“Doing something like this – showing up and surprising people so they can interact with their bank in a different way to just logging in and checking their money – is a way to do more for our customers,” said Emily Lewis, head of growth for the UK and Ireland at Revolut. “It’s a bit of guerilla marketing.”
Earlier this month, the Canary Wharf-based bank staged a takeover in front of its global headquarters in Reuters Plaza, parking a Formula One racing car in a glass-sided shipping container outside for Wharfers to admire.
Photos were snapped and give-aways were queued for, but the stunt had a wider purpose.
In addition to celebrating the bank’s status as title partner to the Audi Revolut F1 Team, the pop-up showcased the unveiling of a market-leading boosted interest rate of 5% AER (variable) on its Instant Access Savings Account.
The introductory offer is available for new customers on deposits of up to £25,000 who sign up before August 4, 2026.
The rate runs until December 4 this year.
Emily Lewis, head of growth for the UK and Ireland at Revolut – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life
accelerating the savings
“Bringing the Audi show car out is a nice way for them to get involved,” said Emily.
“Canary Wharf was the first stop on our UK tour with dates all around the country through to June 30.
“We know that following sports like F1 can be expensive and our instant access account is designed to make saving much easier.
“The 5% rate is the most competitive on the market and we don’t lock your money away.
“With our account, interest is paid daily and people can withdraw their money with no penalties – it doesn’t impact the rate.
“For example, I was the budget master for a friend’s hen do – I wanted to keep the money people were paying towards it separate from my own savings to avoid any confusion.
“I opened a separate account with Revolut, which is very quick, and transferred the funds in.
“From there we earned daily interest on those funds and were able to spend them together on the hen do.”
Crowds gather at Revolut’s pop-up – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life
growing Revolut’s operation
Founded at Level39 in Canary Wharf in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, the company has gone from small startup to having its name atop the YY London tower in a decade.
“When you’re a digital bank, having the concrete legitimacy of a building is a good thing,” said Emily, who worked for THG before joining Revolut four years ago.
“Having that visibility helps.
“Working with distinguished partners such as F1 and Audi means we can further raise awareness of what we’re doing.
“In the UK, we want to be the primary bank for everyone.
“In each of our products we’re on a par with our competitors, but our aim is that there’s also an element that’s better – like reward points on your debit card spending or the speed with which you can access your money.
“It’s about educating people about what we offer so that they can make an informed decision about who they bank with.
“We’ve expanded at an amazing rate, but even with this growth we must make sure that we’re still being true to what a trusted bank should do.
“I believe introductory rates like this are helpful because they make the market more competitive.
“We see institutions battling to present the best offers, which is good for consumers.
“We’re constantly working on how Revolut can be super lucrative for existing customers and how we can reward people who have been loyal to us.”
Revolut is based at YY London in Canary Wharf – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life
key details: Revolut’s savings offer
To get a Revolut Instant Access Savings Account, customers must open a Personal Current Account with the bank.
The 5% AER variable bonus rate for up to £25,000 in savings is only available to new clients who sign up before August 4, 2026.
After December 4, the savings rate reverts to the base rate of the customer’s plan (currently between 2.9% and 4%).
“Our first students are in their last few months of the course,” said Dr Yahaya Alhassan, head of academic operations at the University Of Sunderland In London.
In line with the university’s consistently practical approach, the programme was developed after Yahaya spotted a gap in the market.
“It was while I was working as an external examiner for another institution that I realised people were offering trading courses,” he said.
“Some were delivering fintech elements, but these were usually add-ons to finance courses dealing with things like online banking.
“My understanding of fintech is that it relates to specific technologies – things like artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and machine learning – and how you apply those to finance.
“I couldn’t find a programme like that, which also included trading so, following some market research, I decided to develop a course that would bring the two together.
“I defy anyone to find a similar offering – as of today we are unique.”
Based at the University Of Sunderland In London’s Isle Of Dogs campus at Harbour Exchange, the one-year course features a dedicated Fintech Lab created in partnership with the London Stock Exchange.
The London Stock Exchange Group Fintech Lab at the University Of Sunderland In London – image supplied by UOSiL
putting practice at the heart of the course
“The approach we adopt with the delivery of this programme is hands-on, practice-based, with a small number of students to ensure we give them a very good level of experience,” said Yahaya.
“We work with a number of prestigious partners, with those on the course also receiving certificates from them as part of the programme.
“Students learn how to trade and invest in stocks – which are doing well and which are not?
“But the reason we combine this with fintech is so they can use technology to make predictions based on the data flowing into the lab.
“In the past, traders have made decisions based on their own experience while looking at such information.
“But with technologies such as AI, once you have a lot of data, you can use it to start forecasting whether the price of a stock will rise or fall.
“With blockchain and machine learning, our students are taught how to model and to build apps, enabling them to potentially create their own fintech businesses.
“We also work with companies to ensure our courses are delivering what employers, such as those at Level39 in Canary Wharf, expect from someone with an MSc from this university.
“We also constantly look at the needs of the students and changes in the market.
“Our programmes come up for review every five years, which is when they get revalidated.
“But with technology developing so fast, we can’t wait that long so we’ve adopted an enhancement plan where we look at our programmes every two months to make sure we’re flexible and giving the market what it needs.”
The University Of Sunderland In London is based at Harbour Exchange on the Isle Of Dogs – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life
from Ghana to London via Sunderland
Yahaya himself is a good case study for the way in which education and exposure to new ideas can have a profound impact on the direction of a person’s life.
Originally from Ghana, he began his career in the higher education sector at the University Of Development Studies in Tamale not as an academic but as a member of its support staff as an assistant accountant.
“One day I was in the vice chancellor’s office and I saw an advert in a magazine for an MBA course at the University Of Sunderland,” he said.
“The VC had been in the UK himself, studying and working in Nottingham before he was recruited back to Ghana.
“I’d never thought about travelling abroad in my life, but I decided I might give it a go – I applied and then, honestly, I forgot about it.
“About two months later, a letter arrived containing a provisional offer to go on the course.
“I was supposed to pay £13,500 but it was a lot of money and I had no idea where I would get that from.”
In the end, Yahaya’s employer awarded him a scholarship to go on the course and he wound up bound for the North East and arrived improperly dressed for the weather.
“Arriving in Sunderland was the first time I’d seen snow in my life and I didn’t have a proper jacket,” he said.
“I didn’t know how to get to the university campus and I couldn’t understand the accent of the first man I met.
“Fortunately, I found someone who showed me where to go. I completed my MBA and returned to Ghana in 2003.
“That was part of the agreement for my scholarship but, after about nine months I was feeling discontented.
“Everything was so slow.
“When I came to the UK people were working from 8am, but I realised in Ghana it was going to be difficult for me because of the difference in pace.
“I told my boss I had to go back to England, and he said he understood, so I moved to London in 2004.
“My first job was at a college in Greenwich, teaching English in 2005 and I remained there until 2011.
