Today, R/GA Ventures hosted its Demo Day for the R/GA IoT Venture Studio UK – a day of networking, demonstrations and pitches celebrating the conclusion of the program. The event showcased the graduates of the innovation-driven program and demonstrated R/GA Venture’s commitment to finding and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and startups that are using Internet of Things technology to transform businesses. During today’s Demo Day event, each startup presented to industry leaders, program partners, investors and customers from the technology and innovation communities.
A diverse mix of companies took part in the program, which provided each startup with in-depth engagement with R/GA’s leadership, business units, and industry network as well as R/GA's award-winning strategic marketing, branding, design, and technology services. Launched in collaboration with Innovate UK, the UK Government's innovation agency, the program was housed at R/GA London's new connected headquarters.
The Graduating Class from R/GA’s first ever UK-based venture program, the R/GA IoT Venture Studio UK, are:
- DigiSEq provides the platform for consumers, device makers, issuers and payment networks to enable Internet of Payment Things in a scalable, cost-effective, and frictionless manner.
- Flock provides risk-dependent pay-as-you-fly insurance for drones.
- Hoxton Analytics provides accurate foot traffic and pedestrian insights without infringing privacy, based on footstep and movement observation through applied computer vision.
- Iota Labs builds connected home technologies that simplify people’s lives.
- KG provides an IoT solution to bring flexibility and quality control to automotive training.
- ScreenCloud makes it super simple for a business to turn any screen into a digital sign.
- Sensible Object makes games for a connected world, combining physical and digital game design into new, exciting forms - using technology to support real-world social fun.
- Snaptivity captures candid fan emotions using robotic cameras that are triggered automatically at key moments by AI and IoT sensors performing crowd analysis.
- Winnow is on a mission to prevent food waste. They believe that food is too valuable to be wasted and that technology can transform the way we make food.
“I couldn’t be more proud of what the startups have achieved over the program. Each of the companies has experienced growth and built next-level partnerships,” said Matt Webb, Managing Director of R/GA IoT Venture Studio UK. “This is not the end of a three month program, but the beginning of a long collaboration with R/GA and our network of clients and partners.”
In addition to the highly customized partnership opportunities and in-depth engagement with the R/GA Services and Leadership teams, the program facilitated introductions to external partners through participation in external and internal events with industry leaders, helping the companies make actionable traction in developing pilots and scalable proof-of-concept initiatives.
"The companies have all benefited greatly from our unique approach during this program,” said Stephen Plumlee, Global Chief Operating Officer, R/GA and Managing Partner of R/GA Ventures. “Watching the polished pitches from each company today really demonstrated the disruptive and refreshing power that IoT can have in the real world. They showed us that IoT technologies are now mature, and ready for business.”