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New student accommodation start-up uses GC Angels funding to deliver five times faster booking

Investment

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

New student accommodation start-up uses GC Angels funding to deliver five times faster booking

Housemates, a new Manchester-based tech start-up, is set to shake up the UK and international student accommodation market with the launch of its innovative online student property platform.

The launch comes after the business secured £100,000 of pre-seed funding from GC Angels to expand its platform across the UK and internationally.

Founded by tech entrepreneur Lydia Jones, backed by an experienced team from DEPT, Spareroom and Starling Bank, the team behind https://www.housemates.io/ claim the student accommodation marketplace will offer five times faster booking than its rivals.

Housemates is an end-to-end platform for students, landlords and student property operators that promises to bring much-needed transparency, efficiency and reassurance to the sector.

It is now open for exclusive early access to property owners ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and students will be able to make bookings from October this year. While it will initially cater for property owners and students studying in Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Edinburgh, London and Melbourne it is also rapidly expanding its supply across other cities in the UK and internationally.

Lydia Jones says: “The student housing market is an area ripe for innovation and disruption. It’s 2020 and expectation when it comes to any online experience is high; we believe students deserve to be able to book accommodation in the same, hassle-free way they do holidays.

“We’ve spoken to thousands of domestic and international students and it is clear that audiences generally found existing processes slow, out-dated and lacking in terms of both transparency and security. International students in particular felt particularly vulnerable to being exploited by agents.

“Using feedback loops with both students and landlords we’ve identified new ways to deliver a faster, easier and more secure way to book accommodation that meets the needs of all users. As we grow our community across the UK we will continue to innovate based on real-time, evolving feedback and adapt to consumer demand.”

Lydia added: “The impact of Covid-19 hasn’t slowed our development of the platform, but we have taken into consideration the needs of students travelling from overseas to study in the UK to ensure we cater for changes in post-lockdown booking behaviour.

“Our whole approach and ethos is to build our product in a customer-centric way, and we’re looking to work with more like-minded forward-thinking purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) operators and individual landlords as we expand.”
Students can sign up to Housemates for free and see exactly what a property will cost, with no hidden extras. The end-to-end marketplace removes the need for letting agents and the associated fees, providing landlords and tenants with the opportunity to transact totally online.

It uses automation to speed up all parts of the booking process, with fast and reliable methods to populate and complete tenancy agreements and make secure transactions.

“Our mission is to help students move smoothly through their university life, starting with an effortless way to arrange their accommodation”, says Lydia. “By removing ‘the middleman’ we’ve streamlined the whole operation, taking 100% of the transaction online, and reduced overall costs for all parties.

“And as a start-up we have been able to be completely user-centric and data driven, tailoring both the experience and technology around the needs of today’s students. We’re not trying to play catch up with a legacy CRM system like many of the current players in the market but have built our solution with a bespoke up to date technology stack.”

Jess Jackson, investment director at GC Angels, said: “It is extremely pleasing to see the impact that our funding has had on the development of a truly disruptive piece of innovation. Lydia and Housemates has enormous potential with this latest development, providing an easy to use solution for students looking for accommodation. This is a perfect example of the innovation that Manchester is known for, and we are confident that Lydia will continue to push boundaries in the sector as the company continues to grow.”

Housemates is continuing to grow its team, attracting talent from proptech, fintech and agency backgrounds who are now delivering Housemates’ product roadmap.

£25million funding boost for broadband provider 4th Utility

Finance

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

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£25million funding boost for broadband provider 4th Utility

Fibre broadband provider 4th Utility has secured £25million in investment from DIF Capital Partners as it prepares to embark on another period of growth and bring ultra-fast fibre broadband to more homes in the UK.

The funding from DIF Capital Partners represents a long-term investment and a new partnership, with the capital being used to scale up the rollout of commercial grade fibre broadband to more residential properties.

Greater Manchester-based 4th Utility has its own last mile fibre optic network – capable of delivering ultrafast broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps – and will use this to deliver new, ultra-fast broadband connections.

Typically, new customers are online within 60 seconds of signing up to the service, compared to the usual five working days offered by other providers where engineers are often required to activate the service.

Tony Hughes, CEO at 4th Utility, said: “The partnership with DIF Capital Partners is a significant milestone for our business and gives us a fantastic platform to deliver ultrafast internet access to many more properties across the UK.

“The team at DIF share our desire to invest in high-quality fibre infrastructure and our ambition is to use this funding to become one of the leading broadband providers in the UK, ensuring thousands of new customers can benefit from full fibre connectivity.”