“That’s when I saw that the University Of Sunderland was opening a London campus and I decided to apply.
“At first I was working 10 hours a week, then 20 and, after a couple of months, full-time – teaching on its MBA programme.
“After a year, the programme manager was leaving and so I applied and got that job in 2014 before going on to become assistant head of academic operations.
“Now, as head of academic operations, I make sure all the teaching and learning at the London campus goes well, dealing with quality assurance and making sure everything is done in line with our academic regulations.
“I am part of the senior managers team as well and I am responsible for the day-to-day running of the London-based academic programmes.
“The courses are led from Sunderland and run down here, which is why our campus has programme managers rather than leaders.
“I never thought I’d be working where I am now. I even told my friends in Ghana I would be coming back in a year.
“I still have that vision, to return one day, perhaps to follow my father in a political career.
“When I’m teaching, I say: ‘Who knows, maybe I’ll be president one day’.”
In the meantime, Yahaya’s passion is continuing to help develop the university’s offering with a BSc in Fintech And Digital Finance now available.
The intention of this three-year course is to act as a pipeline for those seeking to study the MSc, providing them with the relevant skills and knowledge to prepare them for the postgraduate course.
Alexander Legoshin’s entrepreneurial journey officially began at the age of nine, selling newspapers and then groceries.
By 10 he’d already decided he’d like to build his own bank – “something significant, something that would help people”.
He said: “Business was something I was always interested in.
“It was easy to do after school and my parents didn’t earn a lot, so it was helpful for me and the family.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneur – I’ve never worked for a company except my own.
“Maybe it’s good to be employed by an organisation, but it just didn’t happen – I don’t have that track record.”
What Alexander does have, however, is a consistent history of creating companies.
Born in Russia, he finished school before going on to study at the Moscow State Institute Of Radio Engineer, Electronics And Automation.
always an entrepreneur
“The first company I started was in my first year of university and it just went on from there,” he said.
“I’m an IT person by education and my project for graduation was to develop a content management system.
“That ended up being too big for one person and became my first business.
“I managed to grow that company over six years before moving into marketing.
“That business dealt with media strategy and media buying and had a lot of high profile clients such as HSBC when they started operating in Russia.”
Further change came in 2014, when Alexander decided to leave the country of his birth, moving to Latvia.
In 2015 he sold his Russian business and launched a consultancy firm, working in corporate information and investment, with spells spent living in the Netherlands and the USA before embarking on his latest venture.
“It was a long journey because we decided to get our own licence and build a product, which took about four and a half years.
“The first version wasn’t as successful as we wanted, but last year it turned into a successful business.
“We grew significantly in terms of customer turnover and revenue.”
Based at Canary Wharf’s tech community, Level39 in One Canada Square, Gemba takes its name from a Japanese term for a place where value is created in a business – the factory, a construction site or the sales floor, for example.
It’s where the real work happens.
“A good definition of what we do is that we act as an invisible bank,” said Alexander.
“We’re regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an authorised payment institution and we offer companies banking and payments services so that they can serve their customers.
“If you have an idea for a fintech business, for example, there are delays. To operate, you need to be regulated, to build the product and so on – there’s a wait to get a licence.
“What we offer is a way for companies to implement their ideas quickly without having to wait.
“They can use our white label solution – our infrastructure – to operate their business under their brand and retain their customers.
“We take care of delivering the services and all of the compliance and regulation in the background.
“Clients pay either a fixed fee to Gemba for those services or a percentage of payments.
“It literally takes seven minutes for a firm to start – everything is automatic.
“We offer secure payments, seamless accounting integration and fully integrated management solutions that fit an organisation’s workflow.
“Clients can create accounts for their companies and customers, design and issue cards with their own logo and either use our ready-made banking app or build their own using Gemba’s technology.
“We’re not technically a bank but we offer a full banking solution.
“Payments are the bloodstream of businesses – you don’t get the service unless you pay for it.
“At present, our licence doesn’t allow us to take deposits or make loans but we can do everything in terms of payments.
“Hopefully, we’ll be introducing deposits quite soon.”
basing Gemba in London
With a target market of fintech firms and accountancy businesses, Alexander decided to base the business in London.
He said: “Initially it was a decision about where to go for a licence – Luxembourg or London. We chose to apply to the British regulator because London is one of the financial capitals of the world and the market is huge.
“Initially, when we started building the product, I didn’t live here but I moved to the city about three years ago.
“My wife and I like London – it’s convenient because it’s located between Europe and the USA, which is great.
“We now have around 40 employees, with about half based at Level39 working in banking from Canary Wharf.
“Other staff work remotely under contract – they’re comfortable living in their own countries, so we don’t bring them to the UK unless they want to come.
“Level39 isn’t just an office space – it’s a community of like-minded people that acts as an accelerator for those who are trying to do something good in this world.
“They run a lot of events and it’s a really lovely place to be.
“Kudos to Amy French, its director and her team.
“The cost of the office space is comparable to other locations and perhaps a bit less than the City, but it’s a nice place to work.”
building a network
Gemba has made much of being part of the community, engaging with the likes of Barclays in the past.
The company was also selected earlier this year to participate in the JPMorgan Chase Fintech Forward Programme, a 12-week accelerator developed in collaboration with EY.
The scheme intends to support early stage fintech businesses, aiming to shape the future of financial services through innovation and technology.
Alexander said: “Being selected for the programme is an exciting opportunity for Gemba to collaborate with global leaders in financial services.
“It will help us accelerate our mission to deliver more efficient, accessible, and innovative financial solutions for businesses worldwide.
“Our full-stack platform and profitable revenue-share model are already built for high-speed, compliant growth—and this partnership will dramatically enhance our ability to empower the next generation of fintechs.”
looking ahead
In the future, the company plans to continue growing its customer base targeting financial startups as well as accountants and communities wanting to offer banking services.
Alexander said accountancy was a natural partner for his firm as Gemba was able to offer a “friction-free” experience for a practice’s clients thanks to information sharing to satisfy compliance request.
He also said that communities wishing to handle money could use Gemba to handle their own customers with a pilot scheme already in operation in London to explore opportunities.
“As a 10-year-old in Russia, I wasn’t thinking of Canary Wharf, of course, when I was imagining building a bank,” he said.
“But I was thinking about having my company’s name on a building.
“Perhaps we’ll get to that point.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a plan to do that – more like a dream – but by working step-by-step we may get to the point where the dream comes true.
“Right now, it’s great to be based at One Canada Square – it’s a landmark building and absolutely tourist material.
“People know Tower Bridge, The Gherkin and this building in Canary Wharf.”
Never before have so many people had access to such a wealth of content at the mere tap of a finger.
But with the vastness of a largely unregulated digital world comes the issue of quality.
With not only humans (who are bad enough) but AIs churning out swathes of answers, opinions and hallucinations as they whisper what it heard or saw, humanity is increasingly submerged in a sea of at best confusion and at worst falsehoods.
