City students secure £35,000 backing

Three 21 year-old university students who are developing an app for loyalty card customers have won a £35,000 support package from the Accelerate Places Nottingham tech hub.

Savi, which is run by University of Nottingham undergraduates George Foster, Leon Watson and Tjaart Broodyrk, competed against three other new ventures in a pitch night competition which saw them quizzed by an expert panel.

They are developing an app which enables consumers to load the details of all their loyalty cards on to their smartphone so deals and rewards can be accessed automatically when a mobile payment is made.

The Accelerate Places Pitch Night competition saw Savi’s team compete against InFlight Music, a royalty collection app for musicians and songwriters; Worklight, an online project management tool for businesses whose teams work remotely; and The Simplifiers, who are developing a podcast which will specialise in advice for women from high-profile experts in business and life-skills.

Representatives from each business had to make their case with a five-minute pitch to a judging panel comprising Mark Sanders, chief executive of Accelerate Places, Selina Hinchliffe, IP partner at the law firm Browne Jacobson, Serena Humphrey, a specialist adviser to scale-up businesses, and Mark Onyett, one of the partners in leading venture builder Blenheim Chalcot.

Mark Sanders, chief executive of Accelerate Places, said: “Both Accelerate Places and our parent company, Blenheim Chalcot, have a history of supporting exciting new ideas backed by strong teams and robust technology and Nottingham is a key strategic location for us.

“We held the pitch night because we want to encourage digital innovation and the next generation of entrepreneurial talent in Nottingham. It’s important to the city’s economic future and right at the heart of what Accelerate Places does.”

Savi successful pitch was delivered by economics student George Foster and mathematics undergraduate Leon Watson. They came up with the idea for a loyalty card app because of the increasing numbers of people who are using their smartphone to pay in bars, restaurants and shops, with computer science student Tjaart joining them to build the app.

George explained: “If you look at global payment trends then mobile wallets are the future, particularly among millenials. At the moment, the loyalty card industry is missing out because it depends on people using cards – so we are developing a solution which benefits consumers, stores and loyalty cards schemes by making them easier to use.”

Savi has already gone through early stage ‘beta’ testing and the team is now rolling out the first formal version of the app for controlled use among consumers and independent stores. But it is also in conversation with major restaurant and retail chains about large-scale adoption.

Currently based at the Ingenuity Lab on the University of Nottingham Innovation Park, Savi has already secured financial support from other investors. But George says winning the Accelerate Places package is particularly significant because it also includes mentoring from senior figures in Blenheim Chalcot.

“We’re ecstatic about it, not just because of the cash element of the prize, but because it gives us access to people like Mark Onyett, who have vast experience in technology venture building,” he said.

The support package which Savi has won includes £5,000 cash, monthly mentoring from Blenheim Chalcot, and support from BakerBaird Communications, Campus Capital, Userfy, Dreamr, Fieldfisher, Conspicuous Marketing, Juke Media and Drew Forsyth Photography.

Savi will also be given six months’ free desk space at Accelerate Places Nottingham, the co-working hub for scale-up businesses on Wollaton Street.

Sanders concluded: “The best thing about our Pitch Night was that it wasn’t an easy choice. InFlight Music, Worklight and The Simplifiers all made very persuasive cases for their new ventures and we know we’ll be hearing more of them. But Savi delivered a very polished presentation about a product that has significant potential to create value and we’re delighted to support them.”