At a grand but not too glitzy award show hosted by Tech North, we pitched SwapBots to the ‘Dragons’ Den’ style judging panel. At the end of the event we were announced as one of the ten award winners that will be welcomed on to Northern Stars, the programme that sees startups with ‘unicorn’ potential whisked around tech and investment events in the US and Europe.
The purpose of Northern Stars is to highlight the north’s most exciting tech startups. With over 200 entries from all points above Birmingham, there was no guarantee of success despite SwapBots winning the audience vote at the regional finals a month earlier. This time around the judges’ decision was everything and luckily for us they loved SwapBots and saw its potential.
Karen Kerrigan, chief legal officer at crowdfunding platform Seedrs and one of the judging panel, told The Guardian: “This proposition is absolutely captivating. SwapBots are using augmented reality in a really appropriate way for the modern child market.”
This kind of validation in the disruptive new form of play that we are creating is great to hear and follows on from spending six weeks in California where SwapBots is part of SOSV’s HAX Boost Accelerator programme. This scheme is designed to get products ready for large markets and has enabled us to connect with big buyers and brands as we gear towards a 2017 launch.
As part of Northern Stars and HAX Boost, SwapBots will be seen at some of the world’s leading tech shows over the coming months including Tech Crunch Disrupt in London, CES in Las Vegas, TNW Conference in Amsterdam and SXSW in Austin.
Meanwhile you can be a part of the SwapBots story. Head over to the SwapBots holding page and sign up to become one of our alpha testers. This is ideal for gamers, collectible toy fans or parents of tech-hungry kids.
To discuss investment options please get in touch with john@swapbots.co – we’re looking for investors including individuals interested in SEIS.