Chief technology officer at 4th Utility, Jimmy Acton added: “We are passionate about the customer journey and in the same way Uber changed booking a taxi, we’ve replicated that for residential fibre broadband.

“When you move into a new home you would expect that all of the utilities work straight away. We very much see broadband as the essential fourth utility, so we’ve created a solution that means super-fast full fibre broadband can be ready to go from day one. Our tech stack is built, it’s already live in hundreds of homes and now we’re ready to expand with this new funding in place.”

A broadband pledge formed a major part of the Conservatives’ election manifesto at the end of 2019 and earlier this year, Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed the government would pump £5bn into its plan to roll out full-fibre broadband across the UK.

As well as domestic installations, 4th Utility also partners with residential and commercial landlords, property developers and house builders to design, install and upgrade their properties with state-of-the-art FTTP infrastructure, bringing homes a future proof standard of connectivity.

Willem Jansonius, Head of DIF Capital Partners, said: “We are pleased to bring our experience in digital infrastructure to support 4th Utility and their management team in delivering FTTP infrastructure investment to underserved properties in the UK”.

Property developers including The McGoff Group, Crest Nicholson, David Wilson Homes and Fortis Group are among those to have already agreed broadband partnerships with 4th Utility. The company also has former British & Irish Lion, England and Sale Sharks winger Mark Cueto MBE leading business development as Sales Director.

GC Business Growth Hub helps RBMUK see barriers as a breakthrough

Business support

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

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GC Business Growth Hub helps RBMUK see barriers as a breakthrough

An Oldham-based manufacturer is helping businesses get back on track after COVID-19 disruption, through innovative product development in collaboration with GC Business Growth Hub.

Rotational Bespoke Manufacturing (RBMUK) Limited has adapted two of its existing products to provide protective barriers and hand-sanitising stations for industry, to reduce the risk of cross-contamination in workplaces and offer businesses a blueprint for safely returning to work.

Like many SMEs across the region, RBMUK was forced to radically scale back its operation in March, when the Government issued wide-ranging restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19 across the country.

Having recently concluded its fifth and most successful financial year in February 2020, RBMUK saw major orders cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak and was forced to furlough the majority of its staff, weathering a significant operating loss in March.

Having benefitted from a broad range of Hub support services over the past three years, RBMUK’s Director Tony Douglas was quick to reach out to manufacturing advisor Martin Hyman. Tony and Martin identified an opportunity to adapt one of RBMUK Limited’s existing moulded products into a protective screening solution for enforcing social distancing within workplaces.

Martin also signposted a Hub-facilitated webinar for local businesses to share best practice in mitigating the effects of COVID-19. Hosted by Oldham MPs Jim McMahon MP OBE and Debbie Abrahams MP, the webinar and connected Tony with another local business – D Atkinson Ltd – who were able to provide an essential element of the newly-conceived barrier system.

The mould for RBMUK’s existing pyramid barrier product was adapted to hold Powder Coated Fencing, or Clear Screens (to suit customer requirements), with D Atkinson Ltd gladly providing the bespoke screen element. Each barrier unit is 1m wide, providing instant social distance assurance – in line with the latest Government guidance.

RBMUK’s existing mobile Grit Bin was also adapted to integrate a backing panel, so that it could accommodate a sanitising dispenser, located directly above a storage bin. Both novel solutions have now been installed at RBMUK’s Oldham factory and are now available to other businesses seeking to safeguard their workplaces.

Following a surge in public sector orders for the pyramid barrier system, RBMUK is now returning to full operational capacity and welcomed back its remaining furloughed employees in June.

Tony Douglas, Director at RBMUK Limited, said: “We’re extremely grateful for the support provided by the Hub during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and indeed over the past 3 years. Having an advisor and team on hand who really understand our business – as well as the wider manufacturing industry – has been invaluable in helping us get our business back on track.

“The Hub’s local network has provided a perfect platform for collaboration and innovation, which has helped us get all our people back to work safely and our order book growing again.”

Martin Hyman, Manufacturing Advisor at GC Business Growth Hub, said:

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see businesses like RBMUK Limited find their feet again after facing unprecedented challenges in recent months. We’ve always found them to be extremely proactive and open to new ideas, helping them benefit from the diverse support on offer from local partners.

“No business in Greater Manchester should feel they need to face these challenges alone. The GC Business Growth Hub is here to help stabilise businesses in the short term, protecting income and employment across all sectors – and to help get your growth ambitions back on track for the future.”

