Two startups secure Drive with Belron 2017 investment

After a successful demo day at the end of June, we’re delighted to announce ThriveMap and Locpin have secured investment from Belron and L Marks. Discussions are underway with all startups to continue their pilots with us with commercial agreements in place.

Marking the end of the 10-week programme, the five Drive with Belron startups presented their experiences and proposal for a future relationship with Belron during an exciting Demo Day.

Belron will invest £125,000 in Locpin and ThriveMap. L Marks will match £103,340 investment, bringing the total startup funding to £228,340. Talking Circles and Blitzz have been asked to continue to work on their pilots with us, on a commercial basis, as conversations about investment continue. ThanksBox is continuing conversations with Carglass® Germany as to the best way to support them.

Here’s a reminder of the five startups:

Locpin: provide a smart addressing solution which provides all the information necessary to ensure you can quickly and efficiently find the right location, first time, every time. Locpin worked with Safelite® in the US and will receive £50,000 of investment from Belron and £50,000 from L Marks.

ThriveMap: the ThriveMap® platform measures how people like to work in order to predict team fit and improve team harmony. ThriveMap worked with Carglass® Spain and will receive £75,000 of investment from Belron and £53,340 from L Marks.

Blitzz: offer a video engagement platform for personalised customer support to businesses and provide customers with high touch, personalised support. Blitzz worked with Safelite® in the US.

Talking Circles: provide a platform that allows employees to drive talent management and learning. Talking Circles worked with Carglass® France.

ThanksBox: provide a range of digital tools to maximise employee engagement and surface data-led insights to managers and leadership. ThanksBox worked with Carglass® Germany,

Nick Burton, Head of Digital & Innovative Technology at Belron said: “Drive has been really exciting this year, with five brilliant teams joining the programme. I’ve been really impressed with the speed and agility on display as each team got their pilots up and running in four countries, and I really appreciate the hard work and teamwork on display when the teams are in one of our countries, or at Milton Park.”

Stuart Marks, technology entrepreneur and Chairman of L Marks, said: “Any programme entering its second year will inherit high-expectations from the success of the first programme: In the case of Belron, expectations have been more than met. The teams across all participating countries have been confident, committed and open-minded in their approach to the startups, and we have been pleased to support progress as each has grown in response to the feedback they have been given. Drive with Belron has had another successful year thanks to everyone’s hard work, the contributions of the startups and the support of our team.”

This is the second year of Drive with Belron which aims to find disruptive startups who can effectively improve our operations. In return, startups are given the opportunity to trial their products in a global organisation. In addition to the startups securing funding and/or paid continuation of their pilots, all five on the accelerator programme developed their business more rapidly than they would have done by operating on their own.