10 startups to watch in Leeds

In 2019, 681,704 businesses were created in the UK (with 17,401 registered in London), according to a survey from the Centre for Entrepreneurs, which indicates an increase of 2.8% compared to 2018 In Yorkshire, nearly 6% more businesses were created across the region (38,269) with 7,492 in Leeds alone, ranking it as the fourth most attractive city in the UK for startups. 

So which startups are blooming in Leeds, the vibrant evolving city in the heart of Yorkshire? Whether it’s health, gaming or data science, Maddyness brings you a list of some of the most innovative businesses driving this emerging hub.

Synap is an intelligent, learning management system that focuses on breaking down large training topics, making it easy for staff to engage with their training anytime, anywhere. Working closely with large organisations, SMEs and training providers, Synap offers face-to-face training with online learning, making it more accessible and manageable for staff to progress with their professional development. Synap has all the benefits of a traditional learning management system and supports all e-learning content types, such as videos, presentations, documents and SCORM files.

Headquartered in San Francisco but with offices in Leeds, Credit Karma focuses on financial progress for more than 100 million members in the UK, US, and Canada. The startup is known for its free credit scores, giving resources as customers work on their financial goals, including helping them monitor their credit, identity monitoring, searching for credit cards, shopping for loans (car, home and personal), growing their savings, and filing their taxes with Credit Karma Tax, all for free. Credit Karma has grown significantly and has more than 70 million members with more than 1,100 employees across their offices in San Francisco, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Leeds, London and soon Oakland.

Tackling mental health in the workplace with a variety of workshops and wellbeing-focused partners, Mind It helps staff to be healthier, happier, and more productive. Mind It designs ad-hoc Wellbeing Programs for companies’ employees, tailored to their needs, challenges and vision for the future. Founded by Lucile Paisant in 2018, the startup aims to work with the best experts in Yorkshire to provide dedicated workshops with yoga, stress-relief, pilates, massage and mindfulness.

Panintelligence helps its partners and customers run their businesses more effectively. The company’s vision is to enable better decisions and to empower people to be their best at work by providing them with the necessary information, through an innovative dashboard.

Tappit is a global team of fans offering event tech for festivals, sports, conferences via cashless digital payments, ticketing and access control with real-time data insights to boost fan engagement and experience. Much more than just a cashless payment system, Tappit makes events better for everyone with clearer, sharper insights. The startup aims to enhance the customer experience, with cashless payments to speed up transactions, allowing customers to spend less time queuing and more time enjoying themselves.

Data and information offer companies endless marketing opportunities. Unfortunately, true insights are often exclusive to agencies with confusing fees and lack of visibility. Modo25 is an agency that believes in empowering teams, enabling them to take full control of their own marketing success by providing transparency thus demystifying the world of digital marketing and democratising data.

Founded in 2017 by Bobby Thandi, XR Games develop mobile and console AR/VR games for licensed intellectual properties. Last December, XR Games received a £1.5M investment by Praetura Ventures and ACT Capital Partners to expand its games portfolio through new projects with Hollywood film studios and renowned media and entertainment companies. To date, XR Games has worked with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality and Rovio Entertainment for console VR games and has recently released The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure.

Mable Therapy has changed the way speech and language therapy is delivered in schools by streamlining communication between teachers, therapists and parents and delivering an evidence-based intervention that is not only functional but fun! The company creates memorable therapeutic experiences for pupils and all teaching staff.

PinPoint has the ambition is distil the vast and ever-increasingly complex world of medical data and research into simple tools which can help to make doctors better, smarter and more efficient, and able to focus on giving their patients the best care possible. To make this vision a reality, PinPoint has developed a streamlined triage system to ensure patients with vague symptoms are sent to receive the correct care.