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A Cambridge based company providing leading digital services for medium and large companies is looking to continue its expansion with the latest in a series of Regional Growth Loans from Finance East.

Intergence is an independent IT business offering tailor made services to optimise and secure the complex IT infrastructures of large, often international, organisations. The company’s extensive blue-chip client base has exacting demands and Intergence helps them deliver a seamless service to their customers via solutions that are both cost and energy efficient. Finance East has been working with the Intergence team since 2011 to help ensure the business remains in a position where it can take advantage of the opportunities available.

Intergence Chief Executive, Peter Job, explains: “Large contracts and a protracted negotiation process, as well as a continuing need for investment to keep our offering relevant, means our funding needs cannot always be met by traditional lines of credit. In Finance East we have found a funder that looks ahead with us and provides support at times crucial to our overall development as a business. Whether funding marketing activity to aid expansion, recruitment costs to support delivery of a new contract, or development of a new product to keep us at the forefront of our field, Finance East has been there to finance our expansion.”

The latest loan of £80,000 from the Regional Growth Loan Scheme (RGLS) is the fifth received by Intergence and will be used to recruit new employees to meet the requirements of two major new contract wins. This is following the successful development and trial of the new ‘Stratiam’ software which converts data from all a business’s networks into a set of visual graphics that can be viewed on one screen. The product enables the user to quickly identify any issues and take necessary action to avoid potential problems, especially useful where a central IT department needs a clear view of an entire IT infrastructure across multi-sites and multi-networks.

Stuart Ager, Finance East Senior Fund Manager, comments: “Intergence is just the sort of business the RGLS is here to support; one with a compelling product, strong track record and ambitions for growth. The management team has continued to stay ahead of market changes and keep providing a service that is attractive to its customer base, as demonstrated by its high tender success rate. We look forward to continuing to support Peter and the team through the next phase of development.”

The RGLS is managed by Finance East, part of The FSE Group, on behalf of Local Enterprise Partnerships in the East of England and British Business Bank. The RGLS is available to established, incorporated businesses based within the East of England that have a minimum annual turnover of £100k, show strong growth potential and have a medium to long-term funding requirement to deliver that growth.

TOWER Cold Chain Solutions announces major new funding to support rental fleet development.

TOWER Cold Chain Solutions, the Reading, UK-based provider of temperature-controlled containers to the pharmaceutical industry, announces the completion of a £3m funding initiative designed to support the development of new stock, new sales support and new hubs. TOWER rents its range of KryoTrans (KT) containers from hubs in Europe, the US and across SE Asia and has seen rapid growth for its KTM range of modular containers, offering flexible, powerful temperature control for palletised loads.

Chris Pollard, CEO of TOWER, comments “2017 was a year of significant achievement for TOWER, on the one hand generating important new customers for the KTM and developing our global hub network, and on the other attracting strategic investment that backs the management team’s vision”. Just Arne Storvik, a long-term shareholder in TOWER who has arranged and supported the funding round, said “Those of us who have been involved in TOWER have never doubted the ultimate potential for the company, but it has been the successful introduction of the KTM that has opened up the market for TOWER and made it possible to generate the kind of financial support that will be necessary to meet and maintain support for the rapidly-growing demand”.

Tor Erland Fyksen, a significant investor in this funding round notes that “TOWER is well positioned in the temperature-controlled transportation market with thoroughly tested products and services, which are environmentally friendly, and which can be uniquely scaled and adapted to meet most specific requirements whether at the start, middle or the end of the journey, adding to our competitive offering”.

Julie Silvester, Head of Equity Funds for the FSE Group, which manages the TVB Growth Fund on behalf of Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) said “We are delighted to show our continued support to Chris and the TOWER team. The company has grown significantly since our initial investment back in 2016 and it is great to see the success of the new facilities in China, Singapore and the United States. We look forward to working closely with TOWER to further assist them in achieving their full growth potential.”.

About TOWER Cold Chain Solutions: TOWER Cold Chain Solutions’ range of passive KryoTrans thermal containers provides a solution to reduce the total cost of shipping. KryoTrans containers are not only flexible but extremely robust and are based on a passive system that effectively eliminates any risk of human error once conditioned. TOWER provides a developing global infrastructure, with hubs creating a flexible service across Europe, the US and the Asia-Pacific region.

A company aiding production of green energy in the commercial environment has successfully secured a £200,000 East of England Regional Development Loan to take advantage of growth opportunities in the market.

Cambridge based Arriba Technologies has been designing and building algorithm driven heat pumps for the commercial refrigeration market since 2003. Over the last two years the company has broadened its focus to encompass wider commercial energy integration and has developed its innovative Volt-Hub: an electronic, software controlled power drive box capable of moving electricity around an internal grid more efficiently than any other system on the market.

Arriba’s integrated offering connects the energy generated by solar panels and batteries to its unique hub and converts it without the standard 20% power loss experienced with traditional systems, meaning that more renewable energy can be put to use across a range of outputs.

Steve Connolly, Arriba founder and CEO, explains: “Our technology provides lower carbon and lower cost energy that can be used in a number of ways from commercial refrigeration to electric vehicle chargers. A big area for us is the drive towards zero-carbon buildings; by linking our Volt-Hub to the internal wiring system of a building, we can deliver sustainable energy for use within that building. Examples of this can be seen at installations in Cambridge and Chelmsford where our systems use energy generated within each building to provide cooling, heating, lighting and water pumping services. Carbon savings in excess of 70% can be attained and in the event of an external power failure, the stored power could maintain these services for up to 24 hours.”

With an increasing focus on the sustainability of commercial buildings, there is significant demand for an integrated product that can bring such significant carbon reductions. The company is already operating in the NHS, office buildings, supermarket and food manufacturing sectors and has received interest from a number of major UK and overseas buyers. In view of this strong and growing pipeline, the regional development loan will assist the recruitment of key employees to convert sales and meet operational demand as well as extend market traction and support ongoing product development.