It’s not so very long ago that wellness blogger Belle Gibson fooled hundreds of thousands of followers and Apple with her tale of overcoming brain, blood, spleen, uterine and kidney cancers, mostly through exercise, healthy eating and a positive mindset.
In reality there’s no evidence the Australian social media personality was ever diagnosed with the disease – but that didn’t stop her developing an app, gaining widespread influence and being embraced by one of the world’s largest tech firms.
Her twisted story is especially relevant, given its use of cancer as a jumping off point.
About half of us will develop some form of the disease during our lives.
Cancer Awareness Trust is based at Canary Wharf tech community Level39 in One Canada Square – image by I-Wei Huang
searching for information
“At the point of diagnosis, the vast majority of people will go online to search for information, as do their loved ones,” said Daniel Woolf.
“But they can easily find themselves in the wrong place – TikTok or Instagram, for example.
“A short-form video of someone who is very charismatic may lead someone to go away and make life-changing decisions because they are looking for a glimmer of hope.
“But are they trustworthy?
“Something like one in three online sources is either misinformation or not pertinent to a particular individual’s diagnosis.”
That’s what the development of Cancer Platform is seeking to change.
As the organisation’s chief tech and data officer, it’s Daniel’s job to oversee the app’s development, a task he’s relishing after a long career in the NHS.
“I planned to be there for four weeks and ended up being there for 17 years,” he said.
“I’ve been an engineer, a data analyst and have directed a number of teams at regional and national level.
“But as I moved through the various national bodies, I found I couldn’t have the impact I wanted.
“There are so many layers and I felt insulated.
“With so many different governments the chairs were always being moved around.
“What I wanted to do was use technology to help improve people’s lives.
“The bureaucracy in the NHS was enormous and so, when it came time for a career change, I wanted something small with the feel of a startup where I could be hands-on, albeit in an organisation with huge ambition.”
the Cancer Awareness Trust’s ambitions
The Cancer Awareness Trust is aiming big.
Drawing funds and support from its creative brand Evamore Music – which has released works featuring the likes of Ozzy Osborne, Cillian Murphy, Glenn Close and the late Sinéad O’Connor – the organisation is supported by Canary Wharf Group, among many others, in its efforts to deliver Cancer Platform.
“The trust’s aim is to empower people to change the course of cancer,” said Daniel, who was born in Hoxton and grew up in east London.
“Having the artists, music, events and that creative spirit involved makes us unique – it’s very different from the technology side.
“With Cancer Platform we want to hold people’s hands through their journey after a diagnosis.
“We’re testing it this summer and we’re aiming to put it out there in 2026 and then to gradually build it up with more and more information.
“What we’re creating is a layer above the standard websites that are out there.
“Cancer Platform uses personalisation and AI to make the information highly relevant to each user.
“There is a lot of good information out there already, but it’s fragmented and often it’s left to the individual to find what’s relevant to them.
“Cancer Platform helps users to build up a scrapbook of information that helps them consolidate their knowledge and understanding from a trusted source.
“It’s about taking away the unpredictability of Dr Google.
“Cancer is complicated. Treatments may be available in certain regions but not in others. Ethnicity, background and age are also relevant.
“Our aim is to provide information and services that are relevant to each individual as well as relatable stories from people in similar situations, offering hopeful optimism where appropriate.
“A lot of medical information can sound cold and clinical – more about the cancer than the person.
“Our ambition is for people not to have to log-in initially.
“We want to build that trust first and some people might have a diagnosis they don’t wish to disclose – safeguarding is important to us and we won’t be selling their data.
“We also want people to be able to search for information that’s personalised to a degree, but then we’ll encourage people to sign up for an account so they can take the next steps and we can really hold their hands.
“They might come to Cancer Platform to ask about symptoms or a diagnosis and then what we’re doing in the background is pairing them up with relevant information, pulling it from trusted sources and feeding it back to them in an understandable way.
“The key thing is not just giving answers, but making sure we give them the right sources to guide people to specific charities. Then they are able to see the next steps.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is to inform people about the questions they should be asking when they next visit their oncologist such as whether they are entitled to a second opinion.
“Users will get responses, suggested prompts and stories of people like them so they can get an idea of what their own journey might be like.”
the process of assurance
Key to Cancer Platform’s aims will be ensuring the information it supplies to users is robust, accurate and clear.
This is one of the greatest challenges in its delivery and one Daniel and the team are already deeply engaged with.
“The assurance process is in development at the moment,” he said.
“It’s quite a new field. There are a number of academic papers, which are all looking at the area of trusted information.
“These include some principles and measures, which we’re then building our own assurance processes on top of as well as working with leading oncologists.
“We also have a team which is taking a granular approach in ensuring that the information we supply is accurate and comprehensive.
“For example, we have banks of questions from a wide array of sources, that say: ‘These questions are what people come to us to ask’.
“So we’ve taken those answers through our assurance process and then they’re assessed for their accuracy and fitness for purpose.
“It’s vital to get the balance right.
“We’ve got our oncology team working through that now and the results from them will show us what levers to pull next.
“Have we identified the gaps in our knowledge base?
“Do we need to tune the AI a different way to access and serve more information?”
a trusted source of information
Ultimately, the charity’s intention is for Cancer Platform to provide information on all forms of the disease, a project truly massive in its scope.
Initially, the plan is to focus on breast and prostate cancers before expanding out to other areas.
“Admittedly, our ambition is huge so it’s about constantly focussing on the next step,” said Daniel.
“A number of specific charities already exist in these areas, so we can build out from that and make sure it’s working for those groups of patients.
“It also helps us to co-design with those communities.
“One of the biggest challenges – because there are so many good ideas – is to make sure we’re hyper-focussed. That’s my job.
“Building a platform like this is hard but we’re at a crossroads moment.
“Until recently, much of the information we needed just wasn’t there but it is now.
“We want to make it available to people and to do that without selling their data. We’re a charity so there’s no profit motive.”
key details: Cancer Awareness Trust
You can find out more about the Cancer Awareness Trust, Cancer Platform and Evermore via the charity’s website.
“The success of our company is down to the success of our customers – if they don’t succeed, we don’t succeed,” said the CEO and co-founder of Bombe.
For Mike, delivering that success means using data.
Having spent much of his career crunching numbers and utilising tech to help boost political campaigns for the likes of Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan – inspired by Moneyball, a book by Michael Lewis and later a film that highlighted the importance of using metrics to drive a run of wins on the baseball field.
After working at the National Education Union for several years and running its campaign to improve teachers’ pay, he saw a commercial niche for the techniques and tech he’d developed to deliver results in the political sphere.
Bombe, named for Alan Turing’s codebreaking Second World War machine that deciphered Enigma messages, was born and Mike quit his job in March this year to run it full-time.
the basis of Bombe
“Our thesis is that there is a lot of data out there which tells you what people are doing, but it’s not that interesting for a lot of businesses because you want to know why people are doing what they’re doing,” said Mike, who is based at Level39 in Canary Wharf’s One Canada Square with his rapidly growing team.
