MORE than 30 Scottish companies will showcase their technology at the world’s biggest mobile industry event in Barcelona this month.
Companies including TeamRock, Route Monkey, The List, Telehealth Solutions and Skyscanner will join Scottish Development International on its annual pavilion at Mobile World Congress. The event, which runs from 22 to 25 February, is expected to attract more than 95,000 people and feature more than 2,100 exhibitors.
“Scotland’s innovative technology sector has gone from strength to strength in recent years producing fast-growing companies with true global potential,” said Neil Francis, SDI’s international operations director. “We’ve been working closely with the sector to help support it across a wide range of areas including access to finance, innovation and internationalisation. Mobile World Congress offers a fantastic platform not only to promote Scotland’s strengths and expertise in the sector, but for Scottish technology companies to increase their footprint on the global stage.”
Rock and metal music content specialist TeamRock employs around 100 people across its offices in Hamilton and London. It has 2m visitors from its online community and has raised more than £15m in funding since it was set up in 2013 by founder and chief executive Billy Anderson, the former Scottish managing director of Real Radio owner GMG Radio.
“This year we’re developing our portfolio in Asia and the US,” Mr Anderson explained. “Mobile is clearly an excellent platform so we’re looking for opportunities at Mobile World Congress to develop TeamRock.”
Livingston-based Route Monkey develops algorithms to move people and goods more efficiently and employs 23 staff, with additional offices in Gateshead, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
“For us, Mobile World Congress is about supporting Scottish Enterprise, showcasing our best-in-class technology and meeting new partners or finding new projects,” said Route Monkey chief executive Colin Ferguson.
“We have already delivered projects on a global scale, for major multinationals, as well as signing major contracts with household names like the retailer Iceland. Going forward we want to build a world class optimisation business that is a global leader in its field.”
As well as publishing its events listing magazine for Edinburgh and Glasgow, The List distributes listings data to over 50 other sites and apps for clients including transport operators, broadcasters, news organisations, local councils and hotel operators.
“We’re always looking for new things that might work for us, or people that we might partner with,” said Simon Dessain, chief executive of The List. “So it’s a balance between examining new technologies that we might use, and identifying others who might use our technology.”
Telehealth Solutions, based in Kilmarnock, specialises in remote health monitoring technology that allows people with long-term illnesses to remain at home.
“By attending Mobile World Congress, we’re primarily looking to relationship build with an overall view to finding new products which could support our existing products and services,” explained Telehealth Solutions managing director Pete Kerly.
Edinburgh-based travel search giant Skyscanner saw a 77 per cent rise in visitors accessing its sites from mobile devices in 2014. “Mobile World Congress therefore presents an opportunity for us and other companies to share experiences and ideas,” said Skyscanner’s developer advocate David Low. A conversation at last year’s event resulted in a partnership with Amazon, which now uses Skyscanner’s flight search application on its cloud-based voice service, Alexa.
A total of 33 businesses will attend Mobile World Congress with SDI, up from 29 last year.
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