Startups
MacDonald grew up on a farm in New Zealand and was always active in the environmental scene there. He ended up doing a teacher’s qualification thinking he could go and teach for a period of time while travelling. He came over to London in 1999, teaching Geography and Maths at a school in London, and never left the country! He commented that in 2016 he “wanted to move to an electric car but struggled with being able to charge it. So, I ended up working on a little side project whilst teaching, moved to part-time and eventually left teaching in 2021 and took this on full-time.”
Robert Rizea and Bogdan Demeny are the Co-Founders of Racketpal. As two passionate tennis and squash players, Rizea and Demeny realised there was no obvious and easy way for them to meet other players who were also up for a game. But they knew there had to be a way to fix that. Then one evening in September 2018, the pair were enjoying a pint in The Cleveland Arms in Paddington when the eureka moment struck. They decided it was time to create an app to help racket sports players meet each other, and started working on plans for the app that became Racketpal the very next day.
This year’s edition of Tourism Innovation Summit (TIS) featured some fantastic traveltech startups on a mission to revolutionise the travel industry. The event finished up with the Touristech Startup Fest, where 40 startups pitched their businesses to a jury of industry leaders and investors. Of those, we have rounded up a highlight list to share these businesses with you.
Frame is an AI-enhanced collaboration software with a mission to provide a framework for focus. Project managers utilise Frame as a unified platform to streamline task assignments, centralise communication, and monitor project progress in real-time, ensuring teams stay synchronised and projects remain on track. Remote teams use Frame to stay connected and organised, simplifying collaboration across all their tools in one unified space.
Munro Vehicles (Munro), a manufacturer of all-electric 4x4s, and Scotland’s only volume production car company, has announced an equity crowdfunding round and revealed details of design and technical enhancements for its all-electric 4×4 Series-M Pick-Up and Series-M Truck models, driven by extensive field trials of, and customer feedback on, the Munro MK_1 pre-production model.
In a world grappling with overconsumption and cost-of-living pressures, ivault is pioneering a solution that puts a planet-friendly lifestyle in the palm of your hand. The blockchain-based app is set to redefine the sharing economy, making it easier and more rewarding to share what we already have rather than buying new.
Bioniq, a precision health startup, is now offering personalised supplements, Bioniq PRO, for customers from all over the world. The startup expands access to personalised supplements worldwide using its patented algorithm that already leverages data from more than 40,000 people with over 4 million biochemical data points.
Diagnostics testing company MI:RNA has developed a new AI-empowered testing method for early disease detection. This new technology is showing preliminary data of 73% sensitivity and 71% specificity in identifying Johne’s disease, a chronic inflammatory condition that impacts the health, welfare and productivity of cattle and other livestock. With further research, these numbers are expected to increase significantly.