“This kind of machine-learning approach has been absent from products I’ve experienced in my career in marketing.
“I’ve been using machine learning for well over a decade – people think AI is ChatGPT but that’s just a powerful iteration of it.
“The technology has been around for a long time.
“When setting up Bombe, which is strictly non-political, we looked at the market, did an analysis of where we would fit, then developed our data proposition, working with our polling partner Deltapoll.
“A lot of people are obsessed with technology, but it’s not about technology, it’s what you use it for.
“Our tag line is that we’re trying to build the best audience and data targeting model in the world and I think we’ve done that – so do our clients and that’s why they’ve chosen to use us.
“If you’re a business we can tell you for every postcode in the country the likelihood someone will purchase from you and the price they’ll pay for your product.
“Companies may have huge amounts of data, but they don’t necessarily know who is purchasing goods or services from them. That is a necessity.
“We’ve built a number of persona sets to reveal what is actually driving people’s decisions using machine learning.
“Those groups have been battle-tested with our clients and that has propelled our success.”
Commuters come in and out of Canary Wharf Jubilee Line station – image I-Wei Huang
delivering a return on investment
The idea in some senses is simple.
Bombe’s service tells businesses where best to concentrate their marketing to deliver the best return on their investment.
“What our clients are buying from us are models,” said Mike.
“We make our own data – we’re not buying it. It comes from interviews, from machine-learning models, from statistical techniques, from battle-testing and then spending hours making sure it all works.
“However, how we’re doing it is less relevant than whether it works for our customers. What matters is what’s driving their sales, their top line, whether you’re going up or down and how you can change that.
“What we do is tell our customers why their revenue is where it is.
“Some of our clients are seeing results that are 85% better with Bombe.”
Initially the startup is working with medium and large-scale businesses, but plans to launch products for smaller companies next year.
Bombe is open for business
“If you are selling to consumers, come and talk to us,” said Mike.
“Our mission is to help everyone who wants to engage with their audience to be doing it through us.
“We take great enjoyment and pride in doing that.
“We have a team of about 20 people, and we’re growing strategically, which is very important to us.
“We don’t want to grow too quickly, but we are offering something unique and different.
“We’ve seen the market reaction to that and that’s helping us to make sure our product is the best.
“We have to have the best data and we think we do, but we can’t rest on our laurels – the market is changing so quickly and we want to make sure that our customers continue to come to us.
“We think we’ve got an incredible team and Bombe would be nothing without the people working for it.
“Starting the business was a leap of faith.
“It’s hard, it’s tough, there’s always a challenge, always something to solve and always something more to do.
“You’ve got to be level-headed, have a strategy and a team to deliver it and I think we do.
“That’s really where our success has come from.
“Our clients need to see that they’re getting value, seeing an increase in their revenues from our product and that’s when we succeed.
“That’s what drives me to make sure that’s happening.
“I work extremely hard and don’t do much apart from that and look after my young son at the moment.
“If you want to start a business, you’ve got to be all-in.
“Your staff, your investors and your customers need that. If you’re not prepared to do that, don’t start a company.
“I don’t think there’s been a learning curve with Bombe, it’s just hard work. Success is 1% idea and 99% hard work.
“We want the best for our customers, so we’ve got to keep pushing. I like my work so I have no problem with that.”
success and growth
Bombe has attracted clients through the reputation of Mike and his team as well as press exposure.
The company also hosts webinars to showcase its data.
“Most of our work has come from people coming to us,” said Mike.
“We’ve got a growth strategy team who have significant commercial experience and they’re doing a really good job.
“We’re doing a number of webinars over the coming months to showcase what we do via LinkedIn.
“The first will be on November 19 at 11am with Joe Twyman, co-founder of Deltapoll and will reveal key insights into the shifting patterns of Londoners’ transport habits, using the latest data from TfL.
“It should be really interesting for readers.”
Transport links played a part in Mike’s decision to join the tech community at Level39 in Canary Wharf too.
“It’s a really buzzy area,” he said.
“I came to Level39 a few times before I took space here and they’ve done a great job with it.
“It’s a really interesting environment, with so many events and the view is fantastic.
“The wider area is also great – the shopping is amazing and the food offering here is the best in London.
“It’s incredibly accessible, too with the Elizabeth Line.
“It has changed the way a lot of people behave in the capital and between it and the Jubilee Line, pretty much anyone can get here, so that makes Canary Wharf good for recruitment, good for the company and good for clients.”
setting goals
It’s also not a bad environment from which to target fast growth – former Level39 startup Revolut is set to put its name atop YY London in Reuters Plaza in the not too distant future.
“Our objective is to be the best in the world,” said Mike. “We believe we have the best data, and we think that means the market will respond to it.
“Our ambition is to grow rapidly as a business, if that happens and we have the investors backing us and the team to do that.
“We want to be a name that rings out alongside the other market leaders in the space, and we think we’ll do that.
“Perhaps people reading this will be sceptical.
“There are thousands of data companies in this country. What I would say is come and talk to us to understand how we are different.”
key details: Bombe
Bombe is based at Level39’s One Canada Square offices in Canary Wharf.
It currently offers a one-off Targeting Package for businesses priced at £5,000 aimed at telling clients where and what they should be saying and who it should be directed at to best reach their audience.
The firm’s £25,000 yearly package includes monthly reports specific to the client’s industry and access to its platform and AI dashboard on an ongoing basis.
At £5,000 per month, clients also get a strategy manager to run campaigns on behalf of their business.
Those interested in its services should email contact@bombe.io for more details or visit its website.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
Like many involved in the murky world of organised crime, Ben Goldsmith leads a double life.
By day, he’s founder and director of Goldsmith Communications – a public relations consultancy specialising in serving tech and venture capital clients.
“Comedy is never a fork in the road decision – as a kid you know you’re a bit of an idiot and that plays out at school,” said Ben. “You just have it in you.
“I was used to teachers telling me off – that we should be getting on with maths rather than telling jokes.
“But my A-Level theatre studies teacher, Coral Walton at Monk’s Walk School in Welwyn Garden City, just thought it was great – that I was good at these things and she encouraged me.
“I don’t come from a family of performing people and it was Coral who, as a director at the local theatre, told me I should audition for a play she was putting on.
“This was never on my radar and I thought: ‘No way’ – it just wasn’t cool at 16.
“But she insisted and even drove me to the audition.
“I got the part and then, up until the age of 21, I did a bunch of acting stuff alongside university, where I worked on student papers and got into the world of journalism and PR.”
Ben plays all the characters in his show CrimeLandTown
a move into comms
Ben’s career in communications then took over, seeing him move through various roles including running the PR operation for Canary Wharf’s tech community, Level39.
But he remained interested in the performing arts and especially comedy.