Kuits advises EQL on raft of healthtech contracts

Partnerships

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

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Kuits advises EQL on raft of healthtech contracts

Manchester commercial law firm Kuits has advised healthtech organisation EQL on the rollout of its digital triage support tool, Phio.

A digital physiotherapy assessment support tool, Phio remotely provides information on clinical signposting to the suitable care pathways to those with musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries.

Throughout the lockdown period, Kuits has advised EQL on securing contractual partnerships with healthcare providers to allow their patients use of the app, including Connect Health, Circle Health and Healthshare.

The team from Kuits was led by commercial and IP partner Caroline Brennan and associate Rebecca Bainbridge.

Caroline Brennan said: “We are delighted to have helped EQL secure these contracts, especially during such a critical time in the pandemic where access to medical care was not readily available for some.

“Although developed before the lockdown period, Phio has proven to be a timely and intuitive concept which will support access to MSK healthcare from a patient’s own home.”

Jason Ward, Co-founder and CEO of EQL said: “We created Phio with the vision of providing best-in-class, at-home triage. The partnerships Kuits has assisted us with are exciting developments in our quest for digital-first support — empowering patients to take control of their muscle and joint conditions, whilst alleviating pressure on the NHS at this very busy time.”

NW businesses rush to order video conferencing technology

Growth

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

0

NW businesses rush to order video conferencing technology

A North West-based tech firm has seen a huge surge in demand for video conferencing technology as offices ready themselves for a gradual return to work in September.

In the last six weeks Everything Tech has had more than 35 requests for video conferencing equipment to be installed as companies prepare themselves for doing business in a Covid-19 world.

Everything Tech, which is based in Manchester’s Hanover House, Charlotte Street, is a Microsoft Gold Partner and helps companies transform their business through the adoption of Microsoft 365 technology.

Founder Lee Wrall, who is the sales and marketing director, said Covid-19 had changed the business sector’s approach towards video conferencing.

“Before the pandemic there was a stigma attached to video conferencing,” he said. “People felt it was clunky and complicated. People were prepared to travel the length and breadth of the country for a 40-minute minute rather than rely on video conferencing.

“They didn’t have confidence in the technology but Covid-19 changed everything and we all went Teams and Zoom crazy. They’re much more familiar with technology and it’s become acceptable.

“Companies aren’t only realising that this technology is good but it could save them a pile of cash.”

Liverpool-based Blends, which manufactures and supplies food flavours and colours, has invested £5,000 on creating a video conferencing meeting room with plans to do two more.

The company has a turnover of £26m and employs 70 people with plans to more than double the workforce.

Operations director Michael Rowark said Covid-19 had changed the way they do aspects of their business.

“Before Covid we didn’t have the facilities to do video conferencing but we had the need,” he said. “We’re dealing with large retail customers and we wanted to professionalise our offer. I’m always looking at how technology can improve our performance and video conferencing does that. It’s helping us win new business.

“When Covid-19 struck and we were working from home we tried Zoom but preferred Microsoft Teams. A lot of our suppliers are in China and South America and the technology makes it easier to contact them.

“By having quality video conferencing it can mean sales staff can avoid travelling in for an hour or two for a 40-minute meeting.

“Don’t get me wrong, face-to-face meetings are still preferable when you’re negotiating but having video conferencing equipment makes it easier to stay in touch with customers, suppliers and anyone working from home.”

Most analysts believe the trickle of workers returning to the workplace will gather pace in September and Wrall said the result is they’ve been flooded with requests from companies looking to upgrade their video conferencing equipment.

“We’re a Microsoft Gold Partner and we’re getting a lot of demand for Polycom and Yealink technology as CEOs and MDs recognise the importance of investing in the technology.

“In the vast majority of cases people will already have a standard TV in their boardroom but what we’re doing is repositioning the TV or adding the conference room equipment, which usually consists of a high specification camera, quality audio equipment and a controller.

“You don’t want four people in a room staring down the webcam of a laptop. You want a real Room Solution with a big TV and excellent microphone to make it a great experience for both parties. It makes your business appear more professional and enables you to get together without physically being together.

“We’ve done around 35 in the last six weeks and it doesn’t have to cost the earth, starting at about £1,600.

“Most businesses will have one meeting room or several meeting rooms. It will range from a little huddle room for five people to the big boardrooms with 18-24 people in.

“What we’re doing is turning those rooms into meeting rooms with embedded technology. You might not be meeting in person but you can bring your customers, clients, suppliers and staff into the room through technology.

