Shailash Sanghrajka

Edinburgh-based Computer Application Services Ltd (CAS) has secured an additional £500,000 equity investment to boost growth.   The company is increasingly referred to by its product name, Workpro, a software system for managing customer complaints and HR casework. Organic growth is providing a 20% uplift this year but, with the market quickly opening up to the benefits of using this software, it’s time to pick up the pace.  Managing workload is just part of the solution - Workpro ensures compliance with procedures which, if not observed, too easily lead to pain and penalties.  Insightful reports let users see where they are “attracting trouble” so that prevention of future issues becomes part of the package.   Maintaining a digital presence – being easily found when people come searching is an obvious must for the marketing team, a never ending task in a busy online world. The new investment will fuel more proactive activities to reach out to target audiences, some of whom don’t yet realise how readily the task of juggling cases and causes can be streamlined and supported by UK developed software. Workpro has all the right data security credentials to pass muster with government and corporate governance.       CAS employees own around half of the company through a combination of direct shareholdings, the Employee Benefit Trust and a monthly share-save scheme. External investors hold the other half – Capital for Colleagues who specifically support employee-ownership, and, more recently, two additional private investors.    CAS CEO Ken Naismith comments, “While CAS and Workpro are obviously good horses for investors to back, we do not take for granted what terrific support has been made available to us when so many businesses are worried about the future. Consumer complaints and employee relations issues are only going to rise as organisations meet 2025’s challenges. Workpro makes light work of heavy caseload and provides essential insights into issues arising from customers and colleagues.”

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What are going to be the top trends for the Tech Market in 2025... There are countless articles out there if you put that search into Google and most of them seem to be in agreement. JLA Resourcing Ltd have summarised some of the key areas listed in the reports from Capgemini, KPMG, Forbes and Gartner. In the main, they're talking about the focus being on: - Generative AI – Autonomous Intelligent Systems that will lean and adapt to new situations - AI & Gen AI in Cyber – we’ll not only see huge progress in how AI is used for threat detection but also the negative side with AI being used for generating the threats themselves so here’s hoping defence keeps pace with attack - AI Driven Robotics – AI driven robotics to enhance productivity and safety - New Generation Supply Chain – companies looking to improve the efficiency and reliability of their supply chains - Post-Quantum Cryptography – protecting businesses from the security risks that will come from the advent of quantum computing - Energy efficient computing as companies focus on sustainability and reducing carbon emissions - A real focus on Hardware – with AI being integrated in to end user chips, IoT devices and Robotics - Solving the Climate Tech Challenge – the focus on this dropped in 2023 due to the global economic environment but Forbes (amongst others) believe that this will be scaled in to our everyday life What else would you add to the list?

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Andrena Ventures is a New Solo GP Fund Gideon Valkin, a former Monzo Bank and ClearScore commercial leader, is launching Andrena Ventures, a solo GP fund based in London. The fund has reached its first close at €11.1 million, with backing from prominent tech founders and VC leaders, and plans a final close later in the year. The first investment from the fund is into Nustom, an AI-powered software startup founded by Monzo co-founder Jonas Templestein.💰 Valkin believes Europe is experiencing a surge in innovative talent, with founding teams from companies like Monzo and ClearScore now tackling problems in fintech, AI, climate-tech, and enterprise software. He aims to provide these teams with investors who understand their challenges and ambitions.📈 The fund's backers include Entrée Capital, RTP Global, Taavet+Sten (founders of Wise and Teleport), Cherry Ventures’ managing partners, Andreessen Horowitz's David Haber, and Hummingbird Ventures’ Firat Ileri. Andrena Ventures is inspired by the "PayPal Mafia" concept, where talent from successful tech companies spin-off to create new ventures. Data shows that European fintech unicorns have spun out 145 startups, raising approximately $5 billion. The fund's first investment, Nustom, is an example of this trend, leveraging Monzo’s technical expertise to automate software development using AI. Valkin has a 15-year background as a founder, operator, and investor, previously backing startups like Packfleet, Yonder, Gradient Labs AI, and Moment. His co-investors include Index Ventures, Accel, General Catalyst, Creandum, LocalGlobe, and Northzone. The fund aims to "provide close support and operational know-how to founders, combining access of institutional funds with the personalized support typical of angel investors". This approach allows Valkin to maintain low ownership stakes while delivering high value to his portfolio companies. ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #VCfund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments (Series A/Series B)?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE   #VentureCapital #VentureFunding #VentureDebt #Fundraising #Innovation #Technology #Entrepreneurship #Investing #Network #Investors #LPs #GPs #EmergingManagers #FamilyOffice #Markets #Economy #Business #Founders #Startups #StartupFunding #ai #artificialintelligence #unicorn #secondaries #secondarydeals

