Digital Catapult is a government funded non-profit company that aims to grow the UK economy by encouraging digital innovation in specific areas it has targeted. One such area is the LPWAN technologies that are of growing importance in the Internet of Things.
This year the Catapult ran its first Things Connected innovation programme for startups and SMEs – giving access to their London LoRaWAN network and support in developing products, providing a showcase and introductions to potential clients, partners etc.
Thingitude applied and was accepted onto the programme, and over the first half of the year we developed a method for enabling LoRaWAN solutions to work across multiple networks (write-ups here and here) and got several devices working on The Things Network and Things Connected.
Of the 23 startups that were accepted onto the programme, 14 of us saw it through and were invited to the end of programme showcase and graduation ceremony. The Catapult hired a great videographer to make short videos of some of the startups. I hope you enjoy ours!
It was a very well attended event – I’d guess around 70 people from larger organisations, investors, local authorities came to see the products on offer and talk to the startups. There was a wide variety of offerings and startups at different stages of maturity, some complex, some very simple but well designed. You can see all the companies here.
Each of us startups took to the stage to present our work and then there was lots of time at our stands to meet the audience and talk in more detail about their hopes for IoT, listen to suggestions, and find shared interests. There was a great buzz about the place and I know for us it has led to several follow-on meetings.
In exciting news, Digital Catapult will be running more rounds of the Things Connected innovation programme this year, and has contracted me to help design and run the programme. If you are interested (and you should be!) then let me know and I’ll add you to the mailing list for when we announce the dates.
