London AI firm CloudWize is expanding in the North with a base in Leeds.聽聽
The technology business has been firmly rooted in the capital since it was established in mid-2023, with co-founders Edward Humphrey (CEO) and Matt Hyde (CTO) now leading a team of 30 developers, engineers and architects.聽聽
Chief marketing officer Katie Mallinson 鈥� a former communications agency owner from Huddersfield 鈥� joined the 拢3 million firm in June 2025.聽聽
Now 鈥� having taken up residency in Leeds Dock鈥檚 Department 鈥� CloudWize has announced another addition to its leadership team.聽
Tim Mercer 鈥� former CEO of Yorkshire-headquartered Vapour Cloud 鈥� has joined CloudWize as chief commercial officer, following the sale of Vapour last summer.聽
With a career that began in the armed forces, Mercer has more than 30 years of technology experience. He cut his teeth in the telecoms sector, before progressing through a number of sales leadership roles, and establishing Vapour in 2013.聽
He led the disruptive cloud business through four rounds of VC funding, expanding the portfolio of services to include complex voice solutions, cybersecurity and robotic process automation, to name just a few.聽聽
鈥淗aving attended a couple of the region鈥檚 digital conferences, we held a pilot event of our own in the city last autumn,鈥� said Humphrey.聽
鈥淭his after-work social 鈥� AI Chat Club 鈥� quickly started to gather momentum and we found ourselves talking to so many investors, partners and prospective clients.聽
鈥淲e soon realised just how much talent, innovation and spirit exists in this part of the country, so when we decided to bolster our senior team, it made sense for Leeds to become our 鈥榮econd home鈥�.聽
鈥淚鈥檓 really excited for Tim to support our journey to the next level.鈥澛�
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CCO Mercer added: 鈥淲hen I sold Vapour last year, I was very honest in saying I didn鈥檛 know where my career would take me next. But the more I spoke to the CloudWize team, the more I realised the potential.聽聽
鈥淚n a crowded space, many people are overwhelmed if not tired of hearing about AI. But as a former CEO, with decades of experience procuring solutions for both clients and my own business, I can honestly say I鈥檝e never seen anything like this.聽聽
鈥淓d and Matt have assembled an A-team of people who have worked on some of the most complex cloud, automation and AI projects in the world 鈥� what most people consider innovation, they鈥檝e already industrialised.聽
鈥淎nd now, they鈥檝e purposefully made these enterprise-grade capabilities accessible for mid-market firms who want to move faster, with predictable outcomes and far less risk.聽聽
鈥淭hey鈥檝e really levelled the playing field for clients who don鈥檛 want to pay to just experiment.鈥