Actualise Consulting works with a number of partners and clients, depending on the types of projects we undertake. Different types of organisations for different purposes and to fulfill different needs. Some of them are clients, some are technology or networking partners and some are collaborators. More specific details of who we work with can be found in our testimonials and case-studies section.
Small Technology Companies
SMEs and micro-SMEs are the lifeblood of British industry. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) estimated that small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2016 and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs). Total employment in SMEs was 15.7 million and the combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.8 trillion. The vast majority of these businesses are micro SMEs with 10 or fewer employees.
Many technology SMEs are founded by very clever, innovative individuals who have great ideas or technology. Some are spinouts from universities or larger companies or evolve out of research and development projects. Often the people that create these businesses have the technology development skills needed to develop their technology but may not possess the other business skills and experience and soft skills needed to successfully bring that technology to market. They may be inexperienced with R&D funding programmes and lack the skills needed for pitching to investors. They may also have very limited networks of contacts and partners.
Actualise Consulting can help with all of these things, with a range of services starting with simple guidance and mentoring, to help with strategy development right through to hands-on execution and support for marketing and business development, partnership building and funding applications.
Medium and Large Technology Companies
Large companies often need to source innovation from a variety of sources and partners in order to remain competitive. Innovation that comes from within their own organisation is the most obvious source, but even this may not necessarily happen naturally without appropriate processes and a little facilitation. Actualise Consulting can help companies create the innovation culture and put in place the processes and organisation necessary to stimulate innovation. We can even organise and facilitate innovation workshops with the company and its partners to help identify and formally capture ideas and develop plans to commercially exploit them. Some companies also need to source innovation from external sources, through partnerships, licensing or even acquisition. Actualise Consulting offers a “Technology Radar” service to help such companies search for innovative technologies to supplement their own innovations.
Public Sector Funding Bodies
In the UK and European Union there are a number of organisations that award grants to support technology research and development, business growth and local and regional economic development projects. When all of these funding programmes are taken together they represent £Billions of value to the UK economy. The UK Research Councils (RCUK) invest around £3 billion each year in academic research covering the full spectrum of academic disciplines. Similarly, Innovate UK invests around £500Million each year in early-mid stage, business-led innovation and technology R&D.
Whilst RCUK primarily uses a peer-review system for assessing applications for funding, Innovate UK uses panels of independent technical advisors to assess applications. Daniel Dearing, Managing Director of Actualise Consulting, has acted as an independent technical assessor for Innovate UK on multiple occasions in the past and is very familiar with the process of selection. Actualise Consulting can help Innovate UK and any other such organisations (including Local Enterprise Partnerships, Regional Growth Funds, European Regional Development Fund). We also offer a similar service to the Horizon2020 EU funding programme
Private Angel or VC investors
Actualise Consulting offers a reliable and thorough technology due diligence service to organisations wishing to invest in high-tech projects or companies. These organisations might include private investors, angels, venture capital funds, corporate venture funds and other technology investment organisations.
The technical due diligence evaluation can be very important in cementing the relationship between the investor and the management of the company. We adopt a methodical evaluation process, based on the use of custom checklists and questionnaires and place a strong emphasis on communication skills and information sharing. We strive to understand the needs of the investor and to work very closely with the management of the company to gather the necessary information in a professional and efficient manner.