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UK tax credit recall. Is it HMRC's fault? Let's dig into the story reported by Sifted For someone who has received R&D tax credits and led the process for many startup clients, HMRC did very well in processing our claims. I've never had any issues. If I was a founder impacted by the recall, would I be pissed? Maybe... On the one hand, many startups have benefited from the scheme when there might not have been a real case for innovation. Everyone in the ecosystem knows that. In contrast, pre-seed/seed tech startups needed it, especially during the pandemic, to keep developing their product. In my opinion, the issue is that mid-size businesses and scale-ups may have received tax credits without justification (not investing in R&D). On the other hand, HMRC recalling funds can put businesses at risk. However, if a company relies on R&D money to survive, we can legitimately question its model and leadership. Lastly, startups in climate, energy, and deep tech need the scheme to fund their projects before generating revenues, so I hope we can get a better version of the R&D tax claim in the future. A scheme that provides more support for breakthrough innovation. What are your thoughts on the HMRC R&D tax recall?

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I do love a good stat. Of the 654,000 interactions on our live platform last week, 40,800 were over our API. If your supplier doesn't offer open APIs included in the base product, and you're thinking "meh maybe we don't need em" then you are stuck in legacy la la land. API's bring the efficiency and interaction products need in a modern adaptive platform. That 1992 CSV FTP Ping Pong you are pretending works fine will bite you on the behind one day. If you'd like to learn more about how Rubixx interacts with third party systems, slide in my DMs or ask one of our clients who used to have whatever you have now.

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Can anyone recommend a platform that aggregates daily info on which platforms out there (Wise, Revolut, CurrenciesDirect etc) is the most efficient way to change 💷 to 💶 on any given day? Especially for larger transactions - seems a bit cumbersome to go into each individual app to figure out. Does a comparison / calculator product exist out there? 🙏🏼

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I didn't win, but am incredibly pleased to have been shortlisted for CTO of the year! Some great DLG teams were also shortlisted for other awards. ...So now I am going for the longest I didn't win speech in history 🙂 ... maybe there is an award for that :) https://lnkd.in/e4kN5Q6R To win or lose anything is a learning experience, as is every decision, challenge or context; practical outcomes can only be generated with great leadership Direct Line Group and a willing team centered around a solid purpose. Customers matter, both the external market that choose us to help smooth out the waves of life; and our internal customers who rely on technology to support those efforts. In that way we win every day, we MUST so that we can serve the people to the right and left of us and support those who buy our products. Technology, year by year, plays a bigger role in helping to deliver business outcomes. AI, XR, and Quantum buzzword technologies are all unfolding before us; some further ahead than others. AI will play a pivital role in the future but require a "digital scalpel' to obtain value and not noise. We have yet to truly understand the changes technology will make to our lives; both our ability to achieve even more than is possible today but also how to protect ourselves from a negative use of the technology by others. I have been fortunate to be alive for a number of technology shifts; there is much noise, and then an understanding of the real value over time as we find more appropriate solutions for real world problems faced by us as humans in our day to day lives. One thing that is clear to me is that Equity is important and we must actually solve problems and bring people on the journey whatever their skill, background, gender or race. Thankfully my leadership team Nic Whittakerer Julius Hackett David Sutton Chris Rose David McIntyre along with the whole architecture team are dedicated to delivering the right solutions for both today's issues and the futures potential. Thanks also to Rachael Holt as without support I would never get to the right meetings :) Obviously thanks also to my suffering wife Helen Speck AFHEA who still puts up with me... I think that made a reasonable effort toward the longest I didn't win speech.. Well done to the other teams as well BIJITH NARIKKUNI swathi penumudi Sridevika Mariappan Suganthavalli Jessica Bouchier Bryony Dickson Lorraine Hall Andrew Morrell