Francis Kenealy, Fund Manager at Finance East which manages the Regional Growth Loan Scheme, comments: “Steve’s technical expertise and commitment to innovation has paid off with the Volt-Hub, which was developed in response to a clear gap in the existing technology.  As a producer of the only system of this kind, now commercially proven to deliver both lower energy costs and a significantly reduced carbon footprint, Arriba is on the cusp of exponential growth and we are delighted to be working with them to achieve their growth potential.”

The Regional Growth Loan Scheme (RGLS) is managed by Finance East, part of The FSE Group, on behalf of Local Enterprise Partnerships in the East of England and British Business Bank. The RGLS is available to established, incorporated businesses based within the East of England that have a minimum annual turnover of £100k, show strong growth potential and have a medium to long-term funding requirement to deliver that growth.

A Newbury based business has secured a £200,000 loan from the Thames Valley Berkshire (TVB) Funding Escalator to help it expand into areas that will benefit the environment.

Torftech has been producing TORBED* processors for over 25 years and is highly regarded throughout the sectors where the processors are in use. The technology was originally developed to improve processing efficiency in the manufacture of vermiculite mineral. It has subsequently been applied across a broad range of industries, where the precision and control offered by the technology offer significant benefits.

The greatest concentration has been in food processing, including snack food applications where the TORBED equipment allows the use of less fat whilst retaining superior flavour and quality. Torftech has also been operating in the waste reprocessing and biomass sectors and it is specifically in these areas, with their potential for significant ecological impact, the company is looking to expand further. In the field of sewage, animal waste and sludge disposal, Torftech is leading the way with reactors that use energy from the waste itself to process the waste and in certain circumstances producing a biochar side product which has extensive uses in soil improvement and remediation.

In biomass the environmental effect can be even greater, as finance director, Andrew Bride, explains: “In addition to production of biochar from biomass, a key focus for us is rice-husk fuelled power generation. Our processors have proven technological capabilities that can offer significantly reduced carbon emissions over coal-fired generation. An assessment by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change forecasts emissions savings of over 50,000 tonnes per year from one plant. To put this into context, it is estimated that the average UK household’s carbon footprint is around eight tonnes. If we were to realise our current pipeline alone, we could reduce CO2 emissions by millions of tonnes per year.”

The green impact of the technology extends further with its elimination of the production of crystalline silica rice husk ash, which is highly carcinogenic – the only technology on the market with this capability. Combining this environmental superiority with enhanced functionality, compact design and long life span (one processor has been in continuous use since installation in 1989), Torftech is well-established to take advantage of the increasing opportunities it faces, particularly in light of ever tightening environmental legislation. The expansion strategy focuses on a move away from bespoke solutions in favour of rolling out existing Torftech technology across key sectors where replication is appropriate. To realise this, the company is looking to grow its sales and supporting staff, increasing the team by two-thirds over the next two years. The TVB Expansion Loan will be used to enable this as well as marketing the existing TORBED products.

Cheryl Weeks, Fund Manager at The FSE Group which manages the TVB Expansion Loan Scheme on behalf of Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), says: “With a raft of proven, patented technology that can be applied across a broad spectrum of industries, Torftech now has a key opportunity to exploit its past experimental and bespoke activity for repeated applications. We are pleased to be supporting them as they realise their growth ambitions.”

The Thames Valley Berkshire Funding Escalator is a £8.3m initiative funded by Thames Valley Berkshire LEP to support job creation and economic prosperity in Berkshire. The escalator, which includes four different loan schemes and a growth equity fund, provides eligible companies – from start-up to established – with loans and equity funding between £25,000 and £250,000 for activities that will deliver high-growth and employment opportunities. *TORBED is a registered trademark of Mortimer Technology Group Ltd

ThriveMap, a software tool that measures culture fit between people and teams, is the latest company to receive investment from the Coast to Capital Growth Equity Fund. The Croydon based venture completed a £281,000 funding round which includes £80,000 of angel monies facilitated by The FSE Investor Network.

ThriveMap originated from TalentRocket a recruitment marketplace that connected top talent to culture conscious organisations. As a marketing device they created a ‘culture fit tool’ to help candidates better understand how they liked to work and which companies they would be best suited to. This tool generated such significant interest from companies looking to recruit that the decision was made to make the tool the sole focus of the business.

It’s a big market opportunity with latest studies indicating that 46% of new hires fail within 18 months, however, only 11% of these are down to people lacking the technical ability to perform in the role. Most of the time it’s down to softer skills such as culture fit. Chris Platts, CEO at ThriveMap, comments: “HR talks about ‘company culture’, but we know that each team works in a unique way.”

ThriveMap goes beyond the usual screens for culture fit by actually measuring how teams work and comparing this to a candidate’s preferred working style. ThriveMap through its unique algorithm, is able to assist employers when making crucial people decisions, which in turn massively reduces the chances of a cultural mismatch. “This investment round comes at a hugely exciting time for the company, as we look to scale up our team and focus on driving market awareness of ThriveMap.” adds Platts.

Avent Bezuidenhoudt, Senior Fund Manager at the FSE Group commented, “We are thrilled to add ThriveMap to our portfolio of companies that we have supported through the Coast to Capital Growth Equity Fund. Chris and his team saw an opportunity to advance the recruitment and staff retention process and have grabbed it with both hands. By enabling companies to accurately plot their existing workforces’ culture, they can hire new employees with the best chance of seamlessly joining the team, which saves a company time and money. We wish them all the best for the future and look forward to helping them reach their future goals.”

For more information about ThriveMap visit: www.thrivemap.io