12 Newcastle startups and scaleups to watch

Newcastle is full of innovative startups and scaleups. Across the North East as a whole, technology firms boast a turnover in excess of £2bn, employing over 30,000 people in more than 3,500 businesses, according to Tech Nation.

Here is a list of 12 Newcastle startups and scaleups compiled by UKTN that you should know about.

Bottlepay

Founded: 2019

Funding: £14.4m

A mobile payments platform built on Bitcoin. The Bitcoin payments app is owned by NYDIG, which acquired the Newcastle-headquartered company for an undisclosed sum in November 2021.

In January last year, the firm received authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to trade as a cryptoasset business.

Settld

Founded: 2020

Funding: £800,000

Settld is a digital service for dealing with death-associated admin. It can be used as a singular way to close down the bank accounts, social media, email accounts and utilities of someone who has passed away. Settld then gives updates and chases any hold-ups.

Atlas Cloud

Founded: 2020

Funding: £4.8m

The Newcastle company allows SMEs to outsource their IT and provides cybersecurity services.

Atlas Cloud in August moved into a new “hybrid working” office at the heart of the city. It also hired a new technical team leader, network and security engineer and two cloud analysts.

Leaf Grow

Founded: 2014

Funding: £4.3m

Leaf Grow was founded as Leaf Music, initially to help musicians engage with and monetise their fans. In 2019 it pivoted to become a marketing company providing an automation platform for performance marketing.

The company’s software can manage advertising spend, analyse performance and produce reports.

SportFin

Founded: 2021

Funding: N/A

Sports clubs can use the platform to raise funds based on their social impact. Factors taken into consideration by SportFin are demographics, locations, member activity levels and volunteers associated with the sports clubs.

According to SportFin, investors are 50% more likely to invest in sports initiatives if they can track the impact of their investment.

Atelerix

Founded: 2017

Funding: £1.7m

A medtech company designing and developing solutions for cell, tissues and virus storage and transportation, without freezing them.

Atelerix recently announced a partnership with RAFT Solutions, a livestock breeding firm. Together they are working on applying its technology to transport germplasm.

Aircards

Founded: 2020

Funding: N/A

The North East firm manages the full creation of AR and VR experiences from the initial consultation to performance analytics.

Users view mixed reality content through a phone’s internet browser without requiring a standalone app. This year it has worked with Disneyland Paris.

Grid Finder

Founded: 2020

Funding: £625,000

Grid Finder is an esports platform that helps racers find virtual motorsports and simulator races. It supports more than 30 games.

Race organisers can use it for managing attendance, to record scores, along with finding drivers and commentators.

QuantuMDx

Founded: 2008

Funding: £75m

Medtech company QuantuMDx is designing multiplex molecular testing solutions to speed up drug discovery. QuantuMDx’s rapid multiplex PCR testing system is used by healthcare professionals, clinics, labs and testing providers.

In November the firm entered an exclusive distribution agreement for its PCR testing system with Menarini to ship its product in the UK and France.

Kani Payments

Founded: 2018

Funding: N/A

Kani Payment provides SaaS solutions for fintech transaction reporting. It offers reconciliation, analytics, transaction reporting and card scheme report software.

Kani Payments at the start of the year reported its profits doubled in 2022.

SoPost

Founded: 2012

Funding: £1.6m

Digital marketing firm SoPost facilitates sampling campaigns on behalf of brands. Companies can use the ecommerce software developer to control product sampling, order filtering, sample fulfilment and data analytics.

Estée Lauder, Grenade, Tanqueray and Hellmann’s have all used SoPost for their sampling campaigns.

Whyaye

Founded: 2019

Funding: N/A

Whyaye delivers digital transformation strategies for brands. Its services include business change, enterprise transformation, product and platform assurance, programme delivery and operational resilience.

You can read more about the Newcastle tech ecosystem in UKTN’s Tech on the Tyne regional report.