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September 2024
• Description: Tech East is a leading organisation dedicated to supporting the growth and development of the tech sector in the East of England, including Norfolk and Suffolk. They provide networking opportunities, resources, and advocacy for tech companies.
• Focus Areas: Networking, Business Support, Advocacy, Events.
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• Description: Bringing together the region’s innovation ecosystem, joining up the innovation hubs, universities, and cluster networks to drive cross-sector innovation and simplify the innovation support landscape.
• Focus Areas: Advocacy, Innovation Support, Funding & Investment, Cross-Sector Innovation Events.
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• Description: This initiative aims to promote the region between Cambridge and Norwich as a leading tech corridor in the UK. It focuses on infrastructure development and investment attraction.
• Focus Areas: Infrastructure, Investment, Innovation, Regional Development.
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• Description: Agri-TechE brings together organisations from across agriculture, technology and science into one unique community that articulates challenges, explores research and seeks innovations to support a sustainable agri-food system.
• Focus Areas: Business Support, Networking and Events, Innovation, Investment
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Epos Now
Founded in Norwich in 2011 by Jacyn Heavens, Epos Now launched without external funding as a startup developing software for businesses.
Before founding the company, Heavens made a decent living selling phones. After opening a bar, his first business, Heavens realised that while helpful for small companies, electronic point-of-sale systems were far too expensive.
Epos Now was launched to provide a lower-cost system for small and medium-sized enterprises
Since its launch, the company has been recognised as one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech businesses by the likes of the Financial Times and Deloitte.
Epos Now currently boasts a customer base of over 64,000 business locations and has expanded to international markets including in the US and Germany.
And in its most recent financial accounts, the UK entity reported an annual profit of over £2m with a turnover of more than £38m. Company-wide, turnover was £59.8m.
Speaking to BBC News, Heavens said he has received many offers for the company, at one point turning down a £50m cash offer.
“I don't do this for the money, I do it because it is fun. I enjoy the negotiations, the deal-making."
In 2024, Heavens joined the prominent Tech Nation Future Fifty programme as a mentor.
BT Research
Located in Martlesham, near Ipswich, BT Research is the R&D arm of the telecoms giant BT.
The group began operating in Suffolk at the opening of Adastral Park, its base of operations, in 1975 in a ceremony featuring Queen Elizabeth II.
BT’s Suffolk team has been responsible for a number of innovations from the company, including the development of the first commercial single mode fibre system in 1983.
BT employs almost 3,000 staff in its Suffolk-based subsidiary, though in 2023, the company said it would consider reducing its presence somewhat over the next two years.
BT, however, insisted it was “committed to Adastral Park for the long-term" and that it would “continue to invest in our facilities there as a number of our core operations, research and security functions will remain on-site".
The Adastral Park site is the global headquarters of BT Group’s research and development but has also been established as a major tech cluster within the region.
As well as being home to BT-owned subsidiaries, Adastral Park also contains more than 150 tech companies, bringing massive economic and technological benefits to Suffolk.
Firms based in Adastral Park range from startups to global technology brands including Huawei, Cisco, Fujitsu and O2.
Startups & scaleups to watch
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Homemove provides online property valuations based on analysis of visual conditions.
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Pikl was founded to fill the gap in the insurance industry of firms not covering shared assets such as homes on Airbnb.
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Adande’s platform specialises in making industrial ventilation, refrigeration, and air conditioning products for the food service, offshore oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.
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A provider of predictive health technology that helps organisations improve the future health of employees.
