Alongside this year’s The Silicon Gorge Investment Pitching competition we’re publishing profiles of a few of the companies that have made it through to the semi-finals. Alongside this year’s competition we’re publishing profiles of a few of the companies – up next is Target Student.
The Silicon Gorge Investment Pitching competition returns for the 2022 Spring Edition, and offers an opportunity for Tech & Creative companies based in the South West of England and South Wales who are looking for up to £3 million in equity funding. It will offer 12 of these companies the chance to pitch to a virtual room full of investors and enablers of investment on 12th May 2022. Any investors interested in attending the final event on 12th May should contact abby@techspark.co to join the invite list.
1. What does your company do?
Target Student is the UK’s first digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising network of large interactive screens, specifically within university accommodation. We supply, manage, and maintain large interactive digital screens that are remotely managed within student accommodation across the UK. Our vision is to be the global leader in this space.
2. What problem are you trying to solve?
We tackle the problem of student engagement. For advertisers, there isn’t an effective digital platform dedicated to reaching students where they live. Whereas for accommodation providers, they are forced to use outdated methods to engage with their residents.
3. What makes your solution unique?
Our dual-purpose focus on using interactive digital signage to solve residential engagement, beyond just advertising, is a unique concept in this space. No one else is currently offering what we offer. Our model of procuring all the equipment, managing the platform and creating a revenue stream for our accommodation providers makes our value proposition very attractive. We are the first to market in this space and already have a 5% share of the private student accommodation beds in the UK.
4. What are you most proud of so far?
Since our launch only 7 months ago, we have reached a lot of milestones, both personal and through the business (we are learning to enjoy the small wins much more) but the most memorable must be when we secured our first advertisers for the humble sum of £50. Unfortunately, we’re not the Rockefeller’s and it wasn’t in cash so we couldn’t frame our first dollar but it was a really proud moment nonetheless.
5. How much are you raising and what do you want to use investment for?
We are currently raising a pre-seed round of £200,000 for 10% equity in our business. This investment will allow us to:
- Efficiently scale the network at pace
- Grow our team
- Develop our sales processes
This will mean we’re able to keep up with demand and dominate the student halls space.
6. What tools/people/services/organisations helped you most?
We are fortunate to know some amazing people and engage with some innovative organisations in Bristol. More specifically, Aimee and Mark at Launch space at UWE who gave us our first bit of office space and access to some brilliant minds but also to Andy Jackson and the team at the Natwest Accelerator programme who create a supportive environment that makes you hungry for success.
Also, a special mention to our to-do list platform Trello, it really is like having a second brain!