“Every August I’d go to the Edinburgh Fringe and I loved it,” he said. “It was like my perfect theme park, seeing comedians I liked and discovering new performers.”
After five years concentrating on his career, an encounter with Graham Dickson’s improv show at the festival sparked something in Ben and he returned to London, enrolled on a comedy class and started performing again.
“For years I did improvisation alongside my work,” he said.
“When I was 27 I set up Goldsmith Communications and the comedy was incredibly helpful because, when you’re setting up a business, every day is completely new and you have to adapt to it.
“The other brilliant thing about improv is that there are no lines to learn, so it fits in if you’re busy. It’s a huge part of my life – I met my wife through comedy.”
Ben Goldsmith says his show is an affectionate spoof of mob movies
Ben Goldsmith on his love for mob movies
The success of his PR business means Ben has a bit more freedom now to once again pursue comedy and he’s indulging another of his passions – Mafia movies – in a move away from improv.
“I’m making a show and taking it up to Edinburgh, which is massive,” he said.
“I took a piece called Steve’s Last Day to the Prague Fringe, which was all about a copper’s final shift with all the action taking place in the village hall.
“I did it six times and it went down really well, but I decided to put it aside because I knew what I really wanted to do.
“I’ve always loved mob movies.
“The characters are so much larger than life – they’re such a bunch of goofballs – so you can play with those stereotypes.
“I’ve been working on CrimeLandTown for the last year or so, building it up and presenting it as a work in progress.
“If you enjoy Mafia movies, you’ll enjoy the show.
“The idea is the audience is involved in what’s happening – you’ll always be a part of what’s going on.
“You might be part of a heist that one of my characters is leading, or guests in a club.
“You’ll meet mob bosses, the FBI and a bar singer who gets in too deep, then wants to clear his name.”
CrimeLandTown will have several previews in London before transferring to Edinburgh
playing all the parts in CrimeLandTown
For Ben, the show is a labour of love, poking fun at a genre rich in tropes and silliness, but from a place of respect.
Playing all the parts himself, it’s structured as a series of sketches that all combine to tell a story of wise guys and dodgy accents.
“I describe it as an affectionate spoof,” he said.
“People are familiar with these movies, which are often a bit like a high wire act because while they are about serious topics, many of them are also super funny.
“If you’re parodying anything, it’s important to work out what people already know – if you’re a nerd about those things, you’ve got to be aware how geeky you are.
“I’ve watched the movies and the TV shows, so I know what will be familiar to people who like the films, but hopefully a lot of the stuff will be funny to those who are not so familiar.
“In the show, the main character – a bar singer who always wanted to be a wise guy – sees the impending heist as a chance to live his dream of becoming a mobster.
“We’ve all had dreams and made compromises, so this guy takes a singing job in a mob-adjacent industry – then gets his chance to become part of it and it all ends one way or another.
“Of course, people who like the genre don’t want to see me take the piss out of them.
“CrimeTownLand just aims to celebrate the funny things about them. “
Ben says, like those in organised crime, he’s always wanted to push against the everyday
Ben Goldsmith on transgressing
“When you watch a mob movie, everyone in it is rejecting the conventional,” said Ben.
“They’re living outside the legal norms and everyone is transgressing. There’s a thrill in that.
“Personally, I’ve always wanted to push against the everyday too.
“Comedy is funny when people are trying to skewer the world and look at everything from a sideways perspective.
“Being at Level39, I was around a lot of business founders and it dawned on me that many of them just wanted to kick the crap out of the nine-to-five and do their own thing.
“Similarly, people doing comedy want to see what’s out there and then to try and bend or break it, just like the characters in mob movies.
“Starting my own business totally changed my life.
“It’s now given me the time and the bandwidth to create shows and do these festivals.
“There’s a lot to do, but it works if you plan things.
“I know a bunch of comedians who are working and went into it without a safety net, but I needed to have the security of having the career side sorted.
“Right now I just love that I’m able to do it.
“When I first went up to the Fringe I didn’t know anyone who was performing.
“I wasn’t doing improv and my local theatre days were behind me.
“However, the people I met up there ultimately put me in the position to make this show now. Compared to others, it’s tiny – a 60-person room for 24 days in August.
“But hopefully it will be a step on the way to the next thing, whatever that is.
“Either way, it’s been a dream to take a show to Edinburgh – it’s worth a go and it might just pay off.
“After the Fringe, I’d love to take it to more places round the neighbourhood.
“I’m keen to keep going because it’s just a really fun thing to do.”
So, you’ve got the dates. Just remember, don’t forget about it.
our thing
Ben Goldsmith’s CrimeLandTown will be performed at The Pen Theatre in South Bermondsey on July 11, 2024, at 7pm. Tickets cost £8.30.
Ben Goldsmith will also be performing his show at Watford Pump House on July 20, 2024, and Aces And Eights in Tufnell Park on July 25, 2024, before taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe at JustTheTonic from August 1-25, 2024.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
This is a big problem. In 2022 about 25% of those aged 17-19 were thought to have a mental health disorder (up from one in six in 2021).
Around half of such issues are thought to become established before the age of 14 and about 10% of children aged five to 16 in Great Britain may have a clinically diagnosable mental health problem.
I realise after my interview with Strategia CEO, Stephen Sharp, that comprehending what he and the team are trying to do is tough.
That’s because it requires an unpleasant admission that – despite the backdrop of grim statistics – kids are being failed by what’s currently in place and things seem to be getting worse.
It’s not that the idea of using an AI-powered avatar to help children with their mental health is better than face-to-face human interaction.
It’s that, for many right now there isn’t really a lot of help available – few nets to catch this sort of thing early.
Strategia has create My Friend to help address mental health issues in children
building solutions
“Strategia was set up to create innovative technology in areas such as health, education, sustainability and the environment,” said Stephen.
“I spent about 40 years working in investment banking technology and had a good career in that.
“But I wanted to do something that could give back to society, that would help people in need.
“A colleague of mine who works in Dubai had been talking to a school out there about something completely different but there were some proper horrors that really resonated with him.
“So we started talking about how we could build a solution – an application – that might help kids in school.
“We did some research and found there were lots of text-based things where kids could send questions and get answers.
“But then, the next thing was they were being told they should talk to a psychologist for $150 an hour.
“We decided we didn’t want to go down that path. Instead, we’ve been working with conversational artificial intelligence since January.
“AI is transformational and we’ve got to the point where we’re running a pilot in a number of countries with children talking to our app and getting the right responses.
“It’s built on the back of ChatGPT – as everything is these days – but we’ve created the model in the middle, which controls the input and output. It’s always supportive, passive and acts as a friend.”
My Friend offers children a way to interface with their school through an AI-powered app
branding My Friend
Specifically, My Friend features Kano, an avatar designed to appeal to the app’s audience of eight-to-12-year-olds.
“We’ve gone with a non-gendered super hero teddy bear and his pet dog,” said Stephen.