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Last week, we lifted the lid on our guide to creating great propositions. Now, it isn’t lost on me that in doing so I had a pop at the consulting industry’s BS but there are probably a few people scratching their heads saying “well, that’s all very nice Tom but I have no idea what you mean by proposition and smells a little BS’y to me.” Hands up, I accept that challenge. It is terminology we have played around with…a lot! And it’s definitely one of those things that has many different meanings to many different people. But in wrangling with it (and fundamentally believing in its importance for businesses to get right if they want to win and grow), we’ve boiled it down to 4 simple things: 1. WHAT you do 2. HOW you do it 3. In a way that resonates and motivates customers buying decisions (WHO & WHY) 4.  And explains how you're DISTINCTIVE (maybe even unique) in the market. We believe by keeping it that simple and nailing those 4 things, you’ll be on a pretty good path to having a proposition that works. Want to know how to do it, follow the link to our guide in the comments. Remember - share it, steal it, use it!

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“Britons lost roughly £459.7m to APP fraud last year, according to banking trade body UK Finance. However, some experts believe the true figure is likely closer to £700m as around a third of scams are estimated to go unreported”. As the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) gets closer to implementation with new measures aimed at protecting those who have lost money to fraud, the industry seems to be fighting back, with dozens of firms lobbying for the PSR to delay or scale back its proposals. Why? Few firms are not ready for implementation, others state that the costs associated with becoming compliant will now have to be passed on to the end-customer, and likely destroy the viability of these same firms. Completely agree with Tide Bank’s Chief Executive, Dr. Oliver Prill comment (included in Lars Mucklejohn‘s piece) on the state of play for fintechs and why this has become an increasingly pertinent topic for those dealing with fraud. It’s a situation that, as always, needs a balance struck between regulators and fintechs – it’s clear that both sides want to protect consumers and businesses from fraud, however as ever, the solution is not as clear-cut as it may look from the outside. City AM have really been on the money reporting the recent go-ons within fintech, and it's a necessity not to forget how much this industry can do, and how much more still needs to be done, to really elevate the financial experience for UK citizens and small businesses. https://lnkd.in/dkyjmtin #fintech Ali Youssef Helene Panzarino

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Are you unsure about whether to put your savings into a cash or stocks and shares ISA? This week's 5 minute financial literacy share covers just that https://lnkd.in/e8N6ZzXN. If you're unsure of what an ISA is, it covers that too. :) #FinancialLiteracyForAll

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Following the Johnson v Firstrand bank decision, we've deepened our partnership with the NACFB 🤝 Now, accessing their templates directly from our platform is easier than ever 🌟 Choose the template, add your custom branding, and you're set to go 💼 Take the commission disclosure template for example 🎯 Just input the deal details and send it off for signing in seconds ⏱️ It's that simple! ✨ #NACFB #DocumentAutomation #OperationalEfficiency #Finance ------- 👋 Hi - I'm Josh from Doc2. We work with finance businesses, getting your contracts created and eSigned faster with total compliance and oversight.

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Cazoo is in administration with 200 jobs at risk, after being valued at £6bn in 2021. I could jump on the bandwagon and say that this was never going to work and what a ginormous failure... Instead, I’m pleased they took the risk ! Alex Chesterman has built some incredible companies, and obviously felt there was a gap here. I’m the first to say that you don’t need to unicorn hunt to be successful, but I HATE seeing the negativity and almost smug happiness from some people at the failure of others. Yes, take the learnings but why the elation ? It goes back to my point about the US vs UK mentality. In the states, this kind of thing (in most places) wouldn’t be seen as this huge failure and utterly embarrassing collapse. Of course, it’s a tough blow and people’s jobs are at risk, but I feel in the UK we’d be the first to jump on a story like this and say “I told you so”. Now more than ever we need founders to take these risks and we need founders to be thinking boldly and bravely about what they’re willing to build. Yes, the business model wasn’t sound and mistakes were made, but we need to encourage dreaming ! If we don’t create that environment then you don’t get the Love Films or the Zoopla’s (two of Alex’s big successes). #buildingbusinesses #startupsuccess #risktaking

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How not to do privatization - a 30 year how to guide.

