Bristol’s SETsquared‘s very own YellowDog has just won the prestigious Oracle Award for Excellence in Innovation during Oracle Open World 2016.
“We like to think we’re effectively building the world’s fastest supercomputer”
YellowDog is an app that pays you for your computer’s spare processing power and offers it to 3D animators, giving them their own virtual supercomputer to improve how they render animations.
YellowDog’s founder Gareth Williams (pictured left) explains the innovative idea, “We believe there is already enough computer power in the world. But there is an imbalance between supply and demand.
“Through our unique technology, we securely harness and monetise under-utilised computer power, enabling organisations to deliver incredibly quickly and cost effectively, through leveraging this unlimited power on demand. We like to think we’re effectively building the world’s fastest supercomputer.”
“We’re looking to enable enterprise deep learning applications – a market that’s going to be worth $100bn by 2020”
YellowDog is currently focusing on the 3D animation and computer graphics industries; a sector that is worth $30 billion.
An honourable surprise
The awards took place at Oracle’s Open Word event, hosted in San Fransico, to celebrate businesses who have excelled in their work through partnership with Oracle.
YellowDog was selected for the award due to its innovative way of rendering fast computer-generated imagery (CGI) services for animation using Oracle Bare Metal Cloud Service alongside the crowd-sourced spare computer power.
Gareth says that he was very surprised but honoured to win the award: “A team in Oracle that we’d been working closely with nominated us – which is lovely. It has opened a few doors for us, noticeably with a couple of big studios in the US.
“We’re beginning to revolutionise the on-demand computer market for power hungry rendering applications. Being recognised as an innovator by one of the world’s largest tech firms is a fantastic accolade.”
Growing the super computer
The reception YellowDog has received is huge, and Gareth says he wants to continue to grow the business, “The immediate focus is the growth of this business – including more of a focus on the US and Canadian markets. There are also other applications: next, we’re looking to enable enterprise deep learning applications – a market that’s going to be worth $100bn by 2020.”
YellowDog is set to do big things; their grand total of funds raised now stands at £1.23 million – a figure reached in a mere 18 months! The progress this Bristol-based startup has made in such a short amount of time is outstanding and they have more promising work yet to come.
You can visit Oracle’s website to find out the other winners of the 2016 awards. You can also check out YellowDog’s website or follow them on Twitter at @yellowdogltd to find out more.
- You may like: YellowDog top dog at innovation showcase

Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
She also oversees TechSPARK's social media, sharing the latest updates on everything from investment news to green tech meetups and inspirational stories.