Welcome to my weekly South West Tech News roundup, where you can get all the headlines from the past week in one place.
What has our busy tech and digital community been up to this week? From award wins and innovative breakthroughs to unmissable events and capital raised, take a moment to reflect on the hive of daily activity taking place in our region.
If you have a story to share, wizz it over to beno@techspark.co – I look forward to hearing from you!
QantX leads £600K investment round to speed up innovation in the quantum industry
QantX has led a £600K investment round for Light Trace Photonics – a leading innovator in the integrated photonics industry – to help engineers in the quantum industry get their products to market quicker. We met with Jake Biele, Co-Founder at Light Trace Photonics, to hear their story.
Light Trace Photonics was founded in 2022 by Dr Jake Biele and Dr Dominic Sulway, who met while studying for their Quantum Engineering PhD at Bristol University.
They were both working on developing technology known as photonic chips – microchips powered by light as well as electricity – for quantum computing sensing applications. This technology is in its infancy, and they first had to spend significant time developing the core components required to deliver their innovative quantum technologies.
Eight innovators selected for Bristol Temple Mead testbed
Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s Innovation Accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership has today announced the latest organisations to join the Station Innovation Zone programme. Eight organisations with concepts aimed at enhancing accessibility, sustainability, personal safety, and overall passenger experience have been selected to develop proposals to trial their innovations at Bristol Temple Meads.
The latest organisations welcomed onto the Station Innovation Zone programme and their innovations are WeWALK, Therapy Box Ltd, Journey Alerts, Ampetronic Limited, Transport Direction, Binit Group Ltd, Dewhurst Ltd & VM Systems Ltd.
Click Start celebrates its first 18 months and announces new dates
Click Start by Bath Spa University in Creative Digital Skills is a free programme that empowers 18 – 30-year-olds by providing them with next-level digital skills, allowing them to thrive in today’s technology-driven world.
The programme, which launched in 2023, helps to tackle the UK’s digital skills gap by offering skills and training to more than 26,500 learners across the country who may not have previously had opportunities.
Important skills in digital marketing, UI/UX design, and web development have been developed by learners through our Click Start programme while their problem-solving and creativity have also been strengthened. In just 18 months, over 275 learners have been supported by Click Start and 60% of Click Start alumni have already had a positive post-course outcome such as starting a new job in tech, getting work experience, or starting a new course.
Looking ahead, Click Start will launch its 18th cohort on 14 January 2025. If someone you know is ready to take the next step, now is the time to sign up via the Bath Spa University website.
Tizzy the Elf Doubles Down on its No Ads for Kids Policy with a new Christmas app
Tizzy the Christmas elf from Swindon has a new app and continues its focus on apps for kids without the ads or the high cost of in-app purchases.
Tizzy’s new app, TIZZY GAMES, is a growing library of games within one app and all with the mission to keep kids playing and not watching ads. It’s free to download and has two games to start: Link 3, a candy crush type game where kids get 3 in a row to earn points and Tizzy Puzzles, a variety of difficult puzzles aimed at keeping kids brains active. Both games have levels free to play & then the option to unlock the whole game for just 99p each.
Keith Milburn, director of TMA Technology said ‘We know parents prefer to try before they buy a game and we don’t like the model of loading apps with ads, so we found a compromise, a free to download game. We’ve had great feedback so far, including a list of games that parents want to see next!’.
Even though Tizzy has been developed in the south west, the new app is already known to have been downloaded as widely as New Zealand and USA… no downloads from the north pole detected yet though!