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Today, we see the second reading of the 'The Football Governance Bill' in parliament, I have no interest in football ⚽ ... but it does seem odd to me that we are proposing a regulator for a pointless pass time when the IT and technology sector is like the wild-west. The last 4 clients I have taken on at Voittaa Ltd have all been severely let down by previous IT vendors, and since they are all founders of new companies, who have invested perhaps all of their life savings into building their tech stacks have been left in a desperate situation. It is all too common in the IT industry for: 👉 Projects to be poorly managed with no specifications 👉 Projects to be delivered to a very poor technical standard 👉 IT Vendors to lose interest halfway through a project and stop communication 👉 IT Vendors taking advantage of clients' lack of technical knowledge 👉 IT Vendors charge what they think they can get away with rather than the value of the delivered project. Of course, there is also the counter to this, IT vendors are often left not being paid by clients following delivery, services which often can not be taken back. While there are codes of conduct by people such as the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and others, these are not required, they are unchecked and few adhere to them. 🤷‍♂️ Is this something that the Government will be looking to address Peter Kyle Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology? With IT and Technology, in general, being a central pillar to our economy and the growth that we all hope will come, as well as it being a national security issue, this is something that in my view is critical and must be addressed with all haste possible. Removal of bad actors in the industry and support for those who work to the highest possible standards. How can we get to a situation where football is more regulated than the IT Sector? I would appreciate an open discussion about this in the comments below, what do you think? Is there a need to tighten the grip on the IT industry? Have you been let down by your IT Vendor (Software, Cyber security, IT Support)? Maybe I am totally off the mark? Please also comment if you are one of the many good IT vendors, how do these bad actors impact your business? Image courtesy of OpenAI and what it thinks of this irony. #it #itindustry #regulation #football ________ I am Matt, at Veribli we offer smart RFID technology and a platform that allows you to control and automate your production, track your assets, create smart products and build, direct long-lasting relationships with your customers and enabling a circular ecosystem. At Axsi Systems Ltd we track health & safety tasks & inspections for cleanliness, HACCP, fire doors, construction sites and much more. 📧 info@veribli.com 📲 01482 455855

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Interesting LNETM event at the London Stock Exchange last night - the topic was Unraveling (Future of) SAAS… Three great presentations and then a panel session on SAAS. Really interesting stats, one in particular talking about the average enterprise subscribing to nearly 400 apps!! That’s an amazing statistic, and almost unbelievable. I then thought about all the apps we use and subscribe too, and then wondered if that number was an understatement :) Interestingly no mention of how AI could change the SAAS landscape. SAAS apps and services are typically generalised services that process your data. They are generalised so they can appeal to a broad spectrum of potential subscribers, and so you often have to compromise on the functionality and service quality levels, and if you customise these services, you can end up in a world of pain, long backlogs, and costly future maintenance upgrades. AI features are of course being added to these SAAS services, but the real issue is more fundamental. These SAAS technologies have typically required massive investment to create sophisticated tooling at enterprise scale, engineered for hyperscale operation for use by thousands and millions of concurrent users. AI App Builders will allow you to create your own apps, not code snippets, but fully functional enterprise scale apps. These are apps are - Built to meet your specific needs and requirements - It’s IP you have created and own - An asset you can add to your balance sheet - You are processing your data without it being pushed into a 3rd party SAAS service - You can consolidate all of the apps you need into one enterprise platform - You now have access to all your own data to analyse and make actionable insights - Use TAAP’s technology and the apps are maintenance free and can run for 10 or more years, or until you need to make changes The cost of owning software will drop through the floor, as will legacy technical debt. The SAAS landscape will change significantly, why subscribe to something that’s a compromise, that you don’t own, and you can’t differentiate yourself against your competitors! AI App Builders will be the catalyst for significant change to the SAAS landscape, let alone how the future will look when we become gatekeepers of our data and our own AI machine built systems. One of the panel suggested this is the end of human ingenuity - it’s quite the reverse, it’s the dawn of a future that will allow us to do so much more, with AI technologies helping us shift mountains, doing things we just hadn’t even considered possible because of the scale and effort of the work involved. AI is going to elevate our thinking, broadening our ideas and potential, and that’s why you need to consider AI as a tool, the more you use it, the more proficient and awesome you’ll become. It’s a great time to work in IT and with AI, unless you work in a SAAS company with all this uncertainty! AI App Builders are a stepping stone towards AGI.