“As a result of Covid-19 people at all levels in an organisation are switched on to using technology and don’t want to go back to only having face-to-face meetings. At the very least they want a hybrid approach.

“The technology available now is amazing, especially with Microsoft Teams. You can bring hundreds of people into a conversation and have as many as 49 faces on the TV at any one time.

“There’s some really intelligent software that sits behind it which means the people who are most active in the conversation are brought into focus.”

Everything Tech saw demand for its Microsoft 365 expertise soar during the lockdown, enabling up to 500 people a week to work from home.

Wrall is one of three directors of the business, alongside Anthony Hautin and director Ruth Hall, who was runner-up in the 2006 series of The Apprentice under her marital name of Ruth Badger.

In the last three years Everything Tech has grown its turnover from £675,000 in 2016/17 to £866,000 in 2017/18 to £1.5m last year.

Business As Usual At Technology Led Accountancy Firm

Business support

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

0

Business As Usual At Technology Led Accountancy Firm

Gorilla Accounting has navigated the last 5 months with minimal disruption thanks to their continued investment in the very latest accountancy technology.

Despite many businesses struggling to offer their normal services as they made the switch to working from home, the Bolton-based firm continued to offer the same level of service customers have become accustomed to.

Daniel Fallows, Director at Gorilla Accounting, said: “We have navigated the last five months pretty seamlessly thanks to our existing infrastructure as a technology led accountancy firm. All our operations have been able to continue as normal, and as a result, client service hasn’t really been affected during the pandemic.

“As the number 1 accountancy firm on Trustpilot, our clients have come to expect consistently high levels of service from us, so it’s encouraging that our team have managed to continue providing the very best service to all of our existing and new clients.”

Gorilla Accounting were able to help their clients by completing and submitting JRS form submissions for free each month during lockdown.

Daniel added: “We understand just how badly some contractors have been hit over the past few months, so we felt it was important that we helped in any way we could. Offering free JRS submissions over the last few months was something that we knew would have a big impact for our clients and it has been well received.”
Since the easing of lockdown measures, Gorilla Accounting has found that sales have bounced back following a lull in the last three months.

The company are now in the process of starting to get their workforce back into the office in a reduced capacity after conducting a thorough risk assessment.
Commenting on just how important it is to get staff back in the office as soon as it is safe to do so, Daniel went on to add: “Whilst we have been able to work from home with no real interruption to business operations, we understand how important it is for our staff to get back into the office for employee morale.

“All of our staff are excited to get back into the office, and we will be operating at around 30% occupancy each week, with staff working on a 1 in 4 week rota to ensure everyone can work safely in our offices.

“Our primary focus is now on growing our business once again, with a particular focus on the contractor and locum market, whilst continuing to develop our employees skills to continue giving our clients outstanding levels of customer-service.”

Lovell Partnerships and Together Housing team up to tackle housing shortage across the north

Property

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

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Lovell Partnerships and Together Housing team up to tackle housing shortage across the north

Leading national housebuilder Lovell Partnerships and Together Housing Group have joined forces to create Lovell Together LLP, an innovative joint venture to tackle the housing crisis across the North of England.

The new joint venture has been formed in equal partnership and will create much needed quality developments, form new communities and meet housing delivery targets across the East Midlands, Yorkshire, Humberside, and North West regions.

The venture will enable both partners to share expertise and resources to identify and secure large-scale opportunities to develop high quality mixed tenure new homes. A significant portion of the new homes will be developed for shared ownership and affordable rent to address the shortage of affordable housing across the north.

David Ward, managing director North at Lovell Partnerships, said: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with Together Housing to help deliver the high number of affordable homes that are required across the region.

“The combination of Lovell’s technical expertise and construction delivery record with Together Housing Group’s experience in the management and provision of affordable homes makes Lovell Together a really unique offering. Such a large scale and innovative partnership means we can deliver essential developments at an accelerated pace.”

Together Housing Group is also a Homes England Strategic Partner, with an allocated £53m of funding to deliver 1,150 new homes by 2025. The joint venture will help achieve these targets, with the goal set at 3,000 new homes in the next five years. The aim is also to increase future affordable delivery, so all profits will be ploughed back into its mainstream business.

Kevin Ruth, deputy chief executive at Together Housing, said “It’s great news that we can collaborate with Lovell Partnerships in this way. Partnerships are an effective way of achieving our objective of increasing housing supply. Lovell’s expertise will help us secure sites and deliver programmes across the North.

