health Apps Ltd produce beautifully designed mobile apps to support health behaviour change. Its NHS approved apps undergo extensive research and are developed alongside medics and healthcare professionals.
Its first app, Cook & Count, is the only nutritional app for home cooking. It promotes calorie and nutritional awareness for people with type 2 diabetes or those wishing to lose weight. And it supports people with type 1 diabetes who carbohydrate count to calculate their insulin dose.
Helpfulpeeps is an online network that makes it easier than ever before to connect people who want help, with people who are able and willing to help – for free!
Its ethos is to ask for help whenever you want and to help others whenever you can.
Everything begins with an idea. IdeaSquares is a platform to crowdsource feedback and support for new business ideas. With thousands of ideas submitted from over 80 countries IdeaSquares is already a truly global platform.
IdeaSquares is partnering with major entrepreneurial brands and are currently preparing for explosive growth. Take a moment to talk to founder and CEO, Kirsty Ranger about its current investment round and partnership opportunities.
- You may like: Interview: Kirsty Ranger founder of Bristol-based IdeaSquares, a virtual, global space for business ideas
Jamp Technology Ltd is currently developing a portable electronics device for musical instruments. The device uses digital effects such as EQ to modify sound, affording all musicians the flexibility of a studio mixer. Effects are configured using a smartphone app; multiple devices can be linked and synchronised in a Bluetooth network.
The devices utilise MIDI, so timing and effect data can be updated on the fly.
At Venturefest Krowdthink is demonstrating its Krowd app live to an investor community for the first time. Krowdthink is making privacy a competitive advantage for mobile social networking.
The Krowd app delivers location based networking without tracking or even knowing location. It connects people in places. Where crowds congregate use the Krowd to digitally enhance the networking opportunity. For events it’s the attendee app, for campuses it’s the real-time on campus social network.
Libraries.io monitors over 780,000 open source libraries across many different package managers. You can discover new libraries to use in your software projects as well as being notified of new releases to keep your applications secure and up to date.
Munch
Munch is a mobile application that provides consumers with a discount at premium fast food outlets. Savings of up to 20% will be offered on lunchtime products such as high quality sandwiches, wraps, burritos, noodles and sushi.
Munch offers customers ways to save money, find outlets easily and the need to carry fewer cards in their wallet. Food outlets get an increased footfall, spend and a way to utilise spare capacity.
Ordable – the app that allows you to quickly and easily browse, order and pay for food and drink at restaurants on your smartphone.
As online content swells, engagement drops & apathy grows. Meet physidigi – visible & tactile digital media. That’s fun to wear, frictionless to share. Physidigi enables authors, musicians, retailers and brands to connect with their digital audience in the physical world. Making digital media tangible, visible, & personable. Making intriguing t-shirts, tickets, postcards that trigger digital content.
Physidigi is a SETsquared venture, pre-incorporation with business plan and prototypes, prospecting early adopters and seeking investment to deploy rapidly.
PlayWest is a graduate and student driven game studio in Bristol. Working with the University of the West of England, students from the Games Technology award are tasked to develop commercially viable projects. PlayWest has already had success with its Green Capital Digital Challenge entry ‘Super Trash Heroes’.
They are currently building Kachiku64, Apex Run, have partnered with BLOODHOUND SSC to create the ‘Super Sonic Championship’ game, and a wireless telemetry visualisation app for the 1000mph record attempt.
- You may like: Profile: Super Trash Heroes
Psychometrico
Psychometrico is a multiplatform tool providing aptitude test practice, aimed to help students and job seekers with the employment assessment process in the United Kingdom. Test questions are generated through a dynamic benchmarking algorithm to keep the users challenged throughout the preparation process, leading to continuous improvement.
Additionally users get real-time tailored performance feedback and tips.
Spuddy
Spuddy is the brand new way to organise your sporting life! Find and connect with people nearby to play sports with, get more active and have fun through sport.
TimeTag
TimeTag makes your video searchable.
Companies are producing much of their engaging content as video but how do users discover the information they want in those videos as quickly and easily as possible? That’s where www.TimeTag.tv fits in… TimeTag automatically tags videos for you so your users can find what they want in seconds. The company already has customers in the legal and education markets and looking for investment for expansion in 2015/16.
VRgo is an innovative motion controller for virtual reality. The self-righting active chair wirelessly sends your movement into the virtual world. The easy to use device offers hands free navigation, removing the need for joysticks or a mouse.
There will an opportunity to try out the VRgo throughout the day to discover the future of intuitive navigation and to experience new levels of immersion. Simply jump on and play.
Are you sitting comfortably? TechSPARK’s Assistant
Editor Alice has a go on the VRGO chair at the SWVR conference
YellowDogYellowDog releases the spare processing power from people’s computers, giving computer owners, or their chosen charity, money for nothing.
This is then offered to animation studios giving them their own personal supercomputer to improve how they render animations.
- You may like: Startup YellowDog raises over 90% of its £150K crowd-funding campaign in less than a week
Zoetrope is an Internet of Things consulting and prototyping company.
Zoetrope’s Bristol lab melds around your in house skill sets, both technical and non-technical, to give you a united team capable of delivering prototype internet-connected devices and software swiftly and painlessly.
For more information on Venturefest Bristol & Bath 2015, or to register as a delegate, visit www.venturefestbristolandbath.com. You can follow them twitter @venturefestBB too
