South West based business FlourishZone has won a place on a prestigious European tech accelerator to support growth for its award-winning ‘deep tech’ wellbeing at work solution.
Funded by the European Commission in association with EUREKA, InvestHorizon is a free four to six-month accelerator programme which attracts hundreds of applicants from all across Europe, Horizon2020 and EUREKA countries.
Five hundred of the most promising ‘deep tech’ businesses from across Europe are then chosen to be accelerated by the end of 2021.
As well as demonstrating commercial viability and strong growth potential, candidates in the competitive selection process for the InvestHorizon accelerator must meet its stringent ‘deep tech’ criteria. FlourishZone’s Augmented Intelligence platform satisfies this by combining sophisticated, multi-layered Artificial Intelligence with human expertise and know-how.
Adrienne Percival, co-founder and director of FlourishZone, said: “To be part of the InvestHorizon programme, with its network of investors and other deep tech businesses, connects us with an incredible opportunity. In the first month of the programme alone the insight we’ve gained has been extremely valuable and the common purpose and passion for what deep tech can achieve is really inspiring.
“We’re able to focus on futureproofing our proposition with input from some of the leading minds in deep tech from across Europe. While also getting to share our experiences and challenges with fellow entrepreneurs and learn from each other. It’s also a privilege to be representing the South West and putting our vibrant tech sector on the map.”
Securing a space on the programme is the latest in a series of successful milestones for FlourishZone, which was founded in 2016 by South West entrepreneur Adrienne Percival and Mark Baptist.
An augmented intelligence platform, which helps build productivity and well-being, the business has received several high-profile awards during the past three years, including a £1million grant from Innovate UK in 2018.
Designed to help applicants boost their investment readiness, to date the InvestHorizon programme has accelerated 440+ businesses from thirty-three countries. The first 131 companies, closed 33 deals and managed to raise 53M Euros in equity funding. The analysis of the rest of the participants is to be expected soon.
“At InvestHorizon we offer a broad spectrum of free acceleration services, including peer to peer recommendation sessions, expert coaches’ tailored support and introduction to potential investors or strategic partners, as well as the opportunity to meet face-to-face with targeted investors at InvestHorizon pitching fora and e-pitching events,” said Carol Trisorio, Senior Innovation Consultant at EurA AG and partner of the InvestHorizon consortium.
Mike Beesley, FlourishZone investor and recruitment entrepreneur, said: “There is such demand for the FlourishZone solution for organisations to deliver real time personalised wellbeing solutions to their employees.
“We need to get the economy fully back on its feet and this means looking after our talent. Looking forward to seeing the outcomes of the InvestHorizon process and what FlourishZone will achieve in the years to come.”
