INSIGHTS / Blog

Creative talent soars across the South West thanks to support from the Creative Tech programme, delivered in partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs, My World and the West of England Combined Authority.

The Creative Tech Programme was designed to fuel the growth of the region’s businesses by providing essential support in raising investment for innovation and growth. Through a series of fully-funded workshops, the programme empowered over 20 companies, each operating across diverse creative tech sectors, to refine and launch their investment campaigns.

These companies, each producing cutting-edge technologies with the power to transform sectors such as healthcare and entertainment, tapped into support to nurture the next generation of creative tech talent.

We caught up with some of the programme’s participants to learn more about their innovations and how the Creative Tech programme helped them forge new avenues for investment and growth.

 

New Party Rules Labs

New Party Rules Labs is an experimental game studio and research lab that develops new hybrid genres of entertainment by bringing cultural relevance to the physical and virtual realm. It builds unique social games and adventures for adults to explore stories, experience new technologies, and connect face-to-face with others.

Emphasising new perspectives, narratives, and modern context in entertainment, New Party Rules Labs creates space to include Black voices and new frames of reference alongside those that already exist. It enables adults of all ages to imagine, create, and learn together, with the lab sitting at the intersection of digital technology, enterprise, and entertainment.

“There were lots of areas that we were looking to address through the Creative Tech programme,” commented Imwen Eke, Founder, New Party Roles Labs. “Some of our business challenges included how to map our current position and both identify and action strategic next steps, but we were also looking for guidance on potential new uses for our technology.”

Speaking on some of her key takeaways from the programme, Imwen said, “Attending the investor readiness event was truly eye-opening. It provided an intimate space to network with investors in the sector as well as fellow founders, while gaining all the insights available through the panels and fireside chats. What struck me most was the candidness of the discussions. People’s successes, challenges, failures, and learnings were openly shared with the group, and hearing from successful businesses who had already navigated both investment raises and exists was particularly enlightening.”

As New Party Rules continues to grow, Imwen is implementing the skills gained throughout the programme. “We’re launching a social game at the We Out Here festival in August, developing an interactive experience for the Humanity Summit in Brazil in November, and moving onto the next stage of R&D on our debut mixed-reality game, Heroes, Villains and History. The programme was key in helping us identify those next steps.”

 

Weaving Change Limited

The global fashion industry is responsible for 8% of global emissions each year and sees approximately one truckload of clothing discarded or incinerated every second.

Bristol-based social enterprise, Weaving Change, is on a mission to reduce overconsumption in the fashion industry. Its gamified fashion app, Swerv, allows users to visualise how existing items in their wardrobes will work together, minimising the need for unnecessary purchases and reducing the burden of fast fashion. Once released to the public, the app will model the user’s clothes on a personalised avatar and use an AI-driven algorithm to suggest outfit ideas.

Speaking on her experience as part of the Creative Tech programme, Weronika Stelmach, Co-Founder and CEO of Weaving Change said, “We wanted to better understand the current investment landscape across the creative tech industry, and the programme was hugely beneficial in helping us to plan and map out the next steps for our financial growth. We focused particularly on the investment landscape for social enterprises and impact-driven business, as this will be a key consideration as we grow and scale Weaving Change over the next 12 months.”

“We are currently prototyping Swerv, and developing our novel outfit recommendation algorithm which will suggest new combinations from within your existing wardrobe. Swerv is set for general release by the end of 2024.”

 

Whilst the Creative Tech programme may now have come to an end, there are plenty of other support opportunities available to businesses through SETsquared. If your technology could be applied to the health, telecoms, deep-tech, or sustainable transport sectors, discover how we could help.

Explore support programmes