“We didn’t want there to be any gender or race barriers to using the app or to get involved with political issues in what we’re doing.
“The platform works in partnership with a child’s school. Staff can monitor the conversations a child has with it so, if a kid is being naughty in class, for example, they might be able to see why.
“It’s important, of course, that the children know this up front – that they’re aware their issues can be addressed.
“The platform forms a neutral, objective interface between the child and the school and removes any bias.
“It’s also designed to remove any concern a child might have about talking to an adult if they have a problem.
“With My Friend, they’re talking to a character who’s on their wavelength.
“It’s not just communicating about their challenges either – during testing, children have asked Kano about dinosaurs, for example, and the platform can give them information like this too.
“At present the application is browser-based, but we’re working on turning it into an app which could be accessed via the iPads kids are routinely given.
“Today there are 740million children in primary schools – if we help only 0.01%, that’s beginning to change the way people think.”
Much has been written about the potential fragility of AI – it’s capacity to simply make up plausible-sounding facts and present them as truth in what the tech community charmingly refer to as “hallucinations”.
But the Strategia is well aware of the potential pitfalls and believes it has created enough safeguards and guide rails to prevent My Friend pushing out nonsense.
Mental health issues can start early in childhood
safeguarding My Friend’s users
“We’ve been really prescriptive about the responses it gives,” said Stephen.
“If a kid wants help, the app will seek to understand what the problem is and present a congenial approach to the conversation.
“Everything we’ve seen it produce has been accurate – we’ve asked it all kinds of nasty things, including whether it will help build a bomb and we’ve always had the right responses.
“In that case, it simply told me it was illegal and changed the subject.
“We’re precise in what we do, so our first question was how we get the technology to stay honest and protect the children using it.”
My Friend is still at the testing phase so Stephen and the team don’t yet have all the answers.
They’re still working on how schools will use the platform, which might see conversations colour-coded to help organisations identify potential problems – but feedback has been very positive.
Stephen was keen to stress that no personal data on the children is collected by Strategia, with only the schools able to see who is talking to Kano.
Based at Level39 since October, the team is keen to collaborate locally as the project unfolds.
tacking a range of issues with My Friend
“We’re trying to build something that can address a whole spectrum of problems children face,” said Stephen.
“I live in a small village in Buckinghamshire and, until I spoke to a local school, didn’t realise the poverty in what I thought was an affluent area.
“There, a single parent might have three jobs – their child might have to go to school alone, come back alone and cook their own tea.
“If that’s a seven-year-old, for example, that neglect is frightening.
“For children everyday life can be a problem and we want to help.
“If we save one life by doing this, it will be worthwhile.”
key details
You can find out more about Strategia Data Sciences and My Friend via the company’s website as it continues to develop and trial the technology.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
Put simply, the startup, based at Canary Wharf’s Level39 in One Canada Square, connects entrepreneurs with investors and investors with entrepreneurs – digitally and in person.
“It’s an attempt to oil the wheels and reduce friction,” said Shane Smith, the company’s CEO.
“When founders are trying to raise venture capital, we aim to connect them with an investor network to help them do that.
“If you’re trying to raise money for the first time as a business, that’s the toughest time for you, because you’re not on anybody’s radar.
“It’s also the toughest time for investors, because, on the basis that you’re new, there’s no history, no track record – no-one’s done any research on you.
“At that stage, both sides have a pretty tough time finding the right match.
“Given that lack of information, the most valuable thing investors have to go on is the founders themselves.
“The way to understand founders is, ideally, to sit down across the table and have a good conversation about what they’re doing.
“The problem with that, is the economics don’t stack up for the investors to arrange those conversations and physically sit in locations all over the world to have them.”
Shane founded Pitchflix to address the issue, building on a career that’s long focused on providing information to people and companies that need it.
“My background has been between technology, financial markets and research,” he said.
“I started as one of the founding team in London for what was, at the time, a small startup in the US called Bloomberg.
“I was hired to the London office originally, and I moved on from there to set up my own research business, initially in Paris, then brought it back to London.
“We ran that until 2009 when it got beaten up by the credit crunch.
“Then I switched focus to investor communications rather than research, gradually moving from large listed companies, primarily in Asia, down the scale to smaller businesses.
“Pitchflix is an exercise to connect those smaller companies with investors.
Pitchfix aims to increase the reach of demo days beyond a physical audience
“This is the most interesting part of the market, because startups are generally doing more interesting, innovative things – there’s quite a buzz at the smaller end because tomorrow’s mega corporations are being created today.”
The next best thing to sitting in a room with investors is video – how can we get a short piece from founders, even a couple of minutes, in front of them?” said Shane.
“Startups which have been through an accelerator programme will typically do a demo day at the end, where investors come to listen to founders present.
“Our approach is to help accelerators livestream their demo days so international investors can view them from wherever they are, overcoming the geographical obstacles.
“There are firms who try to bridge that gap, but they typically operate in the corporate finance space where they are trying to broker those deals – we take a very different approach.
“We’re a media business – we help founders advertise themselves to an audience – we don’t get involved in the deals themselves.
“Pitchflix is a conduit that tries to remove friction in the connection and communication between the two parties.
“Investors might be conventional venture capital, corporate venture capital or companies looking to put money into early stage businesses.
“They might also be angel investors or angel syndicates.
“They all face similar problems and we’re trying to solve them.
“For example, if an investor decides to attend a demo day, they might only be interested in a specific sector, but this might involve sitting through pitches from 20 businesses in other fields just to see the one relevant one.
“That’s not a good use of their time.”
Founders’ pitches are hosted in video form on Pitchflix’s site
After livestreaming, Pitchflix hosts founders’ videos on its site, so investors can review them at their leisure.
“The next stage of the business was to turn that model on its head and have investors pitching to founders,” said Shane.
“We wanted to do that because we’d observed that, while there are lots of demo day and pitch competition events all over London and the rest of the country, nobody was systematically hosting investors who could pitch to an audience of founders to tell them what they were looking for.
“We call them ‘Rev’ for reverse pitch series. We needed to find a bigger space to host them and we discovered Level39.
“That’s where we put them on, every six weeks or so, and we have a lot of community members coming to them.
“We’re also based there. We started the business in 2019 and, as Covid restrictions, melted away, it was really hard to build a cohesive team and culture while working from home in spare bedrooms or at kitchen tables.
“We hired one person who did a fantastic job of getting up to speed from home, but we felt we needed more than that for the next people coming on board – our recent hires since we’ve been together in one place have been very quick getting into the business and are really productive.”
IN-PERSON
Pitchflix’s next Rev event is set to take place on February 27, 2024 at Level39 with further events in Singapore, Hong Kong and New York in the pipeline for March, April and later in 2024, respectively.
“Rev events are a very concise, efficient use of a founder’s time,” said Shane.
“For two hours attendees will sit and listen to up to 15 investors giving lightning, five-minute showcases of what they like to invest in and why.
