The Top 50 Midlands Tech Disruptors – showing strength in depth

Today, in conjunction with tech unicorn Ideagen we publish the third set of Midlands tech disruptors that have caught our eye over the last couple of years.

This tranche of innovative firms, some new – others well-established – show the true strength of depth of the Midlands tech sector.

From digital marketing, through law and onto software development, the tech scene in the region is wildly diverse. Long may it continue to spread its wings.

Littlefish
Nottingham-based managed services and cyber security provider, Littlefish – which also has offices in London and Sheffield – announced last year that it was set to embark on a major recruitment drive that will see it hire over 150 new staff across the next year.

The company says it has “no plans to slow down” as it looks for new team members as the move coincides with its recent CREST accreditation, raising its profile in the cyber security community through a “rigorous evaluation and assessment process”.

UNiDAYS
Nottingham-based UNiDAYS, the student affinity network that has over 20 million members worldwide, and made its maiden acquisition last year.

The firm dipped into the Indian market to buy Student Identity, the digital student verification firm.

The acquisition came during a period of growth for UNiDAYS which, after launching in India in 2021, predicted it would have 2.5 million Gen Z members in India by the end of its 2022/23 financial year.

Hyvespace
Based at Aston University, Hyvespace provides an online platform that helps businesses find, engage and grow a community of customer advocates at scale.

It helps B2B SaaS companies launch customer marketing programmes that help drive growth with better close rates, retention and stronger customer relationships.

Impression
A mainstay of the Nottingham digital agency scene for the last decade, Impression continues to power on.

Last October, Impression became a Certified B Corporation®.

Impression was certified by B Lab, the not-for-profit behind the B Corp™ movement, as having met “rigorous social and environmental standards which represent its commitment to goals outside of shareholder profit”.

Andy Wallace of The Robot Exchange

The Robot Exchange
Nottingham-based robotic process automation specialist (RPA), The Robot Exchange, recently doubled its business in the last 12 months.

The result of the wins was an increase in revenue of 81% year on year and a doubling of the number of employees at the RPA specialist, as customers sought greater efficiencies in their processes and a reduction in wastage of resource and time.

Alongside major work for Coca Cola HBC, other recent wins have been in the financial services sector, with Aryza and Mansfield Building Society joining the likes of Oakbrook Financial and Primis Mortgage Network in the portfolio.

More than 80% of the client projects are based on RPA or Software As A Service (SaaS) platforms.

Lettingaproperty.com
In 2008, feeling frustrated by an overly-complex, outdated lettings process, Jonathan Daines founded lettingaproperty.com – to give landlords a better alternative to traditional high street agents.

This online firm, based in Henley-in-Arden allows customers to advertise their property, choose your ideal tenant, and always get rent paid on time – for a low fixed fee, with personal landlord support.

The Halo Solutions team

Halo Solutions
Newark-based software provider Halo provides security for up to 1,400 major global events including the Cricket World Cup, Notting Hill Carnival, Silverstone and the Royal Navy Winter Skiing Championships.

The firm was recently awarded £750,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund managed by Midven to accelerate its growth plans, which include growing its team by 200%.

Zinc Digital Business Solutions
Northampton-based Zinc Digital Business Solutions provides safety, security and critical event management services to clients including the Environment Agency, Kingfisher and Allied Universal.

The SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) business is looking to expand globally after receiving funding from Maven Capital Partners.

The capital from Maven will enable the Little Houghton-based company to expand its sales and marketing teams, invest in product development and grow internationally.

Flint Bishop
The Midlands law firm is quickly establishing itself as a specialist in the tech sector.

Recent deals have included advising on a second major acquisition for Irish tech giant Intact Software.

Flint Bishop provided legal advice to Intact over its purchase of rival enterprise resource planning company, Blue Rock Systems.

It previously advised on Intact’s acquisition of its reseller partner, Ramtac, in 2016.

Smrtlinks
The Birmingham software firm really came into its own during the pandemic.

Smrtlinks formed a partnership with a dealer group to offer its unique testing and monitoring solution for businesses carrying out COVID-19 testing to workforces.

SmrtLinks partnered with Nuneaton-based buying consortium Advantia Business Solutions to offer businesses the opportunity to access the SMRT:Testing service, designed to add a layer of safety assurance for workforces that were either still working as normal or were set to return in the near future, through intelligent tracking of testing.

The SMRT:Testing service supplied businesses with Government and Public Health England approved Rapid Flow Covid-19 tests.