Wesley Clover Quarterly Update
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WESLEY CLOVER QUARTERLY UPDATE FEBRUARY 2017 Growing a Global Ecosystem Breaking News: The Celtic Manor Resort has academic institutions in a business vehicle just won the prestigious M&IT Best UK Hotel that attracts, funds, mentors and grows tech- award, voted on by guests themselves. And if nology start-up teams and turns them into that was not enough, construction is to start globally competitive, investable companies. this month on the International Convention The success of that first initiative (which Indonesia. At various stages of development, Center (ICC) Wales on the property. This new continues to be very active) proved the idea each regional fund is, or will be, operated complex will accommodate 5000 guests. was a winner. with the requisite degree of local autonomy and control. All are supported by the global In terms of this Update, I am a big believer The BC model was then refined and deployed Alacrity network and share the vision to in going global fast with my companies.. in South Wales in the UK. The focus in this create successful local companies with global Get your local market right, then go for it. In case was on ‘charitable’ incubation, using reach, economic benefit and social impact. 2009, we took the technology investment corporate and government contributions to management expertise and resources of provide seed funding and create technology The Alacrity ecosystem provides entrepre- Wesley Clover and worked with like-minded entrepreneurship opportunities for local engi- neurial founders with intellectual property, people at the University of Victoria in British neering and business graduates. Today, the partnership, channel and customer oppor- Columbia to form a non-profit partnership. UK Alacrity Foundation remains the only such tunities that enable success. I am pleased to The group then leveraged innovation charitable technology incubator in Europe. include updates from the Alacrity executives programs from both the Federal and the BC and many of the companies themselves in provincial governments to select, fund and A for-profit model was then deployed in this issue of Q, along with results from several grow entrepreneurial technology companies. Istanbul, Turkey, albeit using a different brand, of our other start-up teams and established The Alacrity Foundation was born — the with local partners, government programs, companies. beginning of a global initiative. mentors/advisors and post-secondary grad- uates. Since then, Alacrity has been initiated Thank you for your continued interest. The model was foundational. Combine in Lille France, Pune India, Shanghai China, Kind Regards, local partners/investors, governments and Mexico City Mexico, Singapore and Jakarta Terry Matthews, Chairman Q is a quarterly publication of Wesley Clover, highlighting some of the latest accomplishments from the wide range of businesses in our portfolio. Visit wesleyclover.com for more information. Table of Contents 2 Alacrity France 3 Alacrity India Alacrité France Joins the Ecosystem Transforming India Into a Digitally Empowered Society 4 CreatorDen The latest addition to the Wesley Clover From the academic partner perspective, No, Wesley Clover has no illusions of engine to raise people out of poverty and create software to impact positively the lives network of technology company incuba- The Catholic University of Lille and the grandeur regarding that objective. But begin to realize the opportunity to become a of hundreds of millions of people. And so 5 Echosec tors and accelerators is now open for well-known Paris engineering university the government of India does. And that significant player on the global stage?! too are the opportunities to fund and equip business in the city of Lille, France, in Centrale Supélec are both part of the is creating opportunities the Alacrity these start-ups for that success. 5 Talkative the recently-created ‘Hauts-de-France’ founding team. A group of twenty experi- program is tailor-made to help address. Not to be dismayed, the government set 6 L-SPARK region. Lille is situated between the key enced entrepreneurs and managers have Which is why India is now one of the next in place a ‘Digital India’ strategy, beginning It is with all this in mind that Alacrity India cities of Brussels, Paris and London, mak- also signed on to become mentors and regional funds on the priority list for the with a number of targeted and transforma- is being launched. The initial focus will be on 7 CounterPath ing it an ideal spot to launch tech start- advisors to the start-up teams. Recruitment company. tional programs to provide secure, universal leveraging India Stack, targeting small towns ups seeking to grow within Europe and of the first teams is underway now, with ID for its citizens, bank accounts for all, dig- and tier-2 and -3 cities, working with strong, 7 Pretio Interactive beyond. representatives from