“They’ll tell you how much they typically invest, whether they like to collaborate with others, whether they like to lead or follow, a lot of reference data about them, and you’ll get out of it and a sense of the personality and chemistry you might have with them.
“Is this an investor you think you can have a really productive five or 10 year relationship with?
“Are they someone you’d like to have a beer with?
“These are the kind of insights you’re not going to get unless you’re in a room with that person.
“After the presentations, there are audience questions and then there’s networking with some drinks.
“The idea for founders is it’s an opportunity to make themselves memorable, so that when they email the next day with their pitch, they’ll be on investors’ radars.”
Founders tickers for Rev events in London cost a nominal £20, aimed at ensuring those who have booked a place turn up.
At present, Pitchflix’s platform is free for both businesses and investors to use with the eventual aim of charging startups an affordable fee once the marketplace is consistently matching entrepreneurs with capital.
“This is very different from the brokering model, where those firms charge a retainer,” said Shane.
“We also don’t get involved with the production of the demo days themselves because there are tons of them happening.
“We’re just trying to make the process more efficient and extend their reach.
“Bloomberg started life as a business solving one problem – Mike didn’t have a crystal ball for the next 40 years, they were just trying to build a better mousetrap.
“There’s a sort of trend now that investors want to see how things will develop in the next five or 10 years, but you don’t need to.
“You just start with something that’s profitable, and then you explore, listen to your clients, be agile, nimble and develop.
“In our own investor presentations, we describe what we’re building and why it’s great for the market ecosystem. Have we got the full picture – no – but we’re listening.
“Very often you get the first signals about new and emerging stuff from entrepreneurs and what they’re talking about.
vWe’re recording that and analysing it will give you a pretty good indication of what’s coming down the road at 100mph, six months later.
“We have many ideas about how to develop Pitchflix and that’s something we’ll be looking at over the next few years.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
The idea that the way things are at the moment is how they shall continue to be.
But the world rarely stands still, especially in the world of tech.
There’s a danger in this – in getting too comfortable with the prevailing winds, lest they all too rapidly change when one isn’t paying attention.
Innovation Norway has been running its Tech Executive Accelerator (TEA) programme at Canary Wharf’s Level39, more or less since the community launched in 2013.
Back then, people talked of Big Data, with a few early adopters whispering about the blockchain.
Challenger banks emerged, crypto wallets proliferated and there was much talk of machine learning. Now it’s generative AI.
During this period, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have seen social media become the dominant marketing channel for their products and services.
But nothing in the digital sphere is guaranteed forever – the lustre of Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and even LinkedIn, has started to tarnish, with the inevitable consequences of light regulation and a limited appetite or capacity for in-house moderation.
So what of the future? Part of the answer may come from Norwegian startup Lyll – currently in Canary Wharf as part of the TEA’s latest cohort.
Launched in June, 2023, the company aims to offer SMEs a simple, self-service approach to advertising on digital news sites and is spending six months here as it targets growth.
While the column inches on these sites are often filled with discussions on the impact of and posts on social media, it’s perhaps easy to forget that much of the most well researched, potent and popular digital content is created by the news brands themselves, with millions of readers turning to them as trusted sources.
“I’ve been working in marketing for 25 years and online newspapers are my favourite marketing channel,” said Camilla Frydenbø, CEO of Lyll.
“I have a lot of love for them and they are important for brand building, which companies need if they are going to grow.
“But it hasn’t been very easy for SMEs to use this channel, because they typically have to talk to a salesperson.
“Most media businesses do not have self-service solutions, so many firms turn to social media because those platforms have made it easy to advertise and firms are welcome with any budget.
“Companies often perceive online news brands as expensive, so they don’t contact the salesperson as they feel like they need a big budget.
“What we’ve done is create a platform that makes it even easier to advertise on these sites than it is to use social media.
“We think businesses will use these channels if they know they can place adverts on these sites with a minimum budget of £50, which most companies can afford.
“The price of an ad view is similar to what they pay on social media – that makes it competitive.”
Lyll currently has more than 5,000 news sites on its platform, spread across nine European countries – a demonstration, perhaps of the publishers’ desire to uncover new streams of revenue in a tough climate.
“Our slogan is: ‘For your growth and a free press’, because we also think in this world where everyone is talking about sustainability, if we don’t have the fourth estate we will all have a problem,” said Camilla.
“We see in countries where there are fewer journalists and news sites being read, you don’t get a high level of debate or a nuanced picture of what’s going on.
“We hope that it will be part of a business’ sustainability plan – how they choose to spend their marketing budget and what they are funding with it.
“We have more than 200 companies in Norway which have signed up to Lyll with an account, although not all are active yet.
“We see it takes a while between when people create an account and when they start advertising, but the interest is definitely there.
“Companies know they need to reach a wider, mass market and when they don’t get the effect they used to from Facebook, it’s a perfect storm because they are willing to listen now.
“If they want to be on TikTok, for example, they have to make videos three times a week, at least, and small firms may not have the resources to produce the coolest thing on the platform.
Lyll is spending time at Level39 in One Canada Square as part of Innovation Norway’s TEA Programme
“When it comes to LinkedIn, if you’re selling to consumers, then it’s not the right channel.
“Then you have women, primarily, using Facebook, and men on YouTube. That’s how the social media market is dividing right now.
“Going beyond this, bringing news sites into the marketing mix, will see firms continue their growth.”
That’s partly because the two streams serve different purposes.
Camilla said she would never encourage a company to abandon social, but spread marketing onto more than one channel.
She said: “It is important for businesses to always be better at brand building – creating something sustainable which gives them growth over time and makes them more profitable.
“A presence on national, regional or local news sites is how you do this.
“Firms need to be more patient with news sites.
“With social media, everything is so fast.
“Companies are always having to come up with new photos, videos, text – which is a little bit tiring.
“If you are always chasing sales, doing special offers or discounts, then you will never succeed.
“Businesses that put most of their marketing budget into brand building are the ones that win the market, but you don’t do that in three months or six months.
“You need a plan which goes over several years.
“We don’t say companies shouldn’t use social media, because we think they should. The best effect is when you use three to four channels with a single campaign.
“In Bergen, for example, we have a concert series. Until recently they were selling their tickets through Facebook.
“But since that was declining, they wanted to try Lyll.
“They took their small budget and divided it between the two newspapers in the city.
“They told us they had never sold out faster than when they divided the budget.
“Lyll can support what a company is doing on social media – their platforms are often more geared towards making ticket sales, but people also have to know there’s a concert on in the first place.”
Lyll’s idea will likely be welcomed by digital publishers, many of who have spent the years since the arrival of the internet attempting to thrash out viable business models.
Reach PLC, which has kept its sites such as mirror.co.uk and express.co.uk free to access, recently reported a 16% decline in digital revenues – albeit a collapse largely blamed on Facebook’s decision to send less traffic to news brands.
Camilla said engagement with companies like Lyll could help.
“It’s been very valuable to be in London at Level39 on the TEA programme,” she said.
