Four Welsh tech start-ups secure funding

Four flourishing tech start-ups based at Caerphilly co-working community Welsh ICE have secured a respectable £671,000 in funding between them.

The early-stage businesses, which benefit from a strong support network at ICE, have raised investment in a bid to develop their products and promote them to more customers.

ProfitSourcery, a market intelligence SaaS firm, is one of the businesses to benefit from the investment. It raised £71,000 from a total of four respected private investors.

It’s developed a tool that allows users to sell retail products easily on Amazon, with the aim of generating as much profit as possible. The firm will use the money for product development.

Ed Brooks, founder of ProfitSourcery, said: “This investment means that we continue on track for our new product launch in February which we are all rather excited about.

“It’s also important to point out that we met most of our investors through being situated at ICE – the network of people here is pretty extensive and I can only see that growing as more businesses join the community.”

The three other companies are still in the early stages, so their identities haven’t been released. However, they’ve raised £100,000, £250,000 and £250,000 from investors and funding organisations.

Each business has been supported by ICE in some shape or form. They have either gone through the ICE accelerator, the ICE 50 or the pre-start 5-9 club program.

Gareth Jones, CEO of Welsh ICE, said: “The announcements form part of efforts from the organisation to drive a spirit of ambition amongst small business in Wales.

“This is in a bid for the region to be recognised alongside the Northern Powerhouse or Shoreditch as having the right conditions to grow a successful business.

“The funding comes from a range of sources including private, international and local investors as well as financial institutions.”

The innovation centre has also just taken on corporate investment specialist Myra Tabor as a non-executive advisor. She’s spent four decades advising companies across the globe.

Talking about the news, Gareth said he’s confident she will bring a lot to ICE: “Myra brings with her a wealth of expertise, experience and an enviable network of connections.

“In our first year, there were no significant fundraising rounds, but year on year we have seen continued growth, and that has raised ambitions for other members seeing peers achieve success in raising capital.

“As each generation matures, and there are more founders around to act as mentors, we will hopefully see businesspeople in Wales tapping into these tools of success, leading to increased jobs, opportunities, and levels of aspiration across the region.”