Entrepreneur Tom Gardner had been enjoying a career break following his exit from Manchester-based聽Robiquity聽when聽he was hit by聽the聽opportunity聽of a lifetime.
Gardner founded聽Robiquity聽in 2016 with聽Chris Wright聽and聽Jack聽Rimmer聽to聽meet the growing聽demand for robotic process automation (RPA).
For six years he helped grow the business to 拢10m turnover聽and 100 staff, with operations聽across North America and the Middle East, building an impressive list of clients including聽Virgin Media, Finastra and Jaguar Land Rover.
When Growth Capital Partners invested in 2022, Robiquity was valued at 拢50m and Gardner decided to exit, although he remains a minority shareholder.
Gardner spent time with his young family and聽even聽bought a couple of racehorses but the speed of the advances in generative AI meant he decided to cut short his career break and work on a new business idea.
鈥淢ost people expected me to take time out but when generative AI came out I knew I couldn鈥檛 wait,鈥� he said.聽鈥淚f I鈥檇 waited any longer the opportunity would have been lost.”
Today he鈥檚 back with his聽new company 鈥� generative AI-based 鈥� which he believes has the potential be a global name.
Fireflai is a B2B SaaS platform and Gardner co-founded the business with CTO Craig Sumner, who previously worked for Deloitte and Rubix.
Laura Malins, formally VP of Product at Manchester-based unicorn Matillion, and James Clarry, ex-chief operating officer at the private bank Coutts, have been appointed non-executive directors.
The startup uses generative AI to allow companies to make better use of their data and is already working with a range of businesses.
Gardner said: 鈥淕enerative AI can validate 40 million lines of data within 48 hours. The potential is limitless.
鈥淚t combines the best of traditional machine learning and data science with a sprinkle of generative AI to solve complex, product data issues.鈥�
He describes Fireflai as a 鈥榙ata cleanser鈥� that makes data usable to drive better decision-making.
The startup is already working across multiple sectors, including construction; distribution; manufacturing; and eCommerce.
Gardner explained: 鈥淚magine a fast-moving consumer goods business with two distinct databases, each with 20 million products in each.
鈥淲hen you combine the two databases together you realise you have 650,000 duplicated products. The product description could be in different languages and the products might not match the descriptions.
鈥淪ome products may not appear on the website at all so customers are ordering goods that don鈥檛 exist.
鈥淭he issue is companies just don鈥檛 have the manpower to process the data accurately or the budget to employ a digital scientist.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we come in. FireFlai works by pulling in the data from the customer. It then passes that through a machine learning and data science model.
鈥淔inally generative AI looks at it like a human would to identify gaps but in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost. It鈥檚 a game-changer.”
Fireflai is one of 12 companies selected by Praetura Ventures to take part in its PraeSeed programme, a new initiative designed to identify the most promising startups in the North of England and support them with equity funding.
Fireflai has been completely bootstrapped to date but is currently looking to raise between 拢500k-拢700k.
Gardner said he鈥檒l be using the experiences he built up with聽Robiquity in growing聽聽his new startup.
In 2016 he joined forces with Jack Rimmer and Chris Wright to set up Sinew Group, before quickly rebranding as Robiquity.
Gardner鈥檚 career in tech is light years away from his early career as a聽qualified joiner and recruiter.
Robiquity聽was created to meet growing聽demand for Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Praetura selects 12 Northern startups for PraeSeed programme
RPA is聽a software technology that allows businesses to use virtual robots to replace human workers in repetitive tasks.
Gardner explained: 鈥淲e got together to plug a gap in the market for robotic process automation skills. At the time Blue Prism were the leading RPA vendor.
鈥淲hen we were looking for candidates for clients there was loads of client demand for skills but there were no candidates.
鈥淲e were specialising in RPA recruitment and we noticed that demand outstripped supply.
鈥淚n 2016 there was a huge shortage of RPA developers. We approached Blue Prism, who were the leading vendor at the time of RPA and were a unicorn based out of Birchwood, Warrington. We suggested becoming a training partner of Blue Prism.
鈥淚nitially we created a training programme around Blue Prism and we started running the RPA development bootcamps.鈥�
The company built partnerships with the market鈥檚 leading vendors; Blue Prism, UiPath and Microsoft and quickly became a global name.
Gardner decided the investment by聽Growth Capital Partners in 2022 was the right time for him to walk away.
鈥淢y role in a company is at the founder stage where you can do 1,000 things at once,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淭hen it reached a critical mass. That suits some people but it didn鈥檛 suit me.
鈥淲hen the opportunity came to financially exit it tied in with generative AI becoming mainstream.
鈥淩obiquity had pivoted from a recruitment company to a training business to a consultancy. When generative AI became mainstream I wanted to build a SaaS-based product business.
鈥淲e want to make generative AI and machine learning AI as assessable as possible and quick to deploy without the up-front commitment that you鈥檇 spend with a big consultancy. You experience the results before you pay us.
鈥淲e run the data and give the results back to the customer.
鈥淭he initial vision is to have 100 customers with 36 months on a subscription model rather than charge huge up front fees.
鈥淢oving out of consultancy into product is really exciting. It鈥檚 another world to what I was used at Robiquity. We鈥檝e engineered our technology so it can scale to thousands of customers and it can be turned on globally at the flick of a switch.鈥