On 8 November ELITE welcomed 20 new UK companies to its diverse ecosystem for growth and capital. The ELITE global community now consists of 683, from across 27 countries and 35 sectors, generating over £47 billion in combined revenues and accounting for over 240,000 jobs across Europe and beyond.

The new ELITE company CEOs and founders opened trading on London Stock Exchange, together with Kirsty Blakman MP, to celebrate the occasion. Paola Cuneo, Head of ELITE UK and the host for the event, commented: “I am proud to welcome the latest group of UK companies to join ELITE, a clear demonstration of the country’s ability to grow great businesses. These companies drive innovation, employment and create opportunities for us all.

ELITE is committed to giving ambitious entrepreneurs the very best chance to grow, providing them with access to appropriate expertise and capital. At ELITE we have built a strong community of the best and most dynamic entrepreneurs, advisers, investors and business school academics from the UK, Europe and around the world.”

Applications for the next cohort launching in April 2018 are now officially open! Get in touch with ELITE UK team and explore your options for joining the programme!

Market Open at London Stock Exchange

 

Reception keynote speaker: Nick Jenkins, the founder of moonpig.com

 

Meet the CEOs and Founders from Cohort 8

The 20 new companies come from across the UK, from Brighton to Aberdeen and represent a multiple range of sectors from pharmaceutical, to robotics and professional services.  

Adaptive builds, delivers and operates bespoke e-commerce trading platforms for the financial services, capital and commodity trading markets.

Matt Barrett (co-Founder) and Loic Roze (co-Founder), Adaptive

Why ELITE? Matt and Loic are keen to learn how to structure their business better in anticipation of further expansion. Meeting their peers is also a big value add.

Adaptix Novel distributed x-ray sources for adaptive imaging, 3D imaging from non-moving flat panel x-ray sources, and dose reduction with enhanced imaging.

Mark Evans (CEO) and Gil Travish (CSO), Adaptix

Why ELITE? Mark and Gil are working on development of new products and would like to explore different funding options including IPO.

Attollo Offshore Increases the productivity of offshore oil fields whilst reducing the associated costs.

Ben Moore (CEO), Attollo

Why ELITE? Ben joined ELITE to explore how to scale up efficiently.

Blaze Manufacturing Solutions Provider of fire safety protection, detection and loss prevention solutions for harsh and challenging environments.

Howard Johnson (CEO) and Ann Johnson (CFO)

Why ELITE? Ann and Howard have joined ELITE to showcase their innovative abilities, understand best practice and connect to people that might be interested to invest in Blaze.

Celixir A regenerative medicine company that discovers and develops life-saving and life-altering medicines for patients with the greatest medical need.

Ajan Reginald (CEO) and Mark Beard (CFO), Celixir

Why ELITE? Celixir has a large development pipeline of new medicines. ELITE will allow the company to access a range of sophisticated investors and can act as a platform to showcase Celixir’s innovative capabilities.

Creavo  A medical technology company that is developing innovative diagnostic techniques for use in acute medical settings.

Steve Parker (CEO) and John Von Benecke (CFO), Creavo

Why ELITE? ELITE provides a platform for Creavo to step back and look at the business more strategically. It’s also a great environment for peer learning.

Crossflow Payments is a Business to business fintech service enabling suppliers to improve their working capital by accessing advance payment of their receivables.

Tony Duggan (CEO), Magda Rozczka (COO) and the Team, Crossflow Payments

Why ELITE? Crossflow have grown very quickly into multi-million business. In the upcoming years Tony and Magda will drive the international expansion and would like to assess different funding options to support the growth.

 DES Electrical A full service and national electrical engineering contractor.

Sean Egan (CEO) and Team DES Electrical

Why ELITE? Sean joined ELITE to gain new ideas, learn from peers and access a range of different funding options.

ERPaas A cloud based cognitive platform linking organisational policies to transactional systems.

Simon Robinson (MD), ERPaaS

Why ELITE? Majority of company’s customers are of a significantly larger size, exploring how to structure correctly internally and the best practice is one of the motivations for joining. ELITE also serves as a platform to gain more visibility and credibility with the customer base and wider audience.

GainX delivers measurably greater ROI on innovation strategy & transformation spend for global businesses.

Angelique Mohring (CEO), GainX

Why ELITE? ELITE boosts company’s credibility and improves company’s long term positioning. It’ll give Angelique an opportunity to learn from the best and impose discipline within the company.

Hutch is a mobile games developer entertaining over 150m players worldwide with across franchises including Smash Bandits, MMX Racing, Hot Wheels: Race Off and Top Drives.

Shaun Rutland (CEO) and Peter Hansen-Chambers (CFO), Hutch

Why ELITE?  Shaun and Peter appreciate the leaning aspect of the programme and interaction with peers it facilitates.

La Fosse Associates Recruitment company that specialises in technology, digital and change talent and operating at all levels on a permanent, contract, interim and executive search basis.

James Parker (CEO), La Fosse Associates

Why ELITE? Quality of the companies on the programme was crucial in the decision making process. Having access to a pool of different advisers and investors to support the growth of the business is key.

Miro Owns and operates one of the largest commercial forest plantations in West Africa producing industrial timber products.

Andrew Collins (CEO), Anthony Gaydon (CFO) and Charles Bosworth (BD), Miro

Why ELITE? ELITE gives access to many different stakeholders relevant to the business. Miro is looking to go through another capital raise and having access to private placement platform ELITE Club Deal can facilitate it.

OLIVER is a disruptive marketing services company that specializes in putting bespoke agencies inside clients worlds.

Sharon Whale (CEO), OLIVER

Why ELITE? Oliver is facing challenges beyond just funding for growth. One of the key reasons for joining ELITE is to explore how to build a business that’s future-proof and make sure they don’t get behind.

Orwell Provide the first ever pan-European banking platform focusing on borderless cash management services offered in white-label to banks and directly through ipagoo.

Franco Mignemi (Co-CEO) and the Team, Orwell

Why ELITE? ELITE presents an opportunity to gain more credibility, find investors and advisers.

rradar Grace product is a machine learning-driven app which engages business directly to deliver the knowledge and experience of legal and risk management experts.

Gary Gallen ( CEO), rradar

Why ELITE? Gary joined ELITE to scale up efficiently and expand the business further.

Tharsus is the UK’s leading designer and manufacturer of commercial system robots and complex electro mechanical products.

Brian Palmer (CEO), Tharsus

Why ELITE? ELITE is an excellent platform to explore different options for raising equity capital.

The Fifth Business is an Internal Communications and Change consultancy, providing a one-stop-shop to blue chip clients; from audit, strategy, delivery and support collateral.

Enda Logan (CEO, George Phillips (D) and Joan Ingram (D), The Fifth Business

Why ELITE? The Fifth Business is looking to scale up the business outside of it’s primary industry of O&G consulting and become a world player.

The Liars Club  is a family of hospitality venues located across Manchester and the North West.

Ross Mackenzie  (MD), The Liars Club

Why ELITE? Ross is looking to access the next level of funding to continue expanding the business.

The state51 Music Group  is a multi-faceted 21st century music business, centered around technology and a data analytics platform.

Kieron Faller (GM) and Pauline Bertinet (COO), The state51 Music Group

Why ELITE?  The company has no experience of external investment and the programme will provide a good platform to evaluate different options and make a strategic decision about what is the best route for funding growth.