IDS Group announces £2m tech accelerator scheme

Eight pots of £250,000 are available for innovations irrespective of sector or geographical location.

The financial pledge augments IDS Group’s already proven tech accelerator programme for SaaS entrepreneurs – a six-month assignment which seeks to supercharge the growth of generation-defining technologies that haven’t yet been able to secure significant growth funding.

The team’s business, software, data, system security and UX experts routinely support the technical delivery and onward growth of start-up ventures, as well as mature products that have encountered stumbling blocks. The accelerator initiative includes everything from initial research, discovery and architecture design, right through to the launch of applications, the creation of sustainable and scalable development roadmaps, and introductions to initial industry contacts.

Success stories to date include digital works management platform eviFile, innovative insurtech software ManageMy, document management system PandaDoc, Healthcare assessment software for NHS Trusts – Lancaster Model, and TimboRetro  – agile events facilitation software.

And now the hunt is on for more potentially ground-breaking ideas that haven’t yet been able to convince a VC or private equity house to invest.

“From health tech to construction tech and everything in between, there are some extremely exciting things happening in the world of SaaS right now,” explained IDS Group’s founding CEO and experienced tech entrepreneur Nick Halliday. “But bootstrapped businesses are often prevented from reaching their full potential, or at least slowed down because entrepreneurs are forced to make short-term decisions that are either at odds with longer-term risk mitigation, or that fail to capitalise on true market potential.

“Other innovations may secure initial investment with relative ease but find the leap to seed or Series A funding impossible,” he continued.

“Our goal is to support entrepreneurs to build highly scalable, robust and marketable SaaS solutions to demonstrate they can easily grow to 3-5 times their size, so they secure longer-term investment and achieve much higher returns and valuations.”

The new tech accelerator pot will therefore be offered in addition to IDS Group’s usual portfolio of technical skills, resource and contacts – not to mention the team’s accreditations that include the recently-secured ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials PLUS security credentials

“In terms of an organisation’s ‘readiness’ for investment, we evaluate things differently to a normal fund,” elaborated Nick. “We’re looking at the nearer-term market opportunity associated with the technology, so we will even invest in more mature businesses that need a little help to strengthen their proposition to reach the next level of growth too.”

The hunt is also on for more senior technical and business advisory specialists to join IDS in the team’s three core locations – Leeds, San Francisco and Minsk.

Away from the tech accelerator programme, IDS has experienced a busy 12 months despite Covid-19, having secured projects with Innovate UK, Mace, NHS Digital and SE Controls since the outbreak of the pandemic.