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Bit of a business and fund raising update....(for those that care) 😂 So, as we enter Q4 (How did that happen by the way) The Hub is flying and the positivity and developments just keep on coming. The partnerships with ScalaCode & Shift ONE Digital are in full flow and we are fully integrated and working in complete harmony and unison, which is great to see, with new campaigns and products and features being released at speed, which is such a breath of fresh air. As we enter the 4th quarter, we have revised our pricing to cater for the masses and to make our services more affordable and accessible to all. So, now, we have the follow pricing models available: 👉Forever Free 👉$1 - 48hr Trial 👉$9.99 Per month Premium 👉$24.99 for 3 months Premium 👉$49.99 for 6 months Premium This change had given more people the support they require, whilst also giving them the opportunity to get hired quicker and easier. Price should never be a barrier and now we are able to service everyone around the world, regardless of circumstance. We are soon also going to be releasing our Job Board, where we will be promoting jobs from our Partners and 3rd Party organisations, to give our members more opportunity to search jobs and also utilise our tools and features on one platform. With these changes, we are expecting to see a huge increase in member traffic to our platform, with projections looking at 300k-500k job searchers a month, which makes us one of the fastest growing Job Search platforms globally. For our investors, this means a big increase in revenue, but also opportunity to create B2B streams, given the member size and audience we have created, alongside advertising and partnerships. So investment and fund raising is still flying and we are closing our Seed round, with some great investors on board and £1m raised in total. We are already 4 x what our Pre Seed investors initially put in and we anticipate this continuing to grow, with projections looking at 20 x from Seed in 3 years. Our objective is to become the No.1 Job Search Support Platform on the planet, helping Job Searchers all over the world and building an ecosystem that provides everything Job Searchers need to get a job, survive and thrive. We are going to continue to build, continue to develop and continue to Innovate and ultimately get as many people hired as we possibly can. Thank you all who have contributed and keep watching this space for our world domination😂 Mahabir P. Dylan Kohlstädt Stacey Wood Amy R. Jack Graves #job #jobs #jobsearch #hiring #Recruitment #opentowork

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https://lnkd.in/eUY2Ktek When it rains it pours! It is hard to imagine things getting any worse for #SJP. In the last 12 months their business model's opaqueness has meant regulatory heat, significant fund withdrawals and the ignominy of being kicked out of the FTSE100. This is one of the occasions where the #auditor is not at fault. #PWC's will of course be all over #SJP's affairs but they will be doubly glad they are not the scapegoat! What next for #SJP? Will they recover or will the SJP funds seek new fund managers? I would have thought #GoldmanSachs, #Aviva, #Prudential will be queuing up for the investment mandate. Or will it be an M&A target from overseas?

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🌶 We should talk more openly about our side projects. It's currently a professional faux pas... it shouldn't be. “I binged an entire season on Netflix” “I played 2 rounds of golf this weekend” “I accidentally spent 2 hours last night in bed, scrolling Tiktok” These phrases are more acceptable at work, among bosses and coworkers than phrases like: "I started a YouTube channel." "I built a website for my friend's gardening business." "My Fiverr profile got it's 100th, 5-star review." "I made $2k on Saturday designing a logo." These spark incredible conversations... but risk feeding the public stigma about side-projects and moonlighting. Why whisper about flexing our professional muscles outside of work hours? If our workday performance isn't suffering, who cares?! Side projects make me MORE valuable during my workday... not less. Everyone benefits when I am: 1. More informed. 2. More inspired. 3. More energized. The attached image is a screenshot from a recent, AI art project. #teaser PS. The real hot take... performance in most day jobs is too opaque, which causes us to avoid topics that appear to signal 'distraction'. Sure, side projects can be a distraction. (btw...unchecked, ANYTHING can be a distraction) If employees knew where they stood in the eyes of their managers, we wouldn't have to hide or tiptoe around topics that interest us. Tim Whitacre Brooke Beach MacLean Jason Rhoades Jason Ardell Andrew Mason Alan Melling Luke Baker Katie Watford Annie Brannon Adam Walker Matt Power Kevin M.

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