Three tech businesses join roster for 2020 Silicon Valley Comes to the UK
A not-for-profit support programme which is celebrating 14 years of supporting ambitious and promising companies in Europe, has unveiled its list of the high-growth technology businesses joining the 2020 ‘Scale Up Club’.
Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK) is run by London & Partners (the Mayor’s International Promotion Agency) together with volunteers, advisers and partners.
More than 50 companies from across the UK have been named in the 2020 Scale Up Club roster including three which sit in our region.
Abingdon-based Arctoris Ltd operates the world’s first fully automated drug discovery platform, trusted by biotech and pharma companies as well as academic centres on three continents. Arctoris was founded in Oxford in 2016, with a team comprising biotech and pharma veterans, leading engineers and experienced life sciences executives.
Education Shed Ltd is an education company that makes products spanning traditional classroom tools and technology. Its products are in 60,000 schools across 100 countries. Based in Bewdley in Worcestershire, EdShed is the umbrella for several educational products and brands. These include The Literacy Shed, Literacy Shed Plus, Spelling Shed and MathShed.
Fiscal Technologies, based in Reading, is a leading provider of forensic solutions that empower purchase-to-pay teams across the globe to protect organisational spend. Incorporating unique technology to reduce risk in the supply chain, FISCAL’s enterprise solutions are used on a continuous, preventative basis to protect supplier spend, defend against fraud, increase profitability and drive process improvement.
Silicon Valley Comes to the UK was founded by Sherry Coutu, Reid Hoffman and Ellen Levy. It brings together entrepreneurs and VCs from Silicon Valley with students, early-stage CEOs, serial entrepreneurs and policymakers in the UK to inspire entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic prosperity. The annual summit takes place in November each year with prominent serial entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley visiting London, Cambridge and Oxford.
With a total of more than 3,300 combined employees worldwide and a combined revenue of £185 million in 2019, this year’s Scale Up Club cohort spans some of Europe’s most innovative and competitive sectors, including urban (26%), life sciences (17%), and technology (17%).
The 2020 recruits join previous Scale Up Club alumni such as TransferWise and SkyScanner.
Mentors lined up for 2020 include David Hornik (August Capital), Rahul Vohra (Superhuman), Anthony Fletcher (Graze), Sahar Hashemi (Skinny Candy), Jenny Gove (Google), Sherry Coutu CBE (Founders4Schools) and Saul Klein (Local Globe).
Janet Coyle, Managing Director for Business, London & Partners said: These companies are testament to the resilience and creativity of tech companies in the UK and we celebrate them for all that they have achieved in the face of adversity this year. It is now more important than ever that tech hubs around the world come together to promote greater inclusivity in the tech ecosystem and to drive progress as we look to build back better from the impacts of the global pandemic.”
Tania Boler, CEO and Founder, Elvie said: “My involvement with the SVC2UK community has played a fundamental role in my entrepreneurial journey. Over the years I’ve attended some amazing events as both a speaker and a Scale Up Club member and I’ve made incredible connections with inspirational business leaders in both the UK and US. SVC2UK has helped me to grow as a female founder alongside supporting the growth of Elvie to the point where I am now expanding into new markets in the US and China.”