Wesley Clover and To understand why, we need to look at some ital authentication and document signing local technical and business colleges, solving the other investors, the advisory group and realities. India currently has about 1.2 billion services, and the most advanced public local problems with local solutions, and then 8 The Better Software The investor-partners in Alacrité France the universities reviewing the initial oppor- citizens. Much of that population would be payments interface in the world. The pro- building forward from there to go global. Company are now in place, the local manager has tunities to determine which will be first to characterized as ‘rural’ (more than 800 million grams were designed to coincide with a key been hired, appropriate office space near launch. people), but rapid urbanization and migra- enabling technology becoming pervasive For a more complete telling of this exciting 8 ProntoForms the two rail stations in Lille has been rented, tion to cities continues to take place. Until among the citizens — the mobile phone. story and the opportunities for the Alacrity 9 Cliniconex and the official Grand Opening festivities You can find out more and monitor recently, the Indian government was a large Fast forward five years, and the results have India fund, read this recent blog post by are planned for March 21st, 2017. the progress on the alacrite.fr website. and paper-based bureaucracy. Citizens had been outstanding. Mike Manson, who is leading the initiative 9 Solink The team at Q will also be watching multiple sets of identification tailored to deal for Wesley Clover. Also stay tuned to Q for With Wesley Clover as the lead inves- closely. with individual government departments. The next step in the program is rolling out further developments as they unfold. 10 YASH tor, matching funding for the program Or they had no ID at all, as in the case of now. Called “India Stack”, it is a set of feature- 11 FileFacets was secured from Hub One, the systems the ‘invisible millions’ of rural poor in India. rich APIs that sit on top of the initiatives integrator and telecom services provider In addition, it was estimated in 2010 that as just mentioned, and “allow governments, 11 Martello Technologies owned by Aeroports de Paris (ADP), as well many as 600 million Indians did not have a businesses, start-ups and developers to use as from local acceleratorWESLEY Aleph1 and Mitel bank account. a unique digital infrastructure to solve India’s 12e InitLiv Networks. A major investment was also hard problems and move towards presence- obtained from the nationalCLOVER ‘French Tech So, we had a country with a huge popula- less, paperless, and cashless service delivery.” 12 Mitel Acceleration Fund’ through the government tion, largely rural but rapidly migrating to the 13 The Celtic Manor Resort financial agency, BPIfrance. At least one cities, half without bank accounts but with a This is the tip of the iceberg. The vast num- investment agency from QUARTERLYthe Lille area is also confusing set of IDs to deal with a bureau- ber of use-cases for India Stack have yet to 14 Wesley Clover Parks expected to sign on to the program. cracy that could only move slowly. What be conceived. The opportunity for start-ups UPDATE could possibly go wrong for a government to develop applications that leverage India knowing it must ignite an economic growth Stack is immense. So is the opportunity to 2 WESLEY CLOVER QUARTERLY UPDATE | February 2017 WESLEY CLOVER QUARTERLY UPDATE | February 2017 3 How do you decide to buy something new? with leading product and service brands, as well WEB-CALLING — AN INTRODUCTION, FROM THE UK Istanbul Maybe you see it on TV or a website, hear about as with other media, PR and advertising agen- it on the radio, perhaps read about it in print. cies, to create 1:1 campaigns designed to engage TALKATIVE, one of the companies founded being viewed, and can further guide the Start-Up Often however, you hear about it from, or see it targeted audiences. The CreatorDen platform through the UK Alacrity program has a pow- customer through the site, share added doc- being used by a friend or someone else whose and mobile application enable these parties to erful story to share. Today, almost 90% of uments if relevant, even annotate the screen judgement you trust. And whether you realize it more easily connect, collaborate and transact in customers everywhere visit the website of a for further clarity or help the customer as Innovating in or not, those individuals have influence over your brand-appropriate projects. supplier before making contact with them. they fill in forms or other required data fields. purchasing decision. But if/when they do make contact, voice a Growth Area When asked about the impetus behind the communication is still the dominant form of Marketers can understand where customer That common behaviour is the catalyst for evolv- start-up, the founders describe “a fragmented interaction.