Geovation Accelerator Programme 2019 open for applications

The call for entries to the 2019 Geovation Programme is now open to startups which use location, land, and property data in their products and services.

The startups that joined the latest Geovation programme earlier this year were

• DronePrep, who use location data to open up low-level airspace access possibilities by connecting drone pilots to landowners to share and agree flight information.
• Winston, a digital concierge to support smart home systems.
• Property-Markets, a property investment marketplace.
• RenKap, an online marketplace working to alleviate the housing crisis by scaling the delivery of affordable homes.

Some other notable successes from previous years are

• Thirdfort, data driven property tools that verify client’s identity, validate the source of funds, and facilitate movement of money.
• Askporter, a property management platform that uses a digital AI assistant to help occupants and tenants troubleshoot issues and provide information.
• Orbital Witness, automated legal risk profiling in real estate which provides an instant assessment of legal issues on land and property.
• Skyroom, an urban development company that use geospatial mapping to find disused flat rooftops and install modular homes on them.
• Qflow, who utilise IOT and machine learning to understand industry impacts and tackle environmental and social risk in civil engineering.

The accelerator provides up to £20,000 to successful applicants in grant funding, along with access to data, product development capabilities, geospatial expertise from Ordnance Survey and land property insight from HM Land Registry as well as business mentorship and coaching. Geovation’s offices in central London have provided space for a community of over 1,200 people, and 79 tech startups with over £20m in investment funding.

In the past six months, Geovation has expanded through partnerships with innovation hubs in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, and Manchester. This is in addition to the new Accelerator Programme in Edinburgh which starts autumn 2019 as a partnership between the Registers of Scotland and OS.

Head of Geovation, Alex Wrottesley, says: “Independent market forecasts indicate the current size of the global geospatial analytics market to be somewhere around $35-$40bn, with it predicted to grow over the next five years by around 14-17%. By 2023 it’s predicted to hit $86bn. Geovation plays a driving role in unlocking this value and helping British geotech and proptech startups become leading players on a domestic and global stage.”

Applications to become one of 12 funded startups in the 8^th cohort are advised to read “applications out loud to different people of different ages and background who have no connection to your project to see if they can understand it,” according to Valentina Podda, Geovation Acceleration Programme Manager.

Podda joined Geovation from the Open Data Institute last year. In her view, communication is vital at every stage to ensure startup success. One of Podda’s initiatives was the creation of regular catch up sessions between the accelerator participants. She explains that “it’s vital that they come together as a group, support and motivate each other- both professionally and in other aspects of their lives. What we have are like-minded people sharing similar experiences, so we can try to empower them to build relationships.

The closing date for applications is Monday 2 September.