Nominet Trust Awards £450,000 to Grow and Scale Three ‘Tech for Good’ Innovations

Nominet Trust has awarded £450,000 of follow-on funding to help accelerate the development of three tech for good ventures through its Social Tech Growth programme. The new funding will enable Limitless Travel, GiveVision and Konnektis to scale their operations significantly in 2017, making a huge difference to the everyday lives of thousands of people living with physical and visual impairments – as well as older people and their families.

The three ventures previously received funding through Nominet Trust’s Social Tech Seed programme; this offers entrepreneurial organisations early-stage investment to develop innovative projects harnessing the power of the internet and digital technologies to deliver significant social change. Their success has been so striking that Nominet Trust is now providing additional funding to support their further growth and development.

The three ventures are:

• Limitless Travel - an online platform that makes it much easier for disabled travellers to search and compare accommodation and book holidays that meet their individual needs. The TripAdvisor-style site is easy-to-use and offers information on the accessibility of tourist attractions and accommodation - plus city guides, attraction listings and community advice designed to bring each location to life for people with disabilities and mobility issues, or the elderly. Funding will be focused on developing technology that facilitates the collection and automation of users’ data to deliver a seamless consumer experience based on intelligent recommendations.
• GiveVision – their SightPlus headset allows people with visual impairment to see more clearly, increasing their independence and mobility. The wearable, hands-free device uses image-enhancing software to help people with low vision, enabling them to recognise objects and faces as well as watch TV and read comfortably. The new funding will help the business grow its customer base both locally and globally.
• Konnektis - a reliable, secure digital platform that transforms communication between formal and informal carers, helping the 2.5 million older people receiving care in their own homes. After a successful trial with Bradford Metropolitan District Council in 2016, this additional investment will help Konnektis to scale their solution with ten more local authorities in 2017.

Limitless Travel’s Founder Angus Drummond commented: “The funds, advice and guidance Nominet Trust provides is invaluable to a young and ambitious company such as ours. With our latest funding we’ll be developing new technologies to support our customers’ needs when booking holidays and also implementing robust processes to ensure we can fulfill high volumes of orders which meet our customers’ range of complex needs. Limitless is really beginning to change the face of travel for people with disabilities and none of this would be possible without Nominet Trust”. Elodie Draperi, Co-founder of GiveVision, said: “Thanks to the additional funding from Nominet Trust we’re able to boost product development, undertake trials with more patients and experiment with new directions in order to improve our product’s form factor and use, all while formalising and developing its deployment in the UK and abroad.” Mark Howells, founder of Konnektis, comments: "We have made significant progress over the past year with the support of Nominet Trust's Social Tech Seed programme and look forward to working with them into 2018.  Working with providers of health and social care, our immediate goal is to bring Konnektis to a greater number of people living independently in our communities; Nominet Trust's continued funding and support gives us a solid platform to deliver this." Vicki Hearn, Director of Nominet Trust, said: “Each of these ventures demonstrates the truly transformative power of digital technology to tackle pressing social challenges. With Nominet Trust’s support through our Social Tech Seed programme, these teams have already demonstrated their potential to deliver significant social impact. We’re confident that our Social Tech Growth funding will now enable them to scale their solutions, transforming the lives of even more people.”