New ventures at York Science Park

FORWARD-LOOKING companies look set to thrive in York in 2013, as 20 new businesses have started up or relocated to York Science Park.

During 2012 these enteroprises, ranging from software engineers, landscape architects, international research companies, business affairs and commercial advisors, joined more than 100 businesses resident at the science park.

Tracey Smith, managing director of York Science Park, says: “It has been enormously satisfying to welcome so many new and diverse businesses to York Science Park in the last year – from entrepreneurs with early-stage ideas, to fully fledged international organisations.

“Our exceptional spaces and facilities, combined with a superb location next to the University of York and in the heart of the vibrant city of York, make York Science Park the perfect environment for business growth and success.

“We look forward to welcoming many more businesses over the coming years.”

The new 20 businesses cover many different fields. They include Mologic, which develops innovative new concepts in diagnostic healthcare technology; Neuro Partners Ltd, which delivers support to people with a disability in education, employment and in the community; Rights TV, business affairs and commercial advisors to production companies and rights owners; remote access specialists Propalms Limited; BHP Law; and international research organisation Pharmerit.

Other new arrivals are NYBEP (North Yorkshire Business and Education Partnership) and Oomph Wellness (Our Organisation Makes People Happy), a business which provides exercise, dance and art therapy sessions for older adults in the care sector, which was set up by Ben Allen, a finalist for Young Entrepreneur Of The Year at The Press’s Business Awards 2012.

The new arrivals are based at different part of the science park, including The Catalyst, Springboard, the Bio Centre, Enterprise House, the Innovation Centre and the IT Centre.

Helping to combat killer bug

Digital Missives, a software engineering firm specialising in tools to help companies manage their estates, is banking on growth in 2013 as a new piece of software comes of age.

Tim Moore, managing director, said the company, which has expanded to the Science Park from the York Eco Business Centre in Clifton Moor, would focus on its new L8Guard system, which helps the NHS manage the prevention of Legionnaire’s Disease.

He said: “There’s an onerous requirement on hospitals to monitor outlets, flush them and record they have been flushed twice a week.

“That creates an enormous amounts of paperwork that nobody can actually analyse. So we developed a tool to help the NHS manage that particular problem.”

The product has been used by London Hospitals Charing Cross and Hammersmith and word is spreading across the NHS estates department, giving the business the opportunity to become a big player.

He said: “In the last six months, we started to turn the corner and I think we are still turning. People started to ask Charing Cross and Hammersmith how they were dealing with this problem.

“We have also licensed it to a legionella consultancy company, so they can sell L8Guard for us. We’re hoping for great things from that this year.”

Mining for meaning

A scientist is launching his new business this year, after working for a Government agency in York for about 15 years.

Steven Brewer, founder of Text Mining Solutions, used to work in innovation and new product development, working for big food and drink manufacturers.

In April 2011, he discovered the potential of text mining – using computers to “read” documents to seek out the useful information in a vast sea of paperwork.

He said if asked the right questions, computers can be used to emulate a human reader to extract information from large amounts of documents, while a human readersimply cannot read through thousands if not millions of patents, web pages or scientific abstracts.

Steve launched the business in October 1, having spent a year in preparation. “In my first day trading for this year, I have been rushed off my feet with inquiries and things to do.

“This year will be a really good year for growth and we will be able to consolidate our position.”

Seeking Catalyst for success

A new business specialising in bespoke web, mobile and cloud-based applications, Iquara, has also moved into the Catalyst, having grown during a year at the Science Park’s incubation space for young businesses, Springboard.

The business, run by graduates who all did masters degrees at the University of York’s Department of Computer Science, develops bespoke software, web and mobile applications, including creating the website for the new York Sports Village and it is about to launch a new website for SCY (formerly Science City York) in collaboration with Ownbeat Creatives at York St John University incubator, the Phoenix Centre.

Christopher Rowell, co-founder, said the business started from his home in August 2011, before they moved into the Springboard in November.

Now the company is looking forward to an exciting year.

“The order book is pretty much full for the first quarter and there are a lot of exciting opportunities we are aware of after that.”

The company plans to open an office in India in the coming months, as one of the founders, Aboo Soyeed, is planning to return to his home country and open a development centre there.

“We have got a great opportunity to expand into an expanding market,” said Chris. The company specialises in integrating web applications with social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, he said, and to demonstrate its talents the business has developed its own piece of software.

QueuedIt is a social media management application to help small teams and businesses manage their Facebook and Twitter accounts, by enabling a manager to approve the activity of its employees on social media. The business will start a beta trial of the product this year.

All about making the news

Another new business launching an array of new products is Takanomi, a website on which businesses can submit their own news stories, set up by Steve Shaw.

Steve moved into The Catalyst on the University of York’s new Heslington East campus last spring as he planned to expand the business.

Now he intends to launch a new crowd-sourced content creation platform, which will link writers with business owners who need content for websites and blogs. He also plans to start offering video services.

Steve initially set up working from home in 1996. He said: “I’m a programmer by trade and started to develop my own software.”

He said he had always used freelancers, but not always being available to devote all their time to the company limited his growth.

“It began to be a ceiling to what I could achieve and grow the business.” Since moving premises, he has started to take on staff and now there are six of them, he said.

“We’re moving into different areas and there are different things we can now do now I’ve been able to take on the staff. It opens up a number of new opportunities.”