“We said we were looking for investors and partnerships and we’ve had meetings with investors and big media companies.
Lyll has built a self-service portal for advertisers to access digital news sites
“The latter see that they have a need for a self-service solution but they have one concern, whether it will have an impact on jobs.
“Sales people are definitely still needed to serve large advertisers – Lyll is not built for their needs – but we think they can activate sleeping customers.
“These companies have huge customer bases that we can appeal to.
“In the end, if they don’t do anything about this problem, they can’t complain about advertising going to social media because, if it’s difficult for companies to buy space on these platforms, they won’t do it.
“We make money by taking a small cut of the advertising spend – it’s programmatic advertising made easy.
“Another benefit is that while Google’s display network allows placement of ads on these sites, customers can’t choose where their ad appears.
“They might be placed on strange websites or bad websites, even. These things happen and brand safety is very important.
“If you want your advert to appear on the Financial Times’ site, for example, and you think you’ll get that from Google, you’ll probably find as little as 3% of your budget will place it there and the rest could see it placed somewhere else.
“With Lyll, you get to be in front of the audience you want – you decide where your money is spent.”
As for the future, Lyll is very much eyeing expansion to London following its spell in Canary Wharf.
“The networking with the TEA programme has been fantastic,” said Camilla. “I live in Bergen, which is the second largest city in Norway but is still very small.
“The investor pool is limited there in marketing tech.
“That’s why we wanted to come to London – here you have the best marketing people in Europe and the things we’ve been able to do, the little network we’ve been able to build – we’d have never been able to do this from Bergen.
“I think expanding to London would be a natural step for us.
“When we get more funding, the next thing is to hire a salesperson and they would have to be an English-speaking person who can talk to media companies around the globe and try and get them into collaboration with us.”
While the future of media online remains uncertain, the plummeting revenues at X following Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform and its descent into a frequently toxic space which companies are keen to avoid, could well be a cautionary tale.
With brands eager for a safe place to reach people, perhaps Lyll will help reignite a channel that’s been looking for a fresh approach for some time.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
The startup, now based at tech community Level39 in One Canada Square, relies on the premise that businesses will be prepared to offer better prices to customers who pre-pay for their services.
Suppose, for example, I get a coffee from the same place every day on my way into the office (yes, I’m not hybrid working on Fridays or anything like that).
It’s habit – a ritual that I enjoy – and it costs me £3.20 per day.
For the sake of argument, let’s say I work 47 full weeks each year, so the bill would be £752.
Provided I’m happy to use WyzePay – and cough up the cash up front in chunks of £400 – that cost will only be £601.60.
I wonder what I’ll buy with the £150.40 that I’ll save?
“The current way of paying for things – credit and debit cards – has been around since the middle of last century,” said Ian Rae, CEO at WyzePay.
“From a consumer perspective, we thought there could be a better way of doing things.”
Born in Mile End, the grandson of a docker, things have somewhat come full circle for Ian.
During an extensive career in technology for financial services firms, he’d moved steadily eastwards ending up in Hainault before heading back in, to Wapping High Street.
Ironically, his aunt told him that his grandad hated the building he wound up moving into as it was formerly a sugar warehouse and the commodity was too heavy to nick.
In a sense – albeit completely legal – WyzePay is also about getting something for nothing. Ian and co-founder Joe Channer decided to relocate the firm to the heart of Docklands, following a spell proving the concept in Queen’s Park.
They are now engaged on applying its offering across the Canary Wharf estate to demonstrate its benefits both to consumers and businesses.
“When developing the idea, we looked at Starbucks, which in 2018 put its loyalty scheme on an app and raised about $1.5bn in a matter of months,” said Ian.
“There was obviously something in the idea that people would be willing to prepay for things they were going to do anyway and that would benefit the retailer.”
For the consumer, the attraction is simple.
Pay up front and get a discount on what you’re buying.
WyzePay offers users the ability to buy credit in the form of coins dedicated to a specific retailer. These are then held in a digital wallet and can be spent with the venue via the app. This example shows the difference in savings by pre-paying for £30 and £500 at Boisdale Of Canary Wharf in Cabot Square
“You’re going to get a better return than from that money just sitting in a current account, so it’s a no-brainer,” said Ian.
“The merchant gets the cash up front – which is extremely valuable for a business – and the discount rewards the customer who keeps coming and loves the service.
“It’s buy now, take more later – a bit more responsible than take now and pay later.”
WyzePay is currently undergoing a growth spurt. Ian and the team are in the process of striking deals with various restaurants, bars and businesses in Canary Wharf, with some already live and available to use.
Seoul Bird and Obica have also signed up, offering maximum discounts of 11% and 15% respectively. The minimum discount for all venues is 10%.
WyzePay’s tech is blockchain based, allowing it flexibility of form in the future although, at present, credit bought for one business can only be used at that venue.
“We’re in active discussion with several other businesses – it’s important to get the right fit,” said Ian.
“In this phase we’re aiming for 10-20 retailers by the end of October with about 1,000-2,000 consumers using the platform.
640East is offering up to 20% off via WyzePay
“That allows us to unlock some more funding and then to push on with the project.
“Canary Wharf is a great place to do this because it’s that community approach which fits with what we want to do further down the line.
“We have an idea to explore a community coin, where instead of spending the credit with a specific retailer, it would be possible to use it with any of the retailers that are signed up.
“We’d also like to set up an exchange where credit could be moved from one business to another.
“Then it becomes an alternative way of paying for things and a way to disrupt some of the lazier players in the market.
“If you look at gift cards, for example, you have an industry that’s really quite inefficient.
“It’s well known that even though it’s digital, a percentage of the money that’s been paid just sits there and isn’t spent.
“That’s no good if I’m the giver or the person receiving the gift – we think there is a better way of doing things.
“As a business, our revenue comes from a percentage on the purchase of coins through WyzePay, which is charged to the merchant.
“However, every time you use a credit card there are charges they are paying and we cost less than that.”
Boisdale Of Canary Wharf is offering up to 20% off on the platform
Right now, WyzePay is all about awareness – signing up businesses for its platform and attracting users to give it a go.
That includes the likes of sponsoring the Action For Kids Beach Volleyball in Canada Square Park, which runs until September 28, 2023, and reaching out to companies on the estate to explain the offer.
“We’re focused on hospitality because it’s easy for people to get their heads around,” said Ian.
“But really WyzePay can be applied wherever there’s a supply chain.
“The options are endless – but it’s better to start somewhere to demonstrate what it does.
“We’re also very clear that we won’t be for everyone – the lazy, rich and indolent, for example. It’s for people who want to get a good deal.
“Our dream is that WyzePay will one day be used as a verb.
“Imagine you’re in a restaurant and someone says: ‘I’ll WyzePay that’.”
That, of course, would put it in the big leagues alongside hoover, google and, increasingly, Uber (which hasn’t quite dropped the capital letter yet).
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