The joint venture has already secured several developments across the northern region. In the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside regions it is expected to bring more than 600 brand-new homes to Holmewood, Chesterfield, Howden and Kirk Ella in East Yorkshire, with a further three strategic opportunities in the pipeline

In the North West, the joint venture is close to submitting the planning application for the first joint phase at Pendleton, Salford, one of the largest strategic residential regeneration projects in Greater Manchester. The development is expected to deliver 127 new two, three- and four-bedroom homes with a planned start date on site of January 2021.

Lee Sale, regional managing director at Lovell Partnerships North West, said: “Creating this strategic partnership was the next organic stage of our long and trusted relationship with Together Housing Group.

“We have a strong pipeline of opportunities that we are working to deliver across the North West region. The first is Pendleton Salford where the project will see 650 new energy efficient affordable homes of all tenures delivered over three phases and is due to commence Q1 2021.”

North West-based SaaS animation firm Viddyoze has appointed former MediaCom executive Fiona Hunt as a board adviser to oversee the next stage of the company’s growth

Appointments

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

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North West-based SaaS animation firm Viddyoze has appointed former MediaCom executive Fiona Hunt as a board adviser to oversee the next stage of the company’s growth

Australian by birth, Hunt enjoyed a prestigious marketing career in Sydney and Melbourne including roles at Google, Intrepid Travel, Sydney Opera House and Mahlab Media, before she joined MediaCom in Manchester in 2017 and held a board role.

As head of marketing for MediaCom North, she led marketing for its three agency brands and was head of MediaCom Beyond Advertising, the agency’s content marketing business.

Viddyoze is one of the North West’s fastest growing companies and customers include Tesla, Sony and PwC.

Its technology allows people to create and use their own video animation and is now being used in 250,000 monthly clips worldwide.

Hunt will be helping Viddyoze launch a new enterprise solution.

Hunt, who has held a range of non-executive board roles across a variety of sectors, said: “I’m really happy to be working with the Viddyoze team. The product offering is a game-changer and the team are inspirational in how they have built the business to date.

“I’m looking forward to working with them to help launch their enterprise products into new markets and help grow this already incredible business.”

David Chamberlain, who founded Viddyoze in 2015 with Jamie Garside and Joey Xoto, said he was delighted at the appointment.

“It’s an exciting time for the company and the new enterprise solution will open up new markets to us,” he said. “Fiona has a proven track record and I’m convinced she’ll help us on our journey to the next level.

“We recently ran a campaign for a North West insurance broker to around 20,000 clients where we sent out renewal notices by SMS and email incorporating personalised videos, which resulted in a 15 per cent jump in renewal conversion rates.”

Hunt was introduced to the Preston-based company by Viddyoze’s non-executive director Ian Wright through the peer-2-peer non-executive director community Virtualnonexecs.com.

Wright said: “Fiona will be working with the board of directors to progress the cutting-edge enterprise solution that Viddyoze have developed which allows companies – from SME to large corporates – to create bespoke, personalised mass video at scale.”

Manchester-based fintech announced as a winner in the regional stage of the Barclays’ Entrepreneur Awards

Awards

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

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Manchester-based fintech announced as a winner in the regional stage of the Barclays’ Entrepreneur Awards

Manchester-based fintech, AccessPay, has received the accolade in the scale-up entrepreneur of the year category, which seeks to recognise entrepreneurs whose businesses are growing on a rapid scale.

AccessPay are experts in connecting businesses with banks to make payments, cash management and financial messaging processes smarter, simpler and more secure. The business also recently secured a £3 million expansion funding deal supported by Barclays, to enable the scaling-up of their engineering and sales departments, which will be used to fund new product development reach a wider client base.

Founded in 2012 with just four team members, AccessPay began to grow at pace in 2015 when CEO Anish Kapoor joined the team. By 2019, AccessPay had grown to a staff of 90 based at their City Tower office in Manchester city centre, and now have plans to expand, creating 45 new jobs over the coming months.

AccessPay’s mission is to create tailored solutions for businesses and financial service companies, recognising the multitude of different methods and manual processes involved in making payments. The team are experts in designing bespoke, rather than ‘off the shelf’ solutions to automate these processes, leading to significant improvements in security and accuracy for their clients.

AccessPay CEO, Anish Kapoor said: “”I am delighted that AccessPay, a company from the North West, has been selected by Barclays Entrepreneur Awards as it highlights that entrepreneurs don’t need to move to London to support the UK’s economy by driving job growth and talent locally, attracting investment, and creating innovative products and services.”

