Tech startup investment and development company Nova, backed by Sir Terry Leahy, today announced seven new hires to support recent growth. This follows a 50% uplift in successful applications to join their startup programme. The surge was experienced throughout lockdown, with many applications coming from determined founders who have recently experienced furlough, redundancy or job losses due to COVID-19.
This week Nova recruited seven employees into their tech development and investment teams at their Liverpool North Docks HQ. The hires include Chief Information Officer Jason Rogers and Investment Director Darren Gowling. Bringing with them over 40 years experience supporting startups, technology businesses and investment services from their times at Arrowgrass Capital Partners, TruFin and Co Angel Investment Services respectively.
Rob White, Chief People Officer at Nova, commented, “Thankfully we’re in a position where we’ve been able to retain all of our staff, and due to the uplift in high quality founder applicants coming through we can now make new hires. Our founder onboarding team have witnessed a huge amount of new interest in starting a tech startup from people who have recently been furloughed, faced redundancy or job losses.
It’s been real mixed emotions speaking to these founders, it’s heartbreaking hearing the effects of Covid on the roles and businesses they were working, and yet I am also really proud to be able to offer a route for those people to realise their ambition of now starting their own tech business.”
With 9.6m UK employees currently enrolled in the jobs retention scheme, it’s predicted that as it winds down the impending rise in unemployment will prompt further interest in people wanting to start a startup. Speaking of her own experience, Maria Swaddlethorn who is developing a communications management system for independent hoteliers explained:
“I’d been working in the hospitality sector for the past 12 years and built up a lot of knowledge about the industry. I lost my job in March and decided now was the time to start a business for myself. I’d been sitting on a couple of startup ideas but it had never been the right time to action them.
I found Nova and am working through their programme, I’m really enjoying seeing my business idea come to life. I’m hoping that with my experience, and the technical skills of the Nova team, we can disrupt the way hotels manage employee and customer communications.”
Since the beginning of the year, Nova have welcomed 12 new ventures into their portfolio. This growth is alongside successes from their existing portfolio of startups that have flourished throughout the pandemic. These include; a table service ordering app (Qbunk), a hand hygiene improvement system for hospitals (Hy-genie) and an app that’s helped autistic families to adjust to home schooling (Picturepath).