Juliet Rogan, National Head of High Growth at Barclays, said: “It’s been a difficult time for businesses due to the coronavirus outbreak, which is why it’s more important than ever we celebrate entrepreneurs and recognise their achievements. The awards are a celebration of the exceptional innovation and leadership entrepreneurs’ show, helping to create social change and growth. This is the fifth year of the awards and as a regional winner AccessPay will go forward to the national stage, which will recognise businesses from across the UK.”

All regional winners will now go through to the national final, where an overall winner will be announced on November 26th, 2020. Ahead of the final, national judging will take place with key industry leaders, influencers and eco-system partners in order to select the eventual winner.

The awards bring the full entrepreneurial community together. This year, for the first time, Barclaycard are joining the event alongside Barclays Rise and Eagle Labs as partners of the Awards. This group wide initiative started five years ago and forms an integral part of our support for entrepreneurship across the bank.

Manchester’s Football4Football proves great match for pharmaceutical business’ research project

Digital

Sam Whitear

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21/08/2020

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Manchester’s Football4Football proves great match for pharmaceutical business’ research project

The UK subsidiary (TRBUK) of global pharmaceutical and medical device company TRB Chemedica, which is at the forefront of initiating new research into joint and tendon disorders, has teamed up with Football4Football to develop an online guide into tendon and joint treatment and rehabilitation options.

Written by some of the biggest names in football, Football4Football launched earlier this year as a valuable resource for people playing football at all levels. As well as video interviews with sporting personalities such as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Vincent Kompany it provides advice on how to improve, what to eat and what to do in case of injury, supported by strong scientific research evidence.

As a specialist in developing and manufacturing rheumatology and ophthalmology treatments, TRB Chemedica was determined to understand, first-hand, the needs of its target patient groups and how TRB therapeutics benefit elite sportsmen and women who rely on the products to maintain and prolong their professional careers.

Kicking-off the project, Football4Football has already interviewed a number of pro-players including ex-England and Premier League midfielder David Thompson and League One player Chris Hackett, currently the coach of Oxford United’s under 18s.
Both players have shared valuable insights into one of TRB Chemedica’s flagship product ranges Ostenil®. During his interview, David Thompson talks candidly about how he had prolonged his career with the treatment, saying: “In hindsight I wished I’d had discovered Ostenil before my operation, to stave off the surgery, but it was the other way round. It can be quite daunting as you’re having an injection into the joint but for me, it helped me prolong my career.”

While Chris Hackett explained: “If it wasn’t for Ostenil I wouldn’t have been able to play at Wembley. Other procedures would have had me out of commission but with this, I was back playing in seven days.”

TRB Chemedica partnered with the platform because of Football4Football’s unrivalled connections within the world of football and its related research capabilities. The brainchild of retired professional footballer Julian Dowe, the site features video content from World Cup captains to non-league semi-professionals, as well as coaches and leading medical experts, with the aim of supporting players at all levels, and enhancing participation by giving free access to best practice protocols.

Football fanatics can also get insider knowledge and unbiased advice on which products are genuinely used and recommended by Premier League footballers.

Alex Flanagan, managing director of TRBUK said: “With access to this unique network of pro players, physios, and rehabilitation and injury prevention specialists, we are garnering vital feedback and patient data, enabling us to continually review and improve both our products and services to end-users. Football is a key sector for us, with so many players relying on our innovative treatment options to help resolve or mediate both long- and short-term injuries or degenerative changes.”

The Football4Football platform will also host videos and content from TRBUK to communicate the benefits of its product range and football related clinical data back to the community. This will include filming of procedures taking place and interviews with players and experts.

Football4Football’s founder Julian Dowe said: “We bring together an unmatched community of experts and players who share their inside knowledge of the highs and lows of being involved in the football industry. Our resources are aimed at aspirational footballers, coaches and parents, ensuring best practice across every area of young players’ lives, and we work with some of the world’s leading surgeons and rehabilitation and injury prevention specialists to cover more areas of the game than any other platform.

“As well as giving grassroots players and coaches access to resources that would otherwise be inaccessible or unavailable, we can provide Companies such as TRB Chemedica with the opportunity to gather invaluable insights from a wide variety of highly relevant sources. The platform also presents a great opportunity for brands to reach this huge consumer market.”

Football4Football works with a number of businesses including A-Champs, The Football Transfer Forum and Government education providers to develop expert reviews, product research and provide resources for grassroot players